Deadline

We are are accepting applications for Fall 2010 on a rolling basis. All required application materials must be received together in one package by the Office of Graduate Admissions. Please mail all admission materials (transcripts, three letters of recommendation and three essays) or deliver them by hand. Short-listed applicants will be interviewed in person or on the telephone, and all applicants will receive an admissions decision in writing. The College does not disclose admissions decisions via telephone, fax or e-mail.

Application Requirements

1. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university.
2. Application form and nonrefundable $80 fee.
3. Official transcripts from each college or university attended. Transcripts from foreign institutions must be officially translated into English and U.S. grading equivalencies.
4. Three letters of recommendation from instructors or practicing professionals. Letters should be written on school or company letterhead and returned to the applicant in a sealed envelope with the recommender’s signature across the seal.
5. A written statement (250-500 words) of the applicant’s reasons for pursuing graduate study.
6. Résumé, including professional experience as well as related activities such as research, internships, publications and awards.
7. Proof of English proficiency (required of applicants whose primary language is not English). Details here.
8. Personal interview (except for students living beyond a 1,000-mile radius of New York City who may request a telephone interview instead). The department will contact student individually to make an appointment.
9. Upon acceptance to the program, nonimmigrant alien applicants are required to submit documentation of sufficient financial resources to attend SVA. More info here.

Specific Requirements for Design Criticism Department

1. A typed short essay (750 words) critiquing a design object, event, or concept.
2. A typed writing sample of published or unpublished writing between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Content is at the discretion of the applicant; however, the piece should demonstrate the applicant’s research and analytical skills and facility with language. The published sample can be from any context, including contributions to academic or commercial publications, books, catalogs or exhibition wall texts.

Tuition

The estimated tuition for the Design Criticism program is $15,000 per semester, with a departmental fee of $250 per semester. Click here for a full schedule of tuition and fees.

SVA Scholarships and Awards

Offered to Design Criticism MFA students.

Henry Wolf Scholarships

Tuition for one year will be granted to an incoming student. This annual $25,000 gift honors Henry Wolf (1925–2005), the graphic designer, photographer and seminal art director of Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and Showmagazines in the 1950s and ’60s. The receiver of this award is chosen based on their submitted D-Crit application, and no application form is necessary.

Silas H. Rhodes Scholarships

Partial-tuition awards—totaling $50,000 annually—will be distributed to students entering their second year who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement during the course of their first year of study. 

SVA Alumni Scholarship Awards

This interdepartmental award offers support for the direct costs of completing a final thesis project. The grant ranges from $500 to $2,000 based upon academic and artistic merit as determined by a review panel, and financial need as demonstrated by your project budget. The average award is expected to be $1,000. Students may request amounts in increments of $500 (i.e. $500, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000). In 2008, 30 awards were distributed throughout graduate and undergraduate departments, totaling $40,000.

SVA Matching Outside Scholarships

SVA will match 25% of any outside scholarship, up to $2500, that a student obtains for enrollment at SVA. This award is available to full time graduate students.