Creative Technologies

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Technologies (CT) in the School of Visual Arts (SOVA) is a practice-focused, terminal degree program at the intersections of fine art, design, and technology. Graduate students within the two-year CT MFA are expected to prioritize the development of original visual fine artworks, supplemented by practice-based and intellectual research, with the support of dedicated faculty mentorship amidst a diverse community of MFA program peers.

Our MFA program is fundamentally cross-disciplinary and equips students with the conceptual, technical, creative, and critical skills to be successful artists and leaders across a range of fields. MFA student practices reflect the individual and unique visual arts practice and research interests of each student. Approaches to investigation span a remarkable spectrum of visual arts inquiry, spanning sculpture, installation art, coding, virtual environments, 3D modeling, photogrammetry, interactivity, video art, projection mapping, photography, experimental animation, and a myriad of other unbounded intersecting creative modalities. The CT MFA is not a commercial media or design program. We do not support commercial support of fields such as VFX or animation. Rather, we facilitate experimental, expanded, and deepened creative practice across visual arts disciplines. Creative research trajectories for our MFA students may also be informed by other programs across the university at the intersection of the arts, design, humanities, media, sciences, engineering, and culture.

Full-time enrolled MFA students will complete the program in four semesters or two full academic years. Semester to semester, 9-month GTA funding for MFA students is contingent upon their appropriate and continued academic, artistic, and assigned job-specific effort and merit. Funding may be revoked at any time if MFA students fail to achieve expected milestones or do not meet their outlined GTA duties. We do not provide funded GTA support to MFAs beyond the four semesters allocated for normal degree completion.

Application Deadline

Our program's standard application deadline is February 15 for Fall admission. We do not admit people to our program in the spring semester or during the summer or winter terms. We highly encourage interested applicants to contact program coordinators to resolve any uncertainties or questions before applying. 

Please refer to the School of Visual Arts MFA program website for more information, and here for additional specific application instructions.

What You'll Need

Transcripts

Include a scanned copy of your college transcripts with your online application, then arrange for an official copy to be sent to us after you receive an offer of admission.

Letters of Recommendation

Check to see whether your department requires letters of recommendation from references. If so, you can include the letter writers' email addresses in your online application, or have the people you ask to write those lettes send paper copies directly to your program’s department.

Graduate School Testing Requirements

The Graduate School does not require entrance tests, but check to see whether your department requires you to submit GRE, GMAT, or subject test scores with your application. If so, have the testing agency send official scores to Virginia Tech Graduate School, code 5859. 

International students may be required to submit TOEFL scores. 

Application Fees

Degree-seeking students must include a $75 fee with their application, though check to see if you qualify for a waiver or reduced fee. All application fees are non-refundable.

Refund procedure

All application fees are non-refundable.