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Really interesting articles, thanks for the resources! I honestly don't know what will be hot or not. My belief is that going to an MFA merely expands and concentrates your work, but what you do *after* you graduate is way more important.... I don't know how difficult it is in USA to show, but I was doing shows during my undergrad years (it was less than 200 bucks to exhibit if you did group shows) and some commission/paid work but it was never as complicated a process as the articles mentioned.

I'm an international student and you can definitely get a student working visa. The maximum hours is 21 per week though, but it's still pretty decent considering the study workload would take most of the week anyway. I also think you should consider getting a residency instead. If all you want is studio space and you have a decent body of work - contact me via PM, I know a few people who run residencies.... you'll basically live in the studio and produce your own work without the hassle of completing extra coursework. An MFA isn't really about making art, it's about exploring the possibilties and experimenting further with your personal vision while collaborating or being guided by a tutor (plus cousework and projects in a structured enviroment, you won't nessescarily have the freedom to create what you want). It's very very very different. Like for me, I'm doing an MFA because I'm moving to a different medium and 'level' of my own art. Like you, I've done my own shows and sold work, but I think it's time to move on..... so I want to take on the research and study again and maybe redefine my personal vision. Not so much about creating, but contemplating. I mostly agree with the rest, although you make it sound much harsher than it is. I've never done any gallery volunteering or put so many hours, nor did I have so much trouble establishing a career. (All I did was have a folio, cold-call a lot of people and started putting on shows. By the 5th or 6th show, it was cake.)

helsinki aalto university. I just got my acceptance today

I think it varies a bit - my friend studied in UCLA for film, and when she applied to Loughborough they didn't accept her degree because it was 3year with no honours. I know that they definitely do not accept degrees with no honours from Australia though, RCA has a pretty good degree guide on their admissions page if I remember correctly.

Central St Martins is a department within UAL, University Art London. If you're going for UAL painting or drawing, they will most likely send you to Chelsea or Wimbledon since CSM is mostly a design school. UAL is ranked 35th on the list. Some other very well known art schools besides those already mentioned: Reading, Leeds, Winchester* (personal favourite, I went to their campus on residency before), Edinburgh, Glasgow, Westminister. I'm not sure whether you can apply to study to UK with a US degree.... they're really peculiar in that they pay a lot a lot of attention of tiny details and will *not* give you any leeway. Like, I applied to Goldsmiths before and was rejected because the minimum age to enter is 24-25 years old. (it's not listed on their site) REGARDLESS of how good your portfolio is, or how many recommendations you have etc etc Most art schools such as UAL will not take in BA graduates either, even if you are from a very respected uni. They also require min. honours for all their graduate programs even if your undergrad program length is *exactly* the same length as theirs (for instance a 3 year undergrad in australia is basically the same as a 3 year undergrad in UK, except in UK you graduate with honours after 3 years.). Some schools also require you to take UKCAT or UCAS. Some really oldfashioned ones don't do phone or skype interviews, and require you to fly down to an interview (even if you live halfway across the world). Basically whatever is listed on their admissions site, follow everything to the T down to the name of your degree. If you're really keen on going UK, be prepared for a lot of paperwork. Other European countries are much easier (and cheaper!) to get into.

Awesome! I'm leaning more towards Parsons as well, they just seem a lot more personable and helpful. Let me know how your trip goes!! I really wish I could visit before making a decision, it would really help a lot.

Well I don't think you have to worry very much, they have a bootcamp program in August which is complusory for all new DTMFA students to attend and I'm pretty sure they'll cover all the technical knowledge. I have a bit more familiarity with that kind of programming since the last exhibition I did used physical computing.... but honestly I don't think it'll make much of a difference. They're looking for ideas and concept, not so much technique since they can teach you that. Technical grounding is like a bonus for them. Maybe if you're really worried you can read up (and try?) some of the tools that you are likely to use. The main ones would probably be Processing ( http://processing.org/ ) and Arduino ( http://www.arduino.cc/ ) they are commonly used together. Other programs are like Simulink and Labview. Otherwise most standard adobe programs (fireworks, after effects, photoshop etc.) will probably be used as well. I can understand how that feels..... I never thought I'll get into one school, much less *all* the schools I applied to so now I'm kinda stuck with making a decision. Normally I would just pick the school that is cheaper, but most of my offers are exactly the same (merit scholarship + chance of assistantship) and since I'm not eligible for more financial aid or visiting the university I'm at a loss to decide between the schools. It sounds weird, but I'm honestly not keen on living in NYC. My only reason for applying to USofA is because of faculty and research groups.

Hi I'm also in Parsons D&T program. I think I might have spoken to you before, but here's a much longer analysis of schools that do design/tech or art/tech. There aren't many, and I applied + got into most of them and here's what I found out. I hope this is useful for anyone thinking of doing an art/tech or design/tech program. D&T is really not the same as graphic design. I was an applicant, and I have no experience at all in graphic design - my specialisation was in aesthetics (art philosophy) and fine art (oil painting). I moved into art technology after as a way of blending my seperate interests of art/media philosophy and practice together because in traditional art schools the art history/philosophy department doesn't really play very much into the media/cultural studies department. On a very surface level D&T is about using new technologies in art and design, but on a deeper level it also asks questions on the concepts of media and affect that technology can have on the idea of art. It's not about the whole walter b.'s reproduction thing, but technology as an expanision of possibilities (like would you consider Photoshop the program as a piece of art?) For some idea of what Parsons D&T program is like, check their research groups: http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/mfa-design-technology-culture-place/ Is the focus of their research part of your interests? Are you keen on joining any of the groups? Do you have any faculty member that you wish to work with long-term? Like for me, I want to work in both the SpyLab and SmallLab groups and I'm very interested in the work of Sven Travis and Mckenzie Wark. Another thing you can look at is the Final Thesis projects of the graduated students in the program, and see if its the kind of thing you want to make and work with. ( http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/mfa-design-technology-student-work/ ) A similar program to Parson's D&T is NYU's ITP program: http://itp.nyu.edu/ The difference between Parsons and NYU is mostly 1. price 2. in Parsons you get an MFA, in NYU you get an MPS. Note that you cannot teach art with an MPS degree. Otherwise the programs are almost ALMOST the same. I did an excel sheet table where I listed all the first year courses for *both* programs, and guess what? Different names for same things. Both schools teach you Processing and Arudino in first year. Both schools have some sort of cultural studies class - either a variant of derrida's telepresence (nyu) or situationist flaneur (parsons). Both schools have also have their own version of a game studies department. Even the faculty members, they're pretty much the same 'rank'. Sven Travis and Mckenzie Wark (parsons) VS. Tom Igoe and Alexander Galloway (nyu). I think the core difference between NYU and Parsons is NYU is a lot more technical than Parsons. I did the applications for both schools, and NYU's was didn't require a study plan or thesis proposal to enter.... which kinda suggests that they don't care if you enter the school without a core concept or idea to work on. Their admissions also *DOESN'T* require a portfolio - it's not complusory, and that baffled me. I also preferred Parson's approach to admissions - they not only had online monitoring but were quick and helpful when I needed to do a multitude of forms for visa applications. Also the dean of admissions wrote a handwritten message on my offer, which is much more personal than NYU's email admissions package. One school which is NOT an art school, but also does Design & Technology is MIT's Media Lab: http://www.media.mit.edu/ The course is structured towards a MSc and very heavily on technique. Oddly enough they *do* require a portfolio the way NYU doesn't. (does anyone find it weird? why would you have a design course that DOESN'T have a portfolio requirement?) They are very very very science-based and I had to sit through 3 rounds of interviews. I turned them down because they aren't really keen on doing art/technology, but just upgrading technology itself and also the research group I wanted to work for had no openings. It's a very cool department and the research is amazing though, I think in particular Patti Maes' work on screens and interfaces is really wonderful. The last school I applied to was SAIC's art technology: http://www.saic.edu/degrees_resources/departments/ats/ the people are very friendly and nice yes, but I don't think they have the facilities or cutting edge enough for design/technology. They're kinda still halfway in the 2-D stage, and haven't really moved on to physical computing and interactive enviroments. Mostly I felt that their art technology was a lot of art, and not a lot of technology and they were still scrambling to find a balance between both practices. However if you're keen on computer animation and graphics (especially modelling) this would be a good place. It's only for installation/environ work that they are not so good. If you're thinking of outside USA, Helsinki Media Lab at the Aalto University of Art: http://mlab.taik.fi/ does something similar, and they also have a pure games design/game art course. Amsterdam is another good place for Media Art: http://www.english.uva.nl/start.cfm I haven't looked into it too much, but University of Gotenburg (Sweden) also recently started a new program. I hope someone finds this useful! It has been very difficult to find the information on all these programs since they're all relatively new..... maybe in the future another wannabe-grad/artist can make use of it.

Just got my acceptance letter to NYU ITP via email!!!!!!!! I don't know why, but I didn't get interviewed for either Parsons OR NYU for *both* their digital art/media programs. I also recieved similar merit scholarships + assistantship oppotunities for both schools... has anyone tried to negotiate a better deal between schools before? Initially I was leaning towards Parsons since I thought that NYU wouldn't give me a scholarship, but now it's pretty much equal. I just don't know which school to pick now, since both of them are great

I called them up the day before and my friend just got interviewed last week. I'm anxious to know the results as well, crossing fingers for both of us!!

ITP said they'll only send out acceptances in early April, they've just started doing the interviews now. I called up the Admissions office to find out, because they don't have online monitoring

That's great!! I'm so happy for us!! what programme did you apply to? Both myself and another user didn't get interviewed and we both applied for the design & technology programme.

No I applied to NYU as well, and haven't got an update either. It's really strange since NYU's deadline is the earliest.....

I applied for the mfa design technology programme. I think different departments have different dates to stagger admissions entries, so you should probably hear from them within a week or so?

I applied to the design and technology program. It's really odd how they didn't do any interviews at all, since they explicitly state it as a requirement on their site