Rochester Institute of Technology

This is a college where the lights are on 24 hours a day, where you can’t travel through the halls without pausing—to study an exhibit of photos by your fellow students, to marvel at the symmetry of the artisan’s bowl rising from a clay-spattered wheel, to glance into a computer lab at the animation or design projects, or to watch graphic media students operate millions of dollars’ worth of printing equipment like pros. This is a place where creativity and innovation merge to create exciting opportunities for students and faculty alike.

You’ll definitely be impressed by the resources available to you at RIT. Our specialized studios and wide range of equipment are among the most complete and current of any university’s in the world. Our faculty members are active professionals who can teach you both the art and the business of your major field of study. They’ll show you how to create, critique, reproduce, and display your work, and they’ll provide you with the support and insight you need to succeed.The School of Art offers professionally oriented degree programs in fine arts studio (painting, printmaking, sculpture, and new forms), illustration, and medical illustration. You’ll start with a foundation program that prepares you for your major concentration. Your BFA program will be studio-intensive, giving you plenty of time, space, and faculty support to help you develop as an artist. You can immerse yourself in your concentration, developing both technical and creative skills. The School of Art offers you tremendous opportunities to work with traditional media and to use these as bridges—with crafts, photography, digital media, and the Internet—to new forms of art and expression.

After graduation, you’ll have a solid foundation for a career as a professional artist—producing, marketing, and selling your work—or other opportunities such as teaching, consulting, new media development, or arts administration. Illustration graduates work for publishing companies, newspapers, advertising firms, and corporate art departments. Many choose freelance careers. Opportunities are abundant in multimedia production and website design. The specialized skills of medical illustration graduates are in demand by health care, publishing, and educational institutions. You may decide upon graduation to pursue a master’s degree in medical illustration, offered through RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology.Studio-intensive majors in the School of Design allow you to develop the technical, creative, and problem-solving skills you need to succeed as a designer—whether you specialize in graphic, interior, industrial, new media, or 3D digital design. A foundation program that prepares you to understand the conceptual, creative process underlying design disciplines is followed by courses that balance visual exploration, theory, applications, and technical design skills.

Throughout the program, you’ll have the personal attention of our talented faculty and the time and resources you need to concentrate on your design projects. A balance of visual exploration, theory, applied projects, and technical development will enable you to explore creative and effective design solutions and will lead you to exciting career opportunities. Our design graduates have found success in art and design studios, publishing houses, equipment and furniture manufacturers, architectural firms, advertising agencies, and packaging design firms.