Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 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.

Admissions Requirements

Master of Fine Arts

Advising

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

The initial faculty adviser 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 faculty adviser 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 adviser notices that no meetings have been arranged, the adviser 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 participation in end-of-quarter reviews.

Any concerns over the student’s lack of progress will be communicated directly to the student by the initial faculty adviser. 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 adviser whenever doubts or questions arise about their proposed program or academic goals.

The M.F.A. 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, the thesis chair 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 academic disqualification.

Areas of Study

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

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 101 quarter units of upper division and graduate Design | Media Arts courses is required. 52 of the 101 units require letter grades; 16 units require S/U grades.

Required courses in the first year: DESMA 200, 252A, 252B, 252C, 269, 282, and 403 (taken in Fall and Spring) for a total of 28 units.

Required courses in the second year: DESMA 266, 269, 403 (taken in Fall and Spring) for a total of 11 units.

Required courses in the third year: DESMA 299, 403 (taken in Fall and Spring) for a total of 6 units.

The total units required for the courses listed above is 45 units.

In addition to these required courses, students must enroll in a minimum of 40 units from any combination of the following courses: DESMA 404, 289, 403, as well as a minimum of 16 units of electives (from DESMA upper division undergraduate courses, DESMA graduate seminars, upper division courses, or graduate-level courses outside of the department), of which 8 units of DESMA 596, may be applied toward the requirements of 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. Teaching Assistants must take DESMA 495.

Field Experience

Not Required.

Capstone Plan

The capstone consists of an oral examination and a concentrated body of work that 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 Thesis Committee. The committee of at least three faculty members will administer and determine satisfactory performance on the capstone project and written statement.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

From graduate admission to award of the degree: nine quarters is the normal and maximum time-to-degree.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.F.A.	9	9	9

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from 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 academic disqualification 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 Thesis Committee may recommend academic disqualification from 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 academic disqualification 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 Thesis 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 Thesis Committee.

UCLA is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and by numerous special agencies. Information regarding the University’s accreditation may be obtained from the Office of Academic Planning and Budget, 2107 Murphy Hall.