MFA 2022 Freak Out Forum

[MMING]

Hello.

I just got accepted SVA POD.

Just let you know.

[impliedpaste]

Waiting to hear back after the interview stage is so rough. What is everyone doing to cope? 

[tomatoriot]

37 minutes ago, impliedpaste said:

Waiting to hear back after the interview stage is so rough. What is everyone doing to cope? 

YES. I’m lucky (I guess) to be working on my bfa thesis show. But even still, I’m desperate for news and trying not to get too attached to the idea of one place being my next home. Cannot wait to just know already, even if it’s a no from everywhere. 

[seelamfa22]

49 minutes ago, impliedpaste said:

Waiting to hear back after the interview stage is so rough. What is everyone doing to cope? 

I hear ya. While waiting, I have read each of the MFA Freak Out forums going back to 2019. I think I will eventually finish as far back as 2012 or something by the time this is over. 

[MMING]

I accepted to SVA and in the mail, there was no scholarship or TA option.

But as SVA was my no.1, so I just enrolled.

And I wonder, is negotation is needed for TA or scholarship? 

As I know, they usually let me know in the first place..

[seelamfa22]

Interviewed with Rutgers today. They're interested in hearing you speak about the overall themes in your portfolio as well as discussing ideas of individual pieces. Then they ask why grad school now. It sounds like a great program, and I had immense admiration for the interviewing faculty.

[seelamfa22]

Did everyone who applied to RISD receive an update in their application portal? I received an admit letter, but I will likely decline.

[limpcigarette]

Hey all,

I’ve posted a couple times in this thread but thought I’d introduce myself and ask for advice.

I am an artist and poet working primarily with fiber art, with a background in sculpture, painting, and video from my time in undergrad.

For general information, I’ll list all the schools I’ve applied to:

SAIC - Fiber (interviewed, accepted with 100% tuition); Painting (interviewed, accepted with 20% tuition); Sculpture (Rejected)

UChicago - Interviewed, second year full tuition waiver

Northwestern University - Interviewed, Accepted with 100% tuition and stipend

University of Michigan - Interviewed last week

Hunter College - Interview this weekend.

My question pertains to my current dilemma: choosing between SAIC’s Fiber program and Northwestern’s Art, Theory, and Practice. How did previous applicants go about choosing the right program for them, and what factors did they weigh?

I love the idea of living in downtown Chicago and the resources SAIC offers for Fiber Art, but the stipend for Northwestern has my mouth watering.

I’d also like to add a tidbit of advice/reassurance to future applicants who will anxiously be reading past threads next year: good photos are great, but my photos were shitty! Your artist statement can be as beautiful as you want to make it; one of mine’s was a short story. I am a first generation student who had no idea how to navigate grad applications, and I made it out to the other side (admission decisions). Being chosen for an interview is a good sign, and while they may be stressful every faculty member I’ve interacted with at the schools I applied to were gracious and engaged.

Best of luck and all my love for all future graduate applicants and candidates ❤️

 

[Squirrelboy]

Waitlisted for RISD Digital + Media…

[minidragonfly]

On 2/24/2022 at 7:58 PM, Pickle95 said:

Hey there! I went to Pratt for undergrad, and aside from taking 2 years of lithography and one year of screen printing, my "work study" job was being one of the techs for the print studios (I was very into printmaking as an undergrad). I worked alongside a lot of grad students as well. From my experience, and from visiting other print studios, Pratt has an extremely robust print studio layout. Giant screen printing room, very large litho stones with maybe 6 presses (?), intaglio studio, and a pretty big letter press studio. Many of the print faculty are master printers as well. I'm not sure if she's still there, but the studio manager at the time made prints for Louise Bourgeois (if you're into that), and one of the litho professors was like a litho freak, attended Tamarind and such. I can't necessarily speak to the grad program, or what life is like after grad school with jobs/teaching, but if you're looking for a school with great facilities Pratt definitely has them. 

Best of luck! 

Thanks for this thorough reply! It's really good to hear the facilities are amazing, and sounds like the faculty are top tier too. My interview is tomorrow morning so hopefully I'll be able to ask some more of my print program specific questions since it was weirdly hard to find a lot of info on their site and online. Pratt is seeming more and more appealing to me since I'm NY based and my partner wouldn't have to leave his job if I was accepted and chose to go there.

[ORRI]

2 hours ago, limpcigarette said:

Hey all,

I’ve posted a couple times in this thread but thought I’d introduce myself and ask for advice.

I am an artist and poet working primarily with fiber art, with a background in sculpture, painting, and video from my time in undergrad.

For general information, I’ll list all the schools I’ve applied to:

SAIC - Fiber (interviewed, accepted with 100% tuition); Painting (interviewed, accepted with 20% tuition); Sculpture (Rejected)

UChicago - Interviewed, second year full tuition waiver

Northwestern University - Interviewed, Accepted with 100% tuition and stipend

University of Michigan - Interviewed last week

Hunter College - Interview this weekend.

My question pertains to my current dilemma: choosing between SAIC’s Fiber program and Northwestern’s Art, Theory, and Practice. How did previous applicants go about choosing the right program for them, and what factors did they weigh?

I love the idea of living in downtown Chicago and the resources SAIC offers for Fiber Art, but the stipend for Northwestern has my mouth watering.

I’d also like to add a tidbit of advice/reassurance to future applicants who will anxiously be reading past threads next year: good photos are great, but my photos were shitty! Your artist statement can be as beautiful as you want to make it; one of mine’s was a short story. I am a first generation student who had no idea how to navigate grad applications, and I made it out to the other side (admission decisions). Being chosen for an interview is a good sign, and while they may be stressful every faculty member I’ve interacted with at the schools I applied to were gracious and engaged.

Best of luck and all my love for all future graduate applicants and candidates ❤️

 

First of all, congrat!! It's amazing result.

Personally, I consider the works of alumni and student resources. My works are a bit specific. It involves social practice and participants often. So I tried to find programs which have resources or centers related to this kind of works. Also, if I could love alumni's works and career, it might mean my future community is inspirational.

Btw, being accepted with 100% scholarship from SAIC is amazing! I heard they offer 1 person in each department. I applied for SAIC last year and only got 20 percent discount haha.

 

ps. I am not a current student!

Edited March 2, 2022 by ORRI

[minidragonfly]

Received a message a few hours ago from RISD saying I was waitlisted for printmaking. I was half expecting to receive a followup message saying it was sent in error, because I did not have an interview with them. I'm actually super happy because I thought it was a reject at this point ?

[seelamfa22]

2 hours ago, limpcigarette said:

My question pertains to my current dilemma: choosing between SAIC’s Fiber program and Northwestern’s Art, Theory, and Practice. How did previous applicants go about choosing the right program for them, and what factors did they weigh?

I love the idea of living in downtown Chicago and the resources SAIC offers for Fiber Art, but the stipend for Northwestern has my mouth watering.

 

Congratulations! I wanted to hear from previous applicants too, so I asked the graduate director (of a different school that I got into) to put me in contact with current students in the program, and I asked the grad students this question about how they knew it was the right program for them.

It sounds like your practice is already interdisciplinary, so Northwestern might be a good fit. SAIC has a strong studio-practice, which is great if you're not interested in spending your MFA writing papers.

[hopeful.jpeg]

3 hours ago, seelamfa22 said:

Did everyone who applied to RISD receive an update in their application portal? I received an admit letter, but I will likely decline.

Yeah I also got my admit letter + an assistantship position, but will definitely be reaching out to current students to ask about their experiences because the financial support is... not what I expected 

[lilyxia99]

I received the offer from VCUarts Kinetic Imaging  with full tuition offer (as long as they don't run out of funding ?） and I am still waiting for CalArts and CMU 

Does anyone know more about VCUarts? and does anyone familiar with their kinetic imaging program?

I also got official rejection from RISD (finally...I know they are not gonna accept me but it's really annoying how they send stuff so late) so right now my results are

KMD-accepted 

VCU (Kinetic Imaging)-accepted

Calarts (Experimental Animation )-interviewed, waiting for results

CMU (Fine Arts)-interviewed, waiting results

RISD (D+M)-rejected

SAIC (FVNMA)-rejected

UCB (Art Practice)- nothing heard

 

 

[greentea2]

I just got an interview invite for Otis (Fine Arts MFA). Anyone else??

[hellotothefuture]

Hey everyone! 

Could anyone tell me if someone is on the waitlist of the university then does they have a shot? or is it a soft rejection?

[lilyxia99]

18 minutes ago, hellotothefuture said:

Hey everyone! 

Could anyone tell me if someone is on the waitlist of the university then does they have a shot? or is it a soft rejection?

I've seen people get accepted from waitlist, even with a full tuition offer, so stay hopeful!

[hellotothefuture]

3 minutes ago, lilyxia99 said:

I've seen people get accepted from waitlist, even with a full tuition offer, so stay hopeful!

Hey thank you for giving some hope. The University faculty, where I wanted to do my MFA, really liked my work and I just messed up big time during interview and I think it was a reason I got into waitlisting. It's a three years fully funded MFA program, mostly research based, which I really liked. 

Now I am so heart broken that I do not have courage to give interview at Hunter this Saturday. 

[thermoflask]

1 hour ago, greentea2 said:

I just got an interview invite for Otis (Fine Arts MFA). Anyone else??

Hi! I also just received an interview invitation from Otis, but for the MFA Graphic Design program. Were you assigned a time slot or are you able to pick one? They scheduled me for next week and I kinda wish I got to choose my own time...

[thermoflask]

Has decisions for Yale's Graphic Design MFA already come out? Just saw an entry on the Results page with someone claiming to have been accepted with funding. Been lurking on past year forums, and thought Yale's art school sends decisions all at once, and doesn't send financial packages until days/weeks after admission decisions are released? Perhaps I was confused or maybe things are different this year...? Also just checked the admission portal, no updates on my end. Don't know what this means.

Edited March 2, 2022 by thermoflask

[greentea2]

29 minutes ago, thermoflask said:

Hi! I also just received an interview invitation from Otis, but for the MFA Graphic Design program. Were you assigned a time slot or are you able to pick one? They scheduled me for next week and I kinda wish I got to choose my own time...

Hello! I was able to pick my time slot. My email said it would be a 15-minute zoom interview, and there were availabilities on various days throughout the first two weeks of March. Good luck on your interview!

[thermoflask]

3 minutes ago, greentea2 said:

Hello! I was able to pick my time slot. My email said it would be a 15-minute zoom interview, and there were availabilities on various days throughout the first two weeks of March. Good luck on your interview!

I see! maybe just different departments doing different things... Best of luck!

[Slowly]

Just adding to the chorus of others who received their official RISD admit today (MFA Illustration), after the unofficial email back in February. Aside from the assistantship, no other financial aid. I was hoping for better... I don't have a decision yet from my other school, so not sure what I can mention in an email to appeal for more funding. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks and congrats to all others! ?

[hibiscusleaves]

5 hours ago, thermoflask said:

Has decisions for Yale's Graphic Design MFA already come out? Just saw an entry on the Results page with someone claiming to have been accepted with funding. Been lurking on past year forums, and thought Yale's art school sends decisions all at once, and doesn't send financial packages until days/weeks after admission decisions are released? Perhaps I was confused or maybe things are different this year...? Also just checked the admission portal, no updates on my end. Don't know what this means.

I think the 2 year program decisions came out last Friday, but 3 year program decisions should be out this Friday. And yes they come out at once. Which one did you apply to? And when was your interview?