riskynostalgia

With conceptual backing or not?

I'm finishing up my mfa now, but I'm curious if there are any fiber people lurking around, since the majority of applicants seem to be painting/sculpture/new media/photo. Cranbrook decisions should be going out momentarily, ftr.

Mmm. Well, I've heard it's the equivalent of being turned down for your ph.d. and getting offered a master's program - i.e. a money grab. I say take the year and work, network, and reapply another year - I don't think the BFA will majorly improve your chances.

NSCAD was the last school I heard from. I'd already accepted a month or two back at that point.

Cranbrook is the source of the pressure - they seem to require a studio deposit two weeks after you get your admission packet. The other schools I'm considering are CCA and East Carolina University. I'm flying out to look at Cranbrook tonight, then going to see if I can get to CCA Wednesday between tuesday and thursday classes. Ecu seems to have a deadline of apr 7th.

One of my schools wants an answer on the next week at the latest. I haven't heard back from 5 of my schools. Argh.

oh, labmouse - that's great! I've heard awesome things about MCAD, and I think someone who I think is super-talented from my undergrad program will probably apply there if/when he applies to grad school.

I think that unlike CCA which seems to have one hellish day where all the departments get together and pick all the grad students, Cranbrook's departments seem to function entirely separately. I had an interview feb 23rd or 24th and then got an email about being accepted on the 28th. I ran into the head of the Fiber department at the symposium in Philadelphia this week and he seemed unsurprised that letters hadn't gone out yet, even though I did get a generic confirmation of acceptance email from a Katherine Willman.

Ha! That's close to what I was imagining - only mine had an incinerator they used for burning slides.

Ah, the roller coaster of applications. Found out I was rejected from Arizona but then got an email from Cranbrook telling me I got in.

No, I think that might be a good thing - Surely they'd be less interested in making sure it went to the right address if it was a rejection, right?

Rejected from UT-Austin - which...fair enough. I was applying to sculpture in an attempt to "broaden the conceptual number of places that might hire me." Not a good fit, though I've heard austin is nice. Oh - Also, for future applicants - this year they got roughly 200 applicants or so and accepted about 10. so about 5% of an acceptance rate - Unsure if this is specific to sculpture or studio art in general. When I next get in the car, I'll check.

Here's what I've learned in the last couple of days: An interview with CCA means you've made it past the first round of cuts - there are three levels - the first, based on portfolio etc. the second based on interview, and the third is a ten hour long review where all the faculty in all the departments look at the slides and decide who to accept. Interview at Cranbrook (at least in the textiles dept) means you're at least wait-listed, and the interviews will decide who gets accepted and who gets wait-listed.

I had my CCA interview this morning - it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. I'm sure you'll do wonderfully with SFAI! Good luck.

Oh, this is helpful. All my friends in grad school are in History or English programs. They've been awesome with trying to help, but I think they're also fuzzy on what the questions would be. Ha to saying you want the studio space in whatever metro area.....that wouldn't have occurred to me as a possible answer, but I suppose someone somewhere must have said it. Most of the programs I applied to aren't in super-metro areas, but the at least two of the three CA programs are - CCA, SFSU, SJSU and I imagine San Jose isn't a tiny town, but I'm not really familiar with that area. I have an interview with CCA tomorrow. Personally, I am just surprised CCA and Cranbrook are even interviewing me. I thought they'd laugh at my slides and throw them into the imaginary incinerator all grad admissions programs have [in my mind]. Maybe there just aren't many applicants to fiber/textile programs. I never have any idea what to say to the place in contemporary art question. Or really the why would you like to attend ___ program. For the first one, I'm still so intensely uncomfortable listing other artists whose work I feel is along similar lines as mine. I feel like it makes mine seem even worse. :oops: For the second, I mean, there are so few textile programs, I applied to damn near all of them. And a few in sculpture/extended media besides. And I suspect they're looking for a great deal more than "well, you HAVE a textiles program and that's exciting." OK, main goal for tomorrow and Friday: must not say in any way shape or form "Seriously, why are you talking to me? You could do so much better." God, I want this process to stop eating my brain so I can work effectively again. My studio looks like it's been hit by a grad school application tornado. Only one more application to go in now, though - Memphis College of Art. On an aside, I'm really ridiculously happy to talk to other people who are applying on here. It moderates my absolute terror.