Admissions
- Join our MFA Program
- Join our PhD Art History Program (VA76)
- Join our PhD Art Practice Program (VA77)
- FAQ's
The Department of Visual Arts MFA program (VA75) designed to provide intensive professional training for the students who wish to pursue a career within the field of contemporary art—including all aspects of art making, criticism, theory and curating. The scope of the UC San Diego program includes painting, sculpture, performance, installation art, public art, photography, film, video, and digital media. The program is unique in that the course of study provides for and encourages student mobility within this range of traditional and media-based components. It also offers opportunities for collaborative work. It is strongly recommended that applicants be at least one year removed from completing their undergraduate degree prior to submitting an application
To Apply: https://connect.grad.ucsd.edu/apply/
Application Opens: September 4th, 2024 for the Fall 2025 application cycle
Application Deadline: January 8th, 2025 for the Fall 2025 application cycle
All applicants must satisfy the following to be considered for admissions to our department:
Completion of a four-year Bachelors degree or equivalent:
English Language Proficiency:
Letters of Recommendation:
Statement of Purpose:
Resume/CV
Portfolio:
Pre-Admission Art History Requirement (4 semester or 6 quarter courses), students needed to complete undergraduate coursework in Art History, Media Studies or a related topic prior to Admissions to the MFA. If not completed, the remaining coursework will need to be taken here. Course options are:
Artist Statement (1000 words):
The Artist Statement should aim to explain, justify, extend, and/or contextualize your body of work, while placing your work in relationship to art history, theory, and the contemporary world. The Artist statement will be read by the Admissions Committee and current graduate students within the program, while the Statement of Purpose is reviewed by the Admissions Committee only. For this reason, applicants may upload their Statement of Purpose with the Artist Statement and include in the portfolio.
Portfolio of Work (maximum of 20 still images and 12 minutes of time-based work, as appropriate):
The samples of your artwork should best showcase your research abilities and current/recent projects. You may create your Visual Arts Portfolio in a number of different formats. Our program is cross-disciplinary and it is not unusual for an applicant to have several different artistic mediums within their portfolio. The admissions committee is interested in seeing your most accomplished, recent work, rather than a chronology of work done over the span of your career. A good gauge would be to include work you've done within the last two years.
File Names for Portfolio Items:
Please name your files, with your Last Name, First Initial underscore and the document type. So if my name was Terry Triton, I would have the following File Names:
MFA students are expected to formally present their work multiple times per academic year to receive formal feedback on their research and body of work. Access the Visual Arts Graduate Student Exhibitions. This site includes documentation of solo thesis shows of graduating MFA students, First Year Reviews and past Open Studio Exhibitions. Please explore the recent work completed within the department, in addition to the Faculty and Graduate Student personal pages.