CalArts’ six schools offer programs that span animation, film, fine arts, music, theater, dance, and critical writing. Understanding the distinct character of each school and its programs — and what the interdisciplinary culture means in practice — is essential for Korean students choosing where to apply within CalArts.
School of Film/Video: The Most Famous CalArts Programs
Character Animation (BFA): The most prestigious animation program in the world. Approximately 25–30 students are admitted per year — an extraordinarily small cohort that creates intense creative community and exceptional faculty attention. The program feeds directly into Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and virtually every major studio through an alumni network that is structurally embedded in the industry.
Portfolio requirements: Strong life drawings and gesture drawings (essential), character design sheets showing character from multiple angles and expressions, storyboards demonstrating sequential storytelling, and animation work (traditional or digital).
Experimental Animation (BFA): A less industry-oriented, more artistically experimental animation program for students interested in pushing the boundaries of what animation is and can do. Less competitive than Character Animation but equally rigorous.
Film/Video (BFA): Covers narrative, documentary, and experimental film and video. Less structured than Character Animation — students develop their own film practice within the program’s supportive framework.
Film Directing (MFA): Graduate-level film directing program.
School of Art: Fine Arts and Design Programs
Art (BFA): Several tracks within the School of Art:
- Program in Art (PiA): The most experimental track — students design their own curriculum within broad parameters. For truly self-directed artists who want maximum freedom.
- Drawing/Painting: Foundation in traditional visual arts practices
- Photography and Media: Photography and related media arts
- Graphic Design: Design practice with a strong experimental and conceptual orientation — different from Parsons’ commercially oriented communication design
The School of Art’s culture is explicitly post-studio and conceptually experimental. Students are expected to question the nature of art practice itself, not master established forms.
School of Music: World-Class Programs Adjacent to the Arts
CalArts’ music programs are world-renowned in their fields:
- The Herb Alpert School of Music encompasses: Classical Performance, Experimental Sound Practices, Jazz, Composition, and more
- Music students interact regularly with visual arts students — particularly animation and film students who need composers for their work
For Korean students primarily interested in visual arts, the music school creates unique collaborative opportunities unavailable at other art schools.
School of Theater and School of Dance
Professional-level training in performance disciplines. While most Korean applicants target film/video or visual arts, theater and dance students benefit from the same CalArts interdisciplinary culture.
School of Critical Studies
The academic core of CalArts — offering programs in creative writing, writing for performance, and critical theory. All CalArts students take some courses in Critical Studies, regardless of their primary school, ensuring that studio practice is contextualized within broader intellectual frameworks.
The Interdisciplinary Reality
At CalArts, the interdisciplinary culture is not a program feature — it is the educational environment. Character Animation students work with Music students on scored films. Fine Arts students incorporate Theater student performances into their work. The REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) provides production space where collaborations across all six schools are realized.
For Korean students, this culture is simultaneously exciting and demanding. The expectation to collaborate across disciplines, to engage with music, theater, and dance as neighboring practices, and to develop genuine interdisciplinary creative literacy requires adaptation from more siloed educational backgrounds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can CalArts art students take music courses? Yes — CalArts explicitly encourages cross-school course enrollment. Art students frequently take courses in Critical Studies, Film/Video, and Music. This interdisciplinary access is one of CalArts’ most distinctive features.
Is CalArts Graphic Design similar to Parsons or RISD Graphic Design? No — CalArts Graphic Design is more experimentally oriented than either Parsons’ Communication Design or RISD’s Graphic Design. It is closer in spirit to SAIC’s approach — design as an experimental art form rather than a commercial profession.
What graduate programs does CalArts offer? CalArts offers MFA programs in most of its six schools: Fine Arts, Film/Video, Writing, Theater, Dance, Music. The MFA programs are generally even smaller and more intensive than the BFA programs.
Royal Blue Art & Design는 압구정에 위치한 유학미술학원으로, 19년간 한국 학생들의 RISD, Parsons, CalArts 등 미국 최상위 미술대학 입시를 도와왔습니다. [상담 문의하기 →]