Loric

Well, apparently my attempt at witty rhetorhic has failed.. I can look it over as a new pair of eyes. Feel free to PM me a link or something.

Uh.. hmm.. how to respond to this without looking like a jerk.. I don't think it was jealousy or spite. I think it's moreso she's still a young professor and still has this notion that "All classes are important" (they're not) and if anything "Her class is important" (it's not) and takes offense to work in her class being slacked off on, like you personally spited her by not doing the assigned she graciously allowed you to do in order to have the honor of being graded by her. Lots of young professors, graduate students - heck, students in general - have this idea that all classes, assignments, work.. etc.. is important. It's not. They get offended when things are treated with the real level of importance that they have in the bigger scope of life, the universe, and existence in general.

Also - many apps have a short answer section where they'll ask if your GPA or grades reflect your abilities - why or why not. Come up with a very compelling answer that question, one that can stated concisely and clearly. Do not place blame on anyone or anything else and try to position yourself as a "vicitim" - it'll go over poorly. Aim for mature adult who recognizes you're not perfect and strives to do better. I wrote about how if you had asked me that question a few weeks ago I'd have thought nothing of it and said my grades were a pretty good reflection of my abilities. Then I discovered my transcript was a mess after i supposedly withdrew, the school and department wont do anything about it despite multiple attempts to rectify the situation, and I'm left with what looks like a failing record for classes I never even attended. I can see the point in an F if I had done poorly, but I wasn't even in the same state to have done poorly. I think my portfolio shows a level of work that is compelling enough to overlook a problem in my transcript at a school I chose to no longer attend.

Isn't there a whole "sub 3.0 GPA" thread over in the Lobby or something..? I'm not much over a 3.0 for undergrad and i've been accepted to places and offered funding - theater design. Applying now after "failing out" (I withdrew but apparently didn't file the proper paperwork so ive got a semester of F's - and the old school wont budge because "reasons") and asked point blank if it' be an auto-reject. Every place has said no, and that if anything they might ask me to make a formal statement about what the heck happened.

From what I can tell from past interviews - unless you've got major work in the first two years that obviously "dates" you - they typically are oblivious to when you started.. they just know when you ended.

I dunno... if these forums have taught me anything it's that there are many interpetations of "not awful" when it comes to SOP's....

My emotions are definitely cycling.. I'm at week 3 for a rolling admission that can be anywhere from 1-3 weeks or 2-4 weeks for an answer depending on which part of their info you're looking at. Sometimes it's like.. "I'll look at apartments.. gee, they charge that much for a pet fee for a cat?" and then other times it's like "omg i'm going to not get in and they're going to send me angry letters, or worse, show up and tell me i'm a fraud - A HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE FRAUD!!!!" Then i go back to wondering exactly how much funding i'm going to get, because, really, how can I not get funding..? I mean, maybe not everything.. but a good chunk.. Then it's back to the idea that I've not heard back yet because they're forwarding my application around to various offices and being like "Did you see this kids? What a joke! LOL." And then for a moment I ponder what sort flooring i'll have and if I need rugs.. or curtains.. and if there's a Publix nearby...

What's SIPA?

If the means justifies the end, you're ok. If your claimed "style" is just a crutch for lazy or sloppy writing with an inability to edit properly.. then no, they'll see through that.

If those 3 pieces are strong. I maxed out my twenty, so i'm just conveying what the head of admissions straight up said to me when i bumped into him at a mixer (almost spilled my drink on him.)

5.25 years - if you ignore my first foray into undergrad where I withdrew in the first semester and went to get a real job. Also, the .25 is because I tacked on a study abroad to the end. Well, that explains the 5 really - I was a theatre design major, originally a BFA. I dropped down to the BA because I wasn't happy with my program and the direction of work they wanted me to go in. I started taking classes in art history, architecture, and painting/drawing to up my fundamental skills rather than working on endless productions for the school. Think of it this way, upper level students in my program were forbidden to have jobs. We had TA appointments and also directed lab periods. Sounds a little bit like grad responsibilities, no? Well, it was and I felt it was being a time-suck that wasnt helping me learn much of anything. I was just constantly helping new students learn the basics repeatedly. Hence the the interest in courses in other majors. That was time consuming in a credit-sense. I also would try something out, decide I hated it, and withdraw. Things do depend highly on the professor and I "took" far more classes than I completed in these outside areas. Dropping and retrying until I found a professor I liked. It was my money, I might as well like the education I was getting. Being so involved in the art and art history programs, I was asked to apply for the study abroad program in Paris/Venice. I did, was accepted, and was given a schlarship to cover the cost. I was supposed to graduate in May/June.. but the program started in June.. so I filled out my graduation paperwork before I left (and was already accepted into a few grad schools so that was ready to go too) and then went off to Paris to study in the museums for a few months. I didn't do a formal "walk" - just the event from the theater department itself the week or so before I left for Paris. I returned from Venice at the end of Summer, packed my stuff up, and moved across the country to my selected grad school (also sent an email to my backup school saying "Sorry, peace out - the other guys offered more money!") So my situation was unique, but I feel it was the best choice at the time. Interviewing with graduate programs and telling them I was leaving in a few months to study art history in the museums of Paris was very well received - MFA's are funny like that. Edit: I had to get permission from the school to do the study abroad because i had reached my attempted credit hour limit. I forgot about that.

Fun fact: I was asked to be a Benetton model once while I was working at Neiman Marcus. Small world.

And I just want to point out... this is an elective...

In things that aren't the hard sciences, what gets taught and to what level can vary wildly. It doesn't mean the students are inept for not knowing them or that their transcripts are a lie.

Yeah, per PhD comics, I was a "#2" http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1019 You don't royally piss off the #2 if you want your projects to survive.

I think they understand that letters of rec are a pain to get submitted. I dont know anyone who had it easy with those. And I know people who were accepted and funded with a single letter - not knowing until after admission that their 2nd letter writer never followed through. Most all admissions standards are in fact very flexible.. if you're a compelling enough applicant. So they give no deadline for rec's, but they have their standard application deadlines and once that passes they'll start processing files and filling slots. Slots full? Doesn't matter if you're the most amazing person ever.. you're out. Not sure if they'll go through files by submission date or completeness, but yes, it's entirely possible they'll do a base-level review without any letters of rec and see if they want someone. Like i said, had a friend get admitted and funded with a missing letter and nothing ever said about it. So try to get it in by a reasonable time but don't freak out if your letter writer is running late.

Lol, it's ok - in the portfolio they're all technically "images." My work has been in theatre and so I've got photos of staged productions, which obviously aren't the same as a painting.. but you get 20 "slides" and that's it. Not every emphasis would even allow my work to find it's way into the portfolio.. and i was encouraged to include my writing - both "formal" papers on theaterical design and actual scripts I've written in my portfolio to fill slots. It is going to depend heavily on the emphasis and school, but 20 allowed slots is the baseline apparently.

I'd focus on your recent history. If anything start where the story becomes compelling and interesting - mention how your real world experience put you in a position with knowledge to succeed. You'll probably get asked if you've ever been on academic probation in another portion of the app. You can discuss all that there. And i concur, if anything it belongs in the personal history - your SOP should be about your goals, the future, and how your past is a foundation to succeed at those stated goals.

The comparison to Romeo and Juliet is a bit absurd.. and it's not presented in a way that suggests it's meant to be seen as comedic hyperbole. You know they kill themselves, right? So if you don't get to be with "History" you're going to kill yourself..? It's not a parallel you want to be drawing in this situation. Also, the first few sentences of extraneous and unneeded. It's not interesting until you mention you went to medical school - just delete everything before that. "At the same time" is just filler too, lose it. I'm not sure why you make a point of defining holidays - if you ment BBQ people will infer the 4th and if you mention turkey people will infer Thanksgiving. Spelling it out and clarifying meaks the read feel that you think they're a bit dense... people know what the standard american holidays are. This is an SOP for a committee in academia - they aren't schmucks on the street. Do not talk down to them. Reworked: I come from a culture where I was expected to go to medical school and if I did anything but become a doctor I would be considered a failure. I pursued the path of medicine with a regret in my mind and heart of what could have happened if I pursued my love of history. If I ever mentioned how a historical place or a museum amused me I would get that weird look from relatives. During the holidays I would get weird looks when i would tell the family why that day is bigger than just a day to have some turkey. My upbringing would just not allow me to pursue my interest seriously. Being ever resourceful, I learned during college that as long as I took a certain set of science classes I could theorhetically major in anything I wanted. To learn more about my passion I majored in History and minored in Chemistry and Biology. When the time came, there was no will for me to go to the medical school my family had decided was best for me. I put my foot down after graduation and said I was meant to study history and that I could achieve the same amount of success they desired for me, but just through a less traditional route than what they had in mind. -- Took out the unneeded bits and clarified. I'm not saying this is the best or correct version, but it's a clearer and more concise version that doesn't overstate thing, talk down to the audience, or use unneeded phrases or statements to make the point. You'll enjoy having those extra words later when you're touting your academic interests, skills, etc..

I think we need some sort of nice way of saying that an SOP or writing sample needs professional help. As in, it needs a real editor who can explain what's wrong with it and take the time to explain the mistakes and why they need to be fixed. Essentially there are SOP's that are beyond the help of the free services we all offer here. People are just giving their free time to try and be helpful. This SOP needs a full overhaul and possible rewrite and there's an obvious language barrier. The writer needs to hire a professional to fix this. This happens frquently on here and we need to find some way to make it so people understand that there are some things that are just beyond the scope of what free advice on the internet can do.

But considering many are 500 words and the "longer" ones are often 1000 - that's a REALLY long SOP. It's like writing a 38 lines Haiku. "38 lines isn't long.." Yeah, but it is for a Haiku.

You don't think the process should be more transparent though? So that someone isn't "got" by an essay that's wedged between the page that confirms your letters of rec and the final submission recap? I feel like it should be that you go and "apply" and everything is laid out before you and clearly visible. The 100 word ones are "meh" annoying, but there are 500 word essays that demand a serious answer lurking about in some of these applications too. And if something is in your SOP and in a short essay, you've pretty much wasted valuable space. You can't always go back and edit the SOP by that point - particularly in art/design/architecture they want the SOP as a seperate file (preferably PDF) emailed to an adcomm rep. Why? Because they're judging how you laid out the pages and your basic visual heirarchy. Copy-paste into a text box wouldn't allow that. In those fields how the SOP looks is just as important to how it reads. I had an architecture professor who would take points off papers because he didn't like how it looked. So you get to the essay in the application and you've already answered it, already submitted the SOP via email, and.. now what? Rewrite what you already wrote and sigh knowing that you're just restating the same thing and aren't left with many options. I don't think it's the end of the world or even bad to ask these questions. I think it's awful to hide them in a larger application where it's not obvious they're going to be lurking and without the ability to view them prior to encountering them in the "live" application.

Not every medium lends itself to 10+ good pieces in so many years.. a very qualified sculptor may only have a handful at best, but because they worked in a medium that is massively time consuming. Would you look down on a young applicant with an MFA who managed to put together something like a "Balloon Dog" http://www.fadwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/jeff-koons-balloon-dog-yellow.jpg but very little else because of their age and how time consuming such a project would be..? If you're capable of quality, you're capable of quality. Having a large library of work will just come with time. And i'm not being facetious - I went to school with undergrads who by the end of their studies had large corporate funded installation sculpture pieces. The rest of their portfolio wasn't as good as those single well funded projects. They filled in a little with other smaller work they paid for out of their own pocket, but the big well funded project was where it was proven that they could do really great work if given the right resources.

And if you were wondering.. "How does one burn all their bridges in a big department?" Send a single email when you quit saying "you may not use my work" refering to the items which were done on my own unpaid time and therefor were my property and not that of the university which had employed me. I killed.. I think.. 4 projects..? And set a major one back by a few months so that it was almost canceled? All because after several meetings trying to get reasonable demands, and being told "suck it up, it's grad school" they still quarreled over who got me and at what time ("Just skip his class!" "She told you to skip my class?!?!?!").. no one got me.

I just want to chime in.. I went through a very similar situation on my first go-round to grad school. I quit, dramatically. I burned every bridge possible and went out in a blaze of glory. While cathardic - I don't reccomend doing the same. You need to be looking to transfer. Things will not get better there and YOU wont get better mentally/emotionally there. I'm just now trying to pick up the ashes of my burnout by reapplying a few years after the fact to a new program. You need to transfer. Hold everything together as much as possible and get the hell out of Dodge. You did everything right that you could. You need to find a new school.