Please refer to the NYU Bursar’s website for updated tuition costs. The following is the finalized cost in USD per term for the 2024-2025 Academic Year of tuition and registration/services fees:

*This does not include traveling & housing costs to the three global sites.

Tisch School of the Arts Scholarships 

IMA Low Res provides departmental scholarships funded by the Tisch School of the Arts on the basis of financial need, educational excellence and professional promise. All accepted candidates (including international students) are encouraged to apply for scholarship aid by filling out the financial aid form that is included in the admission application. Applying for financial aid will not impact admissions decisions. Financial aid requests are taken into consideration after applicants have been accepted. Scholarship consideration is competitive and we do our best to allocate funding based on a combination of need and merit. In particular, we are looking to support underrepresented students. IMA Low Res departmental scholarships range in size from a few thousand dollars up to full-tuition scholarships. Scholarships are applied toward tuition only (scholarships cannot be used towards covering fees, materials or travel/living expenses). Scholarships can only be used to cover up to the 32 credits required to complete the degree. While scholarship aid is limited, most students who express need for financial assistance will receive some level of scholarship funding toward tuition with the hope that it will be enough to allow them to attend IMA Low Res. Students who receive departmental scholarship aid will receive an award letter with their admissions acceptance offer in the form of a Tisch School of the Arts scholarship.

NYC Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship Program 

IMA Low Res is participating in the NYC Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship Program to provide an opportunity for full-time New York City government employees, with undergraduate degrees, to pursue graduate studies in interactive media! We will offer one scholarship (may cover partial or full tuition) for an NYC government employee via application only.  Applicants must apply to both IMA Low Res, NYU and also to the Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship Program at the link above. 

Student Loans

All U.S. applicants who are 1) accepted and 2) filed the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), will receive a financial aid package from NYU. U.S. applicants are strongly urged to complete the FAFSA by January 15.

International Students

International students are urged to look for outside sources of funding well in advance of the acceptance notice, but will also be considered for IMA Low Res departmental scholarships. IMA Low Res values the diversity that international students bring to the program and will consider international students for Tisch-based scholarships in the same way we do for U.S. applicants if you are selected for admission. International students can secure private educational loans from U.S. institutions if they have a cosigner who is a U.S. citizen. If financial aid is an important aspect of your application, don’t overlook funding opportunities from your home country, and from foundations that are internationally based, along with all possible personal, family and local resources. Here is the link to Tisch Student Affairs Financial Aid.

General Inquiry
LowRes@itp.nyu.edu

New York 
(+1) 212-998-1882
Midori Yasuda: midori.yasuda@nyu.edu
ITP/IMA, Tisch School of the Arts
370 Jay Street, 4th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Shanghai
(+86) 21-20595924
Yaoyao Zhuang: yz74@nyu.edu 
Office of Graduate and Advanced Education, NYU Shanghai
567 West Yangsi Road, South Building, 2nd Floor 
Pudong New District, Shanghai, China 200124

ITP is the Interactive Telecommunications Program, a two-year graduate program located inside the Institute of Emerging Media in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU whose mission is to explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people’s lives. Founded in 1979, it was the first graduate program of its kind and remains among the most prestigious in the world. Perhaps the best way to describe ITP is as a Center for the Recently Possible.

IMA is the Interactive Media Arts Program, which was inaugurated at NYU Shanghai in 2013, initially as an undergraduate major. Developed out of ITP, IMA has distinguished itself within NYU Shanghai’s Liberal Arts curriculum and grown into one of the most popular programs on campus. Since then, IMA sister programs have taken root at NYU New York as the IMA major and at NYU Abu Dhabi as the Interactive Media (IM) major. With this joint Low Res MA degree with Tisch School of  the Arts, the IMA program at NYU Shanghai is now expanding to encompass graduate-level education.

IMA Low Res is the newest Master’s program created jointly between ITP at Tisch School of the Arts and IMA at NYU Shanghai. This new program aims to provide an environment for makers of all stripes to explore the application and implication of new technologies in art, science, engineering, design and the humanities. It also aims to provide a more affordable and flexible format for graduate study by experimenting with formats beyond the traditional residential program structure. It does so through a series of intensive, immersive residencies spread across three NYU locations combined with online virtual classes and resources. 

Both IMA Low Res and ITP are graduate programs offering Master’s degrees with classes small by design (12-16 students). ITP is a 2-year, full-time graduate program that requires 60 credits to complete the Master of Professional Studies (MPS) degree. An MPS is accepted as a “terminal degree” when applying for teaching positions at universities. The ITP student experience in New York is very community oriented with all of the classes meeting in-person.

The two years at ITP allows for a wider and deeper research-oriented exploration, with enough time to find and follow unexpected ideas. Also, the larger student body at ITP allows for a greater diversity of curriculum and communities where people and classes have the time and space to forge into radical terrain. The sustained structure and discipline of the two-year collaborative residential experience leads to extremely deep relationships with the ideas, practices and most importantly people in the program.

In comparison, the Low Res is a 1-year, 32 credit program that grants a Master of Arts (MA) degree jointly from the Tisch School of the Arts and NYU Shanghai. The Low Res program requires study abroad in 3 different locations (Shanghai, Berlin and NYC) as well as online semesters during the Fall and Spring terms where students return to their home countries. Connecting the global locations increases the value for students as they benefit from the human network and diversity of contexts. Our colleagues across these sites have forged strong, ongoing relationships and community partnerships with local industry, non-profit organizations, cultural organizations, artists, designers, developers, thinkers, maker communities and more.

Given the smaller cohort of students and the 12-month sequence of three in-person plus two remote sessions, the curriculum for IMA Low Res is more directed than what is regularly offered at ITP. It still provides students with ample room for personalized exploration and self-directed learning, but the courses are more curated than the traditional residential program and designed specifically for students in the Low Res. 

The intensive in-person sessions involve full-time commitment and students are expected to be wholly dedicated to the program during this time. The remote sessions, while maintaining a high-level of academic rigor and work-load, aim to allow students to continue professional pursuits in parallel with their studies and course work.

The IMA Low Res is a great option for working professional students who cannot take 2 full-time years away from their careers or homes. It’s also a great option for students who have the desire and flexibility to study in locations around the world and also have the discipline to stay focused during the online semesters to continue with their studies and hands-on project development. The program serves to enhance and augment an individual’s existing career path as well as lay a foundation to pursue new paths of interest. A strength of this program is that it allows students to build upon a professional foundation they have set for themselves and extend their reach into new terrain.

Students interested in creative approaches to design and education will find this program especially fertile ground for continued work and research. Also, students who may have an existing area of inquiry or professional goal will be able to leverage the program as scaffolding to offer cross-cultural insights and global context towards their own interests. Integrating personal and professional experience will be welcomed throughout the program.

No! Both ITP and IMA Low Res do not require applicants to be a programmer or designer before applying to the program(s). In fact, the more diverse your background the better! We would love to see dancers, poets, philosophers, lawyers, biologists, tinkerers, actors, policy-makers, musicians as well as programmers and designers all mix together and make something creative using interactive technologies. The technical skills and “learning how to code” are incorporated into the curriculum.

The focus of the program is not solely on applied skills though. Rather, we want our students to explore and analyze interactive media from a humanistic, environmental, and communications perspective. Cultivating thoughts, ideas and conversations around the development, use and implications of the technology is the goal, not a fluency in any one specific tool.

The IMA Low Res and ITP are separate standalone programs. Students will not be able to cross-enroll in classes outside of their designated program. The Low Res curriculum and schedule has been designed specifically for its students and will be dedicated only to students enrolled in the MA degree. Also, students in either program will not be eligible to transfer credits towards a degree in the other.

However, it’s also worth noting that during the Fall and Spring remote semesters, IMA Low Res students will continue to have the privilege to access both the ITP Facility in New York and the IMA Facility in Shanghai. Collaborations between current ITP, IMA, and IMA Low Res students, faculty and residents are welcomed and encouraged. 

For the summer session in New York, non-US students enter the United States via an F-1 Visa. This visa allows for entry up to 30 days prior to the start date of the program and an exit date of up to 60 days after the program end date. Please contact us directly if you have questions specific to your own situation or status.

While IMA Low Res is certified as a STEM (government-designated science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) graduate program by the NYU Institutional Research Office, international students will not be qualified for any specific work privileges due to the limited time spent in the United States during the program. These work privileges are often referred to as “Optional Practical Training” (OPT) and “Curricular Practical Training” (CPT).

The diploma is identical to any other NYU Master of Arts diploma, with both the Tisch School of the Arts and NYU Shanghai listed, as this is a joint program. IMA Low Res students have the unique opportunity to attend up to four graduation ceremonies: the All-University Commencement in New York City, the Tisch Salute at Radio City Hall in Manhattan, the NYU Shanghai Graduate Convocation, and the final IMA Low Res-only graduation at NYU Shanghai. Here’s an example of former students participating in all four ceremonies.