I think there are 2 things. 1) you are missing something. You are assuming that your masters in science gave you everything you need to be ready to take on a masters in design (IxD or otherwise). There are core elements of design that you probably never learned formally that are hard to take on informally.
2) Putting that aside for a moment, I think you are making a rash assumption. YES! you have to show a portfolio. But if you've been doing GUI work for awhile, then don't you have a portfolio. Most grad programs in design will evaluate your portfolio and then assess if you have potential in the program and if you do they will further decide what "catch up" classes you'll need to take. Usually these are sketching, 2D design, and the like. Sometimes, this pushes you back a semester/quarter or a year or so. When I was considering going for a masters in industrial design, I was going to have to go through an entire extra year of what Pratt called "foundation" before joining peers who either went through that formal education experience as undergrads or provided proof of expertise in their portfolio. Now, let's go back to #1. If I wanted to go to med school, no matter what I learned in my undergrad or any other grad work, if I didn't have the basics of O-Chem, P-Chem, PHysics, biology, etc. I will have to take it over again to even apply. Many people go to community college already having a strong degree in order to get these core required courses completed if they want to go to med school. The same is true for many design programs, especially the ones that are masters in design or masters in fine arts (as opposed to masters of arts). The best thing for you to do is to contact the schools you are interested in and do an information interview with the chair/co-chair or other faculty in the department you are interested in. Another option is to go into an HCI program that has options around strong design electives. CMU and Indiana seem to have that capability as does Michigan and Baltimore. Many of the industrial design grad students I've met so far here at SCAD do not necessarily have a design background. Many are from mechanical engineering. But those from that background do have to take preliminary coursework in design to achieve the level of competence in craft and critical design thinking that their peers got doing this work as undergrads. -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38841 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
