Where are good web design schools in the United States?

I've never known anyone in the field who has, or is going for a "Web Design" degree. We're mostly a hodge-podge of other degrees, Computer Science, Graphic Design (that's honestly as close as you're going to get), Advertising, Human - Computer Usability... If you're a technical person, I'd say go for Computer Science... Even better if you can find a school that'll teach you any scripting languages, like Perl. We had a "Web Design" class at my Alma Mater, but it was the very basics, I Aced the final having never stayed for a lecture, or even cracked open the book. I've seen quite a few Graphic Design courses that cover Web Design, though I can't speak for how well they do. You're better off just jumping in, there's a TON of websites out there that will teach you the basics, and some great designs to inspire you (I'm a fan of http://csszengarden.com, but I'm sure there are many others that people will point you to.

oh yeah, also good for grad studies is http://www.yale.edu/art/graphicdesign.html.

I've heard good things about http://www.uat.edu/, and toured their small, edgy and progressive campus. They are a bit pricey, but know their shit and are willing to work with you. And they're fully accredited, I think.

Step 1 would be figuring out which part of "web design" you want to focus on. Since you say you've already studied "cinema studies", I'd guess the more graphic-design-y parts, but I realize that this may not be correct. If you want to do animation, please find a program that will explain when it is and isn't appropriate to use animation and/or Flash (if that's what attracts you). Graphic design is what a lot of "web designers" have studied, but it's not the same as web design. I think web design is, in a lot of ways, more constrained... you'll see what I mean. Usability is an important part of "web design" which I think a lot of graphic designers underestimate. Please make sure whatever program you enter gives some emphasis to this, or plan to always work with someone else who has a background in this.

I took http://www.mica.edu/PROGRAMS/ma/digital_arts/index.cfm?id=381, and web design was only a small fraction of the program: the larger part of the program focused on digital video and photography, and there was more than a bit of postmodern theory involved as well. There were web electives, though, and Flash was heavily used. I would recommend you go into graphic design, take all the web electives you can, and plunge into the books along the way. (Zeldman's a good place to start.) Keep your horizons broad; you might just find your place in a design field not directly web-related.

Disclaimer: I'm totally biased because I'm the director of the program and created the curricullum, but we have 4 1/2 month full-time program in web design here at the http://www.cdiabu.com/ It's a young program but we train people in standards based xhtml and css and give them exposure to php, flash and javascript. It's definitely not a "programming" course though. To speak to brownpau's point, our 4.5 month web design semester is technically the second half of our 9 month design program, with the first half being the graphic design portion. Any web designer would benefit from getting a deeper understanding of using type, layout and color that traditionally has been the province of print design. You can see the curricullum http://www.cdiabu.com/academics/graphic_interactive/interactive_design.php. Dan Cederholm of Simplebits recently had some nice things to say about the http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2006/08/30/cdia.html.http://www.cdiabu.com/

I understand programming isn't design, but some schools like CDIA are merging graphic design with web based programming and calling it interactive design. Those are the schools and programs I'm most interested. But, because it's a relatively new field, I know I may not find the perfect school with the exact curriculum in the right location for me. If I had to pick a field to focus on, either graphic design or programming, it would have to be graphic design. I studied a little computer science during my undergrad years and it's something I pick up on fairly easily, design not so much.

Here is a http://www.brown.edu/Departments/MCM/nothing/index.php/ArtAndTechPgms that have Art & Technology programs. Not sure how much this can help you. Also, here is a http://www.npda.org/concentrations.html that include Individualized/Self-Designed Majors and Graphic Design. and the Art Institutes offer a http://www.artinstitutes.edu/mediaarts/imdweb.asp?id=54 program. Can't say if it is worth it. I did go to a 3 day teacher workshop for web design at AI and it was pretty cool.

Since you're clearly interested in and educated in visual studies, I would encourage you to at least try out some web programming/database/backend work to see if you have an interest in and aptitude for it. A solid programmer with a degree in a creative field is a relatively unusual thing and that could serve you well in this job market. By googling for self-training materials (or browsing your bookstore shelves -- remembering that O'Reilly is the acknowledged master of clear, correct, complete tech books), you can investigate a bunch of different specialties before committing to a degree program. You might even find that self-training is preferable to a degree program...