College of the Arts

Wm. Robert Bucker, Dean

Sue Taylor, Associate Dean

Lincoln Hall 349

503-725-3105

www.pdx.edu/the-arts

  • B.A., B.S.—Architecture, Art Practices, Art History, Film, Graphic Design, Music, Musicology/Ethnomusicology, Music Theory, Theater Arts
  • B.F.A.—Art Practices
  • B.M.—Composition, Jazz Studies, Music Education, Performance, Vocal Studies
  • Certificate in Dance
  • Minor in Architecture; Art History; Dance; Design Management*; Drawing, Painting, Printmaking*; Film Studies; Graphic Design; Jazz Studies; Music; Music History; Photography*; Sculpture*; Time Arts*; Theater Arts (* indicates minors not available to Art Practices majors or Graphic Design majors)
  • Secondary Education Program in Art Practices, Music, Theater Arts
  • Graduate Certificate in Public Interest Design
  • M.A., M.S.—Music, Theater Arts
  • M.M.—Conducting, Jazz Studies, Performance
  • M.Arch—Architecture (2-year and 3-year tracks)
  • M.F.A.—Contemporary Art Practices

The College of the Arts prepares talented students for creative careers and lifelong enrichment through intellectual discovery and myriad cultural experiences. Students are challenged to see their work within the artistic and critical traditions that provoke their own creative thinking and to seek interdisciplinary approaches and collaboration in both local and global contexts. Located on the Park Blocks in downtown Portland, the College joins the Portland Art Museum and Portland Center for the Performing Arts in the heart of the city's cultural district. Within blocks of the College, theaters, galleries, professional studios, and design and architectural firms provide a stimulating environment in which our students develop through interactions and internships. The combination of a celebrated faculty and a professional arts community creates exciting undergraduate and graduate programs with rigorous standards in all four Schools within the College—Architecture, Art and Design, Music, and Theater and Film.

Degree Maps and Learning Outcomes

Admission requirements

Differential Tuition

Fine and Performing Arts Courses

Undergraduate program

School of Architecture

School of Art and Design

School of Music

School of Theater and Film

Differential Tuition

Graduate students and upper-division majors in the College of the Arts pay differential tuition—that is, slightly higher rates for more expensive programs—as also shown in the tuition charts online and elsewhere in this Bulletin: 

Undergraduate residents $11.40 per credit hour 

Undergraduate non-residents $46.00 per credit hour 

Graduate residents $47.00 per credit hour 

Graduate non-residents $51.00 per credit hour 

Graduate students will be charged differential rates upon matriculation. 

Lower-division undergraduates (freshmen and sophomores) will not be charged differential rates until they have completed 90 credit hours or passed review to upper-division status. Undergraduate transfer students with 90 or more credit hours will be charged differential rates immediately upon matriculation. 

Double majors will be charged COTA differential tuition unless the second major is in another College or program also charging differential tuition (Business, Engineering), in which case students will be charged one or the other of their programs' differential rates. 

Honors students will be charged both COTA differential tuition and Honors differential tuition. 

Upper-division undergraduates changing majors to a COTA program from another School or College will be charged differential tuition. 

Upper-division undergraduates changing majors from a COTA program to another College or School must ask their COTA School administrative staff to remove College Code 26 from their record so that COTA’s differential tuition will no longer be charged. 

For those who fail to alert their COTA School immediately that they are leaving their major, refunds of differential tuition will only be issued for one term prior to the term in which students do notify the COTA School. 

Students changing majors from a COTA School will no longer have access to certain restricted courses.