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boston is such a big college town that i'm sure there are a lot of resources on neighborhoods, best places to look, etc. there are also probably some housing scams because of the high volume of students that come so be wary! fb groups are the best way to find sublets/rooms at a good rate, tbh. do a search and see if there's like a "boston affordable housing" group or something of that end. allston and somerville are great places to live; quieter and less expensive while still being accessible to the city. good luck!

i honestly didn't research much about funding before i applied to places, but realized about 1/3 of the way down the line how expensive everything really is. personally, i made the executive decision to rule out the programs that were going to put me in debt. it'll follow you around and hinder your ability to pursue the thing that you went to school FOR; a lot of people get a less satisfying or grunt job to keep up with the bills and it's just not worth it imo. i think these financial decisions really depend on what your 5 year plan is, basically. if you want to be a gallery artist, don't do it for anyone other than a top 3 school. if you're looking to pursue more steady work, like graphic design, or maybe teach, then it's probably a safer bet. if it were like 20k, that'd be more manageable, but 80-100k has little chance of getting paid off. that being said---NYU is a probably well connected enough program to actually facilitate your goals, which could be worth it. don't know anything about goldsmiths. and who knows! maybe there will be a political future down the line with college debt forgiveness. we can dream! lol if you do re-apply next year, look at state schools and def canada. i didn't see that mentioned much on this board but even without the scholarship i got (and i'm american, so they offer it to international kids) it's much cheaper. i ended up choosing emily carr in vancouver because it'll be 7500 a year (after funding + dollar conversion rate), and it's a solid school. that's how much an mfa SHOULD cost imo and i had a hard time justifying any of my other options in the face of that.

you can ask for extensions! just send them an email asking if you can have a little more time. i got two myself, it was v easy!

at this point have now heard from everyone---i've pretty much narrowed my choices down to a local state school program (sfsu) or an international program (emily carr in vancouver) because i just am not going to go into debt over this. after funding, both are about the same price (6 and 8k a year) but one would basically upend my life to move. i'm also a freelancer full time so i'm concerned about a fuller course load vs. this local school where i wouldn't have to move and is a 3 year program vs 2, so more easy to juggle with my work. however, emily carr is a better school in many regards, and more intellectually stimulating, more creative, and would allow me to teach/TA in my working field of illustration, which is really the endgame reason i applied to grad school (to teach illo, in particular, ideally). sfsu would let me teach as well, but a more general class. i'm really conflicted. i feel like emily carr is the better choice but i also hadn't fully anticipated moving. i'm based in a good situation currently. it'd been an abstract concept till now. and of course both of these schools have early april deadlines to inform. lmao. anyone have any advice?

woke up to same. i expected it considering i hadn't heard anything, but it is a bummer! there was an email telling me about an update, etc.

hearing that some (all?) risd rejections have come out. i haven't heard a peep out of them, interview or otherwise. not sure what to be thinking at the moment!

painting. so there also may be that difference!

i interviewed with pratt a few weeks ago, but i also applied at their original deadline, which was 1/5. (my portfolio/essay tightened up by the time the others were due, so it was a little frustrating, but. i digress) when did you submit to pratt? perhaps that has to do with it, and the order in which they get back to people. additionally, does anyone know if UCLA always does interviews? i've heard the state system doesn't always. trying to gauge if i have much hope for that program if info is going out this week, lmao.

that's good advice!! they're pretty vague in the acceptance email, though talked quite a bit about the ways i can visit the program to make my decision. unsure if i should expect anything else based on this phrasing tbh...i've only heard back from two schools so far, but they were quite differently formatted. the first outlined the funding options right away, and then this one makes no mention other than a guaranteed TA position and the deadline to accept the admission offer or not. i am local to the area, so it's easy for me to pop over and talk to them but phrasing a question for funding feels like something possibly more tactfully done over an email? given i'm also waiting to hear back about my options from other programs, i wonder if i should also wait to see if i have any leverage, so to speak. idk. it's where i'd really like to go, but def can't afford full tuition. ?

thank you!!! this is actually quite reassuring to hear. do you recommend waiting a bit to see what funding options come through, or asking sooner? was it also from cca, or another school? thanks again. also---i haven't seen anyone else mention emily carr here, but i did get an email from them today that they are having a delay in admission results due to "unforeseen circumstances" so...just an update if anyone was looking for it.

was accepted into my ideal first choice today (location mostly! don't really want to move lmao) but there was no mention of funding in the email. a good moment and a sad one as well...this process is so up and down. cheers to everyone still waiting for more info!

was accepted to pnca today! i was reading through the last board and saw some people mention there's a way to ask for more funding...obviously i'm gonna wait to see what some of my other options are in terms of scholarships but they're offering basically a third and it's still pretty expensive. ? has anyone done this yet? have any experience with it? would love love some advice on this.

i interviewed with painting this week. not sure what department you applied to. apparently they extended their deadline till recently (? or so i hear, i wish i'd known that lol) so it's possible they'll be interviewing for a while! good luck!

i applied to painting on 1/5, i believe. it was the earliest deadline and i do feel like by the feb deadlines rolled around, i'd really tightened my essays up and even added a few pieces, so....sigh. anyway, yeah, very different deadlines, that's interesting. sorry, i misread the IxD as like the old xD emoticon and didn't realize you were asking about a specific department. lmaoo

i interviewed with them today. it was shorter than my other interviews and i'm not entirely sure how it went, which is an odd feeling to say the least. i hope you guys hear soon!

a bit of an update/summary for anyone who may be looking for one about these schools: i interviewed with emily carr last week, they said they should be making their decisions in about 1-2 weeks. so...soon! ah! i haven't seen anyone mention this school---in my research of funding options, although i doubt to get scholarships bc i'd be international, canadian schools are often half the price, sometimes before exchange rates. so i'm surprised no one mentioned applying to any schools in canada! pnca was also last week and they didn't give an exact estimate, but implied it would be within a few weeks. possibly any day now, possibly much later. i saw pnca mentioned in a few different places on this forum. cca said they usually send out information mid-march. (interviewed with them yesterday!) anyone else applying there? pratt is next, i'll report if they give an approximation. based on my undergrad experience/what i saw mentioned about last year's season, it should be also about mid march. ucla i've heard nothing from, but apparently don't always do interviews? and are also a mid-late march deadline school. risd is also slower; i saw someone wasn't accepted until april. in my experience with them in undergrad, they were also the last school to get back to me. the last school i applied extended their deadline until a few days ago, so i don't really know what to expect at all, or if they do interviews. it may seem to not be as mandatory in the cal state system, like ucla? i'm starting to get a bit nervous in not having much more definitive information yet. but that's the waiting game! anyone else apply to some of these schools and hear something different or know anything?

this is exactly what happened to me in undergrad too. it's really frustrating and heartbreaking! i know, for undergrad at least, the schools do sometimes communicate with each other about applicants so like, you would hope they could all stamp out a single offer date and single deadline so it would be less stressful....but. alas. what can you do. ?

maybe the interview relates to those who they want to sus out for scholarship opportunities? i don't know. interesting. thanks for sharing the info!!! this is reassuring to finally have some kind of timeline, lol

still nothing. it's one of two schools i've still heard nothing from whatsoever (excluding the one with the deadline like two days ago lol)

glad to hear it helped! i'm going to be in portland in a few weeks anyway so i'm going to pop over for a tour and get some more information---will report back! i got interview requests from cca and pratt this week---still waiting on risd painting and ucla. anyone heard from them or know anything? i went to risd for undergrad and i know they take more time, but i know next to knowing about ucla's general timeline.

although if a school has asked for fafsa information, is that a good sign? or just something that everyone in general gets asked?

i just had another interview today and i think it went well, but i never want to get ahead of myself. it's interesting---all three of the schools i'm interviewing with thus far were feb 1 deadline. the other schools i applied to that were due around early jan don't seem to have sent out accepts/rejections yet, let alone interview invites, to anyone based on what i'm reading on this board. (cca, ucla, pratt, risd painting)

i interviewed with them this afternoon! also my first one. i'd def say somewhat informal, they only asked a few questions (as opposed to a 15 question list from another school i saw earlier on this thread)---however they also mentioned that they were behind on their schedule (and texted me to let me know beforehand) so things were about 15 min instead of 20. they asked why i wanted to get an MFA, why PNCA, and what i thought/hoped my first year might look like. i think there was another one but it's hard to remember already, lmao. they definitely had my stuff on hand because they mentioned my essay and CV and portfolio, and brought up a few elements of their programs that i might like---it was definitely an interview, but less rapid-fire questions and more of a conversational element to it that i appreciated. and i liked what they had to say quite a bit! after that, they wanted to know if i had any questions (i mostly asked about TAing and what kind of facilities were accessible to MFA students because they'd answered my earlier questions about studios and structure) and said there was so much more they wanted to get to, but they had to keep rolling. overall, i think it went well! i'm interviewing with emily carr tmrw and SFAI next week....so far those are the only ones i've heard back from! i also applied to UCLA, risd, pratt, and cca. if it helps---i went to risd for undergrad and they were the last school to get back to me. it was pretty late, i want to say near the end of march. the process is different for grad because, i think, it's departmental---but i do know they like to take their time!

waiting to hear back from nearly everyone. only heard back from PNCA so far for an interview. glad to have found this forum because i'm suck a wreck over this lmao. it was kind of impulsive timing to apply to grad school this year so i am worried about the success rate---reading this forum, i was surprised to see that so many schools have already started interviews! i haven't seen mention from the schools i applied to (at least departmentally) so it's hard to get a sense---are most requests offered this month? and if you don't get an interview by end of feb, that's it? undergrad was such a different experience. ah! (waiting to hear from RISD painting---i went to RISD for undergrad so does anyone know the stats for applying twice?---pratt, ucla, emily carr, cca, and sfai. nerve wracking!!!)