MFA 2022 Freak Out Forum

[seelamfa22]

10 minutes ago, ORRI said:

Oh Really? Did UC Berkeley Art Practice already offer interviews?

Yea I had my interview on February 8. 

[chunkeymonkey]

14 hours ago, seelamfa22 said:

How did your Northwestern interview go? I had mine on Saturday, and it was pretty tough. I thought the questions that they asked were some of the deepest questions I have received in an interview.

Hi @seelamfa22! Can you elaborate on the kind of questions they asked you? 

[chunkeymonkey]

On 2/12/2022 at 12:03 AM, nameless cat said:

Yes, I do! Reiterate that I'm excited about the program, mentioning a certain thing we discussed in the interview. 

Also, found out about Rutgers rejection thanks to this forum. Still no email from them, weird and kind of tacky? Stay positive y'all!!! It still seems like a lot of schools are just beginning the process. 

 

On 2/12/2022 at 2:39 AM, Font said:

Yes you need to initiate a paper trail. It shows you know how to 1) be professional in your practice and 2) have great communication skills. 

The below video created by a former RISD prof says you should treat grad school interviews like job interviews. A simple 'thank you' goes a long way.

youtube.com/watch?v=KEwgwfw6JAs

 

 

 

 

 

 

In case anyone else was wondering, this was really great advice! I emailed the faculty who interviewed me at one of the schools I applied to and they actually had some more questions for me, which I answered, and then they sent me some great references! Thanks @Font @nameless cat!!!

[eatyoveggies]

14 hours ago, artcat said:

Does anyone have advice on the types of questions to ask of the interviewers?  I've heard you should be prepared with a few thoughtful/intellegent questions for them but I'm not really sure what to ask.  My first interview is tomorrow (gulp) so any advice would be helpful!  

It depends on what you know about the program and what info is available on their website, but here's some questions that I have asked:

Are there teaching opportunities for graduate students?
What do you enjoy most about the community here? 
What do you expect the cohort size to be?
What is it like to live in this area? (especially good if you don't live nearby!)
 

If the prof is working on any projects that I find interesting then I typically like to ask about that too, just to show that I care and am interested in being part of the community

[SadPainter]

2 hours ago, slickjaketheruler said:

For people that interviewed with Tyler, does anyone know when we will hear back? The wait is killing me.

I didn’t hear back until March 15th last year!!! So it might be a while. From what I understand, all departments have to finish interviews then they figure out funding which is why it takes so long! 

[recyclable]

Got Cranbrook email-interview for Print Media!

[RyanV]

Had my Pratt photo interview today which I think went well but the first two questions were surprises so thought I’d share them.

1. describe your practice in exactly 5 words

2. what should we know about you that isn’t in the application 

 

then they asked about a specific piece, what I’m reading and one more typical question. Hopefully that helps someone out there ?

 

[artcat]

2 hours ago, eatyoveggies said:

It depends on what you know about the program and what info is available on their website, but here's some questions that I have asked:

Are there teaching opportunities for graduate students?
What do you enjoy most about the community here? 
What do you expect the cohort size to be?
What is it like to live in this area? (especially good if you don't live nearby!)
 

If the prof is working on any projects that I find interesting then I typically like to ask about that too, just to show that I care and am interested in being part of the community

awesome!  thank you!

[Westcoasty]

Has anyone here experienced an in-person interview? Are any schools doing in-person interviews at all? Just curious.

I only applied to the low-res MFA program at Bard this year, still waiting for an update...

[whitewhales]

18 hours ago, Strawberrycat said:

I've started asking if they could tell me a bit about their philosophy on critique and it seems like it goes over well usually. I've gotten some really thoughtful answers back. I've also asked what they feel is a unique attribute of their program that they would want to take advantage of if they were a student there. Good luck with your interview! 

Wish I asked you this question earlier Strawberrycat it’s such a thoughtful answer. Taking notes

 

1 hour ago, RyanV said:

Had my Pratt photo interview today which I think went well but the first two questions were surprises so thought I’d share them.

1. describe your practice in exactly 5 words

2. what should we know about you that isn’t in the application 

 

then they asked about a specific piece, what I’m reading and one more typical question. Hopefully that helps someone out there ?

 

?? what the heck 

Thank you for sharing. I have been told similar questions are asked of the painters. But not the 5 words question..

Funny how both painting department and photo department are asking us what we are reading. 
 

Did it feel intense?

[RyanV]

10 minutes ago, whitewhales said:

Wish I asked you this question earlier Strawberrycat it’s such a thoughtful answer. Taking notes

 

?? what the heck 

Thank you for sharing. I have been told similar questions are asked of the painters. But not the 5 words question..

Funny how both painting department and photo department are asking us what we are reading. 
 

Did it feel intense?

It didn’t really feel intense, the first two questions did feel like they were intended to see how you think on your feet so I don’t think they were expecting something perfect, after that it was more conversational. That said with non open ended questions it does feel awkward because it’s not natural. They ask, you answer and they move on to the next question. I think In retrospect I wish I had given broader answers to the specific questions that created dialogue. 

[Strawberrycat]

34 minutes ago, whitewhales said:

Wish I asked you this question earlier Strawberrycat it’s such a thoughtful answer. Taking notes

 

?? what the heck 

Thank you for sharing. I have been told similar questions are asked of the painters. But not the 5 words question..

Funny how both painting department and photo department are asking us what we are reading. 
 

Did it feel intense?

It took me a while to get to those questions and a lot of asking a ton of other people, I was so lost about what to ask at first and afraid I'd ask something that seemed trivial or that was easily found on their websites. ?

[chewythecat]

Just got an interview request from Columbia MFA painting. Anyone had any experience interviewing with them? 

[Forms Without Formula]

Keep telling myself I'll get my Hunter interview request within 24 hours of the full moon which is tomorrow at 11:57am EST, hoping the moon's gravitational pull can pull good news out of the admissions committees and into our inboxes!! ???

Edited February 16, 2022 by Forms Without Formula

[SadPainter]

2 hours ago, Forms Without Formula said:

Keep telling myself I'll get my Hunter interview request within 24 hours of the full moon which is tomorrow at 11:57am EST, hoping the moon's gravitational pull can pull good news out of the admissions committees and into our inboxes!! ???

I pray to everything that you are right!! 

[Slowly]

Hi friends, I took a break from this place to save my poor noodle from being fried lol. But I just wanted to check back in and say that I got emailed by one of the faculty with an unofficial notice of acceptance into RISD Illustration! (Official notices go out in March). I'm so happy, especially because I considered this one a "reach" school! ? I'll also hear on funding in March, too.

quick timeline:
application deadline - Jan 10th
invited to interview - Jan 22nd
interview - Jan 27th
unofficial acceptance - today
(if it matters, I'm an international applicant)

As I've mentioned before, Illustration is their newest program, so I wouldn't advise using this as a basis if you applied to their more established programs like Painting, Digital Media, etc. Just putting this out there for any potential Illus lurkers, and for comparison in general.

Other school I applied to is SUNY FIT, which I haven't heard a peep from.

Also saw a lot of people I've interacted with on here posting their own interview/acceptance notices -- so very happy for you! Here's to even more good news in the future for us all!

[Frank14]

Just got an an interview invite email from Colorado State at 9:30pm ? I don't remember seeing anyone else applying here but I thought I would post about it!!! 

I've interviewed with MICA and haven't heard back yet, and haven't heard anything at all from the other programs (VCU, UCI, U Montana, or SFSU). 

[cirrostratusphere]

I feel like I'm going crazy checking my email every five minutes, so I figured I'd update here.

Rejected: Rutgers (are they ever gonna send out an official email? Shame on them)

Interviews: SAIC (ultra nice faculty and great feedback, left feeling really positive), MICA (coming up this weekend)

Accepted: UNM (with a preview of really exciting deal)

Waiting: UW, VCU, UTK, RISD

I figure I probably didn't get into UW, VCU, or RISD considering so many other folks have received interviews. Really crossing my fingers that I hear some news soon.

Big digital hug to everyone going through this process. It's no joke.

[Salsasanasa]

Has anyone heard anything about UW-Seattle or UW-Madison (other than printmaking)? I was wondering if painting was notified of interview etc  

 

Both seem largely still in process right?

Edited February 16, 2022 by Salsasanasa

[medsuppy]

18 hours ago, Westcoasty said:

Has anyone here experienced an in-person interview? Are any schools doing in-person interviews at all? Just curious.

I only applied to the low-res MFA program at Bard this year, still waiting for an update...

I also only applied to Bard. What discipline did you apply into?

[ORRI]

45 minutes ago, cirrostratusphere said:

I feel like I'm going crazy checking my email every five minutes, so I figured I'd update here.

Rejected: Rutgers (are they ever gonna send out an official email? Shame on them)

Interviews: SAIC (ultra nice faculty and great feedback, left feeling really positive), MICA (coming up this weekend)

Accepted: UNM (with a preview of really exciting deal)

Waiting: UW, VCU, UTK, RISD

I figure I probably didn't get into UW, VCU, or RISD considering so many other folks have received interviews. Really crossing my fingers that I hear some news soon.

Big digital hug to everyone going through this process. It's no joke.

Big digital hug to you also. It will all work out! (and you have already done so well!) 

Here, I am hoping to get an interview offer from UCLA New Genres the most.

(somehow there is nothing in this forum. or I missed sth)

[RyanV]

4 minutes ago, ORRI said:

Big digital hug to you also. It will all work out! (and you have already done so well!) 

Here, I am hoping to get an interview offer from UCLA New Genres the most.

(somehow there is nothing in this forum. or I missed sth)

It seems like UCLA painting interviews went out but I haven’t heard anything from photography. Hopefully this week!

[Hjuoollpphhfcvn]

I received an invitation to interview by VCU Sculpture + Extended Media last week. Does anybody know what to expect and how many people do they interview moreless?

 

[eatyoveggies]

Just wanted to point out- if you get an interview/ acceptance / rejection/ WL notification then you should post it on the results part of the website. Heres the link to submit https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/post.php . You don't need an account to post!

Especially if you don't have an account and are just looking on this thread for updates, bc then we can see your updates too!!

And future applicants can easily search there without spending hours scrolling through every post on these threads for hours?

[ABLBDB345]

Hi all! Has anyone heard from Pratt for Printmaking?

I applied to the below schools for Printmaking (or Studio Art where applicable) and am basically just waiting on Pratt as a last hope, has anyone heard from them yet besides photo?

Pratt

Rutgers (reject)

Temple (haven't received a letter but assuming reject)

Columbia (haven't heard but its a reach)

Hunter (just got my rejection letter)