I just discovered these boards, and browsed through a number of posts, but before I read more I figured I’d just ask my questions and hope. My situation is this: I just graduated with a BS in Business Management and I hate business management. The rest of that story really isn’t important, but the end result is this: The economy sucks, career jobs are hard to come by, so to me it makes sense to better prepare myself for when times are good again, and while I’m at it, I might as well pursue the only career-y thing that I’ve ever actually liked, design. So I found this site googling for “Masters in Industrial Design”. Anyway, here are my questions:
Is it at all realistic that I could be accepted into a program at a school worth going to? I have no existing portfolio (I realize I’d have to create one, but, ahem, I don’t really even know what that would entail either), and no formal training in any design-related field. But I’m not unskilled either, and I would be willing (and I think able) to get myself up to speed on the basics.
Is a MID actually going to help me? I want to be a designer; I hate poorly designed things, and I love creating things that (I like to think) are attractive/efficient/well-designed. Would this degree be the best way to get closer to employment in this field?
I’ve found a few posts on here of people who are a few (or quite a few) years older than me saying they’re finally pursuing their dream of going to design school, etc. Seeing this I assume I’m not too late, but I simply don’t know anything concrete about any of this, so advice or direction or links or whatever that you could provide would be truly appreciated.
Yeah your business background will help you. If you continue down this trail eventually you will have people below you. So managing them appropriately is good. I’d say get cracking, talk to the schools you want go to. Be upfront about what you want to do, and were you are. Go from that info, take some classes at a jr. college to get some stuff done. Then next fall start classes.
Simon’s right, get cracking. Alot of people get their design degree first and then go for an MBA, so…you’d just be doing it backwards, and in fact, that might help you in articulating your way through group design projects and internship possibilities. An MID isn’t going to do much for you, those types of programs benefit the student far more after they have their foundations completed and some real world design experience under their belt. Ideally you want to find a school that requires a portfolio review, it means that they value the experience and talent that the student brings to the table. This means you’d need to pull something together, 5-10 solid pieces would be a start. The upside is with the economy the way it is going to school is like a safe harbor, and you’re not missing a ton of opportunity right now.
Thanks both of you for the encouragement. Looking at schools, Pratt seems to come up in a lot of lists of great schools, particularly the fact that they teach the artistic side more than the technical, which appeals to me. Is this aiming too high, is it impossible to get in here? If so, what might be someplace else to consider? There are a lot of “best schools” posts, but not a lot on “pretty good schools”. Thanks again for any input.