pointedears

I guess most of us would have decided by now. It would be good to have this thread with final decisions for Arts students. I am going to Calarts for an MFA in Graphic Design.

Design.

As far as I know, Cranbrook has a reputation for being too 'artsy' and 'dangerous' for the real world. Most of the alumni get into teaching. It's considered a bit impractical for a 'job'. I personally think you should go to Pratt if graphic design is what you want to do in the future. And if it really is what you want to do, you'll enjoy your time getting ready for it too.

I would have loved to go there for the MFA Design(graphic) program but I am waitlisted. Woes!

But the questions is, should I try to do that at CalArts or Art Center? CalArts is more into the kind of stuff I do. So, should I go to CalArts and forget about the fact that it needs extra investment?

CalArts says I can work on campus, but my total earning for an year will be around $1000-2000 which is almost nothing.

Ok, it's down to Art Center and CalArts now. CalArts is my dream school and I have always wanted to be there. However, they selected me into the 3 year MFA in Graphic Design program while I got into the 2yr track at Art Center. From what I understand, CalArts is more form driven while the program at Art Center is more 'futuristic'. I have no aid from either of the two schools. So, this is the situation - CalArts - $150k in debt, LOVE the school and the program Art Center - $100k in debt, like it but not as much as CalArts The point is, I have to think about paying back these loans too. Does anyone have information on any of these schools which might help me in taking this decision? Thanks a lot!

I am. I think I have resigned to the fact that I will need to pay up. I guess I always knew this but didn't want to acknowledge it. I mean, I applied to all art schools, I knew they don't give much financial aid to international students(if at all). Best case scenario? I'll win a scholarship somewhere and not need to spend anything. Worst case scenario, I will graduate with a debt of $150k or $100k(depending on which school I choose). I might sound stupid here, but I am not scared about the debt part. I see this as an investment that I am ready to make. Plus if my parents see how serious I am about this, they just might give me a soft loan.

Not at all. These rankings are based on a LOT of things including stuff like campus, housing etc. which to me atleast don't matter as much as the academics and the faculty. Their judging parameters might be very different from yours. Like portafoy said, they aren't supposed to be taken as the only way to judge any school. Plus hey, they change every year(and sometimes drastically too).

So, anyone heard anything from the 2D design dept of Cranbrook? Heard of anyone getting accepted/rejected?

Got waitlisted at SVA. I guess I'll be withdrawing my application soon because I have narrowed it down between two other schools already.

Parsons's is just too big an art school for my liking. I would go with SVA. edit - Obviously this is only what I say based on instinct. I have no idea about the other schools but I did research Parsons and SVA before I applied. I chose SVA because like I said, Parsons looks like it takes a lot of students who can pay(based only on that) and quality might be compromised in the process. Ofcourse, these are just my opinions.

Really, don't lose hope till you know. That's what I believe in too.

Hey. You should hear from RISD soon. They sent out the results about 3 days back. I emailed them and they gave me this information. They also gave me information of my rejection. All the best! Right now I am deciding between CCA, CalArts, Art Center and MICA. Any advice will be welcome.

Any opinions? Specially on Valencia. I have been told that the school I want to attend(CalArts) is in 'the middle of nowhere'.

You can surf the core77 forum. It is primarily for Industrial Design but they do talk about schools for other branches too. Use the search function. http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?t=15439

Yay! Congrats to both of you. I don't know much about the photo program at SVA but I love their Graphic Design dept.

I haven't read it but saw someone recommending it - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mooreks/twobody.html

Thank you.

HOLYSHIT! I got into Calarts. This has been my dream school since.... forever! I still can't believe this.

I agree. Application process for us is very different from the others. Guys, if you're applying for an MFA in fall 09 and reading this, don't worry. I got all my notifications after the 15th of March and a few are still pending.

Lol who would this be?

My statement wasn't directed at you at all. I know you've never made any such assumptions.

I have. I know you are not going to believe this, but talk to a few other people from my stream before you dismiss it. Or if you can lay your hands on an SOP from a grad applicant from my field, you'll know what I mean. People in the design field are generally not concerned about how many tattoos you have on your face before they give you a job. And if past client experiences are anything to go by, they generally think a tattoo or torn jeans on a designer shoots up their cool quotient by ten points(which is bullshit ofcourse). Which is exactly what I said some 2-3 posts back. I am not debating that at all. Also, I am not sure what you guys are getting at here. Let's go over this again. Historygirl made a statement about a certain group of people. Next sentence, she says I reinforce the idea. How are the two sentences related at all unless she didn't mean that I belong to that group of people! Talking about judgments, I understand what you mean. I have made a few of mine myself. First, none of you know nothing about my field and yet people have talked about seminars, jobs, me dropping out etc.(my field is right there if anyone wants to go over it). This is an irrelevant point but guess what? If my thesis project is in textspeak written upside down, my professors won't give a rat's ass about it. Infact I am 80% sure my final thesis project will not have any words at all(no written communication at all). Not saying this has got anything to do with the argument here, but hey before you get all concerned about me, atleast check the facts. Or if you don't know anything about a subject, keep your suggestions to yourself. Trust me when I say that you wouldn't even have heard of the names of the top 5 places to do an MFA in my field. Second, I am amused at how you guys have ganged up against me. Can you really say you're attacking textspeak and not me? I mean, I can always dig up a few quotes but you know what you've been saying. Finally, I am leaving to visit two of my universities tomorrow. I can certainly carry on the debate from there but choose not to do so. Obviously both the sides have said what they've wanted to and someone has to put an end to this. Plus I want to start fresh when I come back from the visit and want to leave this forum with good memories and I can only see this thread going downhill. Again, I did not mean to insult or belittle anyone. I apologize if I did that unknowingly. Bottomline - My only point? What you do outside of academia should be no indication of how good you are professionally. (stating this because I think it got lost somewhere along the way) I wish you all the best. Specially the ones in the hugely overpopulated Humanities field. I can't even begin to understand how much harder this whole application process must be for you.(I don't mean to sound sarcastic)

People who are homosexual face a lot of flak from the society. Yeah.Oh, only I meant people who support gay rights there! Not looking for a fight here, honestly. But how can 'people who use chatspeak' mean 'people who don't mind the usage of chatspeak'? I thought literacy meant just that. But I am an ESL so probably I misunderstood all of it. That, or what we're seeing here is backpedaling.