Foehn
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Everything posted by Foehn
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For the next round, I would apply to at least 5-6 schools just to broaden your horizons. Three is a relatively small pool, particularly as an international student. Unfortunately, with the way things are currently going in the U.S. it may be a bit more challenging for international students to find the right fit. I really want to impress upon anyone who will be reapplying next cycle that these highly competitive programs are often actually quite holistic in their evaluations of our applications. Because they get so many applications from talented artists, the deciding factor for acceptance is often related to factors outside of the portfolio and CV. Sometimes those factors are out of your control and just come down to timing. I was rejected from my top choice last year without an interview, but this year I was interviewed, accepted, and offered a competitive fellowship. Yes, I added new work to my portfolio and improved my writing, but there were also things happening behind the scenes at the university that greatly improved my chances for this round. That's why it's important to give yourself a lot of choices, because you never know how the stars are aligning and you only have so much control over the process. Apply to more schools, make some new work, do deep research into the programs and find a genuine connection to the faculty you would want to work with, reflect that connection in your writing. Best of luck!
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Not painting, but I just had an interview with VCU fiber arts and she said they'll start notifying people about acceptances/waitlists next week.
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Will do! I agree that the in-person vibes will be essential, so you'll definitely see me in March. One thing to think about for UCSB is the lack of affordable housing in SB. In perusing the area on Zillow, the lack of housing ended up preventing me from applying there. You can definitely find places outside of SB proper, but I'm averse to long commutes so I decided against it.
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A faculty/department head emailed me about an interview yesterday (Feb 10).
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Still nothing from UCI.
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Some hope for those anxiously waiting to hear back after interviews. Last week one or two people reported they were accepted into UC Davis. I'd interviewed but heard nothing so I assumed I wasn't accepted. Today I received an acceptance from Davis! Super stoked. Also got an interview at VCU well after when I thought they were finished sending invites. It's not over till it's over!
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~*anything is possible*~ but I'm keeping my expectations low.
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Ahh, and now the truly painful part of the app process: acceptances and silent rejections. Still no word from UCI on my end. Anyone hear back about an interview? I know they were planning on interviewing starting on the 9th so I'm not getting my hopes up. No email from UC Davis after my 10 minute interview so I'm taking that as a silent rejection. Not surprised but pretty bummed out. Crossing my fingers for UCR and over preparing for my UCSD interview next week!
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Interview recap for anyone curious: Had a 10 minute zoom with Davis on Thursday, didn't feel very confident at the end but also felt a little turned off by the format. I understand that they probably get a lot of applicants and have a lot of people to choose from...but it felt very strange, impersonal, and rushed. In contrast, had a 30 minute zoom with UCR that I really enjoyed and made me very excited about their program. Was much more conversational and I felt like I had good interactions with all three panel members. Got an invite to interview with UCSD yesterday. As mentioned above, UCI has paused their review in solidarity with the general strike. Hoping to hear from them next week. Still waiting to hear from University of Washington. A friend has an interview with VCU for a concentration in ceramics. Maybe the different areas reach out at different times, but I applied for a concentration in fiber/textiles which falls in the same category (craft/materials) as ceramics. So I'm assuming I didn't make it into their final round. Oh well! Asking for a friend: has anyone heard from University of Colorado Boulder?
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Seems like the 10-minute interview is the Davis standard. Just had mine this morning. Interviews are not my strong suit so we'll see if they like my work enough to ignore my poor public speaking! Good luck with your interview!
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I expanded my faculty of interest, which I think was pretty critical. Last year I named three and only one of them will be on my interview panel this year, along with one of the new additions. I've learned that if the faculty you name aren't interested in your work or aren't focused on mentoring grad students that year, they'll pass on your application. I had to look outside of my usual mediums to find professors who deal with similar themes in their work. My portfolio the first time around also contained a lot of work that was a couple years old and didn't really reflect what my current practice is. I added 10 new images that linked everything together more seamlessly. Similarly, my statements for this year were more focused on the present and future goals I have for my work, rather than explaining work that I had made in the past.
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good evening! I hope everyone is hanging on and not going too crazy refreshing their email. I wanted to give a quick update for anyone waiting to hear back from UCs. So far I've received interview requests from UC Riverside and UC Davis. Their applications were due the first week of January. I was a little surprised I heard from Riverside about a week after their due date, especially considering one of my letters of rec was five days late. Still waiting to hear back from schools with apps due mid-January (Irvine, San Diego, VCU, UW). UC Davis is one of the schools I applied to last year, so I'm really excited to hear from them this time around. Last year it was radio silence until I received a rejection in late February. Happy to see that the strategic changes I made to my application made a difference!
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I’ve always assumed the preview would look a little worse than the actual submission because the preview box is so small. That said, I think Davis specified that the portfolio files should be smaller than 3MB so I just followed that guidance for all my UC apps and didn’t really notice an issue.
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How bad is the quality? I had an issue when I exported my photos from Lightroom with the color profile set to ProPhoto RGB instead of sRGB. The ProPhoto made all of my colors look washed out.
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Interview requests for UCLA, Davis and San Diego went out last year between the last week of January and the first week in February. They start making final decisions in March and April.
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UCLA only accepts 2 people to their ceramics department every year and at this point I can recognize that my work isn't what they're looking for. It's just not worth the money to apply somewhere that I know wouldn't be a good fit, especially with such low odds. When I was looking at schools this time around, I compared my work to current and previous students and I felt like if I made a few minor changes to my portfolio, Davis would still be a good fit. Something to think about when you start to hear back from schools is that a rejection is rarely about the quality of your work and more often about 1) if they think you're ready for grad school 2) your work fits into the kind of cohort they're putting together the year you apply.* UCLA's 2025 cohort, from what I've seen, is politically engaged and interested in social practice. I don't make that kind of work so it makes sense that I didn't get in. *Edit to add: there are other reasons, of course, but I found these two helpful when reapplying.
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Last year, I heard from SAIC about an interview at the end of January. Don’t be nervous!
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I did not. I went to Pasadena City College for community college and had a lot of professors who taught at both places. They didn't do much to sell me on it.
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All the UCs are very competitive, UCLA in particular. Many of them are fully funded programs and UCLA in particular is embedded in the LA art scene. I would consider adding UC Irvine to your list (app is due Jan 15th). It’s relatively close to LA, has good funding, not as well known but still a good program. Just a thought!
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Hi everyone! This is my second time applying to sculpture/ceramics/fiber/interdisciplinary MFA programs. Learned a lot from the first time and I’m feeling a lot better about this round! Wishing everyone luck. I’m an LA local with friends who have graduated from or are currently attending different UCs, so I’m happy to answer any UC specific questions! I’m applying to: UC Irvine UC Davis UC San Diego UC Riverside University of Washington Virginia Commonwealth Last year I applied to: UCLA (rejected) Davis (rejected) San Diego (rejected) SAIC (accepted, declined due to cost)
