Mary Ping

turned down SAIC sculpture today fyi...

Actually I think that is the whole idea... The Need Access reflects your status a lot more accurately than the FAFSA alone, with all its voluntary parts, etc. People with the greater degree of financial independence and more demonstrable need should in theory benefit the most, regardless of documented parental income. Since there are few objective standards for when someone is an adult financially, it wouldn't make sense to say that those over or under a certain age submit different materials. Some thirty-year-olds live with their parents, some seventeen-year-olds paid their way through college. (And most are somewhere in between.)

It is not quite so simple as just reporting or not reporting parental income... Yale uses the FAFSA information as well as Need Access, which from what I can tell, is also a kind of federal government evaluation of need. Need Access asks you to report on a wide range of information (like your parents' rent, the car they drive) that informs the impression of your assets. It is also not simply your parents' objective dollar assets that get weighed, but you are also asked what they have contributed in the past and what they will contribute in the future. Parent income on the surface seems to undermine the claims a student without significant personal assets could have to financial aid, but if in truth you are reporting the degree that parents contribute to your life expenses. The University, I am guessing, will take this as a sign that one's parents are more capable/amenable to contributing to graduate school than a kid's parents who have never contributed anything to their child's education. I'm curious how it is actually formulated, but that's all I know, and still waiting to see what my own situation is.

Ohhhhhhh. So I will see you at Yale then.

So Jestem, does that mean you are going to CalArts and not Yale? You sound really excited about CalArts

Sorry, painters, I was most likely wrong about department-wide notification today. I know that the undergraduate applicants get their notices today but obviously every program has its own deadlines. Speaking as someone who has not made up their mind about schools at all, I would not think waitlist is a foregone conclusion by any means. The wait feels forever, but time elapsed really has little to do with acceptances it seems. Keep (realistic) hope alive.

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Thanks for your reply! I'm looking forward to the interview and seeing the building, etc. I am trying to think about what questions would likely be asked, and I think you're right that the connection between past studies and the design program is an important one. Since I'm not far from Yale I'm going in person and don't have send anything in advance...I think. That is honestly the part that concerns me the most. I submitted almost everything I've ever done of value, so that does not leave anything too compelling to add to what I've already shown. But they say you should bring additional pieces not represented in the portfolio...this is a problem for me. Just have to do the best with what I have I guess. Congratulations on getting through a bunch of your interviews already.

Hi! My RISD interview is Thursday! Do you have any advice? I applied for the three year program too. It seems to me like you definitely fall in the area of being very advanced for the 3 year class (I did not study design at all and you would be with someone like me who has so little experience) but you'd be more of a beginner amongst the people who did 4 years of undergraduate study in only design. I'm sure the faculty will admit you first and then decide if you belong in 2 year more than 3 year. I saw your posting somewhere else wondering if the skype interview is less helpful than being there in person, but I don't think you should worry about it at all. They will get a good impression of you either way. The other program I am interviewing for is Yale too in a couple weeks - Good Luck!