theundoing

oh yeah. sorry I meant...is it considered disrespecting the strike to go on campus? but thank you for answering my question!!

I hope yall get your demands met! Are people not supposed to go on campus at all right now? I was so confused the other day and wasn't sure if I was supposed to go on Columbia's campus or not. I can't believe the crap the admin is pulling (but also I can believe it.)

There is an MFA TA for each studio based undergraduate visual art class at Columbia. The increase in stipend would apply to them as well. The admin attitude is very prevalent in the MFA program. For example there are currently zero photo faculty for the MFAs at Columbia yet they are still accepting photo students bc those students represent $$$ and they know that people will come regardless. Some of the MFA programs at Columbia are still okay like printmaking and painting but the whole demoralizing attitude is just super prevalent and that is a result of the admin. But I do absolutely agree this has a bigger impact on the PhD students. And it would still be a very hard decision to turn down Columbia despite all of this. It just sucks that it is basically a hedge fund with an education wing attached to it

yeah idk what that two week initiative is. My friend says students and faculty are really pissed about it bc typically the co chairs choose faculty not the president of the college. But all in all I think first years will do okay bc they still get two years in the program after this weird summer. I was accepted to Hunter so even if I do get off the waitlist I would still have a choice to make.

my friend is a current student and is somewhat upset because photo only has 6 faculty (including cochairs) this year and 50% of the photo faculty are online only. but hopefully they passed on that info in the acceptance. and congrats on getting in! I'm on the bard photo waitlist as well. I feel like even if it is bumpy this summer since it is a 3 year program it will likely smooth out.

completely agree. I have been reading conflicting things about the issue. I read a peer reviewed study that discussed Bitcoin as much more energy intensive than ethereum .

Damn I'm sorry that they didn't account for your living expenses. My undergrad financial aid advisor always told me that when I ran through my work study money he could just ask for more and the federal government would always allow it. I'm not sure how it works for grad school or with a not cool financial aid officer. Plus, working takes up a lot of time even if it is work study so its not exactly a solution.

It isn't 100% yet but my friend says that there could be as few as 2-3 faculty on campus per discipline with most faculty online. So students would be in person but many faculty would be online. All school crits will be on zoom. A lot of faculty stuff is TBD

Did they give you any work study? I know it is not the same as a living stipend (at all) but at least it would help a bit. And they should be able to offer that very unfortunately only to US citizens or permanent residents.

Where do you hear 4-5 were accepted? my friend is currently in photo and the co-chairs said that 3 people would be accepted. Good luck to everyone on the waitlist there might be some movement as some students will take leave due to the hybrid instruction this summer.

Interesting, let me know how it goes? I think if you use opensea it should be free https://opensea.io/faq but I am just starting to look into it. You should not have to transfer any money into the wallet in order to use it for your NFT

I honestly can't decide how I feel about it. Part of me feels excited because I am into blockchain technology but part of me feels disheartened. I think I will need like another year to sort out how I feel about it lol. But I am just extremely curious about this relatively new type of work

I'm not proposing a conspiracy. It just looks like bot accounts. Since 30%-50% of internet traffic is bots it wouldn't be that unusual. The conspiracy is simply that for any website that relies on measuring engagement for monetization there will be bots. Based on the shared pattern of these accounts I'm just wondering if some of them are bots. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/bots-bots-bots/515043/

I didn't realize that Elon was on the mfa forum but with NFTs looking to be the next art market star...it makes sense

I was also accepted to Hunter and I am considering doing this (ie reapply to yale & apply to rutgers next year). Since it is a three year program it will take me three years regardless. I don't think credits will transfer between different MFA programs? Hunter tuition isn't too much more $ than my shared studio space anyhow.

Of course there is no proof. but what is strange is that although of course likes and upvotes would occur at the same time when something was just posted (as is the case with me, SK and NE) these accounts often react 12 hours to -72 hours later but within 10 minutes of each other. It is an online anonymous forum there is no harm in thinking through whether accounts might be bots or duplicates. This took me 10 minutes so...its not like its distracting from my hobbies. Especially this morning with the downvote of a post that I wrote 4 days ago. Seems suspicious that 6 different people all logged on at 8am to downvote the same post from 4 days ago. Especially when this is a pattern throughout the accounts' histories. It could be some weird bug with the gradcafe server I suppose. Like some sort of lag between Get() and Post().

I'm pretty sure that the same person owns this account, youraveragejoe, ladyofthelake, Lemon2lemonade, struckbylightning and spinthewheel bc the upvote and downvote history looks almost identical and all on the same days within 10 minutes of eachother. very weird. could also be bot accounts ...or coincidence? Example of matching recent history on same posts which lists all interactions on gradcafe: Ladyofthelake: Youraveragejoe struckbylightning 1 min ago, downvote 1 min ago, downvote 5 min ago, downvote 1 min ago, downvote 1 min ago, downvote 1 min ago, downvote 2 min ago, heart 1 min ago, heart 1 min ago, heart Sunday 2pm, heart Sunday 159pm, heart Sunday 202pm, upvote Sunday 1150am, upvote Sunday 1147am, upvote Sunday 1149am, upvote Sunday 1134am, upvote Sunday 1131am, upvote Sunday 1136am, upvote Sunday 858am, upvote Sunday 855am, upvote Sunday 9am, upvote Sunday 815am, upvote Sunday 818am, upvote Sunday 821am, upvote February 26, heart Feb 4, downvote Feb 4, downvote Feb 4, downvote Jan 26, upvote January 26, upvote January 26, upvote The accounts often like and upvote eachother. I know that the MFA writing forum is dealing with a similar issue (one person with multiple accounts)

I went to public school my whole life and did private school for the first time for college --just graduated from Columbia. For me, it isn't boring. I was really in the dark about how elitism in education works. Attending Columbia was eye opening for me. The opportunities frankly handed to those attending elite institutions was truly shocking to me. I hope it changes but everything I learned at Columbia (from MFAs and from profs ) doesnt make me very confident. It is oppressive but it is also oppressive to not discuss these issues. I hope things change.

good luck on your interview!

They came from other programs because in the 1970s you didn't need an MFA to teach at an elite institution. I would personally be most interested in attending a fully funded program but I don't want to leave my home in Brooklyn and Rutgers wasn't accepting applicants this year. It is classist because the gallery scene in new york city and LA (and most museums in NYC) are extremely classist and elitist. Not everyone wants to have a LA or NYC gallery career but if you want to pay off a lot of debt you might be forced to (if you can even have one). Of course you can do lots of things with an MFA but some people do want big gallery careers or want to eventually be in the Whitney Biennial and an overwhelming number of young artists in that part of the "art world" come out of big name schools. Just look up the current artists at Company Gallery, Miguel Abreu, White Columns those that have MFAs from schools in the US attended Columbia, Bard, PAFA, UCLA, Yale. In the 2019 Whitney Biennial the artists who have MFAs ...someone else already did the research: "Of those who earned an MFA, eight got one from Yale, six from UCLA, four from Columbia, and three from Bard. Other schools include NYU, Hunter, and Stanford. Again, it seems that most of the artists elected to go to schools on the East or West Coast, with a few going to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago" AND "I think it is fair to say that there are no artists in the 2019 Whitney Biennial who live and work in Middle America or what some call the flyover states." This isn't because the work is better at those schools this is because these schools have curators rotating through students' studios on a regular basis. If someone wants a big gallery career this bootstrap idea is a problem because galleries are incredibly elitist. Some schools that charge big bucks but don't have all the connections are predatory because people think that having an MFA means that it will be possible to show in galleries but how do you compete with a school like Columbia where faculty are on a first name basis with the director of PACE gallery or a curator at the Whitney?

no one said that UNT acceptance wasn't an honor. what was said was that curators are more likely to be interested in the work of a student who went to a big name school vs. UNT. It only takes like 5 minutes of googling to confirm that. Not everyone wants a big gallery career ( I don't) but if you do...don't go to UNT. My own professor's have told me things like that. Yeah, they wouldn't want their name attached to that statement but any profs lurking on here (which I sincerely doubt bc they have their own lives) would understand this. Some people seem so defensive but sorry the art world sucks. It is responsible to be real about that. Just look at the changethemuseum or the cancelartgalleries instagrams. So often these pie in the sky attitudes about visual art MFA come from people with access to immense wealth. and this is just my personal opinion bc that is what is being share on this forum: opinions.

I think the context has been removed from the original conversation. I thought the conversation was about the question of is a super expensive MFA worth the cost? To me that is where it is very important to be frank about how much of the moneyed artworld operates. Residencies are amazing but they won't pay off your six figure debt. If someone is trying to balance the cost of a pricey MFA they should know that some programs give you more artworld lotto tickets to sell your work for real money vs. others. Of course this can all change and I hope it changes but....I kinda think the days where an artist could be discovered while working as an art handler or partying in the LES are behind us. If you want want to do an MFA because you love being in the studio and love being in conversation with other artists that is also great but then it seems that an artist should prioritize fully funded or well funded programs. I think it is admirable that your residency looks at the work first but that is not always the case. I don't think it is ethical to tell prospectives that they can just go ahead and take on six figures of debt outside of a top 5 school because the work is the most important. I don't find @SocialKonstruct to be self promoting ...more trying to connect. But I'm biased because I asked for help with my images and him and one other person on this forum volunteered to meet with me and chat about my portfolio and images.

just keep in mind that Rochelle is no longer chair of the painting and printmaking department and she was old school modernist (very very intense). I would be shocked if Meleko was running a cutthroat crit (as I have heard that he is really invested in a totally diff kind of pedagogy)

I agree and I do think it is beneficial to consider that if you go to a pricey school you unfortunately may want to think about these gross aspects of the "art world." Unless you come from money and don't need to take on debt. Even if you want to teach unfortunately to break into teaching you have to depend on who your faculty know and who they can connect you to. It is a deeply nepotistic field across all aspects. I wouldn't want to force that viewpoint onto a prospective student but it is useful to consider if you are thinking about a near 100k tuition program. Sometimes people don't consider these things and then they end up extremely depressed and with tons of debt. I just say this because this conversation came out of questions about SVA ...which is known by people I know in NYC as being a school for people with wealth. Personally, I find hyperfixation on the art world and blue chip galleries and fame etc to be extremely demoralizing but that's why I didn't apply to a school like Columbia or RISD.

It is amazing that you got an interview. And I'm sorry that you ultimately didn't receive an offer. and I do agree (and most of my profs have said) that at a certain point it doesn't matter if they really like your work/interview you might not just fit with the shape of the cohort. but of course I can't imagine what it is like to get so far and then receive a rejection. But congrats on your interview and your other fully funded offers!