Design

About the Program

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Admissions

The MDes is designed for early to mid-career professionals with an interest in pursuing graduate work at the intersections of design and technology. MDes students come from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, and are motivated by the opportunity to immerse themselves in a vibrant, creative, interdisciplinary, and impact-driven design community.

Strong applicants will be able to articulate and demonstrate their interest in design as a creative, goal-oriented activity that contributes to the emergence of innovative, socially impactful new technologies and environments. Possible areas of relevant prior experience include, but are not limited to, academic, professional, or personal work in technology, social or environmental policy, entrepreneurship, and/or community engagement. Strong applicants will also be able to articulate and demonstrate their interest in working with diverse communities and learning from different disciplinary/personal backgrounds and perspectives.

All applicants must have requisite technical preparation, for example a technical degree, coursework, and/or certificate, or equivalent professional experience, because MDes students are expected to be capable of independently learning new software tools and programming languages, and to quickly deploy these tools and skills in courses and projects. Applicants without clear technical preparation from their academic or professional background should, at a minimum, develop intermediate programming experience prior to the start of the program, and have sufficient knowledge of some technical subject area at the level required to pass a technical elective.

Application Criteria

For detailed information about the MDes program’s application criteria, process and timeline, visit the MDes Apply page.

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. The Graduate Division hosts a complete list of graduate academic programs, 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 and steps to take to apply 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 eight core courses and four electives (see below) for a minimum of 39 credits for the degree. 

Required Courses

Elective Courses

The MDes requires four electives, which must include at least one technical elective, one entrepreneurship or social practice elective from the approved lists of courses, shown below. The final two electives may be either additional electives from the approved list (technical, social practice, or entrepreneurship) or another 3 or 4 unit upper division or graduate level course offered at UC Berkeley, subject to enrollment availability. Students may submit petitions for new elective courses to the MDes Education Committee. 

Professional Development Activities

The MDes prepares students to work in creative and technical roles designing products, services, experiences, and environments. The diversity of the MDes student body is mirrored in the exciting and varied professional roles that graduates step into beyond the program. Alongside that tremendous richness in career trajectories, MDes students and graduates are all connected by a deep desire to design with humans and the planet at the center of their work, and a passion for leveraging technology to improve lives. 

The MDes equips students not just for the jobs of today, but also careers of the future. As the world sees rapid change enabled by emerging technologies, our graduates are expected to work in an ever-expanding set of roles at the intersection of design, technology, and social impact.

An important avenue for professional development in the MDes program is students’ participation in Design@Large during the summer between their second and third semesters. Design@Large is a professional development experience that empowers all MDes students to explore potential career directions and gain important professional skills while they are pursuing the degree. Students identify and engage in an immersive experience outside of an MDes course or studio and apply what they have learned in a broader context, whether that is through an internship, academic research, an independent project, a new start-up, or working in the public sector. For more information and to see examples of students’ experiences, please visit the MDes program’s dedicated Design@Large page.

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