buddyholly

but you shouldn't! your work is pretty astoundingly good. i can see why you were accepted at yale (and everywhere else)

i'm curious--how would you get your 2nd year more fully funded by CCA? i just declined my offer of admission this morning.

i'd be very curious to see your work. do you have a website by any chance?

I was given the same offer. It's apparently their standard package. There's no way I'm accepting it. You have to make the decision for yourself, obviously, but for me, it's just way too much debt for an MFA. I can't justify it. Yes, I really do want to go, I really do want my MFA, but no, I can't accept living the rest of my life under 100K of debt. There's no way to get out from under that. Better to go to a state school, in my opinion. There's always the option of reapplying next year to programs with better funding.

hey guys, if anyone has been accepted to UIC and doesn't plan to go (i mean, you really, really know it, maybe have accepted another offer already or intend to this week), could you please let them know? all things considered, i'd prefer to go to UIC, where i'm wait listed, over the schools to which i've been accepted. so, please, please, if you know you aren't going to accept their offer, could you tell them?

thanks!

Doesn't Cornell offer a full tuition waiver and stipend? I'd say that if your offer at Berkeley is as good as that, then you should definitely go there. Otherwise, I'd choose Cornell. The only real downside you mention about Berkeley is the location of the studios. Sure, it's not ideal, but I think you would be fine without a car. You can't find a relatively inexpensive moving service to get your things to CA? Could you store them in your parents' basement, or something like that? If both funding offers are the same, I just think Berkeley is a better choice.

Yeah, me too. I definitely felt like they had funding to spare. Their website mentions merit- and need-based awards, and also diversity awards. I definitely didn't expect to receive so little in the way of funding. I applied in large part because I really like the school and I really thought it would be possible for me to attend. I ruled out other schools, like SAIC or CalArts, based on their lack of funding. If you look at the merit-based scholarships at CCA, there are none specifically for photography, while there are named scholarships for other media. Maybe I should have discovered this and asked about it before applying. I think the only awards we would qualify for are the "open" ones. I'm not going to the graduate event, as I'm not attending the school. I did get in to other programs, but they're expensive, too, and the one I really want to go to is UIC, where I'm wait listed. So we'll see. All things considered, I probably have to go to a state school. I'm not comfortable with the debt these private schools think we should be so willing to assume. Columbia College, by comparison, is cheap (tuition at 20K), but when you tack on living expenses and three years of study (with hardly any scholarship opportunities), it's about the same amount of debt overall.....I'm still considering it as an option, maybe with the intention of transferring out the first year. But I just don't know. It's very disappointing.

I guess that's their standard package. Definitely can't attend.

they gave me 10K for the year. no nearly enough.

CCA folks, has anyone received a good financial aid package? i thought this school had some money to spare? considering asking them if they can offer a bit more......

has anyone who's wait listed at UIC heard anything yet?

I didn't actually apply to CalArts. It's an awesome school, but I figured I wouldn't be able to afford it even if I were accepted. Congrats on your acceptances; it does seem to be a difficult decision, though.

If I were you, I'd just call to find out the deal. I personally don't like the way they do business there, but it's still a good education. I'm applying to schools again this year because of funding. I was accepted to SVA but it would have bankrupted me, SMFA with 16k scholarship, but I still would have gone into about 60k in debt just for tuition alone (and they wouldn't let me defer), and UMass Amherst for free with living stipend, but I visited the program and didn't like it at all. So I couldn't justify going there, even with the money. I'm taking studio classes this year. I really, really want to go to CCA. As I understand it, they have a huge endowment, so I'm hoping they'll be able to offer me something. But we'll see. Columbia College, while relatively inexpensive in terms of tuition, didn't offer me a penny. That deal is off the table. I'm still not compelled to go into a massive amount of debt for an MFA. But at the same time, I want to go to a school that will offer the best education and professional opportunities, too. I think we're probably all in that boat.... They may be art schools, but they're businesses, too, plain and simple. Some of their practices I consider to be very shady (for example, offering everyone who isn't accepted into the MFA program the option of completing their BFA instead, as at SAIC--just read the MFA Photo thread to see what I mean). As someone who has worked in the corporate world and knows just what that's about, I approach these programs in that way, as businesses rather than organizations of wide-eyed artists.

Has anyone received their financial aid award from CCA yet? I was told it would arrive by end of month. They seem hesitant to answer any questions about it. Thing is, I was accepted to this program 3 weeks ago and I'm still not sure if it will even be possible for me to attend.....it's my top choice, and it's the only program that hasn't sent my financial aid letter.