If you plan on majoring in illustration, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #249 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Illustration Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 306 degrees in illustration annually.
Translate your creative ideas through concept, design and digital media with a bachelor's in graphic design online from Southern New Hampshire University.
The illustration program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Illustration rankings. For our Best Overall Illustration School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Illustration Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Translate your creative ideas through concept, design and digital media with a bachelor's in graphic design online from Southern New Hampshire University.
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the illustration degrees they offer, see the list below.
Art Center College of Design is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in illustration. Art Center College of Design is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Pasadena.
There were approximately 149 illustration students who graduated with this degree at Art Center College of Design in the most recent year we have data available.
It is hard to beat California College of the Arts if you want to pursue a degree in illustration. Located in the city of San Francisco, California College of the Arts is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
There were about 32 illustration students who graduated with this degree at California College of the Arts in the most recent year we have data available.
Translate your creative ideas through concept, design and digital media with a bachelor's in graphic design online from Southern New Hampshire University.
Academy of Art University is a wonderful choice for students interested in a degree in illustration. Academy of Art University is a medium-sized private for-profit university located in the large city of San Francisco.
There were approximately 85 illustration students who graduated with this degree at Academy of Art University in the most recent data year.
Laguna College of Art and Design is a wonderful decision for students interested in a degree in illustration. LCAD is a fairly small private not-for-profit college located in the rural area of Laguna Beach.
There were roughly 35 illustration students who graduated with this degree at LCAD in the most recent data year.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
The illustration program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Illustration rankings. For our Best Overall Illustration School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
