SAIC vs CCA MFA Graphic Design

jchouston
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:31:31 +0000

I have no problem briefly sharing my experiences:

Portfolio: 20-25 images of design work + other artwork

Resume & 3 Rec letters (All of mine were from my undergrad professors & faculty

Interviews: Discuss your work (what? why?), your relationship w/ design (or w/e your medium is), why grad school?, why THIS grad school?, personal history, passions & interests, etc…

I am from an unrelated field. I did not study design in undergrad. Also I am going straight from undergrad to grad, so no real work experience (some schools want it, some don’t)

My goal is to become a practicing designer and a professor in the field of design.

& Thanks for the brief insight. Another info please feel free to share.

Addressing rankings, of course there’s no real way to assess an art program, at least not quantitatively, but I think its ridiculous to completely ignore rankings. If anything they are a small indication of the quality of a program. Everyone says they don’t pay attention to rankings, but everyone in these forums are coincidently talking about all the same schools featured on these rankings, so they most know what they are talking about to some extent. Don’t get me wrong I did not rely solely on rankings, I did my own research to supplement their claims. I repeat, I did not solely rely on rankings.