ol'spice

I'm going to CGU and I'm contemplating renting a small one bedroom or a dirt cheat studio as close to Claremont as possible. Like some of you here, I had been contemplating a mid point between LA and Claremont as a strategic living situation but as an artist, I find that being too close to LA could become a distraction, and it could eat away into the time I'm supposed to be in the studio working... I'm open for renting a pad (a house) if other grads were willing to jump aboard... I agree with some of the posters, there are some surrounding areas that rentals are pretty affordable compared to LA rents...

I just spent 15 minutes on the phone with them (FAFSA) and got a "no answer" to my question (after the poor person put me on hold forever to ask her supervisor); and then after that I gave up; it's bad news regardless of what types of loans will be affected by this...

Hmm Outwest, thanks for trying to find something positive over the bad news... Unfortunately there is more bad news, see below, from the FAFSA website, this is a paragraph or two below the announcement of end to the subsidized Stafford loan: The U.S. Department of Education can no longer offer borrowers repayment incentives. Effective for loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2012, the Department of Education is prohibited from offering any repayment incentives to Direct Loan borrowers, except interest rate reductions to borrowers who agree to have payments automatically electronically debited from their bank account).

Yes, I thought about that... And by now, since I've gotten plenty of rejections from the East coast, I noticed it takes several days more for letters to arrive where I live...

we are all really happy for you! Make the best of it!

congratulations on your latest one!

There wasn't a thing from VCU in the snail mail box today...

I emailed them this week and told them I'm pressed to make a decision between my current choices, and would appreciate an update on the status of my application (three days passed and the same silence); Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'm getting a similar letter or an outright apologetic rejection letter from them when I get home today... At least I'll be able to call it a wrap as far as all the schools I've applied to and was waiting for responses.

anybody going to be at the CCA open house Sunday? I'm gonna check it out in the hopes by the end of the day I'll be able to make my decision...

Good luck with your interview and good luck to 'sympatico' with SAIC's decision...

Are you going to the open house this weekend? I'm driving up from SD myself to check it out... Your work is pretty amazing. I was at CGU (Claremont) open house yesterday and met a graduate of the same school you did your BFA...

Just got an email from USC saying that there were outstanding items in my application (all my college transcripts basically, which I paid for and I'm absolutely sure I requested a set for USC)... Oh, this is a week after I got a rejection letter in the mail.

YESSSS got my RISD rejection (US mail) today!... Now at least I know it's between the three schools that have accepted me so far. And it will be a slugfest between the three, since I'm really not swaying in any one direction at this point.

That's crazy... I'm going to have to say good bye to the possible "miracle" (at this point, since I havent' heard A THING) from both RISD an VCU... I can't afford to wait until April 15th.. Oh well

I'm almost scared to ask you how did you find out...Did they notify you or did you contact them? (and what are you applying for ?)

good luck, I hope you get in!

Itsem: you have to take things you read on this forum very carefully(with a huge grain of salt, sometimes). I do respect everyone's opinion here, including "fool4nine's", but each of our situation's is different, and the decision about paying, expecting a free ride, how much $$ to borrow should be based not on one or another person’s opinion exclusively. Yes, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was a bit jealous of the folks getting a "full ride", but my reasoning for not worrying about how much debt I'll pile up is in part because I truly believe in my work.Not to the extent that I'll make it big in the art world; That's not and never has been my goal, I just want to partner with a gallery someday that will help get my work to the people that will appreciate it. I'm counting on being a very competitive candidate for a decent teaching position once I finish my MFA. I'm basing that on a very strong portfolio and on 10 years classroom experience teaching at the community college level. I also have 10 years experience teaching as a freelance instructor for the most important museum where I live. Another reason, is the fact that I'm already represented by an agent in NYC that only works with high caliber artists that have been awarded the Pollock-Krasner and Guggenhein fellowships and almost 100% of them have an MFA. I've made pretty decent money since this past summer with my undergrad school work. And to me the work that got me into grad school is on its infancy. I know it will be way stronger after these next two years. Last but not least, the things I've researched recently at Claremont have really blown me away: the work of the painting faculty is right on the line of the work I've been investigating, besides I dig the work of every single one of the painting/art faculty; their Chair is a critic that writes weekly for Culture Monster (the LA times art review section), the studios are awesome, private and big... The school is 35 miles east of the LA gallery scene and all visiting artists (monthly) are represented by major LA galleries. So that's the school that is totally out of the rankings (out of the three that accepted me) but at this point, the one that's most attractive to me for the reasons I've been posting so far (also they are the most expensive and giving me the least scholarship help). I shared all this stuff, so the students that are contemplating doing what I'm doing (or feeling bad about no "full ride") see that I'm not just going on an irresponsible, roll of the dice, adventure. Because of my age and the fact that I have lots of experience both as a teacher and as an artist, I feel good about this Fall regardless of how much money I'll have to borrow to complete my MFA.

I totally agree with you... We are probably applying during some of the most competitive times, every single rejection letter stated that, (+lots of people unemployed, therefore going back to school makes perfect sense) and when there is little money/funding available to many of the schools... Having said that, I told myself that if I got accepted into at least one of the schools I applied, that I was going to do this no matter what (even if I have to take out loans for every penny of my MFA). I confess I was a bit jealous of the folks here that got full tuition remission + stipend. Congratulations to all of you! And even though I'm comparing the offers I've gotten, $$$ alone will not be the deciding factor for me... I'm really excited about my options and I'm totally looking forward to this Fall.

no, but I wish they get on it already because I can't make any decisions until then...

no "outline", my USC rejection came in the mail in a tiny envelope...

I wonder if your friend's letter also said (as part of the apology):... "we had over 400 applicants and we accepted 8".

got my tiny rejection letter from USC. And this one I felt bad (for the school)... "We had over 400 applicants and we accepted 8"... I trust my work, but if I had any knowledge of this in advance I would have saved my $$$ and not applied there...

As much as I was moaning to myself about not applying to one of these programs (a low residency program), I agree with 'michaelwebster': unless it's really affordable in comparison to the average MFA program, I think you'll have a hard time dealing with the huge vacuum of not having the daily interaction with your peers and immediate access to faculty; how do you replace that? I'd rather pay way more and wait until accepted in a traditional program...

nope, but since I'm waiting for their decision as well, I hope the answer is YES.

I agree with "ifwd", just do good work (whatever the medium or area, sculpture, painting) and build a strong portfolio; ideally you want to make sure you have way more than what most schools require... I'm a painter but a couple of times during my undergrad, professors told me I should seriously consider sculpture. I used exclusively paintings for my portfolio submissions, chose ONLY to apply in one area (painting/drawing), but one out of my three references was a sculpture professor.