<p>Alright, so currently a senior in Industrial Engineering graduating in May. While I've learned a lot of useful stuff in my engineering education, my long-term career goals are in the Industrial Design field. I'm specializing in Human Factors Engineering, something that's closely tied to Industrial Design. I really want to attend graduate school for Industrial Design. My only admission criteria issues are cost and portfolio. I don't really have the kind of portfolio that they require for admission into an ID program. I'm pretty good at sketching and have tons of sketches, but they're not very high quality and are very rough; probably not the level that these schools are looking for. Cost is also a huge factor, I need to be able to afford it. </p>
<p>What are the best Industrial Design schools in the US? Can anyone speak from personal experience, or offer any suggestions/advice? I've googled it and seen all the top ones, I was just wondering if people here have their own opinions and insights to share.</p>
<p>Axeback…Welcome back. Congrats on almost finishing your undergrad. I forget where you live. Curious to know if there are any in-state programs available to you. I don’t know much about funding for ID graduate programs but I do know that some schools have courses for students who come into grad ID programs with other backgrounds. </p>
<p>Art Center in LA has their night studies program and I’m pretty sure RISD has a summer program that you can take before the official masters program starts. I think Pratt offers something similar. Cranbrook Academy is a unique program you may want to take a look at as well. </p>
<p>Check out the website Core77. They have a forum specifically dedicated to Graduat ID programs and the people who post over will probably have better answers for you than here on CC.</p>
<p>A little bear reminded me that you are at UW Madison.</p>
<p>Here is a message:
“If you got a chance, tell him that it was my secret dream he’d give me a private tour of the MIT media lab, we’d then go to Chinatown for some hardcore noodle.”</p>