RKSim

Grad_Wannabe.. congrats on MIT! I'm crossing my fingers that they simply haven't emailed me yet..! (gulp) Still waiting to hear from NYU (MFA) and CU Boulder. Got a rejection from U Washington yesterday.. But on the bright side, I've got a confirmed full-ride fellowship (stipend + tuition + guaranteed TAships) to UC Santa Barbara, and I was nominated for a similar fellowship at UC Davis. Both UC Davis and UCSB are flying me out and putting me up so that I can visit their programs..

Holy CRAP Kewpies! Congrats!

I applied to the SMVisS program. http://architecture.mit.edu/masters-smviss.html This one is right up my alley and I'm really crossing my fingers for it, and some heavy-duty funding as well. Tuition + living expenses as a grad student at MIT are around $68k a year.

Thanks Guys! I got my official acceptance from UC Davis this morning. I'm really excited that I haven't had to do any interviews yet, as we all know how painful they can be. I am still fretting one in particular; I applied for a fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship at NYU that requires in-person interviews if accepted as a finalist. Also, I'm still waiting to hear from U Washington, CU Boulder, NYU, and MIT. Good luck everyone!

I'll confirm that they don't do interviews. They used to, apparently, but told us that they did away with that part of the application process this year. Which visit did you guys go to? I was there on October 12th. Good luck!

I got my rejection letter on Tuesday. When I visited the department in October, I learned that they accept 6 painters every year, and the 4 additional spots are divided among the other specializations. I applied to sculpture, and they accept 1 or 2 sculpture students a year depending on how many sculpture majors graduate; if 2 graduate, they accept 2 students, if 1 graduates, they accept 1. It alternates every year, and also (of course) depends on the advancement of the students.

update: I got an email from UC Davis informing me that the Statement of Intent to Register form is now available. I clicked on the link and got another email that reads: "Thank you for starting the official online UC Davis Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) for the graduate program in Art-MFA. To access your SIR in the future, log in at:[] We are hopeful that you will choose UC Davis for your graduate academic experience and look forward to you joining the UC Davis community." I haven't received my official acceptance letter yet (available tomorrow AM), but I assume this means I'm in.

www.rksim.com My submitted portfolios were all work from 2009.

Damn schools and their misleading app. process websites: http://art.yale.edu/Admissions from their site: "Final Selection Applicants who have passed the Preliminary Selection Jury will be notified by mid-February. At this time, applicants are required to send or deliver original work to the School and will be invited to schedule an appointment for an individual interview in late March. The interview is an important component of the final selection process." Where did you hear that sculpture student's don't have to send original work? edit: I see it now... I guess I didn't read too much past that first statement. It would be nice if it said "except those applying in sculpture." @kewpies: You're right, that is pretty vague. I talked to a Yale grad earlier last year and he told me that I should even attend an open house before the application process if I was planning on applying. If you can afford it or can find a way to finance the trip, I would definitely recommend interviewing in person, especially for Yale. However, I know that it's not always possible. It would definitely be nice if they provided assistance with the costs. The only school that I've seen that actually covers these costs is the University of Michigan.

I've been accepted to University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and University of California at Santa Barbara without interviewing. I know for a fact that the University of Texas does not conduct interviews anymore, and I have a hunch that MIT, NYU, UC Davis, and University of Washington don't conduct interviews either. It seems that most schools that conduct interviews list it as part of the application process, however, I was surprised last year by Portland State University by an unexpected interview invite. The schools I applied to this year that do interview are University of Colorado at Boulder, Northwestern (rejected today via online app system), and University of Michigan (rejected). I got the impression this year that the general trend is moving away from interviews, but maybe thats just based on the group of schools I applied to. Update: Just received my University of Texas rejection letter today (post): 254 applicants for 10 spots (fyi: 6 of those are for painting, the other 4 are for other departments. depending on the year they only accept 1 or 2 sculpture applicants) This makes the tally: U Chicago: Accept U. Illinois at chicago: Accept (fellowship nomination) UCSB: Accept (fellowship nomination) NW: Reject U Michigan: Reject U Texas @ Austin: Reject (These schools all offer awesome financial aid upon acceptance; damn ) U Washington: ? UC Davis: ? (Got an email that final decisions will be available online on the 18th..) Colorado @ Boulder: ? NYU: ? MIT: ?

@lilnova: Thanks! Once you mentioned the Koons influence in my work it got me thinking, and I arrived at the same thoughts that you did regarding the "kitsch-meets-craft" that you mentioned, and also the stark contrast between his hi-production value vs. my low-tech assemblage approach. Thanks for taking a look at my site! @kewpies: I'm amazed they offered you a skype interview instead of in person. One of the reasons (but not the only reason) I didn't apply to Yale is because of the in-person interview requirement along with shipping work to the school for the interview. As a sculptor, and since most of my work uses living plants, this interview, and shipping work, would have been insanely expensive. I can respect their statement to ante up, considering that the in person interview requirement is explicitly stated in the application process. It is generous of them to offer you a skype option.

Just to clear things up; I wasn't trying to say that Jeff Koons influences my work. I was just trying to show how ideas from more prominent artists can trickle into conversations and influence local discussion & dialogue. My work has been influenced more by deer I see while driving down the highway (aka; my present reality living in Idaho) than it has by Jeff Koons.

Contemporary Art Question: I don't think this should be too difficult if you approach it methodically. The Wikipedia/text-book definition of contemporary art is: "Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II." So as vague as that is, it points toward the more commonly heard "responding to the present" definition of contemporary art. I've heard this one from several people. With this, what is your art responding to? Is it an art-topic? Are you responding to some-one else's work to create a dialogue/debate? Or are you responding to how you "are/live/exist" in the world? Or something else entirely? (cultural phenomena, movies, science, etc...) For my work it is definitely a mixture, and I think that would be the best thing to tell anyone that is interviewing you. Personally, I am not making art about art, but art about life. However I try to do so with an informed context of contemporary art and a knowledge of current issues in the art-world. This to me ties in to the "which artists influence your work" question. While the inclination might be to drop some big names/heavy-hitters, I also prefer to drop names of artists who I know personally and whom I have exhibited with. The real debate/dialogue happens at this level. If I was responding to an art rockstar's work, it would be a dead end because they aren't going reciprocate a response (however these art rockstars often influence the dialogues happening at the local level; a few nights ago while having beers with a colleague, we ended up talking about Jeff Koons, Mel Chin, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Deborah Butterfield, to name a few). As far as making art about life; I think this is fairly obvious about my work, and is elaborated upon in my statement. One thing I really enjoy that a colleague of mine pointed out is that my work maintains an "Idaho" aesthetic/feeling; chopping down trees, shooting guns, etc. This helped me realize how much my work is influenced I am by where I live. When I was living in Portland during 2008 I was making very different work. So how does your work respond to location? Obviously, there is no single, correct answer. Hopefully this provide some jumping points to the rather open-ended topic.

Hi everyone.. I've recently heard back from two additional schools: U Chicago: Accepted..! U Michigan @ Ann Arbor: Rejected (this is the program that lost my air-mailed, signed for and delivery-confirmed portfolio and asked me to resend another one within two days so they could review it.. I should have followed my gut instinct and withdrew my app rather than paying another $20~ to send the extra portfolio. On a different note, I heard from an unaffiliated art prof that the grad students at UM weren't terribly happy with the department.. good luck to anyone that is accepted to and chooses UM.)

Alright guys, heres my list: University of Washington NYU MIT University of Michigan University of Texas Northwestern University of Chicago University of Illinois at Chicago University of Colorado at Boulder University of California at Santa Barbara University of California at Davis Fortunately for me, my mind is at ease. I've already been accepted and nominated for fellowships at the University of Illinois at Chicago (full-funding fellowship!) and University of California at Santa Barbara. Didn't even have to interview.. I hope you guys get your phone calls soon! And if this year doesn't work out don't let it deter you from applying again. I applied to four schools last year with minimal success, and took another year to work like a maniac; creating a new portfolio, completing an internship at a gallery, joined a cooperative run gallery, received some grants & publicity, and was accepted for a residency program (VSC), and exhibited at a few shows... all to ultimately build my resume and make my application more competitive. My strategy for applying to this year's programs was mainly to get good funding! University of Texas, Northwestern, and University of Michigan offer very strong funding if you get in, and many of the other schools have good funding that is a bit more competitive/not as strongly guaranteed. Also, for anyone's future knowledge, University of Colorado at Boulder offers in-state tuition through an alliance of graduate schools for residents of 17 western states.. Good luck everybody!

As for the discussion of statements, it sounds like what we are all getting at (to a certain extent) is to be honest. I'm applying to a variety of programs, mostly sculptural, and I do not have an undergraduate degree in visual art. Finding three recommenders was a long-term challenge, where I essentially had to build relationship with my recommenders (not solely for this reason..). Tailoring my recommendations would have been impossible. Further, responding again to lazycatfish, the professors I met with at UT Austin even mentioned that it would be wise to acknowledge my weaknesses and the need to improve in certain areas. So don't be afraid to list areas where you might not be well-versed.. I can't imagine applying to 30 schools. I applied/am applying to 11 this year, and after all the essays, I honestly don't think I could have approached them differently (from my mentioned readymade + modify approach). Tailoring the linguistics would have been insanely difficult for me, as I was completely OCD over just about every single word that I put in them. The UT austin essays were good to write, and I really appreciated that they didn't have a word limit (not that I wrote a book or anything..) Andimags, maybe we'll be piers?! good luck.. they take 6 painters, and 1 or 2 sculptors per year, so you've got a better chance than I do. Also, it's significant to mention that everyone I've talked to about the application process has mentioned that your portfolio is the most important thing. by far. As Andimags mentioned, it's the critics that need the verbal firepower. A colleague of mine also had an interesting theory about visual artists, being that they express themselves through their art because they have a difficult time expressing themselves otherwise.. it is their outlet. This comes from his personal experience working with other artists.. And on an unexpected note.. I got my phone call (the call) from UCSB today.. they are recommending me for admission and a fellowship. I was blown away as I am still working on three other applications, and their deadline was only 10 days ago! Can you believe this!? Further, it was a postmark deadline, and they probably only received my portfolio on the 5th or the 6th. Good luck everyone!

Not all departments hate to see that their students want to teach. I have heard this before as well. For example, at NYU they explicitly state on their website: "The acclaimed artists who make up the Full-time and Adjunct MFA faculty include artists, critics, and writers with many diverse interests and disciplines who see teaching as an integral part of an ongoing and influential creative practice." That might be a good way of phrasing it..

$100k includes room/board estimates from the school. It was based on costs and my feelings about their program at the time... They also offered me about $30k in financial aid. Their painting program is the largest of their grad programs from what I remember. And the studios are really, really nice too, if you don't get a chance to visit. They're in a shared 'creative' building in a more industrial district in SF. Students with seniority get the studios with windows.. When I went to visit Keith Boadwee was leading a parade of MFA students down the street, all playing a variety of instruments. It was pretty amusing.

I think that tailoring your SOP for each school is a must. The way I wrote mine last year, and plan on doing so this year, is having a ready-made statement about my personal work, and a little additional material on "why grad school now?" (which every school seems to ask). But from there, you need to sell yourself to the specific school. Mention what you like specifically about their program and show them that you have done the research on their school and that you are serious about applying. And for SFAI, they have an excellent faculty/visiting artist roster, and excellent studios (esp. for painting). But you'll either need a miraculous funding package, or to sell a kidney to pay for it. Last year they offered me $30k in grants/work study, with the rest of the program costing $70k. Their MFA program puts out around 60 graduates a year from what I remember (more graduates from the MA programs on top of that), so considering how many students they have, I'm not sure how much money there is to spread around to them. If you want to go, make sure that your application is top notch so you can get their full-fellowship (I think only one is offered every year).

Frugal: I pretty much used the same approach as you, applied to only four schools, visited several times, etc, etc. Where my strategy faltered was that the schools I applied to simply did not have the money available to give out full funding packages. While you can definitely ask about funding opportunities and apply to schools that offer full packages, applying to 10+ schools is not a bad strategy to increase your opportunity as well. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are pulling $1000 out of art supply budgets.. Also, a lot of schools mention that they do offer full funding, but after all the networking, visiting, and 'fluffing' in the world, there is no guarantee that you will receive that package.

I sent a letter to the San Francisco Art Institute today that said I would not be able to enroll unless they paid for 90% of the total cost to attend the program. I mentioned that the debt from the program would not allow me to freely pursue a career as an artist upon graduation, and that I did not want my artistic practice to be motivated by the pursuit of capital.

JKro, I know that some states don't allow you to declare residency if the sole purpose of you moving there is to attend school. There might be some other way around it though..

In this case I wouldn't hesitate to enroll, and feel free to cancel everything if you don't get the funding you need. It's a two way highway. Schools can't expect their students to make decisions without information about funding. I'm currently in 2 similar positions, where I was accepted without a real financial aid offer. I had one admission decision extended until May 1st, and I will definitely ask for an extensions at the other school if I don't hear back soon. They are expecting to hear back by Monday.

I've done a little bit of research on the new Income Contingent Repayment plans, but I haven't been able to find out too much information in regards to eligiblity, etc, though it sounds pretty straightforward. Does anyone here happen to know anything about these repayment plans or information that they don't tell you up front? For those that don't know, the ICR plans allow students to pay a fixed percentage of their monthly wage back to their loans for 25 years, and at the end of the term the rest of the debt is written off. The plan is supposed to be ready and available by July 1st. I have read both 10% and 20% for the percentage of your income that is paid back. It is based on subtracting the poverty level from your AGI, dividing that amount by 12, and then taking the percentage (10-20%) off the top. They are currently debating $0 or $5 for the minimum payment each month, and deferment or forbearance does not count towards the 25 years.. anyone else?