julieopp

My decision came down to CalArts vs. Hunter for painting. Here were the pros and cons of each, as I saw it: CalArts: Good: Beautiful campus with great facilities Very strong reputation as an art school Fun and friendly interview day Bring your dog to the studio, and class Liked LA Bad: Studios not open, or had to be rented during summer No major distinction between undergrads and grads Post-studio emphasis, didn't seem to care about painting Smallish studios, not ideal for a painter Expensive, even with the $10k scholarship they offered me. Didn't like Valencia, didn't like a 40-minute commute from Echo Park Hunter: Good: Great location - Love NY High-caliber faculty Giant studios Cheap cheap cheap 3-year, part-time program Strong emphasis on painting Bad: Very large and somewhat impersonal program No fancy facilities disorganized So in the end, I chose Hunter over CalArts. Even though the name may not be as strong, I thought there was a much stronger emphasis on painting. Great opportunities for networking with the other students. Huge, although not private studios. Requires you to be a self-started which I think is good practice for life after school. And cheap, because I hate the idea of graduating with debt!! Starting next spring. Message me if you are also going to Hunter!

just got my rejection from yale painting in the mail. wtf dudes. they were all over me in the interview, thought it went so well. anyway. guess this means i'm going to hunter, cuz i sure can't afford calarts. wooo hunter.

hopefully that just means that sculpture is more on top of it than painting. the suspense is killing me.

i emailed kris on friday about yale decisions. she told me that the decisions have been made and that the letters would be mailed on monday. talk about a tease. anyway, i guess we should all be hearing back this week, sooner or later depending on how close you live to new haven.

OMG i just got a call from Hunter. They sure took their time on that! I was so sure that I didn't get in that I had written it off completely. Now I'm waiting to hear back from Yale.... It's going to be quite a difficult decision, but I'm super stoked anyway. YAY

brosenth - hunter is crazy cheap. i think the idea is that you go part time for three years and work a part-time job at the same time. the cost of living in new york isn't that bad if you live in brooklyn or queens; you can get a really decent room for under $700 if you spend the time to look. you'll pay $100 a month for transportation, won't need a car, won't pay car insurance or parking... you can eat $1.50 bagels... you'll be offsetting the cost of living via working, and i'm sure they'll give you loans to cover tuition. you might be able to find a cheaper program elsewhere, but hunter is probably a better program, if not merely because its in manhattan. i'd say its an easy decision - turn down hunter only for a better program, not a cheaper one. i never got my phone call from hunter oh well - i guess there's still hope i'm on a wait list. but congrats to you all that did get in! i knew my interview went miserably so i can't say i'm surprised. luckily it went 100% better at yale, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed

You know, I don't remember at all, and the suspense is killing me! I totally bombed that hunter interview though. majorly bummed, but feeling better prepared now for my last interview. blerg. i was totally sold on the program. great studios, great faculty and not taking on $100k in debt. i guess there is still hope!! i wonder if there is someone we can call - i bet they have already made their minds up.

update: calarts - accepted 3/18 yale - interview 3/26 hunter - interviewed 3/14 and waiting columbia - rejected ucla - rejected bard - rejected Good Luck!

Balls! I knew i should have heard from UCLA by now. I guess I have to wait until mid march to get my rejection letter. Haven't gotten a call from Columbia either. Further confirms my suspicion that no news is bad news. UCLA was my top choice, i think if you can get in state tuition it is clearly the best option. had i gotten in i would have chosen it over yale, columbia, hunter and calarts. i guess now i just need to focus on the schools where i do have interviews. thanks for posting, its good to know ahead of time.

RE: shipping large works. i'm having a similar dilemma trying to figure out how to get my large paintings to yale from california. i don't want to unstretch. the solution i am considering right now are bicycle boxes - you can get them for free at most bike stores and they are faily large (i think 31"x51"x8" is standard - you want the total dimensions to be under 90 inches, and total weight under 50lbs) they are fairly high quality boxes. Then i was browsing forums of people who ship bicycles in them, and they say that FedEx is the way to go (much cheaper than UPS or USPS). so its not a perfect solution, and unstretching would be cheaper - but its something to consider. i'm also making a bunch of smaller (2'x3') versions of my large paintings so that i can bring them with me to the interview. i'm not going to recommend that to others because you'll call me crazy, but that is the plan cheers!

Ok Helen, well best of luck with your applications. Be sure to let us all know when you get those interviews at Columbia and UCLA.

ok well maybe columbia does, but they would not tell me the date of the interviews, and i browsed the history from last year and nobody mentioned interviews at columbia. as far as UCLA, i spoke with Caron Cronin on the phone and she told me that they do not do interviews. She said that sometimes faculty will call students to do phone interviews, but there is no interview day. So anyway...

UCLA does not do interviews, and I called Columbia to ask but did not get a straightforward answer. I'm guessing Columbia also does not hold official interviews. Don't know about the other schools you applied to, but CalArts, Yale, Bard and Hunter do interviews.

you know, i'm not exactly sure on the numbers, but hunter does all their interviews on one day. i applied there 5 years ago and interviewed, and it was pretty laid back they offered me a place but i turned them down at the time, and now i'm back to interview again. i think for hunter, they are pretty interested in you if they offer you an interview. that said, the worst thing you can do at any interview is go in with the attitude that you are definitely in... so maybe i'll see you there on the 14th

OMG OMG OMG so now that we have some interview offers rolling in the next question is what to say and not say in the interviews. Questions that I am anticipating: what motivates your work? who are your main influences? why do you want to go to graduate school? where do you see yourself in 10 years? why do you want to attend *this* school? and the big one: how does your work fit in with the contemporary art world/scene? or describe your work in the context of contemporary art movements? i'm not sure i'm wording it right, but you get the idea. so i know there were some posts last year about interview questions, but I was hoping we could start another forum. i'm particularly interested in what everyone thinks the current trends are in contemporary painting, so maybe if we throw out some ideas i can start thinking of ways to contrast my work to it (and you can do the same) this can be a brainstorming exercise so that when we all get to that interview we have eloquent answers ready to roll off our tongues. don't have to limit it to painting either, just saying. so yeah, there was modernism and postmodernism and now post-post modernism?? what does that even mean? i've seen a lot of neo-figurative art out there, and i think there seems to be a movement away from "irony" in general. i do think that a lot of artists are incorporating new types of media, different types of paint, and bringing together disparate styles into their work. what else can you all think of?