Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute is a private college of art, design, and architecture in Brooklyn, New York. Industrialist Charles Pratt founded it in 1887 to train designers and technicians for industry. The main campus is in Clinton Hill, with additional space in Manhattan. Its defining fact is that it remains a specialist institute rather than a comprehensive university.

Teaching is organized through schools of art, design, architecture, liberal arts and sciences, and information. Graduate students use studios, shops, the architecture school, and the School of Information. Architecture, industrial and interior design, fine arts, and library and information science are the fields it is known for.

Enrollment is about 5,000, with graduate students a large share, especially in architecture and design. International students form a substantial minority, drawn from East Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Alumni include photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, fashion designer Betsey Johnson, and graphic designer Paul Rand.

Graduate study is mainly studio and professional master's degrees such as the MFA, M.Arch, and related design titles, plus the MS in information. Supervision is project- and critique-based. The calendar is a U.S. semester year. Assistantships and studio awards support some graduate students. The gated Clinton Hill campus sits in brownstone Brooklyn, a short transit ride from Manhattan galleries and offices.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Pratt Institute lists 8 graduate programs across 4 subjects, all of them master's programs, with the widest choice in environmental design, communication, media & journalism and architecture.