Thank you for sharing! 2 is a very slim pool of people, and makes sense to align the program with your needs. It's Also super reassuring to hear your experience/perspective on it. I myself am looking to make work more aimed at political and socioeconomic themes and topics, so this is good to hear.
This is my first year applying for Grad school. Im coming from a mostly commercial background but have really found it quite fleeting, and I feel like I cant look back on my contributions happily, knowing how it's being used.
I only applied to 3 schools, UC's, but I really love UCLA's 3 year time frame, which is a huge reason for my application there. We will see how things go.
What was the timeline like for your application? Interview Announcements, Acceptance/Rejection Notifications, and such?