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Please note: We are not accepting applications to this program for Fall 2026. 

For more information about related programs and study options in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, please contact the college’s Office of Recruitment and Admissions.

This program is only open to undergraduate students in the B.F.A. and B.S. programs in the School of Design. Students apply in their junior year for admission into the program.

The master of arts (M.A.) in design engages students in a collaborative practice within a dynamic, multidisciplinary learning environment. The program allows you to obtain a graduate degree in design in only one year beyond your B.S. or B.F.A. by taking two graduate-level classes in your senior year alongside your undergraduate major requirements. You then complete the remaining credits toward the M.A. in one additional year after graduation. This extra year includes a summer orientation and “bootcamp,” an immersive “deep-dive” into multidisciplinary collaborative design thinking.

The M.A. in design intersects design thinking with a specific area of focus, allowing for in-depth exploration of major issues with a variety of industry and research partners across Syracuse University and beyond. The program provides a challenging and supportive environment where you can find your authentic design voice. Working in collaboration with others you will learn how your passions and strengths contribute to the broader professional design space.

Benefits of the M.A. in Design

  • Complete your graduate design degree in one year by taking two graduate-level classes in your senior year.
  • Take advantage of the Forever Orange Scholarship, which provides half of the tuition for students who enroll full-time in a qualifying graduate degree or certificate program at Syracuse University. 
  • Enjoy a fundamentally different experience than your B.F.A. or B.S. The core value of the program is multidisciplinary, which will set you apart from designers who stay within the bounds of their discipline. Your classmates will come from across the School of Design–including those in our M.F.A. in design and M.A. in museum studies–and will bring the richness of their disciplinary expertise to the shared learning experience.
  • Study with the amazing School of Design faculty, including those who supported you as an undergraduate and those who teach graduate-level classes.
  • Be job ready! Take professional practice and internship classes that expose you to designers and potential employers, ensuring that you are ready to enter the workplace as you complete your studies. Your chosen thesis will become a major marketing tool to promote your skills and abilities in the job market. You will also be part of a school-wide design show in New York City, which provides the opportunity to network and meet potential employers and collaborators.

The 30-credit-hour M.A. in design structure begins with you taking two 3-credit classes in your senior year. Following a successful application in your junior year, you will be assigned a graduate advisor who will assist you in registering for these two bridging classes taken as an undergraduate but at the graduate level. This is possible because the University allows up to 7 graduate credits to be taken by undergraduates and for them to be counted both for the undergraduate degree and the graduate degree.

After taking the two graduate classes in your senior year,  you begin the M.A. in design program in the summer. You will be immersed in the realities and opportunities of graduate design education at Syracuse University during the summer “bootcamp” session before entering the fall semester. All students will attend an orientation to better understand potential focus areas and how they pertain to design.

The curriculum consists of instruction in research design, professional practice, studio elective classes and an internship. The program will build toward you defining a unique focus for your thesis, which will enable you to define who you are and what you bring to the design profession.

Design electives provide a studio-based experience and environment where you work collaboratively on problems and develop solutions. Design Research supports the activities of the studio and thesis development. It is expected that your academic focus area will also support studio work and may be interrelated with the Design Research course. A student whose area of focus is in entrepreneurship, for example, may bring issues of marketing and production into play in the development of the studio project and use the Design Research course to examine theories of marketing in relationship to design development.

View degree requirements, courses and student learning outcomes.

Program Faculty