Erpnope

honestly, it seems very random. everyone else I know got rejected. A friend of mine who was waitlisted last year was rejected outright this year. Another friend who got the Sharpe Walentas studio space and the LMCC residency (two SUPER competitive NYC based programs) was waitlisted and i would be the first person to say he is a better artist than I am. I have been rejected from every single issue of New American Paintings and the two ppl who got in to the last one both got rejected from Skowhegan. I was really surprised. So there's really no logic to it. The judges change every year and I think it has to do with the faculty's tastes. And frankly if something is that random it can't be used as a metric for artistic worth. So keep on applying but also don't fixate on the documentation or the details. Always be moving forward!

I've just arrived at New Haven Hotel, with your instruction. Thanks, and also to the one who first helped me.

i would just do Skype for Massart 

Going to Northwestern!
 
I hope decision making is over for everybody soon too. I've found it to be as exhausting as waiting to hear back from schools. Now done with procastination and let the work begin Nice grad school experiences for everybody, time to keep working!

I do think this speaks to why mfa programs generally favor candidates who have some time out of school...because they have demonstrated that not only do they have the motivation outside of the academic community but also the ability to make time to make work with a full time job (i work 50 hours a week in a completely unrelated field). With or without an mfa you have to make time to work.

Notification: Finalist, next jury round April 3

Baltimore is not suburban!  Calarts is suburban.  Baltimore has great bars, cafes, restaurants, diners.  It's affordable and totally livable, and has a strong community, lots of good music there too. I recommend the city highly, it's great for artists.  

I went to MICA undergrad, and loved Baltimore. It is a beautiful city, I lived in a mansion at one point for nothing. It used to be MICA graduates would run off to NY, Chicago or Philly but a lot of artists are staying and running spaces and doing other active things there. It is so close to DC, Philly and NY that you have lots of exposure to that too.
You need to be a little cautious there and keep your head up, but as long as you're not reckless or oblivious you will be fine. Just respect your community, look people in the eye, etc.

By the time I left I loved Baltimore, and felt ambivilant about MICA. don't be scared by Baltimore.

If you're looking at places to live, go north or south of campus, East and West Baltimore are more hardcore. Mt Vernon, Charles Village, Hampden. The area Between Hopkins and MICA

I emailed all my schools so they had it in writing. If I was in contact with a particular person, I also shot them an email thanking them for all the time and attention. All emails I've sent out have gotten a "please come visit us if you're ever out this way". So left it on a good note.
If you call, follow up with an email so they have a paper trail.

Received an acceptance email from USC Roski this afternoon. More information and official paperwork to follow in the next couple of days. 

yeah - they do, they make you fill out a very, very extensive financial aid form if you get an interview. Way more than FAFSA. I forget what it's called. You only have to do it once. There are also sections for you to explain additional burdens or costs that don't show up, extenuating circumstances (IE: My parents are disabled, etc... I have XYZ debt that doesn't show up in any section here, etc) They also ask for all 1099's, W4's etc.. but the good news is you only do it once. Second year you only do FAFSA/IRS data retrieval.
 
Hope that sheds some light

100% of need (of $55k) so whatever that would be for you
for me it was full tuition plus some money for living expenses as well as many people I know. increases slightly the second year.

Unfortunately, not that long. I asked when I met with people from each school I'm applying to and it seems like it differs a little from school to school, but the main gist is that they first sit together and all look at pretty much only the slides and just bust through them. One prof said that you should always start off with strong images because often they don't get through all 20 before they move onto the next app. Pack the beginning of the portfolio, because she says at that stage all it takes is one prof who's interested to mark your app for a second glance. Once they bust through all of them, then they start looking more carefully at the ones they marked, looking at all the images, reading the descriptions, weeding some out and looking at the rest of the app info. They don't necessarily read the descriptions on the first go round and I don't know that ultimately it matters for some type of work, because when I submitted my Davis portfolio, I didn't realize you were supposed to really utilize the description boxes. Still got in!
 
It's really true that you should never even put ONE SINGLE WEAK image in the mix because she says they've eliminated people on that basis - one guy had a super strong photo portfolio and they were leaning towards interviewing him, but there was one random drawing that wasn't so great. Outliers like that make them wonder about the applicant's judgment and at that point, there are so many other strong apps that it's enough to get you canned. That said, I threw a video onto the end of my photo portfolio but it was important because I do think it's strong and I have a lot to say about it. It was important to me to show something that indicated I could make something other than photos. That hasn't seemed to count against me. I think it's all about staying with the really strong stuff.
 
At another school, all the profs look individually on their computers and then they all come together to present who they thought was strong. It sounds like everywhere they pretty much fight for applicants they think are good. It was good to hear someone say that they don't always expect perfection - sometimes they have to remind themselves that these are students who will be taught. They are not judging us by "real art world" standards necessarily. Eventually they come to some sort of consensus on who to shortlist or interview. I have no idea how they decide after interviews, though Berkeley said they have their grad students involved since they will be classmates in close quarters for a year.
 
As for portfolios, I was told by people I met that they wanted to see about 4-5 projects/pieces with 4-5 photos from each series (or for large scale sculpture, different angles and details). They want to see that you can do different things, but that you have some sort of coherent overall look or style or vision. They don't want 20 of the same things, and they don't want things that seem so unrelated that they seem like random school assignments. She said you can usually tell when someone's portfolio is just all school assignments.
 
Anyway, I would really suggest that if anyone is going to apply again that you try to make some sort of contact with a person at each school you are interested in. Sometimes they don't tell you anything, but 2 out of the 3 people I talked to gave me some concrete guidelines about what they think is a good balance for a portfolio. It differs of course, but then you can cater the portfolio in each app to what they said specifically. Don't forget you can also ask your recommenders what they think if they are profs. They have to go through this process all the time too.
 
Maybe all that was more appropriate for three months ago!?

The email is just a link to the yale website so if you are waiting you can always just try that...

Every application I filled out asked which institute I studied math at. I wish I had had such a prestigious response as yours. 

you should have ~definitely~ studied math at MIT.

As many as you feel you'd actually be happy attending.

Ahhhhh invited to phone interview for Friday. Its only been a week since I submitted the app. It was awhile before they got to interview part last year. 

Was I like third string last year and first pick this year? My friends keep comparing it to football drafts but I don't really understand it.

Did you even look at the link? Hi.. this is the universe, i'm here to tell you it's not all about you.

I'm sure its good advice to not include subpar work just to meet some number of images, but I think that if someone has a hard time putting together even 10 solid images, they might not be ready for grad school. 
 
And I don't think that experimentation is necessarily undesirable. Maybe not everyone should try to pull it off in the portfolio, but I do think it can have a place if you still can show that you have a direction and aren't all over the map, and like you say, if the quality is high. If you're good at something, and you just intend to keep doing exactly what you already know you're good at, what can a school really offer you? Artists and their practices evolve. In my opinion it would get terribly boring to just keep doing what you're already good at. There's plenty of time in life to settle into a groove. School is the time to do weird and exciting stuff (if you're into that). 

I suppose this is a bit late, but I have a (strong) nitpick: 
 
Africa is not a culture. Africa is a continent. It comes off as ignorant to imply it is a monolithic culture, quite honestly. You were immersed in the culture of Swaziland, not Africa. Fabric does not need to be capitalized. The artistic quality of the series is fine, but given your statement mostly reads as culturally appropriative -- not considering your own role in a given society or what it means that you would take something from another culture like this. I much prefer your sculptures. 
 
I would also be wary of phrases that don't make sense without context -- what is a "bus rank"? And this sentence doesn't sound cohesive at all: "Given homosexuality is Swaziland is illegal, as well as working on a documentary in a church I constantly had to hide my sexuality and suppress my feminine side." 

secrets

I was remembering where I was a year ago and then I remembered- I was glued to this forum! (when I wasn't busy working on my applications!)
 
I am currently in the MFA program at UCSB.  UCSB was last on my list last year but I ended up choosing this program over Ohio State where I got a full ride offer (big ann hamilton fan here too) and am really happy with my decision.   The program is small but everyone has TA ships and there are quite a few fellowships available.  Everyone is pretty much taken care of by the Art Dept.  The campus is beautiful, our studios are huge and proximity to LA is great (drove down the Lari Pittman lecture last night). 
 
The program is on the conceptual side and theory is a major component to the program.  I think this program is a little known gem that is out there so I thought I would include in this forum.
 
Enrique Martinez Celaya is probably my favorite alumni.
 
Here is my stuff:
jeffpagestudio.com

my secret to moving: AMTRAK, AMTRAK, AMTRAK!

it has proven to be the absolute cheapest option by far to ship things long distances in the US. they do it based on weight.

i moved from seattle to san francisco two years ago and had clothes, books, kitchen supplies, photos/keepsakes, the like. i had 8-10 boxes total, or something like that, and paid around $150 for station to station delivery. this was in early 2009, and if i remember correctly, it was $67 for the first 100 pounds and .57 for every pound thereafter. with a one-way ticket, i spent less than $250 total to make my move. they shrink/plastic wrapped my boxes together and made it safely to its destination just fine in record time (a few days)

of course, if you're taking large/heavy furniture items that aren't easy to disassemble (read: not cheap ikea crap), this may be a bit more cumbersome of an option.

i plan on doing it again this time around, but still need to call for the most updated prices. i've heard that if your stuff gets there before you do, they charge some really low fee to keep it for a few days (as in, $4 or some crazy thing).

my tricky question isn't so much the method of delivery as it is the logistics of finding a place to live before i actually make the move. i'll be coming fresh off a trip abroad and back in my current city. do i just hop on a plane and show up? i only know one person in this new city who i could stay with for a bit, and even then it's more of an acquaintance. the timing of my stuff arriving comes into question if i don't have a place secured. do i fly there beforehand for a few days, apartment hunt like crazy, fly back and then ship? not ideal to be wasting two plane tickets, and in the middle of summer. do i try my best to find something decent looking online and sign a lease and take a chance? (i'm not at all crazy about this last option, and don't think i will...but still). what to do!

You can use old amazon packaging, just have to mark out or cover all of the logos and barcodes on the box. I like to use opaque packing tape to close the box then quickly cover all markings on the outside of the box before adding the address label. You can also buy sturdy shipping boxes from most big box office supply stores (And even Target/Walmart).
 
You really should consider breaking it up into a few smaller packages. A 30 pound box costs $15.12 to ship via media mail. Three 10 pound boxes costs $19.56. That isn't a huge difference in price, but it will be much easier to pack, much easier to handle (for you and the USPS employees), and greatly reduce the risk of damaging your books.