LovelyPainter

Many Thanks indeed!! I literally stopped posting because of how obnoxious it was to skip over all the excessiveness. Cheers! 

Many Thanks indeed!! I literally stopped posting because of how obnoxious it was to skip over all the excessiveness. Cheers! 

@sguid or any other lovely painters...
 
Hear any news from U.Oregon or U.Washington yet? Nothing on my side. Le'sigh...

Many Thanks indeed!! I literally stopped posting because of how obnoxious it was to skip over all the excessiveness. Cheers! 

Many Thanks indeed!! I literally stopped posting because of how obnoxious it was to skip over all the excessiveness. Cheers! 

BOOM!!! Full scholarship, stipend and teaching ASS-shit-san-sip from USC!!!
 
THUMBS DOWN to Columbia and their over priced, lack of funding school!!! 
 
F-NYC, LA here comes the HEATER!!!!

Guys, thismessageispaidforby... has been temporarily suspended for using offensive language. I hope everyone else can stay civilized. I don't enjoy using such strong interference in threads but this was getting excessive.

Hi ArsenicYellow,
Thank You for having the courage to post a very sensitive topic/question. I went through a medical trauma during my undergrad and talk about it bluntly/openly in my statement of intent as it has made me a better artist and contributed to my work. You could perhaps take the same approach, simplifying it by saying "I went through/had to work through some very personal issues during undergraduate and believe that ultimately overcoming those personal obstacles has contributed to my work-but unfortunately it also is reflected in my GPA"- something along those lines.
 
I hope this helps! This said I really think it was a bit inappropriate for a professor to mention that admissions boards don't want anyone with issues/ect. I'm sorry but most artists have issues, hence we make badass art. Art is therapy. You can def over-share to the point where it distracts from your work though/TMI...my advice take the relevant information that explains your GPA, (I went through a very personal trauma) and then tie it back to your art.
 
Pushing lots of wonderful luck your way!
 

Hi ArsenicYellow,
Thank You for having the courage to post a very sensitive topic/question. I went through a medical trauma during my undergrad and talk about it bluntly/openly in my statement of intent as it has made me a better artist and contributed to my work. You could perhaps take the same approach, simplifying it by saying "I went through/had to work through some very personal issues during undergraduate and believe that ultimately overcoming those personal obstacles has contributed to my work-but unfortunately it also is reflected in my GPA"- something along those lines.
 
I hope this helps! This said I really think it was a bit inappropriate for a professor to mention that admissions boards don't want anyone with issues/ect. I'm sorry but most artists have issues, hence we make badass art. Art is therapy. You can def over-share to the point where it distracts from your work though/TMI...my advice take the relevant information that explains your GPA, (I went through a very personal trauma) and then tie it back to your art.
 
Pushing lots of wonderful luck your way!
 

If they ask about the grades, I would just say that you were dealing with some health issues/personal issues and that you persevered and graduated and that you're very proud of your achievements. Focus more on the fact that you were able to overcome the issues and make work you are proud of. 

Congrats Flow!!
 
And @Arsenic don't let it get ya down, you've got two interviews! Keep the good streak going

yale funds students according to personal and parental income. if youre rich you pay. if youre not, you pay much less or nothing. cranbrook is not yale (financially or reputably). columbia is not yale (financially). yale painters dont attend the school because "Their application was weak. They didn't get into any other note-worthy school." that statement is not just inaccurate, its insane. yes, their program is large in comparison.... this is because they get 2-10 times the number of applicants of most programs. their acceptance rate is still one of, if not THE lowest in the country (for programs with a painting distinction). youre degrading programs with blatant over-generalizations and inaccurate assumptions. not every program that you view as "private + expensive" is a haven for rich, second-rate artists.

"The work is decent, but lacking. Hanging little geo-things in a bunch of environments is well played out by now." on an internet forum, an anonymous persons view of not-present work that he/she sees as 'decent, but lacking' means absolutely nothing. to try and influence opinions on specific schools using this tactic is ridiculous. can we please stick to facts instead of nonsensical hearsay? this thread is quickly unravelling with dumb angst and over-zealous ignorance. BASIC LOGIC TELLS US THAT AN MFA IS NOT WORTH MASSIVE DEBT. we dont need a thread of indirect testimonials about it.

Though to play a little bit of devil's advocate, I also have a friend who is in quite a bit of debt from her education, and she doesn't regret her choices at all. I watched her work grow immensely, and now her career is starting to blossom. I don't think I would want to be in as much debt as her, but to each his own. I know what it's like to pay off $40K from undergrad, and I wouldn't have changed a single decision in my past, because the circumstances of my education led me down a really interesting path.

I think the risks are a case-by-case basis, depending on what you want your MFA experience to be and lead to. Regarding teaching, I've been told by various frustrated faculty that they've seen perfectly qualified candidates get passed up for positions because someone (who maybe wasn't as good of a teacher) had a fancy well-connected school on their resume. Is it better to be in debt but have more freedom of mobility or to be in less debt but not have as many windows of opportunity?

As for the art market, if the art world was a pure meritocracy, then I think the answer to this question would be easy. But the art world is the largest unregulated market in the world, and so networking, connections, and branding are key.

But again, I think it depends on what your individual goals are. I don't think all schools are for everyone. I'm still trying to decide what school would be best for me. I'm just hoping, come spring, I will have the luxury to decide!

In LOVE, seriously! I work within the same color palette -meaning loud, vivid and fantastically obnxious. So excited to see where you end up! Sending you lots of good luck

Ditto to what HopeDreamPaint said + Fool4nine.

Don't want to say anything to give me away but as a Cali native, seeing the work and as someone who has visited the program tons it has a so-so rep. Lots of luck with decisions everyone!!

What a stupid thread - Makes me glad I had no interest in applying there. I name it the anti-recruitment post.

Very well said HopeDreamPaint!!!

definitely agreed hopedreampaint

Curious, I don't think anyone was actually blaming you, they were just pointing out that calling work that was potentially theirs dismal wasn't tactful. of course it's your opinion, and it shouldn't change how they feel about themselves. But people come on this forum for information and because applying to mfas is a taxing process (for all the reasons you mentioned), and they just don't want to be insulted.
It's great that you are in a program that you love so much.

Listen, if you guys were offended or hurt just because someone referred to some artwork as "dismal," then maybe you better look for another field. And you're certainly not ready for grad school. You'll hear a lot worse there, and it will be said to your face about your own work.

By the same token, the OP's subsequent rant was a bit of an overreaction as well, if you ask me.

Well the thing that gets me is the assumption that I even saw ALL of the applications, they had been picked through and we were seeing the "top 40" in the faculty's eyes...so I don't even know if I saw any of your applications. What I can say is that these applications look WAY different on the other side than you'd think they look, its a whole different world looking at things objectively when something like whether or not you go to grad school is on the line. But do know that the faculty looks VERY closely at each application.

lols @ all those who think my comments about being dismal were out of line. Just because I got to see your portfolios and read your statements does NOT mean I had any effect on who they let in. Sorry if you didn't get a call and you are putting two and two together with my dismal statement and not being accepted, don't act like I had ANY hand in it (we really didn't). Everyone knows the MFA application process is the most fucked thing to make it through...sometimes you get accepted because you DO suck as an artist. In any case I definitely encourage you to GET ANGRY with some stranger on the internet because they called what they saw dismal...(no but seriously, don't try to blame me). I know people who got into RISD and Yale, but got rejected by schools that weren't even in the top 100.

Also, UCSB being commercial??? HA HA HA... I don't even know what you mean by that considering you guys say your sources are "at the top of the gallery scene", "art heavy hitters" (the fuck do either of those things even mean?), what the hell is "the gallery scene" if not completely commercial art sales? Unless you are talking about editorial work or design type stuff...which from what I'm experiencing, couldn't be farther from the truth. One of the grads is making a god damned wooden surfboard right now to do performance work on! Half of us barely make physical work...hahaha. Lackluster alum?? Jesus, just cause we don't tout that Richard Serra graduated from here or that there are two artists on Steve Turner's roster that are UCSB MFA alum (should I go on?) doesn't mean that people who graduate from here are deadbeats.

I too am personal friends with some "heavy hitters" and they didn't actually know anything about UCSB. Like they said, its no UCLA or USC, but when it comes down to it, when you are at the top, there is nowhere to go but down. I think at LEAST half of the top schools are living on their own credit half of the time. Take UC Davis for example...even their own people dont even know why they get so many applications. In the end, it really doesn't matter what school you go to, ya it might be "easier" if you get into one of the top 5, but even then, the "failure" rate is still huge at those schools too. It is all about the person from what I've seen.

Look, the lesson here is that you shouldn't take one person's opinions as the end all of what you consider your work to be. Have some confidence! Also, you should go experience things for yourself if you really want to consider a school. Like I said, I visited before I accepted.

If you want to see our work: 2012) http://artsite.arts....e/graduate/2012 2013) http://artsite.arts..../graduates-2013

I came here (as a nameless current grad in the MFA Art program at UCSB) to ask why YOU didn't apply, do YOU even know that we have a program with crazy good facilities, great faculty, and an INSANE location with a pretty close proximity to LA?

I know the deadline has passed for this year for us, so this may not be of use for a lot of you looking at programs. But the thing that gets me is that we had all of one person come to visit the program before applying and to be completely honest, our applications were pretty dismal this year (minus a few in my opinion).

I decided to come here because I was getting crazy good funding, a huge studio, great faculty, and the program matched my needs as far as freedom was concerned.

Its an open question to all, I'm not asking you to go to our website and criticize what you see. I'm asking if anyone recommended it to you, or if you ever saw "recruiters" at portfolio days, or anything at all. I'll be honest, I didn't at all, and I actually visited on a whim when I was accepted last year. What I saw blew my mind because I couldn't believe that no one had told me about this place..

Came off as quite negative to me too.