Extended Realities
Master's
Northeastern's MS in Extended Realities (XR) provides students with a deep understanding of the interdisciplinary skills, theoretical foundations, technologies, and processes essential for success in XR.
Program overview
Learn alongside XR experts
Northeastern’s Master of Science in Extended Realities (XR) provides you with a deep understanding of the interdisciplinary skills, theoretical foundations, technologies, and processes essential for creating impactful XR experiences.
The groundbreaking program partners with multiple Northeastern colleges—ensuring that you are exposed to a breadth of theory, technologies, and perspectives.
You’ll have the flexibility to choose a specialized path that matches your goals and interests. Concentration offerings take advantage of expertise across the university, bringing you access to global experts and innovators.
Northeastern’s Master of Science in Extended Realities (XR) provides you with a deep understanding of the interdisciplinary skills, theoretical foundations, technologies, and processes essential for creating impactful XR experiences.
The groundbreaking program partners with multiple Northeastern colleges—ensuring that you are exposed to a breadth of theory, technologies, and perspectives.
You’ll have the flexibility to choose a specialized path that matches your goals and interests. Concentration offerings take advantage of expertise across the university, bringing you access to global experts and innovators.
XR+Design: The immersive nature of XR experiences allows for the creation of unique integrative design experiences. This concentration dives deep into the iterative process of creating XR experiences using human-centered design.
XR+Media: This concentration focused on understanding XR as a medium and the rise of XR in journals and media. Students will explore the application of XR to storytelling and data visualization.
XR+Games: Games are one of the most common uses for XR technology today. This concentration allows students to create and study games specifically designed for XR.
Wireless Networking: From mobile networks to the Internet of Things, this concentration focuses on the underlying technology that makes XR experiences possible.
Informatics Ethics: As a quickly developing form of media and technology, XR presents unknown impacts on ethics and law. This concentration explores current and possible policy implications for XR as well as areas of ethics, including privacy, global justice, digital rights, accessibility, and AI.
Public History: XR experiences allow immersion that can enhance the understanding of history and its impact on today. This concentration allows students to develop XR experiences to further the understanding and effect of history.
Human Movement Science: The embodied nature of XR experiences has made it popular for rehabilitation and movement applications. This concentration focuses on the measurement, experimentation, and understanding of the human body within and during XR experiences.
Artificial Intelligence: The Artificial Intelligence concentration explores the use and development of AI within XR experiences. Data-rich XR experiences provide many possible applications of machine learning, natural language processing, and AI.
Human-Computer Interaction: This concentration focuses on the measurement and development of the interactions between the person and XR technology. This concentration focuses on interactions through gesture, movement, controller, and voice, along with experiment design, biometrics, design for specific populations, and AI.
Entrepreneurship: The XR industry has both enterprise and consumer-facing opportunities for venture creation. This concentration allows students to research markets, find customer needs, develop business plans, and understand lean development and management for XR.
Marketing : As an emerging technology, XR can allow for novel advertising and marketing experiences. Students within this concentration build on a foundation of creating customer value and then customize through an extensive list of elective courses.
- The program’s flexibility will prepare you to compete for the most innovative positions in medicine, business, entertainment, architecture, journalism, and other industries leveling XR technologies.
- Northeastern has several immersive lab spaces dedicated to AR, VR, and XR research and design, including the Immersive Media Labs and Experiential Technologies Lab.
- A unique curriculum enhanced with a multi-college partnership that connects the College of Arts, Media and Design, Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
XR technologies have seen explosive growth over the last decade, and professionals with the skills to work in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality are in high demand.
- 33% compounded annual XR market growth expected from 2022 through 2030 (Xrtoday.com, 2022)
- 23 million jobs are projected to be enhanced by XR technology by 2030 (Statista.com, 2019)
- $129,000 estimated median total pay for an XR Developer in the U.S. (Glassdoor.com, 2025)
Admissions
Apply to the program
A graduate degree or certificate from Northeastern can accelerate your career through rigorous academic coursework and real-world professional experience in your area of interest. Apply to take your career to the next level.
A graduate degree or certificate from Northeastern can accelerate your career through rigorous academic coursework and real-world professional experience in your area of interest. Apply to take your career to the next level.
Fall Term
| Priority deadline for scholarship consideration: | February 1 |
| Final deadline for international applicants: | May 1 |
| Final deadline for domestic applicants: | August 1 |
Application form
Application fee
Resumé
Personal statement
Transcripts from all institutions attended
The Foreign Credential Evaluation (FCE) is a required assessment of all transcripts and documents from non-U.S. accredited post-secondary education institutions. (Review the FCE requirements by country.)
Two letters of recommendation
TOEFL, IELTS exam scores for international applicant
Portfolio required for XR+Design, XR+Media, and XR+Games
Program objectives
Prepare for success
The Master of Science in Extended Realities serves a growing market demand, as XR technologies are projected to see exponential industry growth with increasing career opportunities and high earning potential.
Students gain a deep understanding of XR theory, history, and state-of-the-art hardware and software for augmented, virtual, and mixed reality.
Through critical analysis and hands-on projects, students learn to critique XR experiences, develop domain-specific vocabulary, craft engaging narrative content, and rapidly prototype innovative XR solutions.
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Cost of attendance
Tuition and financial aid
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$58,154 - $73,218Tuition in USD
Estimated Total Tuition
This is an estimate based on the tuition rates for Academic Year 2025-2026 and does not include any fees or other expenses. Some courses and labs have tuition rates that may increase or decrease total tuition. Tuition and fees are subject to revision by the president and Board of Trustees at any time. Select programs at select campuses offer additional scholarships of up to 25% off the listed price for domestic students studying on campus. For more detailed information, please visit Student Financial Services.
For students interested in pursuing financial assistance or educational loans, additional educational costs, known as Cost of Attendance (COA) components, can be included in the calculation of aid and loan eligibility. Components may include food, housing, books, course materials, supplies, equipment, transportation, personal expenses, and the cost of obtaining a first professional licensure. You can find comprehensive details on the Student Financial Services website. Please keep in mind that COA can vary significantly depending on academic program, enrollment intensity, and individual circumstances.
There are many ways to pay for your education, including scholarships, financial aid, and more. Connect with a financial counselor to learn about your options and make your dream a reality.
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