MFA 2021 Freak Out Forum

[sunnydelightt]

I have an interview for Hunter!

[Thursdayhasnofeel]

7 hours ago, crudd said:

Ha! I JUST looked at my Google Analytics and got new hits in the past 5 days from Virginia and Arkansas so I'm guessing they were visits from my CV in my VCU and UArk apps. On another note... I applied to VCU at the original Jan 15 deadline, and never saw any announcement of an extension to Feb 1. When did you apply?

same lol tho I think some of the sculpture faculty lives in New York

[Wwwildatheart]

5 hours ago, lizavetar96 said:

Also: anyone from Photo Departments: did you get interviews from 

CALARTS

TULANE

USC (ROSKI)

?

 

(i am feeling really pressed lol)

Got an interview at Cal Arts for photo 

[lizavetar96]

13 minutes ago, Wwwildatheart said:

Got an interview at Cal Arts for photo 

Happy for you but heartbroken for myself. Good luck, I am sure you will break a leg. 

[lizavetar96]

8 hours ago, Scrambledmegs said:

I got an interview request from goldsmiths! Had no idea there was a strike happening so that’s concerning. 
I also got an interview request for Tulane though I’m not sure if anyone else is applying there. Haven’t heard many people talking about it. 
NYAA scholarship offer was surprisingly good. Feeling more optimistic! Good luck everyone!

I also applied to Tulane but I have not heard back yet. Can I ask when did they ask you for an interview? And for which department? (I am photo)

[Scrambledmegs]

27 minutes ago, lizavetar96 said:

I also applied to Tulane but I have not heard back yet. Can I ask when did they ask you for an interview? And for which department? (I am photo)

Painting! So don’t worry. I think it’s okay to reach out to schools and ask too.  I don’t think it hurts at all.  The worst they can give is a rejection and then you’ll know but they also might just tell you they haven’t made decisions yet.  Best of luck. 

[lizavetar96]

Just now, Scrambledmegs said:

Painting! So don’t worry. I think it’s okay to reach out to schools and ask too.  I don’t think it hurts at all.  The worst they can give is a rejection and then you’ll know but they also might just tell you they haven’t made decisions yet.  Best of luck. 

Thank you! I will do just that.  (I actually really like tulane’s thesis shows and I am really really surprised that practically no one on this forum (at least) is applying there). 

[nobodyok]

53 minutes ago, Thursdayhasnofeel said:

same lol tho I think some of the sculpture faculty lives in New York

tis true lol

[Scrambledmegs]

3 hours ago, joeyjoejoeshabbadoo said:

that's super interesting, I almost applied to Tulane since I have family in NOLA, and I was super impressed with Ronna S. Harris' work. what attracted you to the program?

stoked you got a good offer from NYAA!!! not surprising since I saw your work!
they gave me a decent offer as well, but I'm ballin on a budget so I gotta be extra patient over here with my FAFSA and all haha

Yeah I’m a little nervous to take the nyaa offer just because New York! It’s a scary city financially. Best to wait it out and see what the best offer is. 
I chose Tulane because of the faculty and also it is fully funded with a stipend.  I chose all the schools based on three criteria really: faculty, funding, prestige  

 

[joeyjoejoeshabbadoo]

43 minutes ago, Scrambledmegs said:

Yeah I’m a little nervous to take the nyaa offer just because New York! It’s a scary city financially. Best to wait it out and see what the best offer is. 
I chose Tulane because of the faculty and also it is fully funded with a stipend.  I chose all the schools based on three criteria really: faculty, funding, prestige  

 

right, that is a big part of my reluctance as well, though I understand rent is incredibly low these days since people have left the city due to covid. maybe if we're lucky it will stay that way?

Nice, I picked TCU for similar reasons; fully funded, stipend, and I am a native Texan (Houston). The faculty are pretty cool as well, just much fewer people there.

[berries]

3 hours ago, sunnydelightt said:

I have an interview for Hunter!

Congrats! Which department? I’m still waiting to hear from them

[papayalalala]

Hello all,

I noticed some people here reapplied this year and got an interview with the schools that didn't offer them an interview when they applied for the first time. What changes did you make this year?
I am a little bit frustrated because obviously the schools I applied to were not interested in my works because I didn't even get an interview. I would love to hear some feedback from you all here!  

And is there such disadvantage for applicants that reapply? to the best of my understanding, there isn't but I feel like I heard from some schools that you can't reapply more than certain times.

[sunnydelightt]

38 minutes ago, berries said:

Congrats! Which department? I’m still waiting to hear from them

Studio art new genres

[lizavetar96]

2 hours ago, Scrambledmegs said:

Yeah I’m a little nervous to take the nyaa offer just because New York! It’s a scary city financially. Best to wait it out and see what the best offer is. 
I chose Tulane because of the faculty and also it is fully funded with a stipend.  I chose all the schools based on three criteria really: faculty, funding, prestige  

 

Hey, are you a current Tulane student or they gave you an offer for Fall 2021? 
 

[dramallama_07]

27 minutes ago, papayalalala said:

Hello all,

I noticed some people here reapplied this year and got an interview with the schools that didn't offer them an interview when they applied for the first time. What changes did you make this year?
I am a little bit frustrated because obviously the schools I applied to were not interested in my works because I didn't even get an interview. I would love to hear some feedback from you all here!  

And is there such disadvantage for applicants that reapply? to the best of my understanding, there isn't but I feel like I heard from some schools that you can't reapply more than certain times.

So this was my second time applying and I'll tell you what all things I did different but idk if that's gonna help you a lot since the first time I applied, I made some pretty obvious and glaring mistakes that shouldn't have been made in the first place.

Firstly, I had only applied to a few UK schools last year and since they don't ask for recommendation letters themselves from our recommenders, we had to upload them ourselves. Ik. Weird. Anyway, I was so so stupid that I uploaded the recommendation letter on a plain paper and not on an official letterhead. Also, my SOP was very average and I unknowingly missed putting a few stuff on my CV. Even with my portfolio, I displayed my works as composite photos (which means putting many pics in the same slide- like a collage). Most US colleges make it a point to NOT do this EVER but I never saw this on any of the UK college websites and since it was my first time back then, I was pretty much an idiot about the whole process. But thankfully it was all free since there wasn't  any application fees for those colleges.

Basically I'd say that my approach was too casual and rushed last year in the process and the committee catches onto that. I also made some very very reckless mistakes like with the rec letter. The whole thing could've been avoided had I just included some trusted advisors into the admission process and not have the hubris of doing it all alone. Also, if I could've planned better so I wouldn't have to be hasty through the process- since the committee can catch on to this.

This year I did things differently. I had good planning for my timeline, had IMPECCABLE recommendations attesting not only to my personality but also my achievements and my artistic language and why i should be pursuing grad school right now. I also widened my search to the US this year and applied to some very good colleges like SAIC, Yale, SVA, Parsons and MICA. But these colleges were very carefully selected. Unlike last year where I randomly applied to ALL the top colleges in UK, I was careful in selecting my picks this year. My work is sort of abstract representational and deals with some heavy philosophy of existentialism, trauma, decay and communal/institutional memory. Although I was very tempted to apply to places like RISD or even CalArts, I knew my kind of abstract works just wouldn't get me in. I therefore had to go through a long process of looking at ALL colleges I was interested in and looking through all faculty works and student works to see what fits me the most. Did the same with UK colleges as well. Also this year I applied to wayyyy more colleges than last time.

This greatly increased my chances as I had applied to a lot of programs this time which might cater to my artistic languages. I can understand that applying to a lot of colleges can increase application costs but I've found that if you show keeen interest in the colleges you're planning to apply to by mailing them and attending their webinars, they're gracious enough to waive off the application fees. That's how I could apply to a whole lotta places at almost zero cost.

Anyway, to sum it up what I did differently this time- I carefully curated my colleges instead of just randomly applying, I got impeccable recommendations, improved presentation of my portfolio, planned better. Oh and I also attended a lot of Portfolio review days.

Anyway this really paid off cus although I wasnt able to secure a position in ALL the colleges I wanted, I still got interviewed by most of them. And for the ones I got rejected from, I already kinda expected and even knew what it would be that would lead the college to reject me. Here's my list:

Early Acceptance- SVA

Rejection- Yale, SAIC, Goldsmiths

Interview- Parsons, MICA Rinehart, MICA Mount Royal, Glasgow School of Art, UAL

Pending- RCA

I know the list isn't as impressive but if anybody would like to comment on it, I'll be open to hearing what y'all have to say.

Tbh SVA was my second choice and SAIC my first and that's why I'm just a lil disappointed. Ik I'm supposed to say Yale was my top choice but tbh I already kinda expected them to reject me. I've had a hard look at the faculty works and student works and even talked to some of the students there and I've found out that they REALLLY have a thing for representational and figurative works and need a lot of 'diversity' in their cohort. A LOT of students in their programs work on BLM or communal identity. They're all mostly very representational too. Hardly any abstraction- unless your works are based on color theory. And this has a good reason. From what I can figure, a lot of admission process is done by Meleko (works on BLM- figurative) or Anoka (abstract- works on color theory). I doubt if Robert storr is involved in the admission process which is a shame because he was the reason I'd applied to Yale.

Anyway, I realized I digressed a lot lol but here are my 2 cents. Lmk if you wanna know anything else

[yellowishoverripecucumber]

Just waiting for any updates about RISD Graphic Design... ? 

[everyonelikesbubbles]

6 hours ago, joeyjoejoeshabbadoo said:

right, that is a big part of my reluctance as well, though I understand rent is incredibly low these days since people have left the city due to covid. maybe if we're lucky it will stay that way?

Nice, I picked TCU for similar reasons; fully funded, stipend, and I am a native Texan (Houston). The faculty are pretty cool as well, just much fewer people there.

“Incredibly low” hahahahaha. Rent going down 15% in NYC means that rent is where it was 4-5 years ago... that would still make it second highest in country...

Edited February 18, 2021 by everyonelikesbubbles

[sakuya020]

5 hours ago, yellowishoverripecucumber said:

Just waiting for any updates about RISD Graphic Design... ? 

same...heard that Printmaking was already giving out offers, but GD still silence 

[ManilaAnimal]

Got an interview request for Emily Carr University MFA this morning!!! I only applied to this program (their low-res program to be exact) since I had some very specific needs and my fall back is a completely different program that doesn't start applications until next month. Haven't seen much mention of Emily Carr here but good luck to everyone!  

[somethingaboutdslrs]

Just got that Northwestern ATP rejection ?✌️

[theundoing]

9 hours ago, dramallama_07 said:

So this was my second time applying and I'll tell you what all things I did different but idk if that's gonna help you a lot since the first time I applied, I made some pretty obvious and glaring mistakes that shouldn't have been made in the first place.

Firstly, I had only applied to a few UK schools last year and since they don't ask for recommendation letters themselves from our recommenders, we had to upload them ourselves. Ik. Weird. Anyway, I was so so stupid that I uploaded the recommendation letter on a plain paper and not on an official letterhead. Also, my SOP was very average and I unknowingly missed putting a few stuff on my CV. Even with my portfolio, I displayed my works as composite photos (which means putting many pics in the same slide- like a collage). Most US colleges make it a point to NOT do this EVER but I never saw this on any of the UK college websites and since it was my first time back then, I was pretty much an idiot about the whole process. But thankfully it was all free since there wasn't  any application fees for those colleges.

Basically I'd say that my approach was too casual and rushed last year in the process and the committee catches onto that. I also made some very very reckless mistakes like with the rec letter. The whole thing could've been avoided had I just included some trusted advisors into the admission process and not have the hubris of doing it all alone. Also, if I could've planned better so I wouldn't have to be hasty through the process- since the committee can catch on to this.

This year I did things differently. I had good planning for my timeline, had IMPECCABLE recommendations attesting not only to my personality but also my achievements and my artistic language and why i should be pursuing grad school right now. I also widened my search to the US this year and applied to some very good colleges like SAIC, Yale, SVA, Parsons and MICA. But these colleges were very carefully selected. Unlike last year where I randomly applied to ALL the top colleges in UK, I was careful in selecting my picks this year. My work is sort of abstract representational and deals with some heavy philosophy of existentialism, trauma, decay and communal/institutional memory. Although I was very tempted to apply to places like RISD or even CalArts, I knew my kind of abstract works just wouldn't get me in. I therefore had to go through a long process of looking at ALL colleges I was interested in and looking through all faculty works and student works to see what fits me the most. Did the same with UK colleges as well. Also this year I applied to wayyyy more colleges than last time.

This greatly increased my chances as I had applied to a lot of programs this time which might cater to my artistic languages. I can understand that applying to a lot of colleges can increase application costs but I've found that if you show keeen interest in the colleges you're planning to apply to by mailing them and attending their webinars, they're gracious enough to waive off the application fees. That's how I could apply to a whole lotta places at almost zero cost.

Anyway, to sum it up what I did differently this time- I carefully curated my colleges instead of just randomly applying, I got impeccable recommendations, improved presentation of my portfolio, planned better. Oh and I also attended a lot of Portfolio review days.

Anyway this really paid off cus although I wasnt able to secure a position in ALL the colleges I wanted, I still got interviewed by most of them. And for the ones I got rejected from, I already kinda expected and even knew what it would be that would lead the college to reject me. Here's my list:

Early Acceptance- SVA

Rejection- Yale, SAIC, Goldsmiths

Interview- Parsons, MICA Rinehart, MICA Mount Royal, Glasgow School of Art, UAL

Pending- RCA

I know the list isn't as impressive but if anybody would like to comment on it, I'll be open to hearing what y'all have to say.

Tbh SVA was my second choice and SAIC my first and that's why I'm just a lil disappointed. Ik I'm supposed to say Yale was my top choice but tbh I already kinda expected them to reject me. I've had a hard look at the faculty works and student works and even talked to some of the students there and I've found out that they REALLLY have a thing for representational and figurative works and need a lot of 'diversity' in their cohort. A LOT of students in their programs work on BLM or communal identity. They're all mostly very representational too. Hardly any abstraction- unless your works are based on color theory. And this has a good reason. From what I can figure, a lot of admission process is done by Meleko (works on BLM- figurative) or Anoka (abstract- works on color theory). I doubt if Robert storr is involved in the admission process which is a shame because he was the reason I'd applied to Yale.

Anyway, I realized I digressed a lot lol but here are my 2 cents. Lmk if you wanna know anything else

Yeah, since Rochelle Feinstein left as chair ...their painting focus has really shifted to representational work. It is disappointing as Columbia has also shifted in that direction. But I've heard that Meleko is  a really really awesome instructor. I have only heard raves about him. So that is great for painters who happen to work on representational work. However, I would not say that his work is at all focused on BLM. But maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean by that. 

[dramallama_07]

27 minutes ago, theundoing said:

Yeah, since Rochelle Feinstein left as chair ...their painting focus has really shifted to representational work. It is disappointing as Columbia has also shifted in that direction. But I've heard that Meleko is  a really really awesome instructor. I have only heard raves about him. So that is great for painters who happen to work on representational work. However, I would not say that his work is at all focused on BLM. But maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean by that. 

Sorry. Not BLM but a little close. He explores colonialism in Africa

[dramallama_07]

28 minutes ago, theundoing said:

Yeah, since Rochelle Feinstein left as chair ...their painting focus has really shifted to representational work. It is disappointing as Columbia has also shifted in that direction. But I've heard that Meleko is  a really really awesome instructor. I have only heard raves about him. So that is great for painters who happen to work on representational work. However, I would not say that his work is at all focused on BLM. But maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean by that. 

Also, have you heard anything about Robert Storr? I'm a little disappointed I didn't get a chance to study under him. But then again, is he as good as I think he is?

[PlzTakeME]

Rejection from goldsmiths :’(

[theundoing]

9 minutes ago, dramallama_07 said:

Also, have you heard anything about Robert Storr? I'm a little disappointed I didn't get a chance to study under him. But then again, is he as good as I think he is?

I haven't heard anything about him. I heard that Rochelle was very tough but very dedicated and involved.