Chelsea H

I may be biased considering I’m going to attend Cranbrook myself, but I currently work at well-standing museum and in conversations with the Head and Contemporary curators early in my app process, they definitely gave the impression Cranbrook is considered the more prestigious of the two 🤷🏼‍♀️ plus a full ride?? I know what I’d do if I were you lol

Me!

if it’s any consolation, they were on Spring Break last week and the Admissions admin was in mandatory training through Monday. Could be a contributing factor in the delay

Just got accepted to Cranbrook Painting! (Sunday March 10 12:45pm) 😊

I was surprised to get notified this early into March since the website just says “by April” but it looks like decisions are going out in department batches—good luck!! Awe that’s good to hear, I’m going to schedule a visit in the next couple weeks bc getting a sense of the environment/community is super important to me 😊

Accepted via email (11:30am Friday March 8 ) to Hoffberger painting at MICA! $26k merit scholarship, so that’s about 50% of tuition

I interviewed with Hoffberger on February 5 (invite sent on January 29), but no word since—except the “stay connected” mass emails lol. I think I saw somewhere on their website that we’d hear back by April but woof that’s a long wait

My advice is definitely wait. I graduated with my BFA in 2017 and I had absolutely every intention of going for my MFA within a couple of years… but then life happened, and with the benefit of hindsight, I am unequivocally certain it is far better for me to be going now than it would’ve been for me to go then. Having a few years experience outside of school on yr record is beneficial, even just on paper—every school I’ve talked to explicitly expressed that was to my credit, so I do believe that it’s a real factor in a (serious) program’s consideration. More importantly, I know now how much those few more years of maturing, both personally and in my portfolio, makes me a lot better prepared to take on another degree. I was a decent painter when I graduated but I’m shocked at the massive growth that’s happened since, I am so much better now than I was then. I wouldn’t change a thing about my timeline because if you think of how an MFA is a catalyst for yr work, receiving that now is going to yield an incalculably greater result than if I had gotten it before when my work was of a lesser caliber, if that makes sense. Plus, just fundamentally the fact that I have better portfolio now means I have a shot at better schools. I think the main thing to keep in mind is that going to school is not a required element for growth. Looking back I realize it didn’t occur to me that I would be improving as a painter while I wasn’t in school. Like subconsciously I was holding a paradigm that having gap years between degrees meant having gap years in my progress, which couldn’t be more wrong. The absolutely critical thing is just to keep making work. Seriously. Focus on making the work. I managed to structure my life to allow me to spend dedicated time, consistently, in the studio and it shows. And again, even just on paper, that is a factor in my credibility as a grad candidate—it shows the faculty I need no external motivation to be working. I am reliable in maintaining a self-driven studio practice. That’s huge! So I know this response is long but any opportunity I can to share that input, I am going to reinforce that there is nothing at all wrong with having time in between degrees, and in fact, most schools expressly prefer it. All of that being said, I absolutely understand that under capitalism, not everyone is going to find a way to afford the potentially career-delaying reality of not having getting the terminal degree in their field as quickly as they can. However, it’s not impossible, you never know what can happen. I worked retail full-time for a year at Artist & Craftsman right out of school and then did a few months stint as a figure drawing model (pays better than ya think) before landing a education program’s assistant role at an art museum, and eventually over the years was promoted until I became now the manager of all studio programs as well as the interactive learning space at the largest art museum in the state. No Masters and I’m salaried, baby! So. Take heart, just do yr best and pursue a path that is right for you.

Painting! edited to say: they specified the date March 8 is for their department, which implies other departments host on other day(s)

coincidentally on the topic of my last reply: Cranbrook just sent an invite for Visit Day, is anyone here planning to attend? I went to the Open House (and fell in love ofc) so there’s really no reason for me to go but I’m still tempted because we didn’t get to meet current students while I was there and it’s only a 5 hour drive away for me lol

I got my BFA at an all-art school and it was actually perfect for me, but that is definitely NOT a universal experience haha. To yr point, if a school is exclusively for arts, then their investment in the quality of their facilities should be a priority, right? More than the studio set-up though, it was the attitude and, like, juvenile ideas of the students I talked to that really concerned me. The whole tradeoff of not getting a more wholistic education at say a liberal arts school is that the narrower scope of study should then be much deeper—if you only offer arts programs, they better be damn good programs! I’m not trying to talk smack on SAIC though, the impression I formed is only indicative of my singular limited experience, and is informed by my own personal interests and goals and preferred environment for working etc. For all I know, I could be missing out on a stellar program there! I don’t want to suggest anything about the caliber of the school I’m just relaying my perception. But I will say I think visiting schools you are seriously interested in is very important for sure

I’m not sure if this is helpful, but I visited the studio spaces at SAIC during a national portfolio review day in November (didn’t even know they had grad school sessions of that until this year!). They have several buildings housing studio spaces scattered in a 5ish block radius of the school, though if I remember correctly I think the sculpture dept is mostly in the basement of the main building. I only really looked at the painting students’ studios in a building across the street from the Art Institute’s front entrance, and unfortunately they were not particularly appealing (at least not to me anyway). They were like that cubical-style you see a lot in undergrad facilities, maybe 12’ x 15’ on average, no natural light. After talking to a number of the students in their studios, I really got the impression that they were funneling students right into the program straight out of undergrad, and their work and conversation was uhhh… reflective of that. The studio visit was enough to convince me to not even apply to be completely transparent. But! That was just me—what I’m looking for in a MFA experience might be completely different than yours or anyone else’s! And like I said, I was only looking at painting. Can’t speak to their process of allocating spaces or anything like that of course.

Not sure if this info has been shared already, but in my interview with Cranbrook Painting they said acceptance decisions will be going out by mid-March! They did say that if I need to check in with them earlier due to other program timeline constraints that I could do that—not sure what that means exactly but very generous of them to put that out there! (Did they tell anyone else that? I didn’t ask them they just said it lol) Does anyone have a sense of MICA’s post-interview timeline?

Nice me too! 😊

That’s very kind, thank you for saying that!!