Griselda

Honestly, it's hard. I'm trying to turn it all into fuel for the inner furnace, you know? I'm trying to get a "your loss, i'm going to make fucking awesome work without you then" mindset instead of taking it personally and letting it discourage me. I remind myself that if they can't see my potential and what i could bring to a cohort that's not my problem, I already did the best I could with my application. Maybe I was up against really incredible people this year. Maybe it just wasn't my time. Whatever it was, I did the best I could and now I have to (be able to) move on. If I try again next intake it'll be with a portfolio that is stronger than I submitted this time and feel like I'm saying "told you I was good" with it. I already had plenty of work for the rest of 2024 planned out that I was gonna do whether I got in for Fall or not so I just need to keep on trucking. This weird rejection spite is a powerful motivator.

Just got my UW-Madison rejection in my inbox - kinda figured since I hadn't had an interview request by now. Back to the grind now - hope y'all get better news today!

From the previous years threads here it looks like University of Wisconsin-Madison was contacting folks for interviews in January and sending out rejections in February. However, when I went to the virtual info session in the Fall the grad program coordinator there told me (and here's a direct transcription from my notes i made as he spoke) "after closing date: approx 3 weeks of review. reach out 1st/2nd week of feb". I didn't take any more notes on timeline, unfortunately but I wanna say at the in-person even he said decisions should be going out in March? So maybe they are doing it differently this year. 🤷‍♀️

Yep, we're all waiting in this other thread: https://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/166440-mfa-2024-freak-out-forum You might find folks who applied to the same schools as you in there.

Anyone else getting freaked out whenever they receive an email? 😅 It's definitely a bit soon to be so jumpy but argh!

I feel you on that! Especially since Instagram keeps showing me "it's not too late to apply to our MFA" ads for schools I had shortlisted before talking over my options with my spouse. I'm pretty worried I'm wasting this cycle with only applying to one, but I'm not in a position to go to other schools if I do get into them for entry this fall. I considered some low res options (where you just do a residential intensive once or twice a year) as a middle ground but the tuition costs are still not doable.

I actually went through the last couple of years worth of Freak Out threads and searched for the institution(s) I'm applying to in order to get a sense of when they start sending out.

Hey folks, just found this forum before Xmas (right after I sent off my single MFA application for the 24 admission). I'm only applying to one school right now for various boring adult life reasons and that is UW-Madison for painting. The grad program manager there said they get about 300+ applications a year for 17 places, and I have no idea how many they interview and whether I have a shot at all but I figured I'd come check in here. Looks like they can be pretty quick at contacting people once applications closed based on last year's thread so fingers crossed I hear something soon. Best of luck to everyone applying this cycle!