mirror_logic

"Worth" is an extremely personal matter. It is an entirely different word than "value", which is what I think some of the last commentators above may be confusing it with. Especially when what we are talking about is an education, not a 24-count pack of toilet paper from Costco. everything is proportional in these matters.  Getting a full ride to a state university may seem like a good deal on paper when stacked up against a potential debt load, but you're largely missing the intangibles when thinking with the broadstrokes of cost-analysis. You're even missing the  extremely tangible, if you choose to attend one of the aforementioned state university programs, which may not have the facilities, faculty support and commitment, network access (sadly, this can't be overstated in the case of  our particular field), and just straight-up school rep. If you're curious for more detailed and obviously totally subjective information on this, it's a topic very near to me, as I too felt like I'd gamed some kind of system by not paying tuition for my MFA. I wish I'd thought beyond the  grabby, tired chestnut of "going where the money is". It is absolutely terrible advice if it isn't balanced with the various other and crucial considerations. Cal Arts is a vastly different program than SDSU's, I'm sure of it. What do you need from an MFA program? What's your aesthetic, who do you want to work with, what resources do you need in the way of facilities, critique, fellow students with energy and intellect who will stimulate you? Can you stand to live in Valencia, CA or make the commute from LA? Do you need a larger city, to join an art mafia post-graduation, who will bring you work opportunities and wow even enduring community in those wierd miasmic years after you've gotten the degree? 
PM me,  if you want more advice from a stranger on teh internet, of course. 

http://dontpayforgradschool.weebly.com/about.html 
great list and pieces about mfa art school-solid advice-imo for anyone concerned about debt 

friend, what you seek is very unlikely to be able to be taught within the confines of a traditional institution pedagogy, if at all. Irwin in particular  was v. famously (or notoriously, depending) cagey w/r/t/ teaching in programs for any expanse of time. I would recommend taking up studies in Zen buddhism, alone or with a mentor. Perhaps a degree in physics, philosophy or ecology might be advised, for those less austere or spooked by the austerity of the void. 

friend, what you seek is very unlikely to be able to be taught within the confines of a traditional institution pedagogy, if at all. Irwin in particular  was v. famously (or notoriously, depending) cagey w/r/t/ teaching in programs for any expanse of time. I would recommend taking up studies in Zen buddhism, alone or with a mentor. Perhaps a degree in physics, philosophy or ecology might be advised, for those less austere or spooked by the austerity of the void. 

"Worth" is an extremely personal matter. It is an entirely different word than "value", which is what I think some of the last commentators above may be confusing it with. Especially when what we are talking about is an education, not a 24-count pack of toilet paper from Costco. everything is proportional in these matters.  Getting a full ride to a state university may seem like a good deal on paper when stacked up against a potential debt load, but you're largely missing the intangibles when thinking with the broadstrokes of cost-analysis. You're even missing the  extremely tangible, if you choose to attend one of the aforementioned state university programs, which may not have the facilities, faculty support and commitment, network access (sadly, this can't be overstated in the case of  our particular field), and just straight-up school rep. If you're curious for more detailed and obviously totally subjective information on this, it's a topic very near to me, as I too felt like I'd gamed some kind of system by not paying tuition for my MFA. I wish I'd thought beyond the  grabby, tired chestnut of "going where the money is". It is absolutely terrible advice if it isn't balanced with the various other and crucial considerations. Cal Arts is a vastly different program than SDSU's, I'm sure of it. What do you need from an MFA program? What's your aesthetic, who do you want to work with, what resources do you need in the way of facilities, critique, fellow students with energy and intellect who will stimulate you? Can you stand to live in Valencia, CA or make the commute from LA? Do you need a larger city, to join an art mafia post-graduation, who will bring you work opportunities and wow even enduring community in those wierd miasmic years after you've gotten the degree? 
PM me,  if you want more advice from a stranger on teh internet, of course. 

"Worth" is an extremely personal matter. It is an entirely different word than "value", which is what I think some of the last commentators above may be confusing it with. Especially when what we are talking about is an education, not a 24-count pack of toilet paper from Costco. everything is proportional in these matters.  Getting a full ride to a state university may seem like a good deal on paper when stacked up against a potential debt load, but you're largely missing the intangibles when thinking with the broadstrokes of cost-analysis. You're even missing the  extremely tangible, if you choose to attend one of the aforementioned state university programs, which may not have the facilities, faculty support and commitment, network access (sadly, this can't be overstated in the case of  our particular field), and just straight-up school rep. If you're curious for more detailed and obviously totally subjective information on this, it's a topic very near to me, as I too felt like I'd gamed some kind of system by not paying tuition for my MFA. I wish I'd thought beyond the  grabby, tired chestnut of "going where the money is". It is absolutely terrible advice if it isn't balanced with the various other and crucial considerations. Cal Arts is a vastly different program than SDSU's, I'm sure of it. What do you need from an MFA program? What's your aesthetic, who do you want to work with, what resources do you need in the way of facilities, critique, fellow students with energy and intellect who will stimulate you? Can you stand to live in Valencia, CA or make the commute from LA? Do you need a larger city, to join an art mafia post-graduation, who will bring you work opportunities and wow even enduring community in those wierd miasmic years after you've gotten the degree? 
PM me,  if you want more advice from a stranger on teh internet, of course. 

Perfect example of why "more expensive art education" doesn't mean "better art education".

CONGRATS ON EVERYONES ACCEPTANCES!!! 

What?

Just to let everyone know I spoke to the woman at UCLA to change my address and she said they don't send out letters, only emails. They are in the final stages of decision and have not informed anyone yet. She said it most likely will not be before the end of next week. Usually in the 1st and 2nd week of March. So absolutely no reasons for anyone to panic that they haven't heard anything yet! Good Luck people!
 
And I am also completely obsessed with this forum, it has been helpful but I can also see that it could be a little traumatic for people that are not hearing back. Hope you're all holding in there and keeping positive!
 
I have had a good 4 years since I last studied and believe me, there are plenty of advantages to getting some solid professional experience out in the real world, remember there is no experience like the real one and its really really important to see what its really going to be like out there. My advice would be, if you don't get in where you had hoped, don't fret! It obviously is not your time yet and lets face it grad school is not the finish line. My advise would be to get as much experience as possible, have exhibitions, do residencies, start a small gallery with your friends or have underground shows (whatever your thing is), try to network, meet people and travel! I know it seems like all of this is probably to expensive and difficult but believe me it is possible and once you start you'll get on a roll and won't be able to stop.
 
Do HEAPS of research and apply for things, shows, residencies, awards etc - but make sure they are right for you and not financial rip offs.
 
ALSO most importantly of course just keep making art and making it bigger and better than before.
 
Here are some good sites:
 
http://www.transartists.org
http://www.resartis.org/en/
http://www.re-title.com
http://www.nyfa.org
http://losangelesartresource.wordpress.com
http://www.residencyunlimited.org
http://www.chashama.org
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/763138/a-guide-to-20-top-artist-residencies-and-retreats-across-the-united-states
http://www.artistcommunities.org
http://creative-capital.org/home
 
Personally, being originally from Australia where we don't do internships for free, I think they're a little bit of a waste of time - but this was only in my case because I couldn't handle the idea of working for free but I'm sure there are great internships out there too.
 
From my own personal experience the Vermont Studio Center is completely amazing! Its like art school condensed into a month. They can help you out financially too so it won't seem so daunting, and rememebr they give you a bedroom, amazing studio, and 3 incredible meals a day! Well worth it I say. They also have fellowships too if you're lucky.
 
There are actually a lot of free residencies in the US, I know the Millay Colony, MacDowell Colony, Skowhegan, Woodstock, Fire Island, Art OMI, Headlands, and many more.
 
And there are HEAPS of residencies in Europe and Asia that are free, if not pay for airfares too (though these are generally competitive).  - Check out the first 2 links for info on this.
 
Specifically South Korea puts a lot of money into 'young artists' and there are a lot of opporuntites there. I did a residency with the Nanji Art Studio and everything was free, I believe they now help you with the airfare too. Just google residencies in Korea and I'm sure a few will come up. 
 
Also I know a lot of people who seem to be ending up in Iceland doing residencies at the moment!? there are some good free residencies in Norway too.
 
Also if you are from the US you may want to think about studying in Europe? (and I'm not just talking about London!). Although these are mainly being fazed out, there are a lot of free(ish) 1-2 year postgrad programs that sound amazing. Try De-ateliers in the Netherlands. Good places to look for free/cheap education (and REALLY good quality) are: Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Greece...
 
I have done a lot of research on this kind of stuff so if anyone wants any specific details on residencies, alternative programs or application processes then I would be happy to help you out! I have done 2 residencies in Europe, 1 in Asia and 4 in the USA.
 
​Remember if it doesn't happen this year, then that means you just have a whole year open to other exciting things.
 
Good Luck!

They never mentioned mine, but I'm sure they don't have it because I never applied there. You'd think they'd be more on top of things like this.

Watching Loric apply to grad school:
 

Not to mention, per the "experts" here - they don't read. Hard to garner much from this website without reading.. perhaps if we put on an interpretive dance..

Wrong and wrong, but hey.. 8 posts and you're a "thriving" member of the community, we should all yield to your casual opinion.

Tonight I'm convinced I'm not getting an acceptance. And I'm mad about it. Then I'm sure I will get an admit with no funding which I'm even angrier about. Then I'm sure I'll get an admit with "meh" funding and not be able to pull things together financially to attend and forfeit by default. This makes me want to throat punch kittens. No table unflipped type Hulk rage.

Today I was told after surgery that if I don't lower my stress levels it's going to eventually kill me, as it's already detrimental to my health. Le sigh.

Loric:
being a internet troll is not the same as being a maverick - especially when you have the veil of anonymity
if you think that there is any real ideological power to this forum you are totally delusional
if you think that smugly interjecting yourself in the middle of conversations is the same as shocking people out of complacency you are nothing more than a provocateur and an egomaniac
if you think that deflecting every critique of your character with rhetoric or argumentation will help you grow as an artist or as a person you are hard-headed and have no place in graduate school
 
apologies to all for distracting from the real discussion at hand... I will not post any more about this... just had to say something

I'm always just amazed that people think they can say whatever they want to me, at me, etc.. and there will be no likewise retort.
 
I think you likely have enough sense to realize that I'm not that sort of person.. and you probably don't run around passive aggressively insulting people and getting away with it because society dictates that the "good" people are to grin and bear such BS. Good thing I'm not a good person.

If I cared enough to know your name, I would.

Walked right into that setup didn't ya? People remain amusingly predictable.

Also, I'm not saying what's the right or wrong way to change dpi - both ways change the dpi. But the default changes the canvas size. That's where people were having issues. And I explain how at 72 PPI they're aiming for 1000 pixels or just under 14 inches in any one direction to meet 99% of portfolio requirements.

DPI will not make a difference on how large an image displays on a person's screen, 1000 pixels is still 1000 pixels on anyone's screen. DPI is important in the context of printing. Of course there will be slight differences in display size whether it's viewed on a Macintosh or a Windows machine, as the default PPI for those is 72 and 96 respectively. Now, you will notice that on "retina" displays images appear half as large, but thats because the pixel density is much higher.
 
On the topic of Slideroom... the people that have to review submissions are looking at hundreds of portfolios, they still have classes to teach, and programs to run; they don't want to read an essay about every piece and they certainly don't have time to. And yes, Slideroom doesn't let you show of each of your works just how you'd want to, but the people reviewing them are artists themselves, and they understand that one image and a short sentence description of a piece is not telling/showing them everything that that artwork is about.
 
The initial application review process is to weed out the inferior portfolios. After that, usually they then dig deeper into the quality applications, spending more time reading the descriptions and analyzing the work with more deliberate thought and conversation amongst the reviewers.

Photoshop uses DPI and PPI interchangeably. If you use photoshop's image settings to change the DPI to 72 from 300 it will shrink your image canvas size.

And Jaques I'm sooooo sorry you might need to read a caption to understand an image when judging media that is not 2d. Your life must be so hard. I'm so sorry people expect you to do all functions of your job with diligence rather than skimping over the parts you don't like or find unpleasant. I mean, it's not like someone's future is at stake if you gloss over things and make incorrect assumptions.

Funnily enough I suspect glossing over things, coming to erroneous conclusions, and yet still being treated like you deserve a cookie for the "good" you've done is not at all a foreign concept to you.

I'm sorry, but at that point I'm with the people outside the arts who are shouting "GET A JOB!" when reading this.

you should have ~definitely~ studied math at MIT.

hey gradcafe ppl
 
sorry in advance for the heavy useage of scare quotes in the thread title.
i'm in the final stretch of applying to MFA prgms in the above -mentioned hazy field that drifts between video, new media, post-photography, conceptual  and internet0aware work. My own work doesn't neatly fit into any of the boxes-- i work in photography but am interested now mostly in performative writing using the internet as medium and  video/screen-based work.. *which is confusing because i believe *all* work is migrating towards consideration of the screen as a given, even if you are a painter....
Basically i'm not nerdy enough for programming work, wearable computing, etc such as the tradition of programs of NYU's ITP program  or the DANM prgm@ UCSC --IMO-- but i'm interested in a program that has 3D printing facilities, for example, and a faculty that encourages digital practices. Very inter-disciplinary. I have been teaching in experimental pedagogy programs for ~2 years and would like a program that allows me to teach, I would ideally like to be in a major research university, and another filter on my search has been affordability, as i am poor and have no interest in becoming far more so in ~3 years, so no CalArts or SAIC.  Also, no want low-res programs, like Bard.
 
Here's my site: http://cargocollective.com/alexandradeleon
 
Here's my list, if this will be of any help to any one who finds themself in a similar situation, and please, let's talk, if you have other interesting thoughts to add on this.
 
Programs considerng all of the above:
 
UC San Diego (applied 12/4)
 
UC Santa Barbara Digital Media
UC Irvine **maybe---would like to hear more about this program
 
UCLA New Genres
 
U of Chicago
NYU Stiendhart
 
THANKS in advance for your thoughts.
xx