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Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like an interesting program. Does anyone have anything to say about the UCLA DMA program? Also, does anyone know where I can find examples of accepted applicant's portfolios? Again, I am not currently an art student and have no formal education in art, so I need some direction on what to include in a portfolio? Do I included typography sets, drawings, paintings, logo designs, website designs? Any help would be great. Also congrats to those of you who were accepted. Must be a great relief; one that I hope to feel sometime in the future.

I also want to inquire about the Arizona State University Master's in Visual Communications Design program. It seems that it is a newly initiated program that will be centered at the prestigious Herberger Institute for Design and Arts. ASU is already well regarded for their architecture and industrial design programs so I am guessing this will become another great program. Has anyone here applied to the program? They have both a 2 year and a 3 year for those without design degrees. I am very interested in it and have spoken to a counselor there, who informed me that the program will offer classes in everything I am looking for: identity design, UI design, programming, graphic design, etc.

Thank you for the highly detailed response. Someone also informed me to look at Michigan's Information school in which I could focus on Human-Computer Interaction and even take classes in the Graphic Design school. Does anyone have any input on that? This is probably the wrong forum for that type of discussion but thank you to all of you who replied.

Are you speaking about the interaction design program at CMU and the communications design program at Pratt? what can you tell me about the ID program at CMU. I want to focus on web design but it seems like it encompasses interactions form all types of products.

Hi everyone, I am new to The GradCafe. I am currently a junior at UC Irvine majoring in Economics and Sociology with a 3.75 GPA. I will be graduating in Spring 2013 and I have began looking into different graduate programs. The problem is what I want to do has very little in common with my majors. I want to study UI/UX design, typography, visual communication design, logo and identity design, etc. I have some experience in creating logos for a few local companies and designing mockups for a few websites, but I have no formal training. I will be teaching myself HTML5/CSS this summer, and possibly even Flash or JS. I have a good understanding of how to use all Adobe CS5 programs but will be sharpening my skills through taking a few community college courses. I have been looking at several MFA programs in graphic design, communications design, and design and technology. I have narrowed my choices to RISD's MFA Graphic Design 3-year program, UCLA MFA Design | Media Arts, MassArts MFA Communications Design (Interactive Media or Dynamic Media not really sure if they are two different programs or what), and SFAI MFA Design and Technology program. A few admissions counselors have told me that an MFA is more for teaching, and that I should think about pursuing a BFA instead. However, I do not want to regress, and I feel the B.A. I will be earning from UC Irvine is worth quite a bit already. Anyway, I basically want to know what kind of work an admissions committee's will be expecting me to put in my portfolio given my desired path of UI and identity design. Also, if you could offer me some input about the programs I listed. Some questions I have are: what are my chances of getting into RISD's 3-year? I know they say it is directed at students who do not have a design background, but even so would I be expected to have a stellar portfolio? Would they look more at my academic background? Another question I have is whether or not UCLA's D|MA program is right for me? From what I can see, I see more of a focus on technology mixed with art which is not at all what I want to study. Would I be able to study all of what I mentioned, mainly interface design and identity design? What are the chances of being admitted into their program as a non-design student? My next question is about MassArt and SFAI. Basically if you could let me in on their admissions rates to both programs and evaluate my odds. Any input you guys may have would be great and if I am not in the correct forum please lead me to the one that is appropriate for this post. Thanks!