ArsenicYellow

As a sculptor, I submitted about 9-10 pieces. You definitely need side shots of detail shots of each piece. Quality over quantity. Here is my tumblr page with all the pieces I submitted. I'm on my phone posting this so I can't do a normal link. Www.crisschayer.tumblr.com

My friend back in louisiana had an interview with them and so he stayed and my house and we drove over to the campus. From what we saw, there were a lot of negatives and few positives. The grad students there said the biggest plus is that it's basically free to attend if you're accepted and the studio space is amazing. The negatives: the professors are really hard to deal with. Due to the fact that the graduate studios are a good 10-15 minutes drive off campus, its very very hard to get the faculty to come look at your work. Also, a lot of the older faculty seem to be on cruise control, they've been there so long that they are almost tired of it. This doesnt apply to all faculty, mind you, but enugh that the graduate students themselves mentioned it. The campus is also in a terrible location. EXTREMELY rural. There are no bars and I believe the students mentioned one possible liquor store. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend the school to anyone, it gave me extremely bad vibes. I believe a few years back someone on here reviewed the school and said the exact same thing as I did. I posted a link to it in a similar thread recently where someone was asking about Massart. Edit: Found it

I've been wondering the same thing! I hope its the case, Massart gave me a nice scholarship and assistantships so that I'm only paying for half of the tuition, but I was hoping for a bit more, considering the cost is so high in Boston (Moving in at the end of next month and its costing me).

I went to massart two months ago for an interview/tour and was extremely impressed with their facilities. Mind you, I went for sculpture so I didn't really look at the photography facilities, but overall, I was extremely impressed. They have a fall pre interview event that I'd recommend you go to, I didn't go to it myself and really regretted not attending. The faculty that interviewed me were extremely nice, they all gave me their business cards and I've actually kept in touch with one of them since the interview, she even called me the day after her spring break and spoke with me for about an hour, answering all of my questions! I know I can't answer a lot of your questions because they are photo department based, but here was a link where someone listed the pros and cons of a bunch of new england photo mfa programs:

Jwalche, I don't know what Andi is talking about concerning us being unhelpful. I find this foum, especially thes visual arts section, to be incredibly helpful and pretty much a safe haven for me during this stressful period of my life. Are there any areas in particular that you're looking for? There's a great thread that lists schools with great funding. I'm on my phone right now, but when I get home tonight ill try to post something more helpful or pm you.

Hah, well I just put a 3k down payment on an apartment in boston thats only a 15 minute walk from Massart and SMFA so I had already made my decision I was just freaking out over nothing. I've not heard the best things about amherst's program, so I have no idea why I was so down about Massart today. They have amazing facilities, offer TA and SA positions, and have gallery work experience opportunities. Really one finds a way to be as negative as possible. You'd think I'd be grateful with so many acceptances, but then you just make yourself depressed, wondering if you're making the right decision. Yeah, I'll probably come out of grad school with a 20-40k debt, but it could always be way more than that. The Amherst would be free, but it's literally in the middle of no where, I'd have to commute at least an hour-two hours a day and my boyfriend would probably hate where we'd live, and he a few states over 9 months ago to live with me and is actually excited about our move to boston. On top of that, the only things that attracted me to Amherst over Massart were the total freedom given in the TA positions and the 3 years degree rather than two. The free ride isnt bad, but I havent gotten the best impression of umass amherst after speaking with their professor today, as well as a few posters here mentioning they were unimpressed when they had a tour of the place. Going to see if I can schedule a tour, but still, my number one place is Massart.

Nothing from VCU, pretty ridiculous if you ask me. A fellow sculpture friend called them up today and were told they are still reviewing applications and they have no idea when they'll be done. I also received a call today from Umass:amherst telling me I've been accepted with Full tuition waiver, $900 a month stipend and a teaching assistant ship position where I actually teach a class by myself. Although I've pretty much made my decision, Massart, but I'm sitting here wondering if its the right choice. I know only I'll know what's right for me, but its so difficult finding out exactly how a school runs. I'm afraid I'll go to a school and it isnt exactly how it made itself out to be.

Sorry its been a while! I was busy with travel and visiting family and just came back today. Sadly, school A couldn't give anymore towards my scholarship, but if I take the maximum amount of assistant ships and include the scholarship, the tuition will be halved. I got a called that I've been accepted into Umass:amherst with tuition waiver and a TA position that seems to offer a lot of freedom, but at this point, I'll just accept school A's offer.

The bullying was about posts from a user that have since been deleted by a mod. I'm done addressing bullies on here. I reported her the last two times and was an easy solution. Let the more decide if what a user is posting is appropriate, I'm not about to waste anymore time on them.

Somehow I got accepted into smfa with a 10k/yr scholarship. Nice to be accepted, but it's still too expensive. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from VCU.

So a little update. Yesterday, while speaking to one of the professors at the school I plan on going to, I mentioned that I had sent an email out to the graduate program and hadnt heard back. She gave me the assistant dean's email address and told me to email her if I havent heard back from the assistant dean in a few days. I emailed the assistant dean yesterday around noon , still haven't heard back. It's beyond frustrating. If I don't hear anything by tomorrow evening I'll email the professor. I have a tour of the campus on Thursday, so I may end up bringing it up then. In the mean time, I'm touring apartments in Boston, have a weekend long convention to go to, trying to get hired in the city, and traveling to New Orleans next Tuesday, will be there for a week. I can't wait to be finished with this.... (keep in mind the initial email was sent aweek ago and there still hasnt been even one response back) Edit: so apparently due to the snow we had last night, 5-8 inches. The school is closed today... I'm assuming that includes the offices. I guess I'll wait until the end of Thursday to contact the professor.

They seem to have been doing it for the last week, depending on your "department". A performing arts friend got a call last wednesday with a 12k scholarship. Haven't heard back yet but I'm in sculpture.

It's like I am freaking out about everything in the world now. I emailed a few questions to a professor at one of the universities I'm applying to and she was kind enough to ask if I wanted to have a phone date set up for today. This email was from a week ago and I immediately replied back. Well, I had also forwarded the email to a friend of mine so that he could see the question that I asked her. Turns out, when I replied, I replied back to my friend and not her, so she never got the email. Emailed her with an apology this morning, but havent heard back. I know things like this may seem trivial compared to other peoples problem on this board and granted, it is, but man, I'm panicking now that I've left a poor impression. It doesn't help that a week ago I sent an email asking for additional funds within my scholarship, she being the person that most likely approves this, and havent heard back, but I'm chalking that up the school being closed last week for spring break. I can't wait to be done with this.

From what I've heard, they usually have an idea of who they actually want, but always interview extra. Some examples: Uconn interviewed 10 people for 5 spots. Before the interviews started, they already had their top 5 picked out (their grad students told us this) Massart interviewed 12-13 people for sculpture this year and they only admitted 4-5 people. Indiana Bloomington for scultpure interviewed 7 people for 3-4 spots. Smfa interviewed 100 people and although they say they don't have an exact number they follow, it seems they admit a little over 50% or less. My past professors, who did admittance to schools like Syracuse and notre dame have confirmed interviews are basically just meet and greets/personality checks. They want to make sure you have the right personalities for their schools and would fit in/be a good addition. Usually they already know who they want, but seem to interview roughly doubly the amounts just in case their tops are lacking and so they can set up a waitlist. It really sucks to think that you may be traveling just to be waitlisted, but really, its time to be positive and show the best you possible! Maybe one of their tops is just not feeling the school/ has a poor attitude. You may have been that #1 on the waitlist but get bumped because they appreciate your positive attitude.

Definitely talk to the people at American University. If you explain your situation, they may be able to give you more money. I mean, if you're already considering next year, it wont hurt to talk to them.