Admission

Who Should Apply?

Housed in Emerson’s School of the Arts, the on-campus Film and Media Art graduate program attracts students from diverse backgrounds who share a mutual passion for creating film and media works that inspire, challenge, and move audiences. Most of our students have majored in, currently work in, or independently pursue fiction narrative and/or documentary filmmaking, experimental and/or interactive media, installation art, photography, sound design, writing, and journalism. Regardless of the format they choose to work in, they each have a deep understanding of their artistic vision and the themes they want to express in their work. After graduation, our students go on to become directors, producers, cinematographers, and educators, among various other roles in the industry.

Application Deadlines

Applicants can apply for admission for a fall start.

Fall

• Priority: February 1
• Regular: Not offered
• Final: Not offered

*Priority Decision Advantages: priority review for admission, first consideration for scholarships, and earlier receipt of an admission decision.

For official term start dates, please review our Academic Calendar.

Admission Requirements

• Online Application 
  • After submitting your application, you will receive an email with your Admission ID. Please use your username and password to log in and check the status of your application.
• Official Transcripts
  • Review the official transcript requirements 
• 3 Letters of Recommendation
  • From persons best able to assess academic and professional qualifications, including motivations and goals 
• Admission Essay
  • Emerson College's graduate programs form a vibrant and engaged community of creative artists, professionals, scholars, and clinicians who all believe in the power of language and communication to transform society. Your careful responses to the following prompts will help us determine if the program you are applying to is the right fit for you. Please answer each prompt as thoughtfully as possible.
    • Who are you as an artist? How does the focus and curriculum of the program align with your experience and goals? 500 words. 
    • Drawing on your personal, professional, creative, and/or academic experience, please share an example of a time that you overcame an individual or collective challenge and the approach you took to address that challenge. 250-500 words. 
    • The mission of Emerson College is the betterment of society through communication and the arts. With this in mind, what impact do you want your work to have? 500 words.
• Portfolio
  • Learn more about the portfolio requirements: Submit work that gives the committee the best sense of your creative potential. This can be any form of visual or audio media work (film, video, sound, interactive work, etc.), photography, music, or performance documentation.
    • For film and media work, please submit no more than 15 minutes of material in total. Your portfolio submission can be a single work or a collection of short completed works. An excerpt from a longer work is also acceptable, but we ask that you submit only the first 15 minutes of the piece. The total runtime of all film submissions in the portfolio should not exceed the stated time limit. Please include the date of production and the credits that make clear your role in the production. (No trailers or demo/promo reels.)
    • Web-based or interactive work should require only widely available plug-ins.
    • OPTIONAL: WRITTEN WORK: You may include writing samples in the form of screenplays or scholarly work to supplement your media sample(s). This is optional and should not be the only type of work submitted. Screenplays should be in standard Hollywood format or two-column script form, 10 pages maximum. Scholarly work should be no more than 10 pages (double-spaced).
• Resume
  • Include your professional and educational history.
• English Proficiency: Applicants whose native language is not English must provide evidence of English proficiency by submitting official TOEFL, IELTS, Duolingo, or Pearson test results. Note that Duolingo is a lower-cost option that typically provides official results quickly.
• Advanced Standing Only: If you are applying for Advanced Standing, please submit an essay detailing your qualifications and work/educational experience in film and/or media production. One page, double-spaced, 250 words.

International Applicants

• This program supports the issuance of an I-20 for the full duration of the on-campus portion of the program. To learn more about applying for an I-20, review the International Student Enrollment Checklist. No documentation is required until after you have been admitted.