Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design

Private · Moderately Selective · WI

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationWI · Midwest

SettingUrban

Undergrads837

Student:faculty11:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate58.1%

6-yr grad rate67%

Drop-out rate20.5%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$44k

Out-of-state tuition$44k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity36.1%

Gender diversity80.9%

International0.2%

Identity—

Overview

The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, known as MIAD, is a private art and design college in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward and the city's only four-year art school. It occupies a converted warehouse building in a neighborhood dense with galleries, studios, and creative small businesses, giving students an immersive design-industry setting rather than a traditional campus quad.

Academics

Industrial design, illustration, and communication design are MIAD's most recognized programs, taught in a studio-intensive format where critique and portfolio development structure the curriculum more than lecture courses do. Small cohort sizes mean students work closely with faculty who are practicing designers and artists, and the Third Ward location gives easy access to real client and gallery relationships.

Campus & student life

Student life at MIAD is inseparable from the surrounding Third Ward, an arts and design district students use as an extension of campus for galleries, studio space, and creative networking. The school is small and does not offer a conventional residential-quad experience or a large athletics program; social life tends to organize around studio culture and Milwaukee's broader arts scene.

Getting in

Admission is portfolio-driven above all — academic record matters, but the strength and range of a student's creative portfolio is the central factor across every program. Interviews and portfolio review sessions are a normal part of the process, more so than at a typical liberal arts college.

After graduation

Graduates move into design studios, agencies, and industrial-design firms, with Milwaukee's manufacturing and consumer-goods base giving industrial design graduates in particular a regional employer pipeline. The alumni network is compact but active within Midwest design and creative industries.

miad.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate60.5%

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Early actionDec 1

AdmissionRolling

Verified from the school’s admissions page ↗

Applying