tugbamina_871

Word! Same here, and it is so expensive to print large archival photos, let alone haul framed prints to New Haven. Best of luck to you, I sincerely hope it all works out!! In terms of voicing a preference, they said "you do you" without saying it really. At one point the chair got funny when someone asked "What is the ideal distribution of actual pieces vs. detail/installation shots?" He said "how do you think I'm going to reply to that?" I think in terms of evaluating people they look at how the personality and life experience connects to the artistic decisions made in the work. My interpretation was that they really wanted to see that connection, but what do I know? Cheers!

Happy to do so! I took the train from NYC and was in a crunch, so when I arrived a little late there were about 400 people in the main hall looking at a powerpoint of alumni work. The department chairs introduced themselves, and later everyone went to their department's smaller group talk. At photo there were 3 professors and a critic, and about 100 listeners. They said they wanted to see artistic interests, obsessions, ability in the work. They expected all students to live in New Haven. Submitting unfinished work in the application was fine (subtext was, submitting unfinished work is fine as long as we find it interesting). Detail shots were fine as long as they weren't too many - I guess that is less relevant for photo as you can submit a high res image that they can zoom into for details if it is conventional work. The one point everyone kept making was that Yale had a distinct style and was small. If you wanted great expensive facilities or a big green room they weren't that. Some questions to faculty included the earlier anecdote I shared about recommendations, TAships, and the like. TAships come in the second year. Two professors said we could disregard the representative work thing in the prompt if we wanted. One of them said, "I don't know why that's there?" A first year said there is a diversity committee - a current student talked about it but I was not sure if that was only in the school of arts or the entire university. I am a POC and I also observed the faculty and students to be mostly white. We took a tour of facilities. We saw some nice printers and a studio. We were told current students do a mix of digital and analog but the color processor wasn't great and they were encouraging current students to switch. I cannot remember if this was said openly, but their tone indicated that. Later we re-convened with current students. They talked about the heavy coursework. Cannot speak to other departments but students have a crit every 5 weeks in photo, not counting final crits. I thought the students were very nice, patient and approachable. They talked about the visiting artist program a bit, and mentioned some big names that came that semester to look at student work. We then went upstairs to a mixed first year show of work and had some food. Some of the faculty were there to talk with prospective students and answer more questions. Overall it was enjoyable! It DID make a difference for me as I now feel more self confident about my application. On an irrelevant note, I am also very superstitious so it meant something for me personally that I visited and saw the people who would read my application.

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone had insight into the Oxford MFA program. I think someone wrote last year that they applied and were accepted. (@Tynniffer?) Is it career suicide to go (funding concerns aside) to the UK and later seek a teaching job in the US market or a place in the art scene in a major US city? Sorry for the careerism, but I just wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on this.

I went to the admissions open house this year, which was REALLY helpful by the way, and someone asked this question. The answer was, ask people who know you, it's better if they are in the arts, but they should know you well. I do not have a BFA and do not know many artists who are not peers. I remember Alment's situation too, I think he had peer recommendations among his letters. I saw his work in person at the student show that was up during the open house, it was great!

Hi rz67! I hear it's a great program, my advisor said to apply. In fact she crossed out multiple schools from my list and said to apply to RISD instead. The only problem is that it does not offer full funding. At least it didn't in 2014 when I met an admissions person at the Chicago portfolio day. I guess there is always FAFSA.

Hi YayYayYay thanks for the generous advice! That does make sense.

I see that your discipline is Photography. Dawid Petros (the idea of north) may be of interest, although not too directly. I would also check out MassArt's faculty. Anna Collette and Barbara Bosworth.

Hi, good luck to everyone as deadlines near! I have been working on my statement (some may say I started early!) and right now it is just a little bit over 500 words, which is the cut-off for schools like Yale and Columbia. SAIC and MassArt, where I am also applying, don't really have a strict word count outlined in their prompt. What do you guys think about submitting a one-pager that is like, 520 words? Is that a big no-no?

what is your area of study? i know that saic has 1-2 full tuition merit scholarships per department. northwestern has an extremely small program but everyone is fully funded (incl. stipend). I would check out this thread:

Thanks!!

Hi, is anyone planning on going to the Yale open house? My schedule just cleared up and I want to go but the registration deadline has passed ? Should I just show up?