MadamDirector

@Eccyclema @Hamidoo @E. Karenina Thank you all for the good vibes! 
Reporting back after my Yale interview: Yuri was super laid back, friendly, and easy to talk to. Asked about my reasons for applying (of course), a really inspiring show I'd written about seeing in my application, and a lot about the show I'm currently working on. Also got a chance to choose and talk about a highlight from my past shows. Overall a really positive experience. 
Best wishes for all of you with interviews coming up soon! 

@Eccyclema @Hamidoo @E. Karenina Thank you all for the good vibes! 
Reporting back after my Yale interview: Yuri was super laid back, friendly, and easy to talk to. Asked about my reasons for applying (of course), a really inspiring show I'd written about seeing in my application, and a lot about the show I'm currently working on. Also got a chance to choose and talk about a highlight from my past shows. Overall a really positive experience. 
Best wishes for all of you with interviews coming up soon! 

@Eccyclema @Hamidoo @E. Karenina Thank you all for the good vibes! 
Reporting back after my Yale interview: Yuri was super laid back, friendly, and easy to talk to. Asked about my reasons for applying (of course), a really inspiring show I'd written about seeing in my application, and a lot about the show I'm currently working on. Also got a chance to choose and talk about a highlight from my past shows. Overall a really positive experience. 
Best wishes for all of you with interviews coming up soon! 

@Eccyclema @Hamidoo @E. Karenina Thank you all for the good vibes! 
Reporting back after my Yale interview: Yuri was super laid back, friendly, and easy to talk to. Asked about my reasons for applying (of course), a really inspiring show I'd written about seeing in my application, and a lot about the show I'm currently working on. Also got a chance to choose and talk about a highlight from my past shows. Overall a really positive experience. 
Best wishes for all of you with interviews coming up soon! 

I'm going through this whole process for the first time myself, but I found a lot of great info by searching these forums from years past-- I was looking for different schools, but was able to find a lot of folks who'd shared actual questions they were asked. (Even if you don't find a lot of UCLA-specific posts, I'm betting some questions are probably common across the board.)
Break a leg! 

@E. Karenina you are so right! It definitely beats a plane ticket from the southeast to Seattle, but still...

I'm going through this whole process for the first time myself, but I found a lot of great info by searching these forums from years past-- I was looking for different schools, but was able to find a lot of folks who'd shared actual questions they were asked. (Even if you don't find a lot of UCLA-specific posts, I'm betting some questions are probably common across the board.)
Break a leg! 

Yale is great because they never look for a certain type of director  - I have realized that I am more interested in non-traditional theatre training where the director is generator of ideas as well as ensemble/physical training. Plus, spending a year doing shakespeare sounds AWFUL to me...
I will say that it was clear in my interview they really care about getting to know who you are as an artist and take the time to have a true conversation about what excites you. 

I finally got my email Friday afternoon... I was starting to get nervous too, even though I felt like I was being paranoid as well. I'll be in New Haven on Jan 15--where and when are you interviewing, if you don't mind sharing? 

@carabrokes96 I'm in my first year of applying to grad school, so I'm certainly no expert here, but I do feel your pain about the challenge of these damn letters! I find writing about myself to be very challenging, especially when I'm trying to express my passion for directing without sounding like a total cliche. The best advice I've been given is to focus on two major questions: Why you? and Why now? In other words, what do you bring to the table to no one else can? And why do you think grad school is the right move for you at this point in your life/career? If you can answer those questions for yourself, even really informally, then you have the starting point to edit that into a great letter. And as far as your dad's connection to one of the schools, try to look at that as an asset rather than something scary... does having that added knowledge about the school give you more specific reasons for why you think it's a good fit for you? Most of all, just write something to start with. It can be total garbage--you can edit it later! Just start really pinning down why you want to do this, at this time, at these schools, and go from there. Good luck!

Questions I wish I had asked: What is this program truly about? What are students being trained in? What is the day-to-day schedule (traditional university or conservatory style)? Are there creative lab courses or just seminar/theory courses? What kind of collaborations between departments can be set up? What kind of directors are best suited for your program? 
 

Got a call from Yale for an interview today--this is earlier than I was expecting to possibly hear from anyone, so it came as a doubly big surprise. Has anyone else gotten a call? (If so, congrats!) 
p.s. It did definitely sound like they would still be making calls for a couple days, too. 

IMHO, a good way to approach this might be to ask follow-up questions about information that is available about the program online (or in print, or anywhere else you're getting your info). Asking for more detail or specifics about things you've already learned about the program seems to me like a good way to show that you've taken the initiative to do your research, while also getting more details about the things that pique your interest. 

Hey Y'all,
 
I've been a bit of a lurker, but I just got the call this morning from Yale for an interview. I'm a human shaped ball of nerves, shock and excitement right now.  About to dive deep into interview research and practice.
Any tips/advice?

Got my call from Yale today as well!

Got my call from Yale yesterday!

Got a call from Yale for an interview today--this is earlier than I was expecting to possibly hear from anyone, so it came as a doubly big surprise. Has anyone else gotten a call? (If so, congrats!) 
p.s. It did definitely sound like they would still be making calls for a couple days, too. 

@ctbck @LittleViking131 @MadamDirector Thank you so much for your insight. I have decided to apply to a couple programs just to see what comes my way.
If I don't have any doors open, then it isn't meant to be. I can make this program work if I ask/beg for what I need/want to learn and hopefully get funding for summer programs in physical theatre/devising. This truly is an amazing program and while it may not have the infrastructure or curriculum that I want, I can make my own path. Plus, no other program let's me direct a supported show every semester, nor the opportunity to direct a re-imagined opera. They accepted me for a reason and the faculty have been amazing at finding ways to fulfill my needs thus far. Plus I'll have minimal debt. 
Wishing you ALL luck as you head into interviews. PLEASE realize that you are interviewing the schools just as much as they are interviewing you. ASK QUESTIONS! 

Hey!
Sorry to hear that you're school isn't what you thought it would be. Now as someone who has not been to an MFA program (yet!) but who has been a working freelancer for some time now, I am not sure how much weight my 2 cents have...
To me, the pros (free school, good school, and new playwrights -- major bonus there!) out weight the current woes. I believe that graduate school is meant to do two things: stretch your artistry and at the same time focus your voice. So it seems good that the classes - so far - are built around a different school of thought than your current one. And with that, who is to say that those foundation courses in a year 1 aren't going to help you when you produce the type of work you want to create. And if you want to teach at university, having a wide range of experiences will make you more marketable and will allow you to help your students achieve what they want, be it the more "traditional theater" you are learning now or the more experimental style you prefer (and everything in between!) I would say don't think of it as "creatively frustrated" but "creatively widened" - we all have to learn things we don't want to but who knows if those other ideas sneak into one's process at some point. When it comes the classes outside of director's lab, do you just take electives in a sense from the other disciplines? Maybe find classes taught by faculty members who follow your dogma, or at least support you in your efforts. Sometimes you have to go beyond the class syllabus to get the most out of a class.
Have you talked to any alumni who are more aligned to your artistic ideas? How are they? Do they have insight? And with that, are there a lot of working alumni from your program? That reputation can of course help you after graduation as you start to direct your own work. And to circle back to previous paragraph, knowing different styles make you more marketable as a freelancer, which means your bills are paid. I've directed fluffy American classics because I have to pay rent, and from those gigs, I end getting the opportunities to do the work I personally prefer. You may not want that career path, but it is a bonus of having a wide range of skills/coming from a reputable school (especially how to develop new work!)
Have you looked at the alumni from schools/programs that focus on more experimental work? How are their alumni? What are they doing right now? Do they carry the same weight? That said, are there maybe summer programs/intensives that you could do to help supplement the education you feel is lacking thus far? SITI or Pig Iron's summer intensive are great examples (and yes, there are many more.) A lot of universities even offer grants and funding for students to do just that.
It seems like they aren't telling what kind of director you should be if you can do your thesis in the way you want, which to me means you're in a pretty great program. And maybe meet up with with your other MFA students (if there are MFA actors in the program or even talk to the playwright students) and start creating on your own art for summer Fringe festivals or even for after graduation.
My vote is so stick with the program, learn as much as you can, and then enter the working world with as many tools in your tool belt. No program is perfect, but yours seems to be pretty awesome by my standards.
Cheers! And with everything aside, hope you're school year is going well!

My gut says to go with the freelance artist (especially if there are any that you've worked with multiple times). Have them explain their connection to you and their qualifications in brief. I would think that those three options gives a wide breadth of information about you, your working style, etc. 

@_kita and @Sigaba thanks so much for your input! The meeting I mentioned caught me totally off guard, which put me into a bit of a panic. (I'd expected a similar conversation to happen soonish, but it ended up coming up in a weird moment.) I feel much better now about just keeping my mouth shut until I at least know for sure whether I'll actually be going anywhere! (And being rewarded for my work at my current job in the meantime) 

Most of the time, you don't need to do more than 2 weeks notice. If you have a lot of responsibility, you may want to work with your boss on delegation and training others. Your approach needs to depend on a couple of things:
Will you jeopardize your job if you tell them early Would you be a part of the team hiring your replacement What type of emotional and operation problems will your decision to leave cause I was in a situation whether I was working full-time as lead staff/counselor to the program manager. I was her 'right-hand' person. I managed most of the individual and group sessions, and a managed a lot of the therapeutic policies/programming. Therefore, I knew my leaving would cause a major emotional and operational problem. So when I left, I based my method off of my expectation that I would need to help her deal with the shock of me leaving, delegate more tasks out, train my replacement, and help my clients process me leaving.
  I gave my program all summer to get used to me leaving. I told my boss, "heads up, I applied, but I don't know if I will get in." To soften the blow, I didn't tell her I would be leaving. I told her I wasn't sure if I would still work full-time, part-time, or need to leave." That gave her time to consider her other staff team as resources. After I was accepted, I informed her, but asked her not to share the news with the clients or other staff members. We started planning administrative needs, and then 2 months before I was leaving, I let everyone else know. I also helped her emotional prepare for it before needing to have the clients and other staff deal with it too.
Everyone else was told about 2 months before I left, and the company was give a 1 month's notice so they could put up the advertisement (and I could interview replacements with the boss). I was perhaps a little "overzealous," but it was a successful transition and I'm not losing any sleep over it.
 
 

This response is for you in particular. 

Accept the promotion. You have earned it. You owe it to yourself to put yourself in the best position to succeed.
Do the job to the best of your abilities and in such a manner where you can train your successor and hand off your work when it is time to go to graduate school. 

In the event you earn admission to a graduate program, then you can start to figure out how to handle your departure knowing that you've already done your level best to put your organization and your team in a position to succeed. 
Above and beyond all else, do not feel badly about opportunities that you've earned. 

@SnowAngel3535 I am so in the same boat. I've not told anyone at my job that I'm even applying to grad schools, partly because my chosen degree has pretty low acceptance rates, so its entirely possible that I won't even get in first time around. But recently I found myself in a totally unexpected conversation about increasing my responsibilities (and paycheck) in a big way. This is something I'd absolutely want to happen in the event that I am still here in a year, but I also feel tons of guilt about agreeing to be part of these big changes, knowing that my hope is to be gone within 12 months. 
Anyone have ethical advice? I'm feeling like a pretty rotten person at the moment.