Core77

[TomiHaurigot]

Hey Guys,

My name is Tomás and I'm about to finish my Industrial Desinger studies.

I'm starting to look for universities with a Master in product design both in Europe and the US. So far I came up with a few personal favorites like:

Elisava - Barcelona
IED Barcelona
Politecnico di Milano
Aalto - Finland
Art Center College of Design - California
RMIT University - Australia (I liked their program)
Umea Institute of Design - Sweden

And the unreachable:
Royal College of Arts - London
Parsons - NY
Cranbrook - MI

So if you could tell me about their reputation or your personal experience if you had any, I will be super grateful.

Thanks!!!

Tomás.

[Jessie]

A friend of mine managed to make his way to the Royal College of Arts, and told me several times how great it is. Pretty hard to reach indeed, but you really should try !

[yo]

What do you think about Delft? There seemed to be a great crop of students coming out of there 5 years ago but I haven't hear much lately. Also Pforzheim.

[Dan Lewis]

And the unreachable:
Royal College of Arts - London
Parsons - NY
Cranbrook - MI

What do you mean by unreachable?

[Scott_Allred]

I was admitted to RISD, Parsons, and still waiting to hear back from Art Center. I honestly don't know where to go. I am impressed by all three and like them for different reasons.

I could definitely glean from any insight on this topic as well.

[MK19]

I'm a lecturer in the UK and I can say with assurance that if you're paying not only will RCA take you but so will any uni here.

[MK19]

On that note I don't really know enough about RCA to comment but I would be concerned it might be too arty.
Perhaps you want to specialise in your Masters rather than do a vague Product Design degree? Examples:

MA Sustainable Design at Brighton
MFA Product Design at Edinburgh
MA User Experienc at Loughborough

[IDAL]

You are missing some, I think

FH Joanneum, Graz
Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd
Folkwang, Essen (Half of my colleagues come from there)

There are also good schools in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Lund, Gotheburg, Stockholm, pretty much all the Nordics.

Pfozheim is good for transportation design.

[Joseph_Cardenas]

Anyone here has any personal experiences with IED? I'm interested in their graduate program and never heard of the school before.

[ralphzoontjens]

In the Netherlands, Delft is still very good and they have several different programs - you can do 'classic' ID there but also more progressive or research-driven projects. They also are good on the commercial side and produce lots of spinoffs. Plus where else do you fully enjoy the 4 seasons than at the Dutch waterfront. More in the south is Eindhoven which has a very future-forward and technology-driven approach to product design with a good research establishment and nowadays can bring you up to the level of a successful business after your studies as well. They recently moved to a much less interesting building but the program is still good.