Best Colleges for Visual & Performing Arts Research
3 colleges ranked by the research strength of their Visual & Performing Arts faculty — a 0–100 blend of bibliometric quality, top-decile stars, federal R&D funding, and academic notability. Research output, not teaching quality. Reference corpus: 166 faculty. Data as of 2026-07-02.
3colleges ranked
166faculty in corpus
Carnegie Mellon University#1 in Visual & Performing Arts
| # | College | Research Strength | Coverage | Median h | FY24 R&D |
|---|
| 1 | Carnegie Mellon University Elite Private · #24 6 matched faculty; median h-index 14; $3m FY24 R&D. | 58 | C | 14.5 | $3m |
| 2 | Barnard College Top LAC · #12 7 matched faculty; median h-index 9; led by Alexander Alberro (h-index 27). | 47 | C | 9 | — |
| 3 | Iowa State University Regional · #119 16 matched faculty; median h-index 5; $2m FY24 R&D; led by Rob Whitehead (h-index 20). | 44 | A | 5 | $2m |
Colleges with too little data to rank in Visual & Performing Arts
- American University — only 2 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Bard College — coverage 0.15 below 0.25 (17 enriched of 111 named)
- California State University, Long Beach — coverage 0.09 below 0.25 (8 enriched of 89 named)
- Chapman University — coverage 0.05 below 0.25 (5 enriched of 102 named)
- Connecticut College — only 1 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Denison University — only 2 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Fordham University — only 0 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Hamilton College — only 1 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Haverford College — only 0 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Kenyon College — only 0 enriched faculty (need 4)
- New York University — coverage 0.18 below 0.25 (13 enriched of 72 named)
- Northwestern University — coverage 0.12 below 0.25 (17 enriched of 137 named)
- Oberlin College — only 1 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Rochester Institute of Technology — only 1 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Skidmore College — only 1 enriched faculty (need 4)
- St. Olaf College — coverage 0.12 below 0.25 (5 enriched of 40 named)
- Swarthmore College — coverage 0.20 below 0.25 (5 enriched of 25 named)
- Temple University — only 1 enriched faculty (need 4)
- Union College — coverage 0.24 below 0.25 (4 enriched of 17 named)
- University of Central Florida — coverage 0.22 below 0.25 (12 enriched of 55 named)
- University of Oregon — coverage 0.10 below 0.25 (4 enriched of 40 named)
- University of Southern California — coverage 0.15 below 0.25 (18 enriched of 123 named)
- Vassar College — coverage 0.16 below 0.25 (7 enriched of 43 named)
- Wesleyan University — coverage 0.21 below 0.25 (12 enriched of 57 named)
How this ranking is built
Research Strength (0–100) blends four components, re-normalized over whichever are available for each college: Quality 45%, Stars 25%, Funding 20%, Notability 10%. Each college's faculty in Visual & Performing Arts are matched to OpenAlex research records; scores use field-relative percentiles across these 192 colleges, not all US institutions. A college needs at least four matched faculty to be ranked.
Caveats
- Faculty-to-OpenAlex match coverage is ~71%; unmatched faculty do not contribute to a department score.
- Percentiles are relative to these 192 colleges, not all US institutions.
- Research strength is not teaching quality — a top research department is not necessarily a better place to be an undergraduate.
- R&D funding is NSF HERD campus expenditures; federally funded R&D centers (JPL, Lincoln Lab, APL is included for JHU) can shift totals vs public perception.
Research Strength Rankings v1.0 · as of 2026-07-02.