Applicable only to students admitted during the 2013-2014 academic year.

Design | Media Arts

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Design | Media Arts offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Design | Media Arts.

Admission

Program Name

Design | Media Arts

Address

Broad Art Center, Rm. 2275
Box 951456
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1456 

Phone

(310) 267-4907 

Email

dmainfo@arts.ucla.edu  

Leading to the degree of

M.F.A. 

Admission Limited to

Fall 

Deadline to apply

January 15th 

GRE (General and/or Subject)

GRE: Not required 

Letters of Recommendation 

Not required 

Other Requirements

In addition to the University’s minimum requirements and those listed above, all applicants are expected to submit a statement of purpose.

The applicant’s bachelor’s degree need not be in Design | Media Arts; applicants with degrees in interdisciplinary programs that emphasize media arts are preferred. Applicants are expected to have working knowledge of a variety of software. Additional experience with video, interactive media, or 3D modeling and animation is expected.

Applicants are also required to submit the departmental supplemental application and portfolio by January 15th. Applicants should visit the department’s website for instructions on how to submit the supplemental application and portfolio.

Application reviews take place during February and March. Applicant finalists should be available for a telephone or in-person interview during this time. 

Master of Fine Arts

Advising

Each entering student is assigned an initial faculty advisor by the department based on student input and faculty availability. The initial faculty advisor may or may not eventually become a member of the student’s thesis committee.

The initial faculty advisor is charged with the responsibility of reviewing the first-year student’s progress a minimum of three times in the academic year. It is the student’s responsibility to arrange these review meetings. A department record of review form, documenting the student’s progress, must be completed and signed by the advisor at these meetings. It is the student’s responsibility to submit the completed forms to the department student affairs office by the end of each quarter. Additional meetings do not have to be documented on the record of review form. If the initial faculty advisor notices that no meetings have been arranged, the advisor must arrange a meeting immediately with the student to discuss the student’s works and progress.

Satisfactory first-year student progress is determined by first-year course grades and the quality of the student’s work in the first-year solo exhibition.

Any concerns over the student’s lack of progress will be communicated directly to the student by the initial faculty advisor. At the meeting, the student will be given guidelines for successful completion of the program and the details of the meeting will be noted on the record of review form.

Students are encouraged to consult their advisor whenever doubts or questions arise about their proposed program or academic goals.

The MFA Graduate Thesis Committee must be established no later than the end of the fourth week of the fall quarter in the second year. The thesis chair must be a member of the senate faculty. The entire committee is responsible for reviewing, at least once every quarter, the progress of the student’s project toward the completion of his or her thesis. It is the student’s responsibility to arrange these review meetings with the Committee. If the thesis chair notices no effort has been made for the Committee to meet, s/he must communicate the concern directly to the student and to all members of the Graduate Thesis Committee. Lack of progress shall be documented in writing by the thesis chair on the department record of review form. Repeated lack of progress will be considered by the Graduate Thesis Committee and all other senate faculty, and may be grounds for recommended deferment of thesis work or dismissal.

Areas of Study

Media Arts: interactive media, time-based work, virtual environments, and information spaces.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 80 quarter units of upper division and graduate Design | Media Arts courses is required. 68 of the 80 units require letter grades; 12 units require S/U grades. Required courses: Design | Media Arts 200, 252A, and 252B must be taken during the first two quarters in residence; Design | Media Arts 269 is to be taken twice (eight units) once each year while in residence; 12 units of Design | Media Arts 403 (S/U grading) and 36 units of Design | Media Arts 404 are to be taken during the first two years in residence; and 16 units of electives, of which eight units of Design | Media Arts 596 may be applied toward the requirements for the degree.

Teaching Experience

While graduate students have the opportunity to work with the faculty as teaching assistants for undergraduate courses, this is not a requirement for the degree program.

Field Experience

Not Required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

The comprehensive examination consists of an oral examination and a concentrated body of work which is presented as the master’s statement. Also required is an accompanying record of the project, consisting of documentation in the form of images of physical work, research material, and other visual material; this includes a written statement as determined by the graduate guidance committee.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

From graduate admission to award of the degree: six quarters is the normal time-to-degree.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

The Graduate Guidance Committee may recommend termination of graduate study if the committee deems that the student’s creative work and progress towards the completion of the degree is inadequate in quality or quantity. This determination must be made in a formal meeting of the committee. The student may appeal a recommendation of termination by petition to the whole faculty through the department chair. An ad hoc committee of Design | Media Arts faculty may be assigned by the Chair to review the decision of the Guidance Committee and make a report to the entire Design | Media Arts faculty. They then make a final determination to uphold or reverse the recommendation of the Guidance Committee.