Meaou

Yes. It’s a little different each year, but I believe Photography accepts only 2 people, Painting and Sculpture 3-4 each and Transmedia seems to accept about 2-3 people.

I accepted UT Austin's offer yesterday. Really excited about the program's atmosphere, facilities, faculty, current, and incoming grad cohort. While there, I had a feeling 1-2 accepted people were looking for something different and might reject their offers.

I'm an international applicant (currently living in the States), and – while I don't know what's the average – the advice that I got during my first portfolio review day 2 years ago (from a very kind professor who took a break from the undergrads reviews and chatted with me informally) was: "Don't take the loans, figure out how to do it without paying". There are a few great programs that waive tuition for most/all applicants (Rutgers, UT Austin, UCLA, VCU) AND there are state universities where tuition is very low and they might waive the non-resident part of the tuition if they accept you (UoF, Florida State University - these are just the schools in the state I live that have excellent funding). State schools might not have the same reputation as Yale, Rutgers, and other top schools, so if you want to teach they might not be your best bet. But if you need time, concentration, studio space and you're happy with the faculty in your concentration, they are very much worth looking into. $10k annual stipend is helpful, but it's not a livable wage in most of the US cities. I would personally not be able to bear the stress of working in the studio, studying AND working a part-time job to pay the bills AND having a private bank loan (but I might be spoiled + I have the elderly family to take care of in my home country). Plus, you won't be able to work full-time or take jobs unrelated to your major outside of campus while you're in school because of the J1 visa restrictions, so your loan would likely end up being more. My point is: believe in yourself, it's worth trying to find a school that will help you grow as an artist and not leave you broke. Loans work for some people, expensive schools work for some people, but it's important to decide whether you feel comfortable making these financial commitments and how it will impact your life in the next decade.

I'm waiting on it too, but assuming rejection at this point, since other departments already sent acceptances. I'm not sure how UCLA makes decisions, but other universities I've heard from involve all the faculty into the decision process (not just the concentration the candidate applied to), as they are balancing the cohort. It might be different for UCLA, though.

I just received my Skype interview confirmation hours ago (scheduled for Tuesday, Photo dept). I feel coordinators are a little overwhelmed with planning on-campus interview day and Skype interviews, so hang in there!

CalArts Photo and Art&Tech sent interview invites around Feb 11 (a friend of mine and I got emails within a few days from each other). They want to interview all applicants on campus on March 7, so I imagine they must send all the invites before the end of February to let people make travel arrangements. I haven’t heard from UCLA (Photo) yet, but someone who applied for Painting mentioned they got a call from them a few days ago.

I believe the interview notifications are out for all departments since my email from them mentioned that people invited to Photo, Art, and Art and Technology all interview on the same day on their campus.

Just got an interview invitation from CalArts Photo. I didn't realize they interview in person. Does anyone know what is their situation with funding?

I wonder if they sent decisions only to people who were voted unanimously. Because my offer stated the same:) It’s nice to meet you! Will you come to Austin in March?

Yes, a few hours ago! Fingers crossed for everyone who interviewed to other departments now!

I just got an acceptance email from UT Austin Photo! Still can hardly believe it!

I'm about to relocate to another state for a job, and the waiting is making me so antsy?I hope to get some news on admission until the end of the month. UoHouston Painting has sent out notifications of acceptance, I wonder whether anyone heard back from their Photo department?

Congrats! @theway CalArts Photo, Art, Art&Tech have not sent out interviews/rejections yet. I'm in touch with their grad coordinator, it will happen at least in mid-February. I'll post here if she gets back with specific dates.

Do you by any chance know if your friend received funding info from CalArts around that time too or did it come later? ?

They gave my friend who interviewed for painting the same timeline but didn't explain their process. Thank you, this helps! So the waiting game begins.

Just interviewed with UT Austin (Photo), they were very friendly and definitely looked at my work in-depth. Hard to say how it went, but I was relieved they didn't ask me about my non-art background. They just mentioned that I will hear back from the grad coordinator and I was too shy to ask how long their deliberations will take them? I wonder how many people they interview since they only accept 2 photographers per year. Did anyone else here interviewed with them for Photo?

It looks like UCLA started to look at the applications. My profile has been updated and English test scores (I had to mail them to the School of Art) were tied to it.

CalArts, UCLA, and University of Houston. Haven't heard from any of them yet, but UoH had a mid-Feb deadline, later than all other schools I applied to. VCU was also on my shortlist, but it had to make of it off the list alongside Rutgers because of my partner's job... Did anyone else here applied to UoH too? Do your applications on GetAcceptd still show Pending status? All my recommendations were submitted a while back, but it still shows Pending Status (their main application says Submitted though).

Thanks a lot! What notifications are you waiting for apart from Yale and UT?

It looked personalized and they reached out to me on skype after I confirmed the time and my skype handle. So I think they're doing it manually. Don't get worried yet, I was terrified when they sent out Painting invitations, thinking it was the end of it. But there was a week delay between that and my invite.

They emailed. I think they emailed Painting applicants too.

I just got an interview invite from UT Austin (Photo). Never got a hit from them on my website (or from Texas in general), so feeling less worried about Google Analytics stats.

@henryfive thank you! I didn't realize how stressful the waiting would be. I think we both applied for Photo, so fingers crossed for us!

Has anyone heard from UT Austin Photo or CalArts Photo yet? UT Painting has definitely sent out interview invitations already, and I’m getting worried ?

@justaylor On the other hand, there's at least one unknown variable not related to one's work - the balance of a selected cohort. E.g., admissions would go for a heterogeneous group of people, especially in terms of research topics, background, and gender. @henryfive they didn't, but international applications might have declined. It's much harder to get any kind of U.S. visa than ever before. This is no statistical sample, but two of my friends are stuck under the administrative check after applying for their U.S. visas, although they were offered admissions and partial funding to their respective colleges. @IrisR You can only marginally improve your chances of winning a lottery by buying more tickets. The same holds true for an MFA program. It might be fine if you're doing an Art History degree or you don't care about the location, but it won't be easy to find ten programs in Photography that have strong professors whose interests and practice align with one's direction. If one has a direction, of course. I imagine it's similar in other mediums. I ended up applying to four programs, and it was a hell of a lot of prep. I can only raise a hat to someone who applied to 10 schools for the effort, but it's not unlikely this time would be more useful to narrow one's choices and make better work.