About the Program

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Admissions

The Master of Design (MDes) is designed for early to mid-career professionals with an interest in pursuing graduate work at the intersection of design and technology, with applications that might include artistic production, technological innovations, product or communication design, and design experiences or interventions, etc. Competitive applicants have some prior technical preparation and an interest in design as a creative, goal-oriented activity that can contribute to the emergence of innovative new technologies and environments.

Application Criteria

The following are required for admission to the Berkeley MDes program. The following includes the University’s general graduate admission requirements:

• Online Application
• Application Fee
• University Transcripts
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume, showing relevant work and/or research experience
• Two Essays (personal statement and statement of purpose)
• Three Letters of Recommendation
• Project portfolio, showing previous design work
• English Language Proficiency Requirement (if required)
• The GRE Exam is not required.

In addition, students may be invited for an interview, either in-person or remote, and should be prepared to explain their qualifications, motivations to apply to the program, and goals for the program.

Portfolio Requirements

All applicants are required to submit a portfolio that demonstrates their creative and technical proficiency. Depending on your individual practice, this may include examples of visual design work, software systems, interactive electronics, videos, paintings, 3D models, ceramics, performances, musical compositions, social practices, or many other types of creative or technical pursuits.
Your portfolio should be legible to a general audience of designers, and should not only present representations of final outcomes/designs in their intended contexts, but also accounts of your design process, and samples of early design iterations. Portfolios are expected to include both images and supporting text and should convey the context from which the project arose and the lens through which to understand and critique the work. Collaborative work is encouraged, but please credit all authors and highlight your specific contribution. Similarly, academic, professional, and personal work are all welcome, but please differentiate these distinct types of work.

In our experience, strong portfolios often opt to describe a limited selection of projects in depth, rather than account for a large breadth of projects superficially. We suggest highlighting between 3–5 of your most compelling exemplars of creative work. The most important role of a portfolio is to clearly communicate your skills, experience, and perspective. Your portfolio must include your name and contact information and be submitted as a stand-alone PDF formatted document. You may submit your portfolio of up to 20 pages maximum and 20MB total PDF file size. Portfolios that are submitted in excess of this page and size restriction will not be reviewed by the admissions committee. Any URLs or links to outside materials within your portfolio or elsewhere in your application will not be reviewed. You may optionally include up to two minutes of additional time-based media (audio/video). 

Graduate Division Admissions

Applying for Graduate Admission

Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. A complete list of graduate academic departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website.

Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application can be found on the Graduate Division website.

Admission Requirements

The minimum graduate admission requirements are:

1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;

2. A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and

3. Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.

For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page. It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here.

Where to apply?

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page.

Master's Degree Requirements

The Master of Design (MDes) program requires nine core courses and three electives (see below) for a minimum of 38 credits for the degree. 

Required Courses

Elective Courses

The MDes requires three electives: one technical elective, and at least one entrepreneurship or social practice elective from the approved lists of courses, shown below. The third elective may be either an additional elective from the approved list (technical, social practice, or entrepreneurship) or any 3 or 4 unit upper division or graduate level course offered at UC Berkeley, subject to enrollment availability. Students may submit petitions for alternate courses to the Executive Director. 

Program Outcomes

The goal of the Master of Design (MDes) program is to educate a cohort of designers to have a deep understanding of the foundations of emerging technologies and a rigorous design approach for analyzing ethical, ecological and societal implications of a continuously evolving environmental and socio-technology landscape. To meet this goal, MDes students are expected to:

• Master methods of problem-conception and problem-solving at a range of social and ecological scales.
• Hone methods of implementation grounded in the creative practice of design.
• Gain core design skills, in terms of process, materials, craft, and representation.
• Deepen and expand their technical skills in 1-2 emerging technology areas.
• Explicitly consider contexts and impacts of design decisions.
• Use design as a tool for collaboration and team-work.
• Communicate design ideas effectively to diverse collaborators and audiences.
• Weave all of the above together in multiple practice-focused studios.

Research Resources

Teaching Opportunities

MDes students may apply for GSI positions, when they are available, for undergraduate design courses offered at The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation. These teaching opportunities are optional and MDes students are expected to be able to balance GSI responsibilities with their own educational commitments with little difficulty.

Professional Development Activities

MDes students are expected to complete Design@Large, a professional development requirement for the program. Design@Large requires students to engage in an experience outside of an MDes course or studio where they apply what they have learned in a broader context. Design@Large experience typically takes place in the summer between the Spring and Fall semesters and is uniquely defined to align with students’ interests and career goals. 

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