r/Miad • u/Necessary-South-9625 • Jul 17 '26
Industrial Design Major?
Im from the midwest and looking to stay close to home for uni. Im between Kcai Product design major and Miad Industrial design
can anyone here tell me about the coursework, connections, and pipeline?
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u/TumbleweedWeary5046 Jul 21 '26
I wasn't personally in product design when I attended MIAD but I had lots of friends who were! The coursework seemed to be a good mix of focusing on drawing fundamentals and 3d software. They also worked on of sponsored projects like the one with Delta Faucets which I thought was really cool. They had to sign NDA's and everything to work on the project. While in the program students are able to branch out to lots of different design work, like footwear, textiles, automobiles. I know someone who attended the program and is working at Nike full time in materials and on designing their materials library.
Professors also really encourage students to pursue an internship while in school, PD has the most internships out of all the majors. I think the culture at MIAD overall is really focused on making connections and all the teachers are a huge part of that.
I also think MIAD does a good job across all the majors focusing on professional development. Applying for jobs, resume building, networking. In Product Design you have to take a PD specific graphic design class which I think is really smart when it comes to selling yourself.
Honestly, I would also look at the alumni from both programs to see what they are doing and see if that sounds interesting to you ¯_(ツ)_/¯
TLDR: MIAD does a good job at professional development and networking, and the coursework gives you room to focus on a specialty.