SpillToBuilt

Many schools abide by the April 15th deadline for acceptance if I remember correctly. You should be notified of any tuition and/or stipend benefits, and what any stipend would be in exchange for. I am open for negotiation as long as you are doing it tactfully; it also helps if you actually have something to leverage, such as a better offer elsewhere.

I checked their site. It looks like there is no interdisciplinary program MFA. Or is that not what you meant? That section of the site only talks about certain courses that they offer, specifically in video.

For what it is worth, I know a few Yale MFA Photo alum personally, and they are all exceptional artists and doing very well! One did tell me that most students would cry after/during their first crit, but I thought they were exaggerating. Maybe not though? They also said that the faculty will be hard on you if they think you have more potential.

Tumblr is free and, last I checked, ad free. Wordpress has a free plan but will throw ads on your page. Both are simple to use though. Edit: I think Wix is free too, but they have a pretty obnoxious overlay if ya ask me.

Bumping this thread because it is kind of interesting to see how everyone progressed over the past 3-4 years. I checked all of the portfolios. About 30% are no longer hosting their portfolios at the same address. (Did they stop making work or just change the URL?) Around 10% did not end up attending an MFA program. 60% or so went for the MFA and are overall making really interesting work. A few of these people are making absolutely exceptional work.

I see you applied to Temple and Rutgers. I know UDel (University of Delaware) is in the area, and all of their MFA students are fully funded with stipends. Maybe worth consideration?

I was scrolling through old topics out of curiosity, and I came across a post by someone who visited Yale a few years ago for an open house. They said that the MFA faculty said they don’t care if you check that representative work box and that they were unsure why they still had it there. So if this is accurate, it should be a non-issue for you.

@JBois I would not sweat the CV. Your work and artist statement will likely be far more important at any of these schools. So how is your artist statement? Are you conceptualizing your work? Definitely work on getting toward a cohesive body of work and supporting statement to submit. I would also advise you to look at the ceramics students and faculty of these schools—examine their work and what they write about it. Then ask yourself if this seems like what you still want to do (hopefully it is!) Personally, I did not feel I aligned with the work of students and faculty at the MFA I chose. My first semester was rough to say the least. But things seem to be turning out ok. ?

What you quoted basically means that the school wants you to have some form of social commentary in your body of work. I would say this is fairly standard across MFA programs. Edit: Also, I am not sure how I ended up on a post from 2018... sorry for reviving this thread.

What kind of updates/info are you looking for? I applied and got in during the 2019 season. These forums were helpful for my sanity during the application season. One semester down, currently on winter break. Overall I love the program, but the expectations are high and many times here have been stressful. I find it very important to make time for self-care. Keep your home clean and organized, exercise, eat well, maintain some form of social life etc. My best advice at this point is to thoroughly check out at each potential program what the graduate faculty’s work is like and how they write about it. If you don’t jive with them, I would highly recommend looking elsewhere. Depending on your situation, it may also be worth waiting until next year if one of your dream/ideal schools passes you up this round instead of going to a backup that you aren’t thrilled about. Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience so far.

For me, it would depend on what my other options were. Nothing much else going on in 2020? Then I’d be lighting a fire under my butt to get the applications in. A month-plus is still plenty of time to get your applications ready anyway.

@TheRealHankHill I’m trying to figure out if your program’s extra year is a good or bad thing. I do enjoy the crazy pace of the two-year program I am in, but an extra year of stipend, mentorship, and cohort camaraderie sounds damn good as well. My program legitimately feels like fine art boot camp, in a spectacular way, and with less yelling.

I suggest searching “fully funded mfa visual arts” in your search engine of choice—there are already multiple lists with tons of schools. What do you mean by interdisciplinary photo programs? An interdisciplinary MFA program refers to artists working with different mediums within the same program, whereas an MFA Photo program would be only photography (or sometimes video too).

Anything fully funded, preferably with a healthy stipend, that is also near where you want to work after school. But working with the right people may certainly be worth a little less funding/stipend.

@ChippedNails92 Out of curiosity, how much is the stipend?

Lots more programs with full/significant funding. Definitely do a broader search if funding is a priority. Most people in my program are around 30, and I would expect that to be similar elsewhere. We do have a few people ranging from 40-50 as well. I remember seeing somewhere on Yale’s site that if you are not accepted after three tries, that you should not apply again. I would look at current students in the program and see how you compare. Also look at what previous grads are doing now and if that exemplifies your goals/appears worth the time and financial commitment. The general consensus is to wait at least a year after undergrad before trying to start an MFA. I would think this is especially accurate with big name schools. If I remember correctly, Yale even explicitly states that they prefer applicants not straight out of undergrad. This would be worth looking into before applying. Personally, I waited a year before applying. I would have waited longer too, but a previous professor of mine suggested I apply. I am glad I took the time off. I couldn’t imagine going right into an MFA program out of undergrad. Working on your own is a great experience.

This is the visual arts forum. We would not know about writing programs. You should look for the writing forum.

Most places expect you to stay the full two years. If you leave midway, you are effectively wasting a spot that someone else could have taken. Also, I would imagine most places would not even consider you next year if you are already in a program.

That’s a lot of money and totally a personal call. If you do wait for next year, definitely consider applying to fully/well-funded programs. But also weigh whether you want to go through another application process/if you really want to get started. Personally, I had no interest in going into debt for an MFA, so I only applied to a well funded program. I think it is somewhat crazy to go into a ton of debt for an MFA—it’s not like we are going to be raking in the dough afterwards.

On Herron’s FAQ, they only allow you to start in the fall, similar to most programs that I have seen. https://herron.iupui.edu/admissions/graduate/faqs.html

Hang in there! This process sucks! I was SO relieved when I got my acceptance! The weight instantly gets lifted... edit: It helped me a lot to keep making work.

?? It is an associates degree. It shouldn’t even be an option if you are applying for MFA programs. While I don’t know that program specifically, it is probably all intro courses to Adobe programs, drawing, color theory, and other fundamentals. It being an AAS instead of AFA means it is likely more technical than fine art driven. Edit: Also, that program is now called Communication Design (still an AAS).

Personally, I would go with the free school unless their program seems super bad, which I would doubt since why would you apply there in the first place? Then again, if the debt-burden school is in an area you plan to stay and build a career in, then you do have a tough decision ahead of you. Of course, this depends on the amount of debt... $20k or so is manageable to me if the program is that much better. Any higher and I would have to consider whether it is really worth it. Just my two cents. Good luck.

I guess it depends on what you are expected to do as a TA. I know several programs offer around $20k/year to TA as an MFA student (plus tuition assistance/free tuition), and I would say that MECA’s $3k is certainly in the minority.

If it has been more than, say, a week, I would email them.