Design Media Arts

The Design Media Arts (DMA) undergraduate program emphasizes innovative creation with digital and mass media within the context of a public research university. The curriculum features a solid foundation in form, color, space, motion, typography, and interactivity, followed by a broad selection of area studies courses in video, visual communication, network media, game design, and narrative. The program culminates with the Senior Projects classes where each student defines his/her own senior project based on individual interests within the areas of interactivity and games, video and animation, and visual communication and image. This uniquely challenging and diverse program invites students to balance aesthetic sensibility with logical reasoning, formal theories with practical application, and contemporary thought with historical perspective. Most courses are taught as studios of no more than 22 students, which encourages individual growth and fosters a sense of community within the department.

Rather than focusing on narrow professional development, our curriculum fosters experimentation across a range of different media. We privilege a social outlook, process, experimentation, and personal growth over conservatism and commercialism and we search for students who share the same goals. We strive to provide a broad education that encourages young people to make new connections, to analyze complex situations, and to think critically.

• 10 - Design Culture
• 21 - Drawing and Color
• 22 - Form
• 25 - Typography
• 28 - Interactivity
• 99 - Student Research Program
• 101 - Media Arts: Introduction
• 153 - Video
• 154 - Word + Image
• 157 - Game Design
• 161 - Network Media
• 163 - Narrative
• 171 - Topics in Interactivity and Games: Programming Interactive Tools
• 172 - Topics in Video and Animation
• 173 - Topics in Visual Communication and Image: Visual Design Methodology and Practice
• 195A - Community or Corporate Internships in Design | Media Arts
• 195B - Community or Corporate Internships in Design | Media Arts
• 199 - Directed Research in Design | Media Arts
• 200 - Design | Media Arts Faculty Seminar
• 252A - Programming Media 1
• 375 - Teaching Apprentice Practicum
• 403 - Graduate Critique
• 404 - Graduate Tutorial
• 495 - Teaching Assistant Training Practicum
• 596 - Directed Individual Study or Research

Requirements

• To be considered for admission to UCLA, international students must have completed secondary school with a superior average in academic subjects and have earned a certificate of completion which enables the student to be admitted to a university in the home country.
• All freshman applicants are expected to take the following tests: The ACT Assessment plus the ACT Writing Test. - or - The SAT Reasoning Test. Note: you must complete the essay portion of the SAT. We will not accept your scores if you opt not to write the essay.
• UCLA requires records from all secondary schools attended, showing subjects taken and grades received as well as any national or government certificates earned. Documents of all college or university coursework must also be sent in the original language, along with English translations. Do not send these documents now. If you apply and are admitted to UCLA, your admission packet will contain instructions on how to send your original records to us.
• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
• A competitive score is above 100 (with sub-scores above 22).
• International English Language Testing System (IELTS)
• A competitive score is 7 or higher.

Scholarships

UCLA does not award scholarships or financial aid to undergraduate students who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States. International students must prove that they have sufficient funds available to them to pay for their educational and living expenses. For example, students admitted to Fall Quarter 2016 will need a minimum of about $60,000 (with an additional $5,000 recommended for additional personal expenses, contingencies and summer expenses). This minimum amount usually grows each year.

UCLA also requires that all international students on non-immigrant visas have adequate medical insurance during all periods of enrollment. More information about these requirements will be sent to students when they are admitted.