Yes. The MFA in Products of Design is a STEM-designated program, reflecting the program's emphasis on systems thinking and the relationship between behavior and technology, and specifically how digital technology impacts society, social and behavioral sciences, and how these are integrated into contemporary product design practice.

STEM certification benefits international students by conferring eligibility for an extended Optional Practical Training (OPT) period. STEM-designated programs qualify graduates for a 24-month OPT extension, giving international designers up to three years of U.S. work authorization after completing the degree. Please refer to USCIS.gov for more information.

After graduation, our alumni go on to start their own studios and lead at world-renowned organizations–including Apple, Google, IDEO, Nike, MoMA, Pentagram, Huge, Frog Design, and dozens of other studios, agencies, and in-house teams that define contemporary design practice. They work as product designers, UX and interaction designers, design strategists, creative directors, brand designers, and design researchers. Several have founded their own studios and companies. Others have moved into design education, public policy, and social innovation fields, where the program's emphasis on the consequences of design translates directly into meaningful work.Our program includes extensive professional preparation and practice. Throughout the two-year program, we work on: 

- Effective interviewing techniques
- Presentation skills
- Portfolio development
- Negotiating
- Public speaking
- Résumé crafting
- Website representation 

We cultivate relationships with leading organizations and brands while you are in the program, so you are building your professional network while building your skills. Learn more about our annual Job Fair here.

Since 2014, MFA Products of Design has been thrilled to have an incredible and exclusive partnership with the Museum of Modern Art Design Store. Each year, first and second year students are challenged to design products for possible inclusion in MoMA’s Wholesale Catalog. Students receive a brief, create prototypes and pitch products to MoMA Design Store buyers. Every year, products make it through all the way to the catalog and store shelves! According to the MoMA Design Store, Products of Design has become the most reliable source of new products for the store’s in-house brand.

No, you do not need a design background to apply to Product of Design. We look for a diverse group of individuals in every cohort. Whether you’re a practicing designer looking to change your focus, or someone who is interested in a complete career change, we consider the “whole person” and their potential, curiosity, and passion. Our courses support new designers in building a foundation of design principles, while more experienced designers are pushed to take existing skills to new levels of mastery.

Products of Design at SVA embraces a zero grades policy. We believe in encouraging students to take risks and explore their creativity much as they would do in a career setting. Grades can create fear and caution where there otherwise would be none.

Our Product Design faculty focus their time on mentoring students instead of evaluating them. Students and faculty build a level of trust that allows students to truly learn from faculty and prepare for their future professional interactions between colleagues.

The MFA Products of Design program is a two-year, single-track, immersive physical product design program. Students move together as a cohort through a curricular program of semester-long courses and five-week studio intensives. These shorter, half-semester intensives, allow us to cover more material and bring you more amazing faculty. The single-track program allows every student to take every course.

We do thesis differently. Rather than a “first part research, second part designing” we believe in both research-led design and design-led research—and engage the students to do them simultaneously and continually. Additionally, rather than a “here’s my research, and here’s my solution” approach, each of our students creates multiple prototypes and design offerings across a broad spectrum of design. Thesis projects take the form of advanced product designs proposals and business pitch decks, engaging in physical product design, digital product design, social innovation design, business modeling, and branding. The thesis culminates in a public presentation of the student’s work and a hard-cover book documenting the process and its goals.  You can find a selection of past thesis projects on this page.

We believe design and business are inseparable, so we teach them together, across both years of the program.

Students develop real business plans and strategic models, study intellectual property and entrepreneurship, and deliver formal pitches to guest professionals. They learn to build and iterate on business models, stress-test assumptions, prioritize risk, and identify the primary drivers of success for a venture. And they go deep into the design of product-service system, exploring how relationships between people, objects, and processes create viable, meaningful businesses.

Students graduate with a pitch deck for a viable physical product and a concrete plan for launching a business.

It depends on what you're optimizing for. We know that graduate school is a significant investment. If you're looking for a credential, there are faster paths. If you're looking to become a significantly better, more versatile, and more consequential designer—one who can lead teams, launch ventures, and work across physical, digital, and experiential domains—then two years at Products of Design is a serious accelerant.

Our graduates work at Apple, Google, IDEO, Nike, Pentagram, Frog Design, Microsoft, R/GA, and Lyft. Others have launched their own studios, founded companies, and built products that have reached FDA clearance and MoMA shelves. The program is STEM-certified, which means international graduates qualify for up to three years of U.S. work authorization after graduation.

But the deeper return is harder to quantify: the ability to see design as a system, to move fluidly between making and strategy, to pitch a business and build the product yourself. Two years of immersive, hand-on, no-grades studio education in Chelsea, New York City, taught entirely by working practitioners, changes how you think, not just what you can do.

Students take 5 courses in any given week, and courses range in duration from 7 to 15 weeks in length. Our 7-week structure allows us to offer more learning opportunities during the entirety of the program. 

In addition to the courses, we have “specials” that range from field trips and student visits to guest lectures and MoMA ideation sprints. Most weeks offer something unique, so that students learn a myriad of things beyond what happens strictly in the classrooms.

Products of Design is a full-time, in-person program that demands a lot of its students, and gives a lot in return. We typically advise that students limit their outside working commitments to about ~18 hours/week, in order to allow for a healthy balance between personal commitments and the degree. Though we do not offer this program as a part-time or remote, we have had students from many different stages of life and career find success in our program

Due to the hands-on nature of this degree, we cannot offer the program remotely. Our MFA program is a two-year, immersive program, and all classes meet in person.