Space Ayn Rand

Chill your smugness. Whatever "fast routes to ephemeral knowledge" you think you're seeing are projected from your own self-important ego. Same thing with that old tired illusion of the "austere void" that you keep buying into. The guy/gal is searching for an MFA program, and MFA programs are just as much in the world and useful for our journeys as any of your reified philosophies or worldviews are. You seem to have forgotten that if you meet the Buddha, you must kill the Buddha. Electrishan, find an MFA program or artist-teacher you like and pursue them. Even if they turn out to not be what you expected them to be, the experience will be worthwhile and useful to you, as long as you don't turn to bitterness if you discover that what you put your trust in isn't as reliable as you thought it was.

I'd like to point out that the "General" scholarships--the Rhodes, the Marshall, etc.--are not for you. By this I mean that these are scholarships meant for the next generation of global intellectual leaders. About 40 or so scholars are chosen every year out of a pool of hundreds, if not thousands, and it takes about a year of hard work in collaboration with your home institution to even get into that pool for consideration. Statistically, nobody on these forums will ever get a Rhodes scholarship. You probably wouldn't want one, either. There are heavy diplomatic expectations put upon those who get the awards, and those who are a good fit for the scholarships generally have publications, patents, important research, a wonderful backstory, top professors vouching for them, incredible athletic ability, or other unique project that, if it includes fine arts at all, is heavily indebted to other disciplines to the point where the actual art plays a very small role in their studies (for instance, a recent Marshall winner was a theatre student, but researches socio-economic impacts of public theatre programs). If you do the Rhodes/Marshall, your work is meant to change the world, really actually change the world. Nobody on the committee cares about your paintings. If you're getting these scholarships, it's not just because you make good art, and it's not a surprise that most of the recipients are in the hard and social sciences. If you want to work on your art and receive guidance, there are better opportunities for you elsewhere. In short, these are not scholarships you just walk up and grab, and if you were offered one it probably would not line up with your goals anyhow. Sorry to nitpick, but I see the Rhodes and Marshall advertised on general scholarship sites as some nice funding you can get if you're a decent student--nothing could be farther from the truth.

junicorn, I am glad that you have been able to visit programs in person. That's far more research than I have been able to do . Best of luck with your application, you and I might be in the same circles in a few years. Happyland, junicorn's assessment of RISD seems to be spot-on. They used to have a pretty big gallery of student work and there was some outright hilarious stuff on there (hilarious in a good way, not a bad way). Unfortunately, they seem to have moved or deleted the gallery, so you only get a few bare-bones examples of work on their site, which I don't quite like.

Hello junicorn, It seems as though you've selected some of the "brand name," private-school MFA programs. Are you aware that there are plenty of public universities, some with excellent funding, that have 3-year graphic design programs for those without a formal design background? UWashington and ASU come to mind, as well as Carnegie Mellon and NCSU (I think). Some of these have programs that seem very solid and worth your time and money. Some do not. Unfortunately, none of us can really tell you what these programs are "like," as we don't know what you want to know. The best advice I can give you is to look through each department's website as throughly as possible--which includes seeing what kind of work students are currently doing, as well as tracking down the sites of alumni and seeing their current work and employment. That's the only way you'll be able to get sort of intuitive feel for what each department is up to. Of course, "lurking" on forums devoted to design and design education, such as this one and Core77, is also a good way to do research. For instance, I was not impressed with MICA's student work, nor did I find SVA very appetizing. RISD and Yale both seem exceptionally devoted to print and web design, sometimes with experimental media/digital flairs, while CCA and Art Center seem to take more of a holistic approach to design (CCA's program, after all, is simply an MFA in "Design") and attract business-minded folk and architects as well as people who want to make masturbatory booklets, like they do at Yale (you can begin to see my biases here). CalArts has hardly any funding, and seem to be making the most extreme and involved kinds of designs, very complex stuff. Yale seems to be making a lot of theory-driven, deadpan design, and a lot of the student work looks alike, which can be good or bad depending on what you want. These are all only impressions I've taken away from their websites, programs, and bodies of work, and I'm sure that a lot of my impressions are simplifications or are outright incorrect. You can only know for sure by researching for yourself. If you're unwilling to do so, and instead want people to tell you what each program will give you, perhaps you aren't quite ready to take on the responsibility of a graduate education.

I am interested in applying to the handful of 3-year graphic design MFA programs (Yale, RISD, CalArts) for people without undergraduate degrees in graphic design. I have two years before graduating from my undergraduate programs, so I figure that I have some time to refine and develop skills outside my non-BFA programs as well as build a portfolio. I would like to look at portfolios of people accepted to these programs, but designers don't exactly advertise that sort of thing, so I'm having trouble locating examples. If forum members can help me find designers who have done this, or who are in such programs themselves, I would appreciate it a lot. Some programs, like RISD, seems pretty open to different kind of degree holders and artistic interests, while CalArts seems to want only those who gained a BFA in studio arts but not graphic design. I'd like to know if I have a chance, and I'd like to develop a feeling for the direction of each program so I can tailor my practice accordingly. thanks