Admission

Students are admitted to Yale’s MFA for the Fall semester of each year only. Applicants are notified of the admission committee’s decisions on preliminary selections in February, and final decisions in early March. No information about decisions will be given over the phone or advance of the batch written release to all finalists. To apply for more than one area of concentration, separate applications and supporting documentation must be submitted. The work submitted should be representative of the applicant’s experience in that particular field. Applying to more than one program does not increase an applicant’s chances of selection.

Please note

Yale School of Art does not practice admission deferment; An offer of admission is valid only for enrollment for that year regardless of the in-residence conditions of the Yale campus at that time. Applicants who are offered admission but choose not to enroll are welcome to reapply to the School in a future cycle.

APLICATION DEADLINE

Online applications for programs beginning in the 2023–2024 academic year will open October of 2022 with a due date of early January 2023. Please expect that when many applicants are uploading simultaneously near the deadline, lengthier processing times will be experienced. To avoid this, please consider submitting prior to the deadline day.

Admission Procedures for Preliminary Selection

Instructions For All Applicants

An application to the School of Art requires forethought and planning. It is important to read all of the application instructions carefully. Following these instructions will ensure that your application is viewed to best advantage. The Yale School of Art application for the 2023–2024 academic year will be available October 2022. The information that follows will assist you in filing the application online. For an explanation of specific requirements for each area of study, please refer to the departmental sections that follow.

Application Materials

1. Online Application

2. References

3. Transcripts

4. Portfolio

NOTE: Do not include more than one image on the screen, nor embed other pages of a publication or video within the images you place in your portfolio. Do not include detail photos of work in your portfolio unless you consider them absolutely necessary. Under no circumstances should more than two detail shots be included. Portfolio requirements differ depending upon area of concentration; be sure to follow the instructions for the area to which you are applying. We strongly recommend that you review your images on a Mac OS to be certain that they are accurately represented. All supporting documents that are submitted as a requirement for admission become a part of the official file and cannot be returned to the applicant or forwarded to another institution either in copy or original form.