sympatico

Anyone wishing they applied to more programs? Hindsight is 20/20, and I don't honestly know if I'd have been able to manage it, but now that I'm noticing most of my programs aren't going to be telling me anything for months the anxiety is causing me to wish I had cast more lines.

I got a bunch of emails about my FAFSA from Columbia, but they all specified that decisions wouldn't be made for weeks.

No mention of a Decade of Negative Thinking by Mira Schor? Read the section on Graduate Application art to feel awesome about yourself (not). Art theory isn't super useful for making art, imo.

Are we just now starting to get responses from SAIC?

Just got home from a 1.5 week journey across the country. Wonderful trip! Rejected from Yale while I was at Mardi Gras, so you can imagine how that made the night go. In the nearly two weeks of reflection I have had I realized that my paintings just aren't where they need to be - not for school, but for myself. Unfortunately I think I was just trying to do too much in too little time and force new work I wasn't sure of yet. Oh well, we will see what happens.

Yale doesn't have a GPA requirement - the preliminary phase is graduate students looking through work and culling interesting from not (I'm not an expert on their process, though).

Also a heads up, if anyone applied to Yale's graphic design program they've gone through the preliminary selection phase, but no faculty has looked at the work yet.

Not sure about the printmaking department but I'm pretty sure my roommate didn't find out until about March that he got in to painting. My printmaker friend said she got a call from Beauvais when she was accepted, but I can't remember when she said that was. As for your materials, just be patient.

they probably just haven't updated the file yet. same thing with SAIC for a few days. are you applying to painting or printmaking?

Didn't seem like my style

If you weren't already aware that the ranking system is suspect at best... well I don't know what to tell you. Also - all the rankings are from 2008! 4 years old! Careers and schools have changed drastically in that time.

there are quite a few i think

paul thek just came across this guy: edwin dickinson, like it

Also, I totally agree with everything here. I think the best thing you can do before going to graduate school is figure out how to make money and make work - when you get to school you will be blown away by the amount of time you have for your work. You want to be the standard for studio practice in your class. If someone is in the studio more than you: figure out why and get in there more. I can't stress this enough. Obviously, taking a break is necessary for the brain and your practice, but there is no reason to not be making work on a daily basis. It could be one of the last opportunities you have to do so! From my unique perspective at UTK, the one thing I have noticed is the amount of working studio time the older students put in over the straight to MFA undergrad types. I think the people who have been out there in the real world recognize the opportunity that grad school is and the younger kids have gotten used to academia, they start to think that this is how it's going to be from here on out! So that's it: work work work and then work some more. You can get up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour later than you think. You can push your paintings another half-step before you go home. It's potentially the last time anyone is going to give a damn what you're doing without you having to track them down and drag them to your studio all the time!

Paintcutter I wanted to look at your work again but I haven't been able to find a link! If you wouldn't mind would you pm me something? If not I understand.

I agree completely, and yes, it would be nice for them to throw me a bone as well. haha

first time edit: I wouldn't give anecdotal evidence too much creedence

I talked about what I talk about. There is no need to shoehorn yourself into a philosophical dialogue if it isn't relevant to your work. Even if it is relevant to your work, that does not mean that you necessarily think about it in context of your approach etc. I just talked about what my motivations are, what I think about, why I do it.. etc To be clear: I have a philosophy degree, and it has certainly influenced my work over the years, but I didn't see any need to talk about myself in the framework of other people.

i'm hoping it won't be too huge of a deal just sucks after all the effort

How's this for a freakout? I realized today that one of my images somehow got replaced with a terrible and blurry version of itself. Welp, better luck next year I guess.

It won't matter.

I like Chicago quite a lot but I have no intention of living their long term and I have heard it is quite a faculty mill + more expensive than places like Yale and less selective. No thanks. I would have been so paranoid submitting early. The people here who did have spent the last few weeks just freaking out and wishing they had worked on their apps longer.

Some realizations I had while writing one of my SOPs At the last minute I decided against applying to SAIC. I realized I had no interest in living in Chicago. This process has been completely overwhelming and I probably worked harder on my apps then almost anything else in my life. I have realized that, at this point, I am not even really worried about getting in. I feel good about the effort I put in, and there is no way I could have done better. If it's not good enough, it's not necessarily my fault. I'll see if I want to try again later. I am now realizing more opportunities. I never felt any doubt about the desire to continue making art, and I am more certain of that goal than ever. I did 20 large scale paintings since October and these paintings have taught me more about my ideas about art and I have learned more about painting than I did throughout undergrad. The process has made me realize that I need to get the heck out of the town I am currently living in, regardless of what I do with school. That is the only thing that matters - location. I suddenly don't feel like I'm in such a rush with my life - I am broadening my horizons in terms of things I want to accomplish, places I want to go. The selectivity of these schools is illusionistic, they often accept work that I would not regard as strong or interesting or full of potential so I can't bash myself for not getting in if I don't. All in all, I still hope to get in, but I feel much better about myself and about my work purely for the effort of having applied. Best of luck to us all!

CALL THEM just do it don't settle

the only one i've encountered that doesn't is UCLA