MCAD Featured in Star Tribune with Historic Admission Rates | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

MCAD Featured in Star Tribune with Historic Admission Rates

June 25, 2025
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Exterior Shot of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Main Gallery.
Erin Adler at the Minnesota Star Tribune

Last spring, MCAD achieved a historic 5.2% increase in enrollment, as well as a higher student retention rate. 831 students were registered last fall, a significant improvement compared to previous years. This comes during a time where, post Covid-19, art schools nationally are seeing mixed success, leading to many closures.

Several factors could be contributing, such as MCAD’s undergraduate program improvements for first-year students. Providing a First Year Experience class that explains the basics of college life and the resources students have on campus, as well as increased student housing are likely factors. The Visual Arts are also now among the top three areas young students are interested in pursuing during their higher education. As explained by the president and executive director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), Deborah Obalil, “It’s clear that the current generation of students has a strong interest.”

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The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) acknowledges it is located on traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people. This is the ancestral homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe people, who were forcibly exiled from the land because of aggressive and persistent settler colonialism. We recognize that this place has a complex and layered history. As a community dedicated to creativity, MCAD is committed to ongoing efforts to support and advocate for American Indian Nations and peoples.


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MCAD admits students of any race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, or marital status to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, or marital status in the administration of its educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other school-administered programs.