MFA 2021 Freak Out Forum

[hsag]

5 hours ago, Leilei Xia said:

I am applying for New Genre and Interdisciplinary and I haven't heard anything yet... knowing that someone in painting got interview kindda freaks me out ?

Same, it also freaked me out, but is good to know that someone in the same area I applied hasn't got a response, and I saw somewhere else that they usually wait until late february (hopefully that's the case with us)

[hsag]

5 hours ago, Leilei Xia said:

I am applying for New Genre and Interdisciplinary and I haven't heard anything yet... knowing that someone in painting got interview kindda freaks me out ?

Now I'm thinking I should've applied to New Genre as well ...  to be honest I've hated most of this process full of insecurities, fuck

[lizavetar96]

1 hour ago, seenmanwell said:

The interview with parsons was it just mainly those two questions about the conceptual part of your portfolio and speaking about images of your choosing? If you don't mind me asking did you get a BFA in undergrad?

I got BFA in filmmaking from a different school. They also asked me about other artists I am inspired by from other practices not related to what I am applying for and gave me a lot of time for asking questions. 
people who want financial aid - ASK THEM ABOUT FINANCIAL AID. they literally highlight that you are need based and might give you more funding because of it, so do not be shy. 
 

they might have asked me more questions in the beginning but I was quite nervous so I have already forgotten them 

[rmwphoto]

I've been lurking for far too long so here's where I've applied! 

MFA Photo/Video
UT Austin - no response
UT San Antonio - no response
CU Boulder - no response
SVA - accepted this morning! (wasn't interviewed)
GSU - interviewed this morning 
Yale - rejected

I'm still optimistic for the other programs, what I've understood from contacting a few of them is that they're still processing, and will be reaching out late Feb - early March  

[rmwphoto]

On 2/9/2021 at 10:27 PM, yesterday100 said:

Has anyone heard from University of Colorado Boulder? 

Best of luck to everyone out there x

I reached out to them because I was dying from lack of hearing anything and received the following email, "We do interview candidates. Depending on the area you've applied to, you should hear about an interview, if selected for one, sometime in February or early March." so I hope we'll all hear good news soon! 

[lizavetar96]

GUYS. I wrote to CalArts about the whole Optional/NotOptional Introductory 90 second Video thing and they send that although they are about to finish the review process, if I feel so strongly I can submit the video. 
Anyone who submitted the video: how did you do it? What did you talk about?

I understand they don’t want a whole ContraPoints video fantasy but an extravagant dandy in me still wants to make it snappy. How should I make an impression?

[Popopopo]

49 minutes ago, jdsh said:

Same, it also freaked me out, but is good to know that someone in the same area I applied hasn't got a response, and I saw somewhere else that they usually wait until late february (hopefully that's the case with us)

Wow...late February, they really took it slow...considering they only accepted few people, they really took everything slow and kept it low-key... 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Popopopo

[papayalalala]

One quick question for everyone who got an interview.

Were your recommenders professors?
I graduated a few years ago and due to Covid, I wasn't able to have any interaction in person with them so I went with people that'd seen my works in person this year and none of them were art professors nor my former professors.
 

[papayalalala]

Has anyone heard from U of Michigan or Cornell or Columbia?
 

[slickjaketheruler]

1 hour ago, geemun said:

Have you heard from Purchase? First time I see them mentioned on this thread. 

I have not yet. We’ll see when I hear back from them, what department did you apply to?

[slickjaketheruler]

21 minutes ago, papayalalala said:

One quick question for everyone who got an interview.

Were your recommenders professors?
I graduated a few years ago and due to Covid, I wasn't able to have any interaction in person with them so I went with people that'd seen my works in person this year and none of them were art professors nor my former professors.
 

I used professors from college. I graduated with my BFA in 2017. So I just kept in touch and used professors that still keep in touch/worked one on one with me.

[geeeeebie]

3 minutes ago, slickjaketheruler said:

I have not yet. We’ll see when I hear back from them, what department did you apply to?

Painting!

[hsag]

23 minutes ago, papayalalala said:

One quick question for everyone who got an interview.

Were your recommenders professors?
I graduated a few years ago and due to Covid, I wasn't able to have any interaction in person with them so I went with people that'd seen my works in person this year and none of them were art professors nor my former professors.
 

only 1 out of my 3 recommenders was a professor. the other 2 were a curator and an artist that I've worked with and know my work well. I figured this would work better since they are more respected figures in the art world in Mexico (where I'm from). My professors during my BA were not that good nor active, except for the one I listed. Also other friends from Mexico that have done MFAs have done the same and told me it was better.

[hsag]

28 minutes ago, papayalalala said:

Has anyone heard from U of Michigan or Cornell or Columbia?
 

I applied to Columbia and have heard nothing. I believe that's also the case with everyone else applying there (from what I've read here)

[hsag]

Question. Do you think it's possible to apply to one Area of Study at UCLA and get suggested for another one (say, from Interdisciplinary studio to New Genres)? Or have you heard of anything similar? I know it's perhaps a dumb question, and the answer is most likely no, but I'm trying to be hopeful since now I'm thinking I made a mistake...

[katfude]

27 minutes ago, papayalalala said:

One quick question for everyone who got an interview.

Were your recommenders professors?
I graduated a few years ago and due to Covid, I wasn't able to have any interaction in person with them so I went with people that'd seen my works in person this year and none of them were art professors nor my former professors.
 

I used all professors too, but since I graduated in 2018 I assumed that a lot of time would pass by the time I was ready to apply for grad school, and that they might forget about me. With this in mind, I applied to one school last year knowing I wouldn't get in, but for the purpose of having them write letters for me while I was still fairly fresh in their mind. This year all they had to do was make minor changes/updates which was helpful due to covid restricting a lot of networking opportunities over the last year. 

[slickjaketheruler]

I wanted to throw this question out there. Did anyone have a rough first interview? I had a really rough interview on Tuesday night that didn’t go very well or expected at all. Lots of questions I didn’t expect to be thrown my way with answers I didn’t have fully fleshed out. Anyone have any tips in regards of how to recover from a rough interview? I’m learning that it’s okay to have notes prepared for the interviews, and trying not to be so hard on myself about it.

[Painfullywaiting]

3 minutes ago, slickjaketheruler said:

I wanted to throw this question out there. Did anyone have a rough first interview? I had a really rough interview on Tuesday night that didn’t go very well or expected at all. Lots of questions I didn’t expect to be thrown my way with answers I didn’t have fully fleshed out. Anyone have any tips in regards of how to recover from a rough interview? I’m learning that it’s okay to have notes prepared for the interviews, and trying not to be so hard on myself about it.

My first one was pretty bad. I had like a mini panic attack and blanked on some questions. Ugh. I have another interview tomorrow. I’ve just been practicing and trying to remember that this is just a way for them to get to know you and put a face to your work. Care to share any of the questions you found challenging? 

[Strawberrycat]

20 minutes ago, jdsh said:

Question. Do you think it's possible to apply to one Area of Study at UCLA and get suggested for another one (say, from Interdisciplinary studio to New Genres)? Or have you heard of anything similar? I know it's perhaps a dumb question, and the answer is most likely no, but I'm trying to be hopeful since now I'm thinking I made a mistake...

Yeah, they said that that is possible, especially between those two disciplines since they overlap so much. 

[slickjaketheruler]

5 minutes ago, Painfullywaiting said:

My first one was pretty bad. I had like a mini panic attack and blanked on some questions. Ugh. I have another interview tomorrow. I’ve just been practicing and trying to remember that this is just a way for them to get to know you and put a face to your work. Care to share any of the questions you found challenging? 

Yeah, I got asked some pretty daunting questions.

For example, when elaborating on my practice, they asked me what is like the “thing” the drives my research in my practice? This was after explaining what my practice is about and what my historical ties to printmaking were. So I was like “uh, I thought I answered this” but I guess they wanted more? 

I got asked which pieces in my portfolio lean into the direction I could envision my grad school experience be.

They focused A LOT on what I am reading right now, which through me off because the past year has been a nightmare of me working really hard just to pay my bills. I ended up talking about my zine collection and some publishers I liked since it was the only thing I really had time to read currently. They responded well to that but were like disappointed (maybe?) that I hadn’t been spending time reading actual books.

I mentioned in my statement that I’m really trying to achieve accessible discussions around queerness in my work. We ended up talking a lot about teaching pedagogy and the role of TA’s for graduate students.

This was all after having technical difficulties so I was pretty frazzled from the start.

[vitbit]

28 minutes ago, slickjaketheruler said:

I wanted to throw this question out there. Did anyone have a rough first interview? I had a really rough interview on Tuesday night that didn’t go very well or expected at all. Lots of questions I didn’t expect to be thrown my way with answers I didn’t have fully fleshed out. Anyone have any tips in regards of how to recover from a rough interview? I’m learning that it’s okay to have notes prepared for the interviews, and trying not to be so hard on myself about it.

I'm sorry your first interview wasn't as expected ? Something that helped me a lot was this long list of questions someone in the past had posted on grad cafe. I put them all together and just spent a good afternoon writing out my answers and just refreshing how and what to say. It also made me more familiar with these finicky repetitive ways they seem to ask the same thing.

[Painfullywaiting]

10 minutes ago, slickjaketheruler said:

Yeah, I got asked some pretty daunting questions.

For example, when elaborating on my practice, they asked me what is like the “thing” the drives my research in my practice? This was after explaining what my practice is about and what my historical ties to printmaking were. So I was like “uh, I thought I answered this” but I guess they wanted more? 

I got asked which pieces in my portfolio lean into the direction I could envision my grad school experience be.

They focused A LOT on what I am reading right now, which through me off because the past year has been a nightmare of me working really hard just to pay my bills. I ended up talking about my zine collection and some publishers I liked since it was the only thing I really had time to read currently. They responded well to that but were like disappointed (maybe?) that I hadn’t been spending time reading actual books.

I mentioned in my statement that I’m really trying to achieve accessible discussions around queerness in my work. We ended up talking a lot about teaching pedagogy and the role of TA’s for graduate students.

This was all after having technical difficulties so I was pretty frazzled from the start.

Well dang. I went back and re-answered all of the questions that I felt I answered poorly, which definitely helped and gave me a little more confidence for future interviews. For the sake of both us, I hope it’s all in our heads and they understand the pressure everyone is under to perform in interviews. 

[lizavetar96]

Hey, can I ask what did you talk about in that introductory CalArts video? I am uploading one today. (I reached out to admissions and they I allowed me to do it)

[Gahhhhhhh]

Hello everyone! 

I had two interviews this week and thanks to many who posted questions they were asked, I was more or less prepared. So thought I would share my experience. 

1st interview was with Syracuse on Tuesday - The interview was pretty chill. My interview was with the Director of graduate studies and he set the tone right off the bat, and made me relax a bit. Our conversation was around an hour long, in which they asked me two questions and the rest of the time was allotted to me to ask them any questions I had regarding the program. 
Question 1: How would the audience know what you were trying to convey if you weren't there near them to explain what your work was about. This was to gauge if i understood the "grammar of photography" (their words).  - I think I answered this question pretty well.
Question 2: What are you going to explore and work on in your graduate studies. - I think I didn't do a great job answering this, though I knew what I wanted to say. Maybe it was the nerves of it being my first interview. I read people talking about mock interviews, I wish I had done that. 

 2nd interview was today with SVA - Again a pretty chill conversation style interview with Director of operations. 35- 40 mins long. Again just two questions, with plenty of preface about the why I was being asked that particular question, and then when I finished answering discussing my answers with me. I thought this interview went really well
Question 1: Why do you want to pursue MFA? You needn't specifically talk about it in respect to SVA. - I answered about why I wanted to take up graduate studies and also why in SVA. 
Question 2: How do you see your work being presented / what form will it take? And they explained that this answer will probably change with time and that I should answer what by gut instinct is regarding this? 
After which I asked him two questions. 

Two down, Five more to go ? (Photo / Studio Art Major) 

All the best everyone! You got this! 

[Josias]

I just got my email today for an interview at CalArts for their MFA in Film/Video. 

 

I am currently waiting for UCLA New Genre & Bard Film/Video. 

 

So nervous.