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Eric from America

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Eric from America last won the day on November 12 2020

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    New Media, New Genres, Sculpture, Sound

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  1. Hey @dazedandconfused99 those schools -- VCU, RISD, UCLA, and SAIC -- are all great schools. I went to VCU for Kinetic Imaging (new media/time based art) and also took sculpture classes and classes with sculpture students so maybe I'm biased here. I can agree with what @slickjaketheruler is saying. And also, VCU's "Accepted + 10k stipend" would probably make my decision for me. I mean, all four are great programs, three of them want you to pay them, and one of them wants to pay you $10K? I'd take that $10,000!
  2. Congrats on those acceptances @Shade54! Several of those (RISD D+M, SAIC Art & Tech, NYU ITP, Columbia) were ones that were part of my decision making process when I applied a couple years ago. All highly respected programs where you probably can't really go wrong with any of them. Here's my brief thoughts: If RISD D+M is your definite top choice, where you would say "yes" in a heartbeat if they offered you a spot off their waitlist, make sure they no-doubt-about-it know that! When it comes to deciding who to contact off the waitlist, I'd suspect any school would rather invite someone they know will 110% accept vs someone who might take weeks to decide and ultimately turn them down, so then they have to ask someone else, wait a few more weeks, etc. If you want to talk further, I'm happy to over DM. Congrats again.
  3. Hi, Leah! I ended up going to VCU, not SAIC. (I had a lot of great options, could only pick one.) To your SAIC and MICA comparisons: 1) I think the size of the programs are pretty close, with MICA a little bigger? https://www.saic.edu/academics/departments/low-residency/students lists 20 total current students SAIC low res, 9 in class of 2022 and 11 in class of 2023. https://www.mica.edu/graduate-programs/studio-art-summer-low-residency-mfa/students/class-of-2021/ lists 10 students in MICA's low res class of 2021, so around 30 across their whole 3-year low res program. 2) Regarding the SAIC low res mentor, yeah, SAIC does seem more interdisciplinary so maybe you might get matched with someone who seems like a stretch, but you being in a major urban area like Los Angeles and SAIC having such a wide alumni network that it would seem fairly easy to match you up, easier than if you were living in a far more remote area. I was living in Detroit, and I was thinking of a few SAIC alumni that I knew of in the area that I might suggest they let me work with. Maybe you might think of your dream SAIC alum in Los Angeles that could be your mentor and see if they think they can make it happen. 3) Yeah, length of the program seems like the big difference. When I was applying, I made the decision that I wanted to apply to only two year programs, so I could get out of grad school and do other things ASAP. I know some other people who chose only three year programs thinking that people usually only go to grad school once and so they wanted to get as much of it as they could. And yeah, if the programs seem roughly similar otherwise, you could pick any one of those differences that is most important to you and make your decision based on it. Best of luck! Having two great choices is a great problem to have! Send me a DM any time if you want.
  4. Hey, congrats on getting accepted to both SAIC and MICA low residency! I was accepted at SAIC low residency a couple years ago, as well as SAIC Film Video New Media Animation and SAIC Art & Technology, so I know quite a bit about SAIC. I was living in Detroit at the time which made SAIC pretty easy to visit. I did not apply to MICA so I don't really have a first-hand comparison between the two. They are both really well-respected schools, so you probably can't go wrong either way, and your decision is probably going to be based on your own personal preferences. Like, I remember there were several SAIC faculty members (Lee Blalock, Claudia Hart, Gregg Bordowitz, etc. etc) I was really interested in working with who were then teaching in their low residency program. So, if all else seems equal, your decision might come down to which school has the most faculty that are most interesting to you. Oh, and, they are obviously in different locations, which maybe allow you to do different things when on or near campus and which maybe attract students from different locations. And, OK, I'm looking at MICA's website and it looks like some key differences between the two are: 1) MICA is a three year program, SAIC is a two year program. 2) Both schools have online classes during the fall and spring, along with in-person summer classes, but MICA also has a short in-person winter session. SAIC had the option of taking electives during winter session or during the summer, and if you chose to do them during the winter session that could be in Chicago but also could include study trips to New York or Los Angeles (I was applying pre-covid, so I'm not sure about study trips lately or currently). 3) SAIC would connect you with a mentor that was local to you for studio visits, etc during the fall and spring. I don't see anything local like that from MICA, but like I said, I know a lot more about SAIC so maybe I'm just missing that. So, assuming they cost roughly the same money-wise, those seem like the key differences. I hope that's helpful. Like I said, both very well-respected schools, so you probably can't go wrong and it will come down to your own personal preferences on what matters most to you. Good luck on your decision, let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck wherever you end up!
  5. I was in similar situations when I applied. One school initially asked me to make a decision in like mid February, when I still had interviews with other schools in mid March. I just politely explained the situations, and everyone was always cool about it. I did try to get back to everyone as fast as I could, meaning I tried not to have more than one or two schools waiting on my decision at a time. Like, if you're accepted at five schools, and still waiting on three others, then make a decision among the first five while you wait, let them make someone on their wait list very happy ASAP, if that makes sense. To everyone: Good luck, congrats on any acceptances so far, and maybe most importantly: If you haven't gotten an acceptance yet, maybe try to think about all the cool things you will make and do for the rest of this year that will make next year's applications even more awesome.
  6. Hi, Leilei! Congrats on being accepted at VCUarts Kinetic Imaging! If anyone else has questions about VCU, let me know, I got my MFA there last spring and will try to help you out. Short answer to your question, Leilei, is yeah, Kinetic Imaging has a lot of 3D and stop motion animation equipment. You get your own studio with a 27" iMac, you have 24-hour access to computer labs (outside of scheduled classes that might be using them during the day), including the ability to log into to those computers remotely. There were also two animation stands in the KI grad studio area, which was more than enough for the 5 or 6 students in the program; students who wanted to use them could move them into their own studios. There is also a "Stop Motion and Animation Room" and an "Animation Studio" room, which were used mostly by upper level undergrads but I suspect a grad could find a way to use if you wanted. Among the work I created as a grad student were 3D animated 360 videos for viewing in VR headsets. I was also a TA for an Animation class, a Senior Studio class, and a VR class where I taught undergrads who were doing stop-motion and 3D animation. You asked about possibly working with the Cinema department. I worked with other departments quite a bit, like the Dance department (I did live video projection mapping for a faculty performance, and also borrowed some of their video projection gear for my own installations) and I also took classes in other departments (like in Photo/Film and Sculpture) and I had multiple members of my thesis committee who were from other departments, so I'd suspect you'd probably be able to work with the Cinema department if you wanted. I found Kinetic Imaging and VCUArts as a whole to be really flexible. I hope that helps! If you or anyone else have any questions, let me know either right here on the forum in a message.
  7. @_redrabbit7 @1800goodluck @lamentyung I applied a couple years ago at Columbia. Applications were due Jan. 15, and then on Feb. 18 they sent an email asking me to interview. All interviews were on the same day, March 12, either in person or online. This was for New Genres; my memory is that the other disciplines' interviews were also on the same day. So, if they are on a similar timeline this year, you might hear in a week.
  8. @blueviolet @Frank14 @artcat Yeah, that timing sounds right. I graduated from VCU's MFA program last year. My department always (or at least every year I know of) had some current student(s) in on the interviews. Last year those interviews were Feb. 16 to 19. Things could be different from department to department and year too year, of course. When I interviewed I was invited to the interview on Feb 6, and I interviewed on Feb. 11. I hope that helps. Great to see this forum full of activity! It's good to see some people reporting good news. Good luck everyone.
  9. Besides VCU and Cranbrook's deadline today (Feb. 1), MICA has a rolling deadline that goes all the way to March 19: https://www.mica.edu/applying-to-mica/graduate-admissions-process/apply/
  10. VCUarts deadline is today, Feb 1 https://arts.vcu.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/graduate-applicants/ Cranbrook deadline is today, Feb 1 https://cranbrookart.edu/admissions/
  11. Hey, everyone, I started to hear a couple days ago on Instagram that at least some programs here at VCU (Kinetic Imaging, Photo/Film, Graphic Design) are extending their deadlines. It now seems to be the case for all VCU MFA programs. I'm guessing a lot of applicants have asked for extensions this year, so it wouldn't hurt to ask for extensions from other schools, too, if you need them. VCU's deadline had been Jan 15, but now it is Feb 1. You might want to double-check with specific programs, but it seems to be Feb 1 for everything according to this page https://arts.vcu.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/graduate-applicants/ "Step 1: Review your deadlines ... February 1 ... MFA in Fine Arts (Ceramics, Glassworking, Jewelry/Metalworking, Kinetic Imaging, Painting, Printmaking, Photography and Film, Sculpture) ..." Hopefully maybe that helps if anyone was freaking out about that deadline? Maybe that helps you get one more application in? I got my MFA in VCUarts Kinetic Imaging last spring. I took classes with faculty and students in pretty much every program (sculpture, painting, photo, graphic design, etc etc) so hit me up if you have any questions about VCU. I also got accepted at several other great schools, so if you've got general last minute questions or questions about other schools I applied to, let me know, I am happy to help as others helped me when I was applying. Good luck, everyone.
  12. Yeah, that sounds right -- Yale painting admits about 21 new students per year, and it seems pretty usual for places to interview about 3 or 4 times as many applicants as they ultimately admit. (Schools need to make sure there are great applicants on the waitlist, too.) A couple resources I used for looking up things like the number of applications received vs admitted were the College Art Association's Graduate Program Directory and Peterson's database of graduate schools. Both can sometimes be hit-or-miss and/or out of date, but along with a school's own website can give a pretty good sense of whether you're looking at a program that gets 1,000 applications or a program that gets 50, or admits 25 new students vs. admits 2. https://www.collegeart.org/pdf/publications/CAA-directory-visual-arts.pdf https://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools.aspx
  13. Hi, Emoly! Some great schools in the midwest that I applied to were SAIC, Cranbrook, and University of Michigan. Other good midwestern schools I considered are Northwestern and Michigan State. I know people who are currently at University of Iowa and Minnesota who seem to be doing well. You mentioned funding; of those I believe Michigan State, Northwestern, and Iowa are all fully funded. University of Michigan used to be, and maybe is again, but when I applied a couple years ago Michigan was fully-funded for only in-state students, and was like 75%+ funded for out of state students (there were also some grants to apply for that would end up making Michigan fully funded). SAIC low residency seems like a great program. I was accepted there as well as to SAIC full residency; SAIC was one of the hardest schools to turn down but I could pick only one. If you haven't already, another great low residency program you might want to look into is SVA's MFA Art Practice https://sva.edu/academics/graduate/mfa-art-practice I hope that helps, and good luck!
  14. I just saw an alert on this: Virtual National Portfolio Day is in 5 days, Sunday, November 21, 1 pm – 5 pm EST. https://nationalportfolioday.heydays.io/conventions/396 It says there will be 56 schools, so there's maybe a pretty good chance at least one school you are interested in will be there. That includes CalArts, Cranbrook, SAIC, SVA, VCUarts, University of Michigan, RISD, Glasgow School of Art, Pratt, Parsons, MICA, etc. etc. I went to an in-person portfolio day when I was applying, and was able to meet with people from six schools, for maybe 20 minutes each. I got a lot of helpful advice, met a lot of cool people, ended up applying to all six of those schools, and got accepted by 5 of them and waitlisted by the other one. So, definitely my recommendation is to go to a portfolio day if you can.
  15. Hey, everyone! I graduated from VCUarts MFA Kinetic Imaging (time-based and new media art) program last spring (2021). This forum was helpful when I was applying, so I'd be happy to pay it back if I can and answer any questions that might help you. In addition to Kinetic Imaging, I also took classes from other departments at VCU like Sculpture and Photo + Film, and I probably had classes with other students from almost every other department (graphic design, painting/printmaking, craft/ceramics/glass/fiber/wood, etc.). I also have experience all the way through the interview and decision process at other schools I applied to (CalArts, Columbia, Cranbrook, NYU, RISD, SAIC, SVA, University of Michigan), so might be able to answer some questions on those, particularly emerging media, video art, sound art, etc. I see some people say they are interested in VCU. VCU's grad open house is Sat. Nov. 13: https://arts.vcu.edu/academics/graduate/virtual-open-house/ Good luck everybody!
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