Loric

While I don't know what will/wont work for the adcomm or what advice to give you in that regard.. I can say that if you can't crank out a 15 page paper about Unicorn Mating Habits in 8 days that is well researched, written, and considered.. then you're going to struggle in grad school. Especially a program that's paper/analysis heavy (which is most of them.) You have to write less than 2 pages a day to make the deadline.

I think there is a gross misunderstanding of just how small your view and understanding of the world really is... It's like a watching an ant encounter a puddle and then declare it the ocean, taking great pains to tell us all which parts are the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific within that puddle. Long story short: You know nothing and this is absurd. While I wont go as far as saying that grad school will be best for you, getting out of where you are and people think like that.. and worse it's condoned.. will be the best thing you can do for yourself.

None of the above. SOP's are expected to have a true authorial voice, i.e., not a fabrication or affectation. You, yes "you," are supposed to speak to them. Yes "them," they're real people who are specifically reading this.. as said by "you." The way you'll impress them is being able to write with a natural candence and candor; the proper use of a semicolon wont hurt either. If you can develop that rapport and deliver the goods while being a bit poetic or witty then more the better. Most will fumble tragically and bury their points in senseless combines of mixed metaphors and meaningless symbolism amid runon sentences that one would pray a comma splice would birth itself into to begin to categorically and intrisically make sense thereof. See? It happens. But if you can do that judo in your finery, go for it. Do not - under any circumstances - take on the erudite voice. That's what you called "academic." It's rigid, it's awful, and no one likes to read it. It is the dry heave of a writer forcing out the septic bits of an information dump. Avoid at all costs.

About the 20 pieces... I was straight up told by the head of graduate admissions at an art school that they give you "20 slots" but have no desire to see anything that's not your best work. They're happy with 10 or even less if that's what it takes, because they grade everything as a whole and any weak piece will bring down your score. And yes, they've no desire to see "experimenting with this.." or "trying out that.." - just what you're good at and want to continue doing. Don't try to show them range, they'll have none of it - unless you're universally good at everything.

The way you're phrasing this seems to imply you think of the adcomm as a singularity... it's multiple people, and very likely includes your POI. Edit: Reading is fundamental! Saw your later statement that they're not on the adcomm. Regardless, them asking for you will be a big push. You are, afterall, "their problem" and the adcom will generally see it as like.. oh i dunno.. a puppy.. "It's your responsibility Timmy! We're not going to feed him for you!" but they got the puppy for the kid, regardless.

Not surprisingly.. what -you- think still doesn't matter.

You have to admit that putting these questions - which beg for serious and well thought out answers - on a webpage that's going to time-out if you don't hit some button within a period of time and offering no spellcheck or anything is pretty craptacular. People writing pretty much anything else for submission at least have the benefit of a basic spellchecker.

A) They're people. What's the worst that could possibly happen? You don't contact them and you've got a much slimmer chance at getting into their program because not every program has a dearth of slots. Most don't. You need that familiarity for many of the best positions. C) "Hello. I'm interested in your school for XYZ program and you seem to be the professor in charge of XYZ. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I picked your brain a bit? I saw you did XZY and would love to ask you questions about it and possible future studies.."

Here..? In the "Arts" forum..? Really..?

This is where your age is showing... You don't get to tell people what your art "is." You have an audience, they experience your art, and if you're lucky they'll buy it or see value in it and put it in museums - and then the message you're trying to communicate gets out to the public. You might make a difference, you might facilitate change, you might be important in the big scheme. You cultivate an audience, but you do not tell them what to think of anything. Your work stands alone and you can't be there next to it. How would you measure success? How happy you are producing art..? Well, then that's just masturbation and much like the real thing, you don't share it with other people. If you want to be taken seriously you have to have goals that - while not necessarily condoning - must accept the realities of the art world and the business side of things. The politics, the bullshit, the fact that your art means nothing if no one ever sees it and to get it seen you're going to have to make a few compromises.. until you're super famous and then fuck all you can do whatever you want. see: Picasso (seriously his later crap is CRAP, but he's picasso so it's in a museum.) You may see artists who shout "I make art for me!" "No one tells me what my art means!" yadda yadda... and that's because the business of television and publication go for the salacious. 99% of working artists, what you should strive to be, are far more even keeled and accept the realities of the art world. The ones shouting that "you don't GET my art!" are seen as being immature. If you're doing it just for you.. well, fine, but dont try to force it on other people. If you're doing it to make a statement, understand that it means nothing if there is no audience or that they don't understand or refuse to listen to what you're saying.

So because a train of thought is the easiest, it's the one you should follow?

And further - precisely what "recognition" are you talking about? Oh right, exactly what I assumed - the "recognition" of an impact on a fractional slip of grades for one semester. "Oh woe is me, I'm not permanently disabled so a tiny fractional insignifigant drop in my grades wont be seen as part life changing event that did not actually occur but I'm so devestated because I feel I need a life altering permanently debilitating event in order to explain the most minute change in my grades for a single semester." Yeah, that IS how crazy you all sound.

You do realize for something to be a disability it has to disable you, right? As in, "illness i got over and am fine now" or "illness that i can live with and function at a totally normal level with treatment" is not even in the same league as a disability. Saying it's unfortunate that your life wasn't permanently changed to make you disabled - as in unable to function normally on a continuing and on going basis - is the epitome of everything that's wrong with the mindset this place fosters.

Seriously, why does every website and topic assume if i'm going to graduate school that I'm going to be a "scientist?" And in "common areas" of forums and chats it's not cool to be in the arts.. because.. "Why would you need a graduate degree for that? You could learn it on your own!" Yeah, you could do science on your own too dipwad. Go build that lab in your garage with the gas line for the bunsen burner and liquid nitrogen tanks and let me know how that works out for you. What? You cant afford your own autoclave? I'm pretty much over being marginalized by the vocal majority. My first foray into graduate school was in theatrical design to boot - what do these naysayers expect? Me to have my own theater, director, costumer, lighting designer, cast, crew, and performance space in my garage? Jeeze, for smart people they're pretty stupid. Anywho, just a communial rants - vive l'art! Etc etc..

But aren't Graduate Assistanceships "temporary work" since it's on a contract basis..? Regardless, if you want money, check them all and then refuse whatever they offer that's ghetto.

I'll tell ya after I get accepted/rejected. Apparently some people take the inernet very seriously.

I just thought it'd be nice to come together this holiday season and complain about how schools like to hide short essays (100-500 word response prompts) deep within their applications. Void of spellcheck, possibly going to timeout if you hang out on the webpage too long, and probably asking questions you explicitly answered in depth in your SOP or PS. Seriously, what is up with these questions hidden at the end of applications? It feels like a weird "gotcha'!" attempt on the part of the admissions group.

Don't say things like that! You'll penetrate their dellusions! And then what? WHAT? What will do with all that laundry they sorted for that professor to get an A instead of an A-?

What an odd use of the Disney font..

Mentioning a medical condition as a reason for A- versus A makes you sound like an academia-gold-star-chaser, one of those people who cares about grades and not work in the actual profession. Like you'd sort a professor's laundry if you knew it'd get you an A and not an A-. Hit the wrong person on an Adcomm with that sort of notion and they'll do their best to sink you. Just keep that in mind when you write your stuff. And you seriously just said "unfortunately it wasn't a disbability." - so really think hard about what you put before an adcom.

Food for thought: Americans generally have a very poor opinion of the Indian caste system. A few minutes of google and you should have pages of your opinion on the social divide.

I really want to help you, but you started with the whole "Since my childhood" thing and then launched into a story about something that happened when you were 11. I stopped reading. It's seemingly human nature to do that, but it's the most cited "thing to not do" in SOP's. No one in the professional world cares about what happened when you were a child. Everyone wants to be an astronaut as a kid - we should not take that drive seriously. I'm sure you also had very strong feelings about certain foods and which animated character was the bestest best ever. Adults reading your SOP will hit that and it's like a brick wall. They just don't care and stop reading - like I did - or they will continue but already be looking for reasons to not like you or be interested in what you have to say. Long story short: Revise, remove any mention of your childhood, and start from approaching things as an adult. This may come off as very blunt and possibly insulting - but it has nothing to do with "you" as a person but everything to do with how people read an SOP. Do not start with a story from your childhood - they (powers that be) will not care and they will not like you for it. You could have the most incredible story in the world and the answer is still "no." It's been done, it's dead, it's over, you're not allowed to start a serious SOP that way.

"Today, I went on the internet to ask for help with writing this weird autobiographical thing you're asking for in this very application - the one you're reading right now, how very 'meta.' The internet sort of ignored me, but that's ok, because some random person wrote this and I copy and pasted it for you to see. The person who wrote it wants you to know he's a professional legit author and "I'm famous bitches!" and that should apparently be enough to get me in. Oh yeah, I'm also blonde, cuz that's what you're looking for in something autobiographical right? Seriously, can you be more vague? Regardless, he says he's still famous - bitches - and that it will all work out and that a simple copy-paste will solve all my problems. I'm leaning toward believing him, because he's famous - bitches. Sincerely, Applicant."

So.. fun fact.. People who take offense to broad statements are those who identify qualities laid out in the statement as being identifiers of self.. Just sayin.

In your situation, i'd go with a no. You would have needed to contact them beforehand - if you do it now, it's sort of like you're trying to bribe a judge. "Butter them up" so to speak.