<p>I'm a junior in high school and I'd like to be a costume designer. Which colleges are known for their undergraduate costume design programs? And would a BA or a BFA be the best choice when trying to become a costume designer?</p>
<p>When we went on our tours for my D (who is an actor), there were a few programs that stood out in my mind for their costume design. Cal Arts has an amazing program. Many of their students go on to interesting jobs all over, including as museum coordinators and other things which I never thought were transferable for studying costume design. I was also very impressed with the program at University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.</p>
<p>Some one recently asked about Northwesterns costume program and it’s excellent as well.</p>
<p>CalArts’ program does look absolutely amazing. But I think a liberal arts background would also be helpful in costume design. But I’m not sure.</p>
<p>Many (but not all) of the schools with standout Theater programs (BA and BFA) have good to great theater design programs as well. Here are some schools you should look at:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon
CalArts
UNCSA
UCLA
Northwestern
NYU
Boston U
Emerson College
SUNY Purchase
DePaul
University of the Arts</p>
<p>Among others.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>University of Evansville has an overall strong theatre program and includes costume design in their design and tech major</p>
<p>I’d throw University of Michigan in there as well. Michigan’s a strong school in liberal arts, and it has a Design & Production major with many classes in costume.</p>
<p>(U)NCSA has two Costume majors. There are both the Costume Design and the Costume Technology major. From everything that I have seen and heard about the program, it is pretty amazing.</p>
<p>Please excuse my not fully recognizing the “U” in UNCSA, it’s still hard to get used to calling it that seeing as we picked up the “U” not too long ago.</p>