michaelwebster

I know CMU is a smaller, interdisciplary program. It will probably not have a lot of other film/video/animation students if your in the fine art dept. CMU is a little more selelctive than SAIC, but SAIC's resources and facilities are pretty good. I don't know if CMU can compete with the resources here, but maybe they can. CMU is a really good school though.

I would also recommend Carnegie Mellon, and I went to SAIC.

Anyone else want to meet up with us in Philly?

I would recommend working for your art dept. in some position rather than in retail if the wages are similar and there are available works study positions. Spending your precious grad school time in a job that won't benefit your career doesn't seem like the best decision to money problems. Of course, I am not in your shoes and if your making over 20/hr as a manager or something then maybe its worth it. At least for me grad school was about working on my work and experiences in the art field so I could get a job/residencies when I graduated, while also improving myself as an artist/educator. I would definitely try to work in the art field if at all possible while in grad school.

True, everyone should just add me on facebook (my name is really Michael Webster, SAIC) and include a note that you will be in Philly next year and I can make a group or something to add everyone to.

Thanks for the info greeneggsntofu. I agree Kazoo, we should organize a meet up in September. Someone should collect the emails of those who are going to Philly, because by September no one will be checking this site anymore. I would be happy to do it if no one else does.

should be soon.

I just got a job teaching woodworking, sculpture, and photo in a high school in the Philly suburbs. I would be nice to meet up with some of you as well since I will probably be missing the studio atmosphere.

I am pretty familiar with Chapel Hill, as I almost went there, and spent a good bit of time with the faculty and students. I only know a little of WashU, because I have included Lauren F Adams' work in a show I curated. Chapel Hill's program is usually pretty diverse, so the group doesn't end up making work that looks alike. Living in Chapel Hill can be really nice, but I still think St. Louis has a more active art scene than Raleigh and Chapel Hill combined together. Chapel Hill is a college town with a really intelligent community, as it is a great state school. Chapel Hill's Teaching Practicum and the opportunity for teaching experience for a class on your own really give you a good chance for teaching straight out of school. I don't know Washington U's teaching opportunities, but if you cannot teach a class yourself, as an instructor of record, then its rare to get a teaching position straight out of school. That said, Chapel Hill is definitely distanced from any substantial art community, and while St. Louis may not have an amazing art community, it will be bigger than Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill has a good art history dept (as does Duke if you reach out to them) so it is possible to have a lot of academic, conceptual dialogue there. Overall, I would recomend whichever one has better teaching opps for you, which is probably Chapel Hill. But, the other half is how much you like the faculty and culture of the art school, which I can't give advice on not knowing your work.

Nice response Boog. It is near impossible to find an art related job now, I worked as a grocery stocker the year between my BFA and MFA. Getting an MFA to teach at the college level straight out of school is near impossible too. The key is to find a job where you can still make your work of the side, and hopefully build up enough of a resume, reputation, and portfolio to get a good job in the art world in 5 or 10 years. Chicago is especially saturated with all the art schools and a relatively little art market. I would agree with you and recommend getting out of Chicago, where your degree from SAIC will actually look exotic.

Most schools are filled with smart faculty who can work with your interests. I work independently with faculty who don't create artwork like me at all, but sometimes they are better than faculty who do work similarly to myself. If your doing interesting stuff, they usually won't try to change you, they'll just push your work into deeper/smarter investigations fo your own interests. I would look more for schools that have the facilities and opportunities you want. Since drawing is the backbone of many art practices, most faculty will be able to push you. Edit: Also I would look into schools whos faculty have a similar rhetoric about abstraction. Your artist statement is very modernist, so that may hinder you at some schools and help you at others.

I am pretty sure the graduate director has called all the accepted sculpture applicants.

For most big universities, the art school or art department must accept you, and then the graduate school (overseeing all master's and phd students) must accept you. The art dept. would have let you know if you were one of their top picks and you were missing a transcript. I have a feeling this is just the graduate school (who often isn't coordinating with the specific depts. very well) sending out emails. Hence why many have already gotten rejection letters before this email.

They might be talking about the overtly business feel of SAIC, because of its size, cost and PR. Thats its biggest problem for me. If none of those bother you, then go for it. Plus getting money from SAIC about impossible, so you know that the faculty are already really into your work. If you want to give me a call to get more info, just PM me.

Chapel Hill takes 8-10 students a year in total, so as an interdisciplinary program only a couple of those are usually strictly photographers. Its a two year program, has many TA and teacher of record opportunities, and a Teaching Practicum (to teach MFA students how to teach at the college level). The Urban Livability fellowship is a possibility for really good candidates who are dealing with social issues of the urban environment, which is a ton of money and a huge resume boost, but is highly competitive.

SAIC photo has 10 grad students a year. Since its a two year program there are 20 total MFA students in school at once. Some of the faculty have been talking about taking 7-9 applicants a year to keep the quality really high. Everyone gets a TA that wants one in the photo dept. By huge you might be talking about MFA students in all departments, since we have probably over a dozen depts, we have over 100 MFA students graduate every year. Class size for most of those departments is around 10.

the need-based aid does not have to be paid back. The student community is like what Chauchau said, not necessarily tight.

I don't think it changes for those that get in off the waitlist, as long as you have filed a FAFSA. Also, I should have double checked on the 50%, cause I was off on that. I was incorporating a TA and workstudy potential into that calculation. SAIC gives me 34% in need-based directly, with over 50% if I include workstudy possibility. But since I don't do workstudy, I only TA 1 class a semester, I don't reach that 50%. The rest is covered in loans.

I don't really know, but I think all their aid is based on FAFSA, which isn't available for international students. Also, SAIC isn't a part of the Council of Graduate Schools, so April 15th may not be their deadline, I would follow whatever dates they give you. Unfortunately, for some reason this year SAIC is backed up on communication with applicants. I would keep bugging them with regards to information you need.

most grad students get a little less than 50% covered with need-based aid, and then the rest you have to cover with loans.

I agree, do glass, and try to combine it with painting if possbile, it sounds delicious. But I must tell you, that there are not many job opportunities for artists, painting or glass. So basing your artwork on employment opportunites is not the way to go about it. If you can make interesting work combining glass and painting, then you will have a really unique niche for your work. Every printmaker knows how to paint too, so your not doing anything unusual if you do the printmaking.

Its a whole different game when your applying to all highly ranked schools! and at 22! The average age for grad school students is about 28. Unfortunately you don't have a link to your work on your profile, but a SAIC or CalArts is looking for things much different in a painter than, say, NYAA. When talking about getting better at painting, that can mean a lot of things to different people, so its finding a program that can teach you what you want to learn. Schools do like diversity of disciplines, but yes, top ranked schools want people that are already pretty good (by their standards).

It depends on the individual and the program. Performance seems a little tighter than sculpture (my program) which is then tighter than painting (because painting is a huge program). Students who spend all their time taking classes and advising outside their dept don't get to know their dept faculty as well. That is one thing I did not really think through. I have worked alot outside my dept, and therefore the sculpture faculty aren't as close to me as some of the other sculpture students. That makes a few more opportunities get directed towards those who have closer connections. Performance is probably the tightest group of the MFA programs. I have taken 1 studio performance class, and I am just as tight with those students and faculty member as I am with anyone else in the school. The physical interaction in some of the exercises quickly breaks down a lot of personal boundaries. It was definitely one of the best classes I have taken at school. There are many classes where I never learn the names of anyone in the class, but those are usually the art history or seminar classes outside of my program. Its usually a mix of both the close-knit dept and caually meeting a bunch of other people who you may never talk to again (especially art history classes).

That is just silly. The school is the only performance art dept in the country, ranked 2nd overall, and spends more money on PR than any other school. Not that I think SAIC's ranking or PR dept are important for my practice, but most people complain about 2 things: the cost and it being too "art world" rather than the other way around. Plenty of students go straight to NY afterwards without problems, but Chicago can actually help that transition if you stay here a few years longer. Well known venues like three-walls and the MCA include a lot of recent graduates in their programming, and then with that on your resume its easier getting a start in NY or LA, if that is really what you want. We have dedicated galleries to performance, like Defibrillator, where a lot of the MFA students show. You may not get as many direct connections as you would at a NY of LA school, but I haven't seen any problems with performance students getting opportunties in those cities.

I hope its cheap. It seems silly to pay much to teach yourself except 12 days out of the year.