Undergraduate Freshman Application Deadline: February 1
Submit your application and portfolio by February 1 to be considered for fall 2026 admission and merit scholarship.
Transfer Scholarship Deadline: February 15
Learn more about transferring to SAIC for fall 2026 and apply now!
Adult Winter Courses Start in January and February
Take one of SAIC's evening, week-long, or weekend courses this winter and learn a new skill on-campus or from wherever you are.
Curious. Bold. Ambitious.
You're ready to take risks and challenge others. You're open to change — and want to change things. This is your playground.
#2 Fine Arts Program in the U.S.
U.S. News & World Report
Best Grad Schools
An International Campus
With 80 countries represented among our student body, see why students from around the world come to study art and design at SAIC.
Learn more
160 Years in the Making
SAIC has been at the forefront of art education for more than a century and a half, fostering critical thinking, rigorous investigation, and playful creativity. The School was among the first to embrace self-directed study across disciplines.
This has always been a school that pairs rigor with risk-taking, serious critique with play, and a commitment to individual creative vision with the belief that artists’ and designers’ work can help drive social change. Our alumni lead not just in the fields of art and design, but across a wide range of industries.
The School offers more than 1,000 courses across disciplines, so the academic experience is unique to each of our 3,300+ students. From how artists and designers learn, to our community’s deep involvement with today’s issues, to the fact that we're one of the only museum schools in America—there is no one “something" that makes SAIC stand out.
To visitors, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the world’s great galleries. To our students, it is an extension of the classroom. Encompassing more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world, the museum contains more than 300,000 works of art.
Chicago's richness, complexity, and contradictions are the perfect environment for our own diverse community. SAIC alums settle here to make work, open galleries and studios, and power Chicago’s creative industries. The city grounds and inspires the School’s artists and designers. In turn, their impact reverberates throughout Chicago and beyond.
Why SAIC?
Three of our students share what brought them to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Tess Shoshana
"The freedom to choose what you learn and how you learn."
Leo Dai
"I wouldn’t be where I’m at right now without Chicago."
Antane Phillips
"The museum, I have now seen it as my second classroom."
Fall 2025 Magazine
Our “Back to the Basics” issue spotlights artists who employ traditional techniques, find inspiration in history, use natural materials in their practice, and more.
This Issue
Our “Back to the Basics” issue spotlights artists who employ traditional techniques, find inspiration in history, use natural materials in their practice, and more.
Reimagining Design
In our cover story, we visit alum Norman Teague (MFA 2016). From curating a recent MoMA show to running a design studio, Teague questions what visibility means in the modern world.
Teaching Traditional Techniques
In this video feature, we visited three classes to talk with SAIC community members about the appeal of real-world connections, artistic heritage, and hands-on, tactile work.
Art That Gathers, Feeds, and Grows
The MotherArt: Revisited collective met through SAIC’s Low-Residency MFA program. Today, they’re still making art that explores motherhood and creativity.
What Is This?
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