muffin

Thank you jkroman. Believe it or not "not amazing, not a joke" helps a lot.

(I apologize if this is covered in another topic, I looked around a bit...) I have been offered a financial aid package, but how do I know if it's a "good" deal or not? How do I know if I should push for more? I figured that it's similar to a job offer, where you always want to push for a little more, so I responded to the department head, doing just that. The thing is, I have no point of reference to know whether I should shut my mouth and be happy, or if they are being stingy. At the outset, I accepted that I would have to pay for it all, but reading around here, I know that's not always the case. Maybe now I'm a little greedy. I will be attending the school no matter what, but I sure want to get all I can. The school has covered my full tuition but I have a lot of loans.... $13,300 school grant $8,500 subsidized Stafford $12,000 unsubsidized Stafford $6,000 work study cap. Should I shut my mouth? Or push? Thanks.

FINALLY heard yesterday: rejection. Figured it couldn't be good news to be hearing so late!

As as most-likely-to-be-attending-photo-mfa-student his is definitely scary news. BUT every school that I know of has had similar major financial scares. Pratt almost closed down once because of money issues. Schools make most of their money from endowments and as art schools tend to have few wealthy alums (as compared to b-schools, med-schools) it's an on-going struggle. This is one of the reasons that art schools tend to accept so many undergrads; that's their bread-and-butter. All major schools have lost TONS of money in the last year or so. Yale, Harvard, Penn, their endowments are down at least 30%, and they are lucky enough to have major contributors, so the art schools are really s.o.l. in this climate. I am comforting myself with the fact that the photography department is still a top ranked program (number 7-ish) and that the official correspondence from the school has been direct and upfront about addressing their issues. If the administration was denying problems I'd be a lot more concerned. What more can we do? Who knows, in ten years time the school could be rolling in cash and ranked number 1! Each day and a time....

ssap, phew. thought i was the only one!

MFA-Photography SFAI - accepted SAIC - interviewed, waiting (not holding my breath, they only have four spots this year.) CalArts - rejected Yale - rejected RISD - no response (not a good sign!) CCA - no response When I was submitting my applications I was just hoping at least ONE school would let me in. And now as it looks like SFAI will be the only school to admit me, I feel it must be inferior. Is this normal? Now I'm doubting the quality of the school. Plus it's the least selective school I applied to. Has anyone else experienced this weird confusion/regret?