Massachusetts College of Art and Design Reviews

"From my first visit on campus as a new permanent resident,i was sure that the Massachusetts college of art and design is the atmosphere i am looking for especially as an architecture student looking for a new artistic inspiring surrounding efficient as a motivational factor for my personal creativity."

"MassArt is an incredibly unique educational experience. While the facilities are impressive and offer amazing opportunities to learn technical skills in various disciplines, this school is about its people. The faculty, staff and students at MassArt create a safe and intersectional environment to learn to make, write and think critically about your role as an artist in a larger societal narrative. The relationships I forged with my professors, and even professors in other departments, were incredibly enriching during my time at MassArt. In the first few years of my career, my MassArt professors have remained a part of my life and have made themselves available to me for advice as well as professional collaboration."

"Massachusetts College of Art and Design BFA program in printmaking was very intense and educational. Their printmaking facilities are dedicated to innovative approaches to traditional and new print media. The professors in printmaking department, were always encouraging students to find their own voice by experimenting with different mediums."

"This is a good choice if you are an artist looking to expand you knowledge about being a successful working artist. It also helps expose you to other career options related to the arts. Great community, great faculty, but the administration could use some work."

"Massachusetts College of Art and Design has a fantastic, flexible and diversified curriculum for anybody who is interested in pursuing a course in Fine Art. The professors are experienced and very knowledgeable in their chosen disciplines and their mentoring really helped to shape me as the artist that I am at this time. The facilities are brilliant and students have free access to equipment and technology that would otherwise cost a lot of money. Studio time is considerably important in the program but there is plenty of opportunity for field trips that introduce students to local art practices and programs."

"As a first year Grad, I feel like the pros of this program are the facilities. Mass Art has some of the best facilities in the country and is open to students using various areas of the college in order to complete work that may be cross disciplined. As a grad student, I am allowed to be on campus at any hour during the semester, if need be. There are visiting artists, film screenings, fun extra curricular activities and a multitude of networking opportunities in Boston and beyond. One con of the program however is funding, as a very working class student who is unable to take out private loans, I struggle to afford food, rent, and supplies necessary for my classes. I have yet to set up a meeting about this particular, but am working on having the college allot me more money due to my financial constraints. The work load is large so the college would probably rather have you take out loans so you are able to focus. However without money, you cannot do much. The cafeteria is not as diverse as it could be in its selections."

"It was a great school, with a large amount of class chooses. The teachers were working artists which was helpful."

"I chose Massart because I loved the atmosphere. Even though I got into a more competitive art school, I didn't like how stuck up they seemed. All through my time at massart, everyone was always helpful, kind and passionate. I had some great professors and I found best friends who were like me and had a similar experience to mine, despite all of us being in different majors. I am also gainfully employed and using my degree, and I know the skills I learned at massart helped me get where I am now."

"I think my graduate program is great. They push you to think outside the box and to solve difficult communication problems. They partner with other schools and also bring in outside guest speakers to lecture on the current field. They have small class sizes with international students. Small class sizes are also a con. There were only 10 people in each class with let you have hands on attention, but also only allows you to have view points from only 10 people. I think it would be beneficial to have classes with more students to get different points of view."

"As a communication major you're part of the trifecta of the communication majors Graphic Design, Illustration and Animation. Graphic Design is probably one of the most grueling majors in terms of workload and lack of cutting any slack but all communication majors' workload is hefty. By hefty I mean if you're a superhuman and manage to convince the advisors to double major in one of these and another non-design major, then somehow finagle your schedule to complete in 5 years, there's still a 85% you'll drop one anyway. Senior year is just exhaustion x10, then again most everyone I knew either had jobs as well as doing a full-time curriculum or took on extra classes/clubs/activities. There are good professors that will help you hone your skills, whether you're self motivated or need someone to push you. I had mostly good experiences with the classes I selected but I did a lot of research before registering each semester because there were a few I dreaded even being in the same room with. Most information was fundamentals, which I knew would happen as someone with prior experience in the real world but I did get really good experiences out of it and some interesting skills I wouldn't have had thought to pursue otherwise. MassArt has pretty good programs, equipment and studio spaces. It's also part of the Colleges of the Fenway meaning you can register for credit classes at the other colleges without paying extra tuition, I took some ASL classes that counted for literature & writing credits. There isn't much of a campus, dorms and Chartwells cafeterias/convenience store are shared with Wentworth and MCPHS. It's located in a good area of Boston with the T right in front of the school and plenty of food options surrounding it. I do recommend having a good grasp of navigating college forms and things, as a first gen. I got stuck with a lot of miscommunication and in a tricky situation where neither state of where I moved from nor where I moved to were recognized by MassArt for scholarships and in-state tuition. If you have to deal with the offices I suggest a lot of patience and always keeping paperwork/copies just in case."