nikcav

The MA program I will be entering is a very intensive 12 month program. Because of this, it does not have any TA/GA/etc. positions. It is also very new (I believe I'll only be in the second class) so I don't think it has funds for other scholarships either. I'm wondering if it would be a likely possibility for me to be able to have them waive my out of state tuition and just pay in state. How common is that? Does it vary between school or do most masters programs waive out of state? Any other insights?

Just found out that I am officially accepted to CU, so I definitely want to hear all I can about living in Boulder. What are the best/worst places to live & why? Is public transit still as good as it was during other parts of this thread? What other advice can you offer?

@qt_dnvr I'm headed to Colorado, so I'd love to hear any suggestions you have of things to do while I'm there!

I kind of have my own bucket list going on. Though mine is less about going to places and more about making sure I get my fill of seafood and cajun food before relocating. I've also been buying shirts/coffee mugs/pint glasses from some of my favorite places. And I'm trying to buy art from all of my friends who are local artists.

I am so irritated and stressed out right now. I only applied to one program this year after a very unsuccessful time last year. This program has rolling admissions and claims that after your application has been completed, you should get a response in 3 weeks max. I submitted my application around the end of January, and I still have not heard anything. On the first of this month, I emailed the program director and asked if I could check on the status of my application. He said he had reviewed my application and at the beginning of the following week he would be meeting with his committee to make final decisions. So I assumed I would know something by the end of that week or beginning of the next...well, the month is almost over, and I haven't heard a damn thing. And when I check my application status on their website, it still says it's being reviewed. Also, I can't seem to find anyone on this site who applied to the same program. I feel like this is getting ridiculous, and I'd like to email him again, but I don't want to be annoying. But it just drives me crazy having no idea what's going on. I need a little bit of certainty in my life right now.

I applied for the MA in Communication Design at CU Boulder. This is a new program (only about to enter into its second year of existence) and currently has rolling admissions. The site says that applicants should get a response in three weeks max. Well, I applied in late January. Three weeks later I still had not gotten a response, but I tried to be patient and gave it a little more time. On March 1st when I still hadn't heard anything, I emailed the program director (I had previously been in contact with him before applying to learn more about the program and be put in touch with current students) asking to check the status of my application. He replied the same day saying that he was meeting with his committee early the following week to finalize decisions. That would have been the beginning of last week. And I still haven't heard anything. It's kind of driving me crazy because I want to go to this school so badly. Would it look bad if I emailed him again? Thanks!

Has anyone else applied to the Strategic Communication Design MA at CU Boulder? And have you heard anything yet? They're kind of driving me nuts. The site says since it's rolling admissions, it shouldn't take longer than 3 weeks for us to get a response, but I applied in mid-January and haven't heard anything. I emailed the program director last week and he said that he was meeting with his committee early this week to make the final decisions, so I assumed I would hear something by the end of the week, but still silence. My anxiety is through the roof right now. I hate feeling so unorganized about life plans.

The program I am hoping to attend is a professional MA in Strategic Communication Design, and it is an intensive year and a half program, so there is no opportunity to TA. And it's not research based so there's no fellowships or anything like that. And it's a brand new program, so it's not yet funded enough to have departmental scholarships. That leaves me to having accepted the fact that I will likely be having to take out loans. And that's fine since it's just for a year and a half, but I would like to supplement that as much as possible with other funding options. So does anyone know of any scholarships that are open to a more broad array of applicants? I've looked through sites like fastweb and Peterson's but I feel like all of those are either some ridiculous contest or that they're just super specific and I don't fall into the categories they want. Does anyone have any suggestions of where to look? And please don't just tell me I should have found a better funded program.

@catsnbikes Thanks! We're not really certain yet where specifically we'll be living. We're trying to figure out where we can have some decently cheap rent but still possibly get a 2 bedroom, so I'm sure we'll end up in one of the surrounding towns. It's just kind of overwhelming to figure out where to even start. I've been checking out padmapper to try and see what I can find. I'll happily take recommendations in that area too!

I have a BFA in Visual Arts-photography and I'm now trying to get into grad schools for communication design, so I'm going to say I'm at least slightly qualified to answer your question. To start, I would say it definitely depends on where you are living. I'm in Louisiana, so I'm sure things are probably a bit different here from other places, but I'm sure some things are the same. In the city I live in, a lot of the galleries are run by people who are fairly young, so they're always looking for artists that are still in school/just out of school. In those cases, it's completely fine to approach the galleries yourself. Try calling to set up a meeting to have someone view your portfolio. Also, it's a good idea to attend arts events and openings in your area. That way you're able to start networking with people who could possible help you out at some point. It's also a good idea to be on the look out for juried shows. You should check out the site callforentry.org. It has a section where you can search by state for different competitions or juried exhibitions that you can enter. These do usually cost money, but it's not a ton. And if you're selected to be in the exhibition, it means your work will be available for people to purchase and they usually give away cash prizes at those events. And that site is cool because you can even submit your work in other states. I had a piece up at a gallery in Oregon for a few months, and I feel like that's a nice extra bit on my CV. Also, I think it's important to remember that you don't need a fancy gallery in order to have an exhibition. If you and a group of friends all want to get together and rent a little space for a group exhibition, you can totally put that on your CV as well. You can also look into doing a residency somewhere. Usually most of those come with a guaranteed exhibition at the end of the residency period. As far as getting legit gallery representation and having one sole gallery that always hosts your work and tries to sell it...I have no idea how to do that. The city I'm in doesn't have a lot of formal galleries like that. I hope some of that was helpful!

@catsnbikes @av2010 @DBear @heyDW @rising_star Thank you all for the great tips! I'm moving in just a few months and getting more and more excited! @catsnbikes can you tell me a bit more about the food? My boyfriend and I were discussing this the other day, and we con't really know what to expect in terms of culture when it comes to food. We're in Louisiana so we're used to lots of seafood and cajun food. It will be interesting to be in a state that isn't partially bordered by water.

So I'm not exactly looking for info on a particular city, but for those of you who have made a fairly drastic move, how do you cope with moving from one climate to another? I am currently living in south Louisiana which is pretty much hot all the time with like 200% humidity. But in the instances that is does actually get cold (usually not really lower than the 40s) the humidity makes it into this unbearable wet cold that is pretty much impossible to enjoy. If I get into the program I applied to (or even if I don't), I'll be moving to the Boulder, CO area. And I know the weather and climate are very different there. So has anyone moved to a drastically different climate? Are there things I need to be aware of or ways to prepare my body for such a change? Any other tips/advice?

This is apparently a super old post, but I'm going to respond anyways in case someone else needs this info later. I did my undergrad in Lafayette, and I've lived here for three years since. As far as apartments go, there are plenty near campus, and I'd say a one bedroom/studio could run from in the $600s-$800s. Public transportation sucks, but we're becoming more bike friendly. A couple of the apt. complexes even have their own buses that shuttle you to campus. Some apartments may be closer to grocery stores than others. But a car is a bit more necessary. The library is three stories. I'm not really sure how great it is though because I didn't spend much time there because I got an art degree. The campus is fairly small though, which I enjoyed. Just in general, Lafayette is a very friendly town. And the culture here is so different to anywhere else. The food is amazing. There's lots of diversity in music. And you should also just google Festival International de Louisiane and Festivals Acadiens et Creoles.

Does anyone know of any other programs similar to CU Boulder's MA in Strategic Communication Design?: http://www.colorado.edu/cmci/academics/advertising-pr-and-media-design/graduate-degrees#ma Something that discusses design as a way of problem solving or something that may include graphic design specifically with an environmental focus.

Hey everyone, This is my second year applying, so I'm really hoping to have more success this year than I did last year. That being said, I have a question for everyone applying/that has previously applied. Most of the applications ask for us to submit 20 images, so I'm curious what everyone is taking that to mean. Are you guys submitting 20 separate pieces? Or are you submitting maybe 15 and then 5 detail images, or something to extent? I'm really curious to hear answers spanning throughout the different mediums, so if you could also include that in your response, that would be great. Thanks!