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I also applied to Hunter. It's known for being almost like an artist residency because the studios are so big. It also doesn't only have art...my great grandmother went there for undergrad and was an elementary school teacher. She would probably be over 100 if she were still alive, so Hunter has been around for a long time.

sounds great, but what's the financial situation? I have about enough money saved to pay for 4 months of groceries...

I would ask you how many days after submitting did you get the interview...but a) that would be me being a huge control freak, and they may have like a certain day every week or every few weeks where they review the ones who have already sent in apps, or c) maybe your portfolio was just so great that they took a two second look and thats all they needed! LOL. I'll just focus on my life and not worry about it. PS I got a big package from SAIC in the mail....which even though I knew it couldnt be an acceptance yet...was still really cruel because they sent me a graduate catalogue...why would i want that when I have already applied, but haven't been accepted? I must have checked a "send me more information" box on the app or something.

omg congrats on the interview!!! I just got a bad stomach ache after i read that because i literally just sent my purchase slideroom portfolio last night (all my other stuff was already sent). I wonder if I will hear back either with a rejection or interview invite soon? I'm not ready for a rejection letter, but obviously none of us are I honestly think I will probably cry, and then go and drink a few margaritas and maybe feel a little bit better. Did you hear back via email? or letter? I am also proud to announce that I have officially submitted all 10 of my apps! Only problem is I have had issues with my transcripts being mailed on time so i am hoping i dont get entirely screwed over at UT Austin and SAIC for that because the damn transcripts are late. Ps I cannot believe u sent in 16 apps. It literally took me like 80 + hours to do the 10...after two straight weeks of it my middle and index finger of my right hand were sore from scrolling on my mac and typing to fill out the apps and writing personal statements.

Nope...just finished the BFA in May 10.....and now applying for the first time. Almost done with my applications, so I am trying to stay hopeful, but I'm worried I won't get accepted anywhere. PS I don't think it's all about NY...but I agree with you about Indiana in that I prefer to be in or near a large city, and Indiana is somewhere I've never been, but from what I've heard it's not very populated.

Just have to share my own little theory about art, as like you I am more traditional in my approach. Not quite as traditional...but I think anyone who does somewhat representational oil paintings is definitely traditional to an extent. My philosophy is that art can definitely still be traditional and conceptual at the same time...obviously our work means something and has deeper ideas to it even if it is representational. I'm not in any way saying there is anything wrong with "conceptual" art, but my personal taste is for art that stands alone as a visual image. In other words: I want to have fun just looking at it! Sometimes conceptual work is interesting, and has cool ideas behind it that really make me think...but without the "cool ideas" I wouldn't be able to enjoy it for the purity of technical skill, etc. PS, Yale may be number one, but RISD, SAIC, MICA, Hunter, etc are all top ten as well, so they will also give you a good name. Indiana University at Bloomington is also a top tier school that has a lot of traditional painters (seen a lot of it in New american paintings). Totally go check out New american paintings at the book store...I flip through it all the time and it says where people go to school or where they graduated from, so you can see work from all the schools.

Just called today, and you were right...they said the statement should only be about 1 page. That takes a load off!

Yes, it is usually ok to include drawings, but i you are really worried about it then I would call and ask. I'm submitting drawings in mine.

I would say this is some really strong work...I am especially in love with your black friday drawing. I am similar to you in that I took some time off as well...although I only did a semester, probably could have used more. Yes, RISD is ranked number 3 for painting. I could definitely see you at Hunter, Tyler, RISD, MICA or SAIC. I could be wrong, but I checked out the work at Columbia, and a lot of it was super duper conceptual, so they might be less accepting of your more traditional approach, but don't quote me on that because I am no expert. Yale might be more conceptual as well, but I feel like I have seen alumni work from Yale that is more traditional. Chuck Close obviously...but I guess he earned his MFA a long time ago. I just know that Columbia is super conceptual from checking out student work online. I had made that assumption about Yale being super conceptual based on work I saw in magazines such as "new American Paintings." I visited MICA last fall, and a bunch of students at Hoffberger were doing more traditional painting, so you should be fine. You can't change who you are because of what you think schools want anyways.

Totally understandable. I did end up briefly mentioning it...just because I felt that being an art ed student increased my cultural awareness of contemporary art, and gave me the ability to view art from the point of view of art critic or historian as well as artist. Hopefully they don't take that the wrong way...it really sucks that some people think you can't be serious about your art and love working with kids at the same time. With that said, I did spend a lot of time writing lesson plans in which we quack like ducks with our fingers to make pinch pots when I could have been in the studio, but oh well, no regrets in life.

It's my first year applying too! I am terribly anxious...very worried that I won't get accepted anywhere...I really hope not to go through this again.I think my friends and family and professors, etc have about had it with listening to my obsession, so I'll tell everyone my list too: Tyler Hunter PAFA University of Delaware UT Austin SVA Rutgers SAIC CCNY Purchase college Possibly: Claremont Graduate U., U. California, Irvine I've got everything well underway..already sent in my apps and portfolios for both UT Austin and SAIC! I'm finding the biggest stress right now is that I stupidly didn't request transcripts until Dec. 23rd, and I am stressing badly that my professors will get my rec. letters in on time! I'm freaking out a bit because UT Austin is due on Jan 5th, and my transcripts may not have even left VA yet...I'm getting prepared to make a 4 hour round trip to drive to my college, beg for the transcripts, and pay to overnight them to Texas if that's what it's going to take. Good luck with the UCSD app...I am sure it will come soon, I know the SAIC portfolio info wasn't emailed to me until about 24 hours after I sent in the app.

Kaelynn, how are you doing with your process? We are all getting closer and closer to submitting all of our applications as deadlines are quickly approaching! I can't take the suspense.

Yea totally true...I will call as well. I was like whaaaat the h? That is positively insane that they would read all those statements...so I'm betting you are right. I will feel so much relief if it doesn't have to be that long.

F tripods anyway...I bought one for $15 at target..and couldnt get the darn thing straight. In the end I realized I had simply done a crapy job building some of my canvases, so they weren't perfectly symmetrical! I ended up just photographing without it.

I took all my work outdoors and photographed in the sunlight. My neighbors were a little freaked out by crazy 6 foot paintings in my driveway...I guess that should be expected in suburbia. But yea I think the bright sunlight helps, my images were much sharper than they had been when I shot them inside. I borrowed my dad's slr camera, but honestly if you have great lighting, a $200 price range digital camera will probably do the trick. I've hit a serious landmark in my process as I officially have all my work photographed, edited, titled, and measured for dimensions...once you get that done, you will hate your life a little less, believe me! I spent all day yesterday doing that. Of course I am not a professional photographer, so some of the colors aren't perfect, but I did as good of a job as I possibly could I hope. I can;t believe you are applying to 15 schools! Very ambitious, so good luck. I'm actually applying to 10 or 11...think it's better that way...less chance of having to reapply next year, but the only downside is the incredible amount of work. I finally sent in all materials for one application...almost done with a second...and now I am hating my life over the Tyler statement of purpose! Anyone else applying there? It's my first choice school...I hadn't realized until now that I had misread the length of the statement. (I would have begun writing sooner, but I was desperately trying to finish painting) I went to submit my application with a 3,200 character essay that I felt was great...only to realize that it called for a maximum length of 32,000 character essay! That's like a ten page paper....ouch. I figured that if it is allowed to be that long, then I should probably write at least 5 pages. I'm assuming that they require such a long statement because they don't have formal interviews at Tyler. That is my understanding from my visit back in Sept.

Speaking of teaching...I wonder if anyone has any advice for my situation: I have a bfa in studio art but was also an art education student. Yes it took away from my own studio time, but I took an extra semester of school for my own art because of this. I mentioned a little bit in one of my statements of purpose about my studies in art ed, and its relation to my own development as an artist. I showed it to my painting professor, and he deleted it from my statement, saying that the school would not want to hear anything at all about art ed because it would make them think I'm not as serious of an artist. Any thoughts on this?

eww resizing images.....i need to do that too. and make CD's. I wish every school would just use slideroom.

Me too. I'm still finishing up 3 paintings, and was photographing for a few hours today. I really really hate tripods. Almost finished writing my most intense statement of purpose...but I've got about 9 more to go. I'm worried because even though I bought a really good digital camera, some schools like PAFA blow up the images on a 6 foot x 6 foot screen, and I hope my jpeg image quality looks alright at that size!

Yea, I'll for sure look into it. First I have to look into the financial aid situation because I am broke, but if two students there have full funding then that must mean there is hope for at least a little bit.

I've actually heard about Claremont because I saw one of their MFA candidates in "New american paintings" and the work was incredible.

Yes, that's what I have been finding. I guess what I meant is, for example, a school like Yale or SAIC is going to have students making better work than a school in some dinky town where they get 14 MFA applicants per year (there are lots of schools like this). I think the real question is, clearly the dinky town school with 14 applicants is going to be easier to get into than Yale, but would it still be worth attending? Or if you got into that school should you just forget about it.

What is the funding situation like at NYU?

did you end up going to Parsons? I'm thinking of applying to CCNY for next year...did you ever find out anything about it?

Does anyone know what the top MFA programs in NYC are besides SVA, Columbia, and Hunter? I am applying to Hunter, and wanted to apply to SVA, but I don't know if I want to apply to SVA anymore because they don't give financial aid. I know NYU is good, but I heard they also don't give financial aid. What does anyone know/ think about Parsons or Pratt? How about CCNY? Are they considered good programs for painting? Any other schools in or near NYC that are good?

Definitely go for it. Even at 40 it's totally worth the degree and learning experience, but never say in an application or interview that your goals involve teaching. They don't want to hear that. It doesn't matter to them how old you are...some of the grad students at my school have been in their 40's... but they don't want to take students who want the degree in order to become a professor.