Otis College of Art and Design

Private · Moderately Selective · CA

Photo: Marc Meredith (CC BY-SA 2.5)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationCA · West

SettingUrban

Undergrads1,223

Student:faculty9:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate50%

6-yr grad rate66.3%

Drop-out rate25.5%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$56k

Out-of-state tuition$56k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity75.1%

Gender diversity70.9%

International18.6%

Identity—

Overview

Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, and the oldest independent professional art school in the city. It trains working artists and designers rather than offering a broad liberal-arts curriculum, with the surrounding LA creative economy functioning almost as an extension of the campus.

Academics

Otis is particularly known for fashion design and toy design — the latter a rare program nationally, reflecting close ties to the toy and entertainment industry — alongside illustration, animation, and fine arts. Studio culture dominates the curriculum: students spend most of their time in critique-based studio courses rather than large lecture classes, and faculty are frequently working professionals in their fields.

Campus & student life

Every Otis student completes community-based art projects as part of the curriculum, a distinctive requirement that puts student work into direct contact with Los Angeles neighborhoods rather than keeping it inside the studio. The campus itself is compact and urban, and much of the social and professional life of the college runs through LA's broader design and entertainment industries rather than a traditional college-town social scene.

Getting in

A portfolio is the center of gravity in Otis admissions — grades matter less than the strength and range of an applicant's creative work, and prospective students should expect the portfolio review to carry more weight than almost any other part of the application.

After graduation

Graduates move heavily into LA's entertainment, fashion, and design industries — animation and visual-effects studios, apparel and toy companies, and independent design practices — and the college's location gives it direct pipelines into those industries that a design school elsewhere would have to build from scratch.

Worth knowing

The toy design program is a genuine rarity, one of very few of its kind in the country, and is worth knowing about specifically for students with that narrow interest, since it is not a track most art schools offer at all.

otis.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate81.8%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1265–1395

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying