Hello All, sorry about this wall of text
I know this thread is a little off topic as many of you are receiving exciting news and taking new steps with your practice--which bravo and congrats! (Also I hope this thread doesn't stir too much argument over top tier school vs. unknown school debate. I think 'lesser well known' programs can have amazing faculty and create a thriving environment for grads. I'm mostly trying to get at how my school is 'lesser known' but doesn't offer any community, conceptual or creative support, and overworks grads.)
I am having a serious dilemma with sticking with my program and not leaving right now. I would appreciate any advice, and especially anyone who is in a program right now.
I know no program is perfect, but I'm having serious anxiety with the commitment that I've made to my 'less than well known' school.
Without revealing too much because I know my colleagues and grad advisor roam on here at times, I'm in a program on the west coast, it's a free program (if you TA), it's not well known by any means but it's got decent facilities (big studio).
I feel entirely mislead about the details of this program. This department runs on the labor of grad students, we teach 15-30 hours a week, for the entire length of time as grad students. *** And these aren't fun upper division courses where you get to crit and establish relationships with students, these are HARD lower division entry level writing courses where the grad students have to develop the curriculum. You get the syllabus of the course you're teaching maybe a few days before class (often it's the first day of class)--but you're expected to have 3-5 hours of section time which you have to develop curriculum that ties into the course material. (anything from slide lecturing, writing assignments, group projects, etc, and they're general ed classes so you can't be like "go make art!" for the GE writing) Before coming here, everyone said the teaching is easy and you just show them art all day...which is completely untrue for the general ed writing courses and also building a 2 hour slide presentation on art multiple times a week is NOT easy or quick.
Without further getting into the nitty gritty of how fucked up of what's required from the grad students in terms of teaching--this program offers me nothing except a big studio space. This literally has been like a residency program--not a grad program. Faculty are never around, we do not have a remotely interesting artist lecture series (half of it is faculty most of the time), it is not a conceptually driven or current program like I thought it was (the most recent performance artist faculty have mentioned to me is Ana Mendieta). I am in my studio alone constantly throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. I can't help but constantly wonder where my practice would be if I was in a program with supportive faculty.
And here's where my biggest hurdle comes in....anytime I tell people whom I meet outside the program where I go it's like any interest completely goes out the window. I have to constantly fight tooth and nail just to prove I know contemporary art, I make interesting work, I want to be in a contemporary dialogue like all other artists.
I feel like I made a dumb mistake coming here a few years ago. I didn't think the 'name' of a school matter, and I truly believed in graduating a program debt free. That said, I should have waited, trusted my gut not to come here, and reapplied to other programs that were free...programs that were better suited conceptually -- and mostly just supported me as an artist. I made my decision to come here after Jerry Saltz wrote that essay on how going to a top tier school only offers a 1 year jumpstart. But to be honest I don't know if I believe that anymore...
I'm wondering if I should jump ship, bite my teeth and deal with this, or consider getting a second masters? I've seen some artists with multiple mfas, though not a lot. They tend to have one in, say, Performing Arts and another in Sculpture or whatever. I feel like I could swing this MFA in 'Photography' and apply to a sculpture program.
tl:dr Leave shitty program that will not open any doors for me and was really more like a residency, deal with it, or consider getting second masters with better school?
*** If anyone is wondering, yes we express constantly to faculty and the department that we are overworked. We are only paid for 10 hours of work each week, and yet class time alone comes out to 8-10 hours each week. Those hours don't even begin to consider the office hours we are demanded to hold, the responses to constant emails, developing curriculum, etc. In fact, when we do express this we're told we're just whiners.