Graduate Admissions

Photo of UT Tower behind an array of bright orange flowers on a sunny day

Graduate Admissions

The UT College of Fine Arts’ graduate programs offer innovative programs in the arts and design, with exceptional masters and doctoral studies in a variety of disciplines. Alongside our award-winning faculty, our students are expanding approaches to investigations in the arts and design. We’re preparing our graduate students to build careers in a 21st-century creative economy and step up as leaders in their respective disciplines. Our alumni’s professional pathways take them all over the world, both in academia and beyond.

All Graduate Admissions applications are processed through the Graduate School. 

By the Numbers

Graphic of graduate students demographics. Theatre and Dance 64, Art and Art History 74, Music 236, and Design and Creative Technologies 28.
Graphics of 210 Master's Student in Fine Arts, and 180 Doctoral Students in Fine Arts

*These demographics reflect enrollments for the 2023-24 academic year.

Interdisciplinary Opportunities

Brimming with nearly 52,000 students — including more than 12,000 graduate students — and 3,000 faculty members, campus life at UT Austin is just as dynamic and diverse as the people who live, work and learn here. The University of Texas at Austin is one of the world’s leading research universities, supporting cutting-edge research in all disciplines and offering more than 200 dedicated research units and centers, ranging from the Texas Advanced Computing Center to the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. Fine Arts graduate students can take classes to enhance their research and creative practice and have endless opportunities for interdisciplinarity in their pursuits. 

Nancy Rubins' "Monochrome for Austin" in front of the Norman Hackerman Building
Petals sculpture outside the Blanton Museum of Art

Campus Life

As a graduate student, you can choose from an array of events and activities from all corners of the Forty Acres. Campus offers a culturally rich and creative environment where students can use valuable research resources like the Fine Arts Library and engage with cultural archives at the Harry Ransom Center and Briscoe Center for American History and experience visual art in the Blanton Museum, Visual Arts Center and Art Galleries at Black Studies. Texas Performing Arts, our hub for world-class live performance and visiting artists, offers $10 student tickets and exclusive access to their programming through their  Bass Pass student membership program.

 Landmarks, the university’s public art program, offers more than 50 works of modern and contemporary art throughout the 433-acre campus that are viewed by thousands of people every day.  

Living in Austin

Austin is consistently ranked as one of the top places to live in the nation. Blending all the amenities of a major city with the green space of a small town, Austin is a culturally rich artistic enclave and city of live performance with endless opportunities to catch music, theatre, visual arts and more in the community.

View of The Continental Club sign on South Congress looking north
Bronze statue of Bevo with Tower in the background

Alumni Outcomes

Graduates of our programs have excellent career outcomes, and our alumni work in renowned universities, museums and other arts spaces all over the world. You can explore some of our alumni outcomes, which we track through the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project