obviouslytma

Anyone else here going to CCA?

Bumping this up for anyone headed to the Bay Area for school in the Fall! CCA has two campuses - one in Oakland (near Rockridge BART) and one in SF (about a mile from 16th + Mission BART). I'll split my time between them but thinking of living in Oakland. Anyone here have advice on finding a place (neighborhoods that can still be affordable for a student, any leads on where to find housing)? Would a car be a total drag (not sure what parking is like)? I'm coming from Brooklyn, but have lived there my whole life so mostly have avoided the effects of gentrification on my cost of living...so rly curious what folks are experiencing in SF and Oakland.

I declined programs as soon as I made my decision (towards the end of last week). I actually have until May 1 for all programs except one, but figured I'd just rip off the band-aid and stop wavering in my decision. Not sure if that's common, but that's what I did.

I think going with the one that will leave you with less debt is smart, but depends on how significant the difference is. CalArts has an amazing faculty (incl. visiting artists/faculty) and connections to the fine art photo world, so it's definitely a great choice. I declined due to low funding but perhaps you can negotiate with them?

How's funding looking for folks? I got a half-tuition fellowship, which is pretty strong...but still leaves me with half tuition to pay with money that doesn't exist.... Curious if anyone was able to negotiate a higher funding package.

Thanks for the response, heyward!! Appreciate the thoughts. Theory v. technical is def what I am looking for in an interdisciplinary environment. Curious if you know any scholarships for students in the area - I'm from NYC, so not as familiar with the landscape in SF. Trying to find a way to make living expenses work, ahh!

I work at ICP (not in the MFA) - the facilities are amazing (the very best I've seen - I feel quite spoiled). There are also lots of amazing faculty members, a great visiting artist program, and wide variety of classes. I would visit if you can. They have studios in Long Island City, where each student puts up a solo show, and they also have a group show in the school's gallery in midtown.

Anybody have thoughts on CCA? I haven't visited yet, but I'm weighing a pretty strong funding offer from them with lower funding offers (but wayyyy less expensive cities - so living expenses in the Bay are a big concern). I dig the program from what I see so far and am interested in their dual-degree with Visual + Critical Studies. My options at this point are CCA Fine Arts, UPenn (low funding offer), RISD Photo (low funding), CalArts Photo (funding TBD), and MICA Photo (funding TBD). Anyone have perspectives on these programs? UPenn was (is?) my top choice but their funding offer is way too low to make it feasible...

I was informally accepted during my interview on Tuesday. Haven't received any email or word on funding just yet.

Tim confirmed my interview for Monday - got an email from him last night. Did you hear back?

I think it varies by department - I think photo tries to distribute their funding evenly across all accepted students but the person I spoke to let me know that each department decides what they do with their pool of funding.

RISD photo acceptance - anyone also hear back??

For anyone waiting on MICA: just got a Photo interview request, via email today. Asking to chat via Skype before Monday.

PennDesign folks! Funding letter should be included on March 13th with the online notification. The waiting......

Well, I think! I enjoyed chatting with the faculty - asked me questions that felt pretty standard (why grad school at this time, why cal arts, what am i working on right now) and were pretty transparent with answering my questions. got a good feel from them! how did yours go?