For the vast majority of college-bound students, the major is the great divider of institutions; many colleges are very hard to differentiate except by their majors. For example, you may have grown up planning to go to a specific college, perhaps one with a top-rated basketball team; but what happens when you realize that college doesn't have an art major? The answer is pretty simple - you move on.

But art colleges are different. They are already separated from their collegiate peers - from the outside they may appear to only have one major. Sure, a few students know they want to study "industrial design" or perhaps "photography" or "video", but the majority of students are interested in "art".

Therefore, exploring an art or design major becomes more complicated. There are really only a few "art words" that the outside world even knows. But you know different. You may not know all the names of each major, but you know what you want to do.

And the funny thing is, art-related careers are so diverse that they are hard to categorize. What do you call a person who creates individual, site-specific installations that only exist for a few days, and gets funded through a grant? How about someone who owns their own point-of-purchase display company, built from the ground up six months after graduating? What major were they?

Use this section of the website to help you triangulate your interests and obsessions into a MIAD major. Each listed MIAD major has an overview, which gives you a basic idea of what the major entails. If the overview peaks your interest, look at examples of student work. Then read alumni success, which lists career opportunties for each majors, and well as stories from MIAD alumni, to see if MIAD offers what you want to be when you grow up.