MFA 2022 Freak Out Forum

[mojorelaykd]

How are low-income international students doing this cycle?

It is second year of me applying and it again seems like a very stretch that I will get anything decent. I have applied to 10 programs and got interviews at almost all. Now I have offers from RISD(assistantship, trying to negotiate), NYU ITP (50%, haven't heard about assistantships yet), SAIC (20%) and rejected from MIT Media Labs. Still waiting on Georgia State, CMU, Stanford, Yale, Pratt, and Parsons. Has any international gotten fully-funded option for MFA or Interdisciplinary Design courses?  Or are there any outside sources you are looking for funding? 

[chunkeymonkey]

15 minutes ago, mojorelaykd said:

Has any international gotten fully-funded option for MFA or Interdisciplinary Design courses

Hi, I got a fully funded offer from VCU for MFA. You can message if you want to talk more! 

[swifteggtart]

On 3/1/2022 at 2:23 PM, hopeful.jpeg said:

eryone!! I wanted to introduce myself I applied to art/design programs that combine art and technology/experience. I'm applied out of my undergrad program (currently at Stanford, happy to answer questions about the art programs!) studying design and engin

Hi! may I ask when did you receive the ITP offer? I applied on December 1st and haven't heard from them since then...

[swifteggtart]

I know that SAIC has only one full scholarship for each department, so they usually divide that full scholarship into five 20%. I will suggest definitely reach out to the admission office to appeal for more fundings, or just ask for other financial support opportunities! 

(just realized that I quoted the wrong message, how do I correct that)

Edited March 2, 2022 by swifteggtart

[f.m.m]

Hi,

I would appreciate hearing from someone from these programs:

• MSU(MFA)
• Austin(MFA of Design)
• Syracuse U(Design)
• U of Washington (MDes)- Seattle

[katfude5]

10 hours 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?

A solid amount of people definitely get accepted off of the waitlist! If one person is accepted to 5 schools, they can still only pick one and end up leaving an open slot at four schools. Multiply that by everyone who has been accepted to multiple programs!

[impliedpaste]

10 hours ago, hellotothefuture said:

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. 

If you don’t mind sharing, which program is it? 
a lot of the fully funded programs accept only 1 or 2 people so at the end of the day it comes down to so many factors that are out of your control! I hope you get off the waitlist though and have a great interview Sunday. 

[hellotothefuture]

2 minutes ago, impliedpaste said:

If you don’t mind sharing, which program is it? 
a lot of the fully funded programs accept only 1 or 2 people so at the end of the day it comes down to so many factors that are out of your control! I hope you get off the waitlist though and have a great interview Sunday. 

Hey! It's MFA sculpture at the University of Notre Dame. I really liked their research based studio practice, small size and location too. I prefer peaceful sites.

[hellotothefuture]

5 minutes ago, impliedpaste said:

If you don’t mind sharing, which program is it? 
a lot of the fully funded programs accept only 1 or 2 people so at the end of the day it comes down to so many factors that are out of your control! I hope you get off the waitlist though and have a great interview Sunday. 

Yes they do accept one person in sculpture and 6 in MFA

5 minutes ago, impliedpaste said:

If you don’t mind sharing, which program is it? 
a lot of the fully funded programs accept only 1 or 2 people so at the end of the day it comes down to so many factors that are out of your control! I hope you get off the waitlist though and have a great interview Sunday. 

Thank you for the wishes. I hope it work out in the end.

[hellotothefuture]

42 minutes ago, katfude5 said:

A solid amount of people definitely get accepted off of the waitlist! If one person is accepted to 5 schools, they can still only pick one and end up leaving an open slot at four schools. Multiply that by everyone who has been accepted to multiple programs!

I really appreciate your positive enthusiasm.. I have to wait till April's first week for the final decision.

Edited March 2, 2022 by hellotothefuture

[lilyxia99]

On 11/5/2021 at 10:39 AM, Eric from America said:

Hey, everyone! I graduated from VCUarts MFA Kinetic Imaging (time-based and new media art) program last spring (2021). This forum was helpful when I was applying, so I'd be happy to pay it back if I can and answer any questions that might help you. In addition to Kinetic Imaging, I also took classes from other departments at VCU like Sculpture and Photo + Film, and I probably had classes with other students from almost every other department (graphic design, painting/printmaking, craft/ceramics/glass/fiber/wood, etc.).

I also have experience all the way through the interview and decision process at other schools I applied to (CalArts, Columbia, Cranbrook, NYU, RISD, SAIC, SVA, University of Michigan), so might be able to answer some questions on those, particularly emerging media, video art, sound art, etc. 

I see some people say they are interested in VCU. VCU's grad open house is Sat. Nov. 13: https://arts.vcu.edu/academics/graduate/virtual-open-house/

Good luck everybody! 

Hi Eric, I saw your posts and it's really nice of you to keep posting even after graduation for the upcoming mfa applicants. I'm Leilei, a newly accepted VCU applicant tho I haven't decided on whether I should go there. I also applied to Kinetic Imaging and have applied to schools like CalArts for experimental animation ( I saw you was accepted by CalArts, tho probably for different major). I guess our backgrounds are sort of similar so your experience will be very valuable for me. 

So one of the big thing I wonder is if VCU KI is well-equipped. I saw that they have a cinema program for BFA, and I wonder if KI students can borrow equipments from their program, as I didn't see very fancy facilities for KI department yet...Also I am an animator, tho my discipline is changing but I might still do some animation work. Do you observe that VCU has enough facility for animation such as stop-motion or good enough computer to render 3D animation? 

Thank you so much! Have a great day

[katfude5]

1 hour ago, katfude5 said:

A solid amount of people definitely get accepted off of the waitlist! If one person is accepted to 5 schools, they can still only pick one and end up leaving an open slot at four schools. Multiply that by everyone who has been accepted to multiple programs!

This being said,  if you know which school you are ultimately going to attend and are ready to accept.. don’t wait until April! The earlier that schools can lock in their first round of acceptances, the faster they can accept people on the waitlist. 

[lilybee23]

3 hours ago, mojorelaykd said:

How are low-income international students doing this cycle?

It is second year of me applying and it again seems like a very stretch that I will get anything decent. I have applied to 10 programs and got interviews at almost all. Now I have offers from RISD(assistantship, trying to negotiate), NYU ITP (50%, haven't heard about assistantships yet), SAIC (20%) and rejected from MIT Media Labs. Still waiting on Georgia State, CMU, Stanford, Yale, Pratt, and Parsons. Has any international gotten fully-funded option for MFA or Interdisciplinary Design courses?  Or are there any outside sources you are looking for funding? 

Hi, you have heard back from ITP? When did you hear back from them? 

[whitewhales]

RISD rejections just came out. Link to portal - kind letter. Not bad RISD. Softens the blow. 

[DawkT]

I sent an email to the professor at a program that rejected me, in their decision letter it stated to reach out to the program-head if I had any questions about the decision. I asked what I could improve upon and what kind of students they were looking for. No response, so I sent a follow up email 7 days later asking if I should message someone else. They replied stating that it isn’t in their practice to give feedback to students who were rejected, partly due to all of the other responsibilities they have in the spring semester. They gave me their best wishes but unfortunately no feedback, darn.

[thermoflask]

6 hours ago, hibiscusleaves said:

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?

Not for me! I applied to the 2-year program and interviewed in mid-February. My understanding is that decisions will be sent in early March for all. Honestly a bit suspicious of that entry on the results page, but... either way, will find out soon! Best of luck to us!

[DawkT]

I was wondering if anyone had experience with retracting acceptance from a program so that they could attend a different one. Possibly because they received a late waitlist acceptance.

If anyone knows of any rules regarding that, I think it would serve as a great conversation!

[hibiscusleaves]

Just now, thermoflask said:

Not for me! I applied to the 2-year program and interviewed in mid-February. My understanding is that decisions will be sent in early March for all. Honestly a bit suspicious of that entry on the results page, but... either way, will find out soon! Best of luck to us!

someone on reddit who applied to the 2 year program said they received an acceptance with fin.aid. package last friday, it's very suspicious to me as well

[thermoflask]

2 minutes ago, hibiscusleaves said:

someone on reddit who applied to the 2 year program said they received an acceptance with fin.aid. package last friday, it's very suspicious to me as well

I hate to believe that anyone would share fake information about admission outcomes because I don't really see the point, but trolling is a thing these days... The inconsistency between the information shared by the school and a random post by someone on the internet makes that seem likely... Either way, I'm choosing to believe in Yale's email which said decisions will be released in early March, and last Friday was not early March...

Just for reference, this is directly from the Results page, filed under Yale Graphic Design MFA: "I'm ecstatic!! Coming from a non-design background from a third world country, this is a dream come true!! Don't get upset and try again if this year didn't work out. I was rejected as an undergraduate student at every US university and stayed at home. But now as a last year university student, I got admitted with funding to Yale and RISD for design without studying design as an undergrad!!"

[mojorelaykd]

1 hour ago, lilybee23 said:

Hi, you have heard back from ITP? When did you hear back from them? 

I have heard on Monday but I have been in contact with the program for two years and had offer last year too (had to decline due to funding), so I got notified earlier and now trying to see if I can secure assistantship. But all official letters should be coming out soon as well! 

[hibiscusleaves]

15 minutes ago, thermoflask said:

I hate to believe that anyone would share fake information about admission outcomes because I don't really see the point, but trolling is a thing these days... The inconsistency between the information shared by the school and a random post by someone on the internet makes that seem likely... Either way, I'm choosing to believe in Yale's email which said decisions will be released in early March, and last Friday was not early March...

Just for reference, this is directly from the Results page, filed under Yale Graphic Design MFA: "I'm ecstatic!! Coming from a non-design background from a third world country, this is a dream come true!! Don't get upset and try again if this year didn't work out. I was rejected as an undergraduate student at every US university and stayed at home. But now as a last year university student, I got admitted with funding to Yale and RISD for design without studying design as an undergrad!!"

Yea I saw it as well, the thing is that Yale Fin. Aid office only starts looking at the css profiles after the admissions are sent and it takes up to 10 days for them to send a fin. aid. package after admissions, so..

[lilybee23]

17 minutes ago, mojorelaykd said:

I have heard on Monday but I have been in contact with the program for two years and had offer last year too (had to decline due to funding), so I got notified earlier and now trying to see if I can secure assistantship. But all official letters should be coming out soon as well! 

Ah, I see. Thank you for the info! Congrats on the offers, hope you can attend you top pick this year

[limpcigarette]

16 hours ago, seelamfa22 said:

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.

Thank you! This is great advice, my friend put me in contact with a previous Northwestern graduate so I will reach out and ask him. I will also see if the graduate director can put me in contact with current students and maybe reach out directly to some of them myself! Also, glad to get some more of the low-down on the differences between Northwestern and SAIC. I hate writing papers, but I can muscle through it!

[mojorelaykd]

9 minutes ago, hibiscusleaves said:

Yea I saw it as well, the thing is that Yale Fin. Aid office only starts looking at the css profiles after the admissions are sent and it takes up to 10 days for them to send a fin. aid. package after admissions, so..

I (and many others) had interview last week with Yale MFA and I don't think they would make decision so quick. So I don't expect to hear from them till this or next Friday. Could be just a scam 

[limpcigarette]

17 hours ago, ORRI said:

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!

Thanks a bunch! I have been thinking a lot about alumni and student resources already, think it would be best for me to just visit each of the campuses. Hard to schedule with a full work week, though. This is all wonderful advice!

And yes, color me surprised that SAIC offered a 100% scholarship! I applied twice during my undergraduate career, once going straight from high school and the other as a transfer student, and didn't get near that amount of funding my first two tries! It's a wonderful opportunity.