The cheapest fashion bachelor’s degrees in the United States are at public universities in New York and California. Queens College and City Tech, both part of the City University of New York, have average costs after grants of $1,272 and $2,818 a year, and five California State University campuses come in under $10,000. We ranked every college in our data that reports a fashion bachelor’s degree by what students actually pay after grants, then checked each leading school’s current program and 2026-27 tuition on its own website. For the cheapest start of all, California community colleges charge $46 a unit.
The cheapest fashion bachelor’s degrees
Ranked by average net price: what students receiving federal aid paid for a year after grants, including housing and food, from U.S. Department of Education data. Published tuition and fees for 2026-27 come from each school.
| Rank | School | Fashion degree | Average net price | 2026-27 resident tuition and fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CUNY Queens College, New York | BA in Fashion and Design | $1,272 | $3,465 a semester plus fees |
| 2 | CUNY New York City College of Technology, Brooklyn | BS in Business and Technology of Fashion | $2,818 | $3,465 a semester plus fees |
| 3 | California State University, Fresno | BA in Fashion Merchandising | $5,418 | $4,317.50 a semester |
| 4 | New Mexico State University, Las Cruces | BS in Fashion Merchandising and Design | $6,313 | $4,318.55 a semester at 15+ credits |
| 5 | California State University, Northridge | BS in Fashion Design and Merchandising | $6,346 | $4,164 a semester |
| 6 | Brigham Young University-Idaho (private) | BS in Apparel Entrepreneurship | $6,560 | $2,544 a semester for church members, $5,088 for others |
| 7 | Ferris State University (Kendall College of Art and Design), Grand Rapids | BFA in Fashion Studies | $8,402 | From $534 a credit |
| 8 | Florida State University, Tallahassee | BS in Fashion, Merchandising, and Product Development | $8,605 | $215.55 a credit |
| 9 | Cal Poly Pomona | BS in Fashion Design, Technology and Management | $9,404 | $4,282.97 a semester |
| 10 | California State University, Long Beach | BA in Fashion Merchandising and Design | $9,426 | $4,376 a semester |
| 11 | San Francisco State University | Apparel Design and Merchandising | $9,803 | $8,824 a year |
For comparison, average published in-state tuition and fees at a public four-year college were $11,950 in 2025-26, according to the College Board. Every school above charges its own residents less than that.
What each of the cheapest programs is
CUNY Queens College
Queens College’s Fashion and Design BA is a 39-credit liberal-arts major that pairs the history, theory and sustainability of fashion with two design studio courses, using the college’s Fashion and Textiles Collection. It is a fashion studies degree with some design, not an intensive design program, and students declare it after they enroll at Queens. New York residents pay $3,465 a semester in tuition; out-of-state students pay $620 a credit.
CUNY City Tech
City Tech in downtown Brooklyn offers a BS in Business and Technology of Fashion, with modules in merchandising administration, global fashion, e-commerce and textiles, and a two-year associate degree in the same field. It charges the same CUNY tuition as Queens College. For a business-of-fashion degree in New York City, it is far cheaper than any private option.
The California State University campuses
Fresno State, Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Long Beach and San Francisco State all charge the same systemwide tuition of $3,419 a semester for California residents, plus campus fees. Their programs differ: Fresno’s degree is in fashion merchandising, within its business school; Northridge offers fashion design and production, merchandising and textile options; Cal Poly Pomona’s renamed degree covers retailing, apparel design and production, and textile technology; Long Beach has merchandising and design options; and San Francisco State has design and merchandising concentrations. Students from other states pay an extra $471 a unit.
New Mexico State University
NMSU’s in-person BS in Fashion Merchandising and Design includes a required marketing minor. Students from states in the Western Undergraduate Exchange pay 1.5 times the resident tuition rate, which keeps it affordable for much of the West.
Brigham Young University-Idaho
BYU-Idaho, a private university run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offers a BS in Apparel Entrepreneurship that covers fashion design and merchandising, patternmaking, fitting, textiles and business. Its tuition is low for everyone and lowest for church members.
Ferris State and Florida State
Ferris State’s fashion degree is taught at its Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, a BFA in Fashion Studies that requires a portfolio of 8 to 10 pieces. Ferris charges from $534 a credit for first- and second-year students, but it also lists a higher studio rate of $946 a credit, so ask which rate applies to fashion courses. Florida State’s single fashion degree, in fashion, merchandising and product development, costs $215.55 a credit for Florida residents and $855.07 for others.
What a low price does not tell you
A cheap program is only a good deal if you finish it and it leads where you want to go. Completion rates vary widely among the schools above: in federal data, 53.2% of students at Queens College and 20.4% at City Tech complete a degree, against 69.6% at Cal State Long Beach. Check three things before choosing on price: whether the degree is design-focused or business-focused, whether it includes an internship, and whether you can live at home, since housing is the largest part of the net price at most of these schools. A program that fits your goal at a slightly higher price usually beats the cheapest one that does not.
Cheapest for out-of-state students
Most of the schools above charge much more to students from other states, so out-of-state students should look for regional discounts. BYU-Idaho charges the same tuition regardless of state. Students in Western states can use the Western Undergraduate Exchange at schools such as New Mexico State, and Cal State Northridge’s WUE price is $5,873.50 a term. CUNY charges out-of-state students $620 a credit, which is still low for New York City.
Cheapest private options
Private fashion schools usually have high sticker prices but larger grants. Among those with a fashion bachelor’s, BYU-Idaho has the lowest cost after grants. Washington University in St. Louis, whose Sam Fox School offers a BFA in fashion design, charges $71,310 in tuition for 2026-27 but has an average net price of $13,360, because of need-based aid. Dominican University near Chicago, with fashion design and merchandising majors, charges $20,479 a semester but averages $14,013 after grants. At private colleges especially, use each school’s net price calculator, because your price depends on your family’s income.
The cheapest start: community college
Community colleges are the cheapest way to begin a fashion degree. California’s community colleges charge $46 a unit for residents in 2026-27, about $1,380 for a full year of 30 units, and Santa Monica College, for example, offers associate degrees in fashion design and fashion merchandising. Across our data, the median in-state tuition at public colleges offering only a fashion associate degree is $2,838 a year. Two years at a community college followed by two at a public university is often the cheapest route to a fashion bachelor’s; our guide to associate vs bachelor’s degrees in fashion explains how to make the transfer work.
Cheapest online
Among accredited online fashion bachelor’s degrees, Arkansas State University’s BS in Fashion Merchandising and Marketing has the lowest published price, $302 a credit hour with fees included. Our online fashion degrees guide compares the rest.
How we built this ranking
We started with every college in our data that reports a fashion design, apparel or merchandising bachelor’s program to the U.S. Department of Education and ranked them by College Scorecard’s average net price, retrieved November 1, 2026. We then checked each leading school’s website for its current fashion degree and its 2026-27 tuition. We left out schools whose fashion program we could not confirm: Indiana State University no longer lists a textiles, apparel or merchandising program, and for a few others the program pages were unavailable when we checked. Net price is an average across students receiving federal aid at the whole institution, not just fashion students, so your price will depend on your income and housing. Full details are on our methodology page.
Where to look next
The state guides list every fashion program in each state with tuition and cost after grants, and the fashion design and fashion merchandising directories list programs nationally.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest fashion school in the US?
Among bachelor’s programs, CUNY Queens College in New York has the lowest average net price in our data, $1,272 a year. For an associate degree, California community colleges charge $46 a unit.
Is FIT a cheap fashion school?
For New York residents, FIT’s public tuition is low compared with private design schools: our data lists $6,596 a year. Its average net price, $16,514, is higher than the CUNY colleges, partly because it includes New York City housing.
What is the cheapest fashion design school?
Among programs with a real design focus, Cal State Northridge’s fashion design and production option and Cal Poly Pomona’s apparel design and production option are among the cheapest, at California State University tuition.
Are cheap fashion schools worth it?
Often, yes. Employers hire fashion graduates for their portfolio, internships and skills more than for a school’s price, and a public degree with an internship can lead to the same jobs as a far more expensive private one.