Design (MFA)
Department website: https://designcreativetech.utexas.edu/mfa-design
Through advanced studio courses in design, elective courses in related fields, anddesign history/theory/criticism courses, the curricula of the graduate programs indesign encourage students to take full advantage of the programs' location within atop-tier research university. Rather than offering traditional medium-basedspecializations in communication design, interaction design, or industrial design, theprograms instead encourage students to integrate knowledge and modes of inquiryfrom other disciplines into their design practice, and to develop mastery in a rangeof image-making, typographic, modeling, prototyping, and/or coding skills mostappropriate to their own area of investigation.
Graduate Handbook
Graduate handbook information is updated and maintained by each program. Graduate handbooks are available within each program's office and online. Please contact the program with concerns or questions.
Admission
In addition to meeting all general admission requirements laid out by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, applicants to the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program must submit a portfolio, a personal statement, and two letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with the applicant’s academic and design work. The GRE is not a requirement for admission to the MFA program; but students who have taken the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT or other graduate-level standardized tests are encouraged to submit their score reports with their application.
Applicants for admission to the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program are expected to be self-motivated, experienced practitioners of design with a strong portfolio of recent work, a clearly stated rationale for undertaking graduate study in design, and a well-defined area of investigation around which they propose to focus their coursework, research, and creation in the program.
Total Hours Required: 60
Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Studio coursework (at least 30 must be graduate level) | 33 | |
| Design academic studies coursework | 9 | |
| Hours chosen from: any field outside DES | 6 | |
| Free Elective Additional coursework to reach total hours required | 12 | |
| Graduate Fine Arts Requirements | ||
| Graduate University Requirements | ||
| Total Hours | 60 | |
Additional Requirements
- All coursework must be chosen with the advice and approval of the graduate advisor.
- Up to nine hours of upper-division undergraduate coursework in any subject may, with the approval of the graduate advisor, be counted toward the degree.