MFA 2022 Freak Out Forum

[shivbat]

Is anyone else here applying straight out of undergrad? I know that’s kind of a frowned upon thing, but it makes sense for my financial/career plans so thought I’d make the attempt. It’s kind of crazy balancing thesis and grad apps tho, ngl haha. Wondering if anyone’s in the same boat.

[tomatoriot]

17 minutes ago, shivbat said:

Is anyone else here applying straight out of undergrad? I know that’s kind of a frowned upon thing, but it makes sense for my financial/career plans so thought I’d make the attempt. It’s kind of crazy balancing thesis and grad apps tho, ngl haha. Wondering if anyone’s in the same boat.

I am. Spent my entire winter break on applications and now I’m working on my thesis/show while biting all my nails off waiting. It made the most sense for me as well. Plus I am in my 30’s and had a practice before I went back for the bfa, so I though they might not frown so much at me personally. 
 

So yeah, same boat. I am struggling pretty hard to stay focused tbh. How are you?

[Faxma]

 

5 hours ago, hibiscusleaves said:

Hey all! A graphic designer here.

I have gotten interview invitations from following programs:

Yale, SAIC, Umass Amherst

Do you have any advices for the interview or an idea of what to expect? Would really appreciate any input.

Also, anyone heard back from Parsons? Specifically from MFA Design and Technology.

 

 

Hi, Great to see a fellow graphic designer here  ! 
 

congrats on your interviews, I also have an interview with Yale. Regarding the works to be presented during the interview, I’m planning to choose 5 pieces from my submitted portfolio since I feel those are the ones that best represent me. 

 Do you have an idea if the informal interview (with a current student) will be part of the final decision? Or is it for asking questions about the program, their experience etc. 

 

best of luck!    

[chewythecat]

Hello everyone, 

Been lurking on this forum which has been helpful in my application and interview process.

I've applied for painting MFA for

RISD - have not heard back 

UCR - interview next week

UCLA - have not heard back 

UCSB - interviewed 

SVA - interviewed

Hunter - have not heard back 

Columbia - have not heard back 

Has anyone heard back from Hunter, UCLA, or Columbia? I saw that RISD had started to reach out to some regarding interviews already, but still trying remain hopeful. 

Edited February 3, 2022 by chewythecat

[Forms Without Formula]

14 minutes ago, chewythecat said:

Hello everyone, 

Been lurking on this forum which has been helpful in my application and interview process.

I've applied for painting MFA for

RISD - have not heard back 

UCR - interview next week

UCLA - have not heard back 

UCSB - interviewed 

SVA - interviewed

Hunter - have not heard back 

Columbia - have not heard back 

Has anyone heard back from Hunter, UCLA, or Columbia? I saw that RISD had started to reached out to some regarding interviews already, but still trying remain hopeful. 

Based on previous forums it seems like Hunter sends interview requests between February 9th and 17th or so, so shouldn't be too much longer!!

[Strawberrycat]

23 minutes ago, chewythecat said:

Hello everyone, 

Been lurking on this forum which has been helpful in my application and interview process.

I've applied for painting MFA for

RISD - have not heard back 

UCR - interview next week

UCLA - have not heard back 

UCSB - interviewed 

SVA - interviewed

Hunter - have not heard back 

Columbia - have not heard back 

Has anyone heard back from Hunter, UCLA, or Columbia? I saw that RISD had started to reached out to some regarding interviews already, but still trying remain hopeful. 

There are three of us here with cat in our names that interviewed with UCSB, I'm so amused by it. Congrats on your interviews so far! I haven't heard anything from UCLA. 

If you want chat about UCSB and how the interviews went, feel free to send me a DM! 

[Pickle555]

Was definitely not expecting to hear back yet, but I just got an interview email from UCLA (painting and drawing).

[AlyPet]

Silly question (because frankly it is now too late), but I am curious:  In portfolio reviews what was the general consensus?  I got rave reviews on my portfolio from SAIC and RISD, but got rejections from both schools.  Makes me think that either they were lying to spare my feelings or I have got to be the unluckiest person applying for an MFA.  For the record, I asked a butt-ton of questions about what they are looking for and anything they felt I could improve or experiment with and none of them felt I needed to change anything.  They loved my thesis and my body of work and recommended I not change anything...especially RISD.  So now I'm up a creek feeling like the worst painter on the planet.

RISD said the fact that I am a deaf artist painting the feel of sound was "exceptionally powerful" so now I'm calling bullshit on all of it.

[lilyxia99]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:46 AM, lilyxia99 said:

Hi everyone,

I applied to both Fine Arts and Film/Animation/Media Design, and I will be sharing my updates if that helps

 

Keio Media Design(KMD)-interview

SAIC-FVNMA-rejected

Carnegie Mellon University(CMU)-Fine Arts-pending

Calarts-Experimental animation-pending

RISD-Digital media-pending

VCU-Kinetic Images-pending

UC Berkeley(UCB)-Art Practice-pending

 

If anyone has received interview from UCB plz let me know! I guess I am very likely rejected by UCB.

invited to be interviewed from CMU and Calarts~ ?

so now: 

Keio Media Design(KMD)-interview

SAIC-FVNMA-rejected

Carnegie Mellon University(CMU)-Fine Arts-interview

Calarts-Experimental animation-interview

RISD-Digital media-pending

VCU-Kinetic Images-pending

UC Berkeley(UCB)-Art Practice-pending

------------

I saw a lot of threads before, and maybe I can share some thoughts on CMU.

I have known a person who went to CMU and was the assistant faculty for a semester. I am just transferring her words so it might be inaccurate. 

CMU has pros and cons. The pros is that faculties are nice, the school is generous on giving financial support (the information I got from the info session is that they cover from at least 2/3 of tuition to full tuition, tho their general tuition is high), and the three year program gives you a lot of time to do your projects. 

The cons is indeed...the atmosphere is that everyone learns coding lol, probably you will see a lot of people walking on the street who look like they are going to google or apple. Art students might feel a bit estranged, but that might be the general situation in any big university. Also, Pittsburgh is indeed a small place, which can't be compared with big cities like NYC or LA which has a lot more opportunities. 

I couldn't rephrase a lot because I am afraid of mis-interpretation, and maybe I didn't really say any valuable information...anyway, hope it could be of some help 

[Mfanymph22]

Hey everyone and good luck to all of you. Did everyone who applied at Columbia receive the financial aid notification?

I'm wondering if it means they are considering you ,bc two of the other schools that rejected my apps had not sent me anything throughout all this time...idk 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Mfanymph22
Typo

[katfude5]

28 minutes ago, AlyPet said:

Silly question (because frankly it is now too late), but I am curious:  In portfolio reviews what was the general consensus?  I got rave reviews on my portfolio from SAIC and RISD, but got rejections from both schools.  Makes me think that either they were lying to spare my feelings or I have got to be the unluckiest person applying for an MFA.  For the record, I asked a butt-ton of questions about what they are looking for and anything they felt I could improve or experiment with and none of them felt I needed to change anything.  They loved my thesis and my body of work and recommended I not change anything...especially RISD.  So now I'm up a creek feeling like the worst painter on the planet.

RISD said the fact that I am a deaf artist painting the feel of sound was "exceptionally powerful" so now I'm calling bullshit on all of it.

May I ask how many years you have been out of your undergraduate degree? 

[HJAn]

22 minutes ago, Mfanymph22 said:

Hey everyone and good luck to all of you. Did everyone who applied at Columbia receive the financial aid notification?

I'm wondering if it means they are considering you ,bc two of the other schools that rejected my apps had not sent me anything throughout all this time...idk 

What do you mean by financial aid notification? Do you mean they already decided how much to award you?

[AlyPet]

2 minutes ago, katfude5 said:

May I ask how many years you have been out of your undergraduate degree? 

20

[Mfanymph22]

Just now, HJAn said:

What do you mean by financial aid notification? Do you mean they already decided how much to award you?

No no, i meant the reminder of the deadline for the financial aid applications.It seems like a newsletter thing so probably not...

[katfude5]

3 minutes ago, AlyPet said:

20

Hmm, now I'm a bit confused (I'm so sorry I'm not sure if that is 2020 or 20 years out)! Just by the fact that you mentioned your thesis, it sounded like you were fresh out of school meaning maybe they think you have fantastic potential but just need some time to develop your practice outside of the guided structure of school. But if you have been out of school for 20 years, I'm curious how much of your portfolio was from the last 3 years like most schools request. 

[HJAn]

3 minutes ago, Mfanymph22 said:

No no, i meant the reminder of the deadline for the financial aid applications.It seems like a newsletter thing so probably not...

ahh gotcha. I submitted mine a while back - so I didn't receive one.

On the other hand, does anyone know if Yale is the only school that requires CSS profile? Or do other schools have that too? I've already been rejected from Yale, but wondering if I need to fill it out for other schools.

[Hjuoollpphhfcvn]

I got an interview request for cmu as well and saic (art and technology). In regards of cmu, I heard something similar to what you heard about it from someone who goes there.  The particular experience of the user against it is extremely disturbing and sad and speaks really bad about it though...

Do you know what they might ask in the interviews?

[AlyPet]

22 minutes ago, katfude5 said:

Hmm, now I'm a bit confused (I'm so sorry I'm not sure if that is 2020 or 20 years out)! Just by the fact that you mentioned your thesis, it sounded like you were fresh out of school meaning maybe they think you have fantastic potential but just need some time to develop your practice outside of the guided structure of school. But if you have been out of school for 20 years, I'm curious how much of your portfolio was from the last 3 years like most schools request. 

20 years out of school.  My entire portfolio was work from the past two years.  Sorry, not my first masters so "thesis" is nothing new to me.

[Strawberrycat]

50 minutes ago, AlyPet said:

Silly question (because frankly it is now too late), but I am curious:  In portfolio reviews what was the general consensus?  I got rave reviews on my portfolio from SAIC and RISD, but got rejections from both schools.  Makes me think that either they were lying to spare my feelings or I have got to be the unluckiest person applying for an MFA.  For the record, I asked a butt-ton of questions about what they are looking for and anything they felt I could improve or experiment with and none of them felt I needed to change anything.  They loved my thesis and my body of work and recommended I not change anything...especially RISD.  So now I'm up a creek feeling like the worst painter on the planet.

RISD said the fact that I am a deaf artist painting the feel of sound was "exceptionally powerful" so now I'm calling bullshit on all of it.

I had the same thing happen to me in the past with SAIC in particular. I went to a portfolio review and they really seemed interested in my work and artist statement and gave me a fee waiver for the application to encourage me to apply. Then I applied and didn't get in or even asked for an interview. I felt really frustrated and confused too. This year, I applied again without doing any portfolio reviews, and got an interview with them. 

I think the only thing I can say from the experience is that we have to take those reviews with a grain of salt because they're only with one or two people (at least this was the case for me) who may represent the school, but may be just one person on the committee or may not even have anything to do with the actual selection process. There are also a lot of other factors to take into account that are out of our hands, like who else is applying, whose work someone on the selection committee really happens to connect with for whatever reason, the spot in the line up that your portfolio happened to be in when they were reviewing portfolios, the cohort they're trying to build in that moment, etc. Everything is subjective and I think all of those things can tip the scale in favor of one person over another when there are so many qualified applicants vying for so few spots. Some aspects of applying really are left up to luck, chance, and timing, and it absolutely sucks. But that's why there are so many people who end up applying for more than one round of apps and then end up going on to get in to a bunch of places the next year and having successful careers. 

I'm certain you're not the worst painter just because of a few rejections. I think the person you reviewed with was honest about liking your work. We all have room for growth in our practices, though, and can always build on them and explore new things for the next time, so rejections are just more time to do that. Even if they're not what we wanted. And I say all this as someone who has experienced a ton of rejection, but took that time and am now getting some of the interviews I'd hoped for in previous years. I also know I'm in a better position to do well in grad school than I would have been when I first applied and will get way more out of the experience now, so I look at it as a positive thing now, even though I definitely felt pretty bad about it at first. 

Anyway, that was really long, but I hope it helps you feel less alone in it! And I'd be super happy to look over your application materials if you wanted to share them, to see if I could offer any specific insight. ❤

 

 

 

 

[AlyPet]

3 minutes ago, Strawberrycat said:

I had the same thing happen to me in the past with SAIC in particular. I went to a portfolio review and they really seemed interested in my work and artist statement and gave me a fee waiver for the application to encourage me to apply. Then I applied and didn't get in or even asked for an interview. I felt really frustrated and confused too. This year, I applied again without doing any portfolio reviews, and got an interview with them. 

I think the only thing I can say from the experience is that we have to take those reviews with a grain of salt because they're only with one or two people (at least this was the case for me) who may represent the school, but may be just one person on the committee or may not even have anything to do with the actual selection process. There are also a lot of other factors to take into account that are out of our hands, like who else is applying, whose work someone on the selection committee really happens to connect with for whatever reason, the spot in the line up that your portfolio happened to be in when they were reviewing portfolios, the cohort they're trying to build in that moment, etc. Everything is subjective and I think all of those things can tip the scale in favor of one person over another when there are so many qualified applicants vying for so few spots. Some aspects of applying really are left up to luck, chance, and timing, and it absolutely sucks. But that's why there are so many people who end up applying for more than one round of apps and then end up going on to get in to a bunch of places the next year and having successful careers. 

I'm certain you're not the worst painter just because of a few rejections. I think the person you reviewed with was honest about liking your work. We all have room for growth in our practices, though, and can always build on them and explore new things for the next time, so rejections are just more time to do that. Even if they're not what we wanted. And I say all this as someone who has experienced a ton of rejection, but took that time and am now getting some of the interviews I'd hoped for in previous years. I also know I'm in a better position to do well in grad school than I would have been when I first applied and will get way more out of the experience now, so I look at it as a positive thing now, even though I definitely felt pretty bad about it at first. 

Anyway, that was really long, but I hope it helps you feel less alone in it! And I'd be super happy to look over your application materials if you wanted to share them, to see if I could offer any specific insight. ❤

 

 

 

 

I really appreciate you sharing your experience.  Thank you.  In all honesty, I created too much for a portfolio and too little from what I really wanted to paint.  This year I'm going to hit it hard and paint what I want to.  I know grad school is going to be difficult as this is my first time being in school hearing impaired and so far even auditing local college classes have been rough.  I think you are right. I really do need another year to prepare.

[lilyxia99]

5 hours ago, Strawberrycat said:

I did, but haven't heard anything back, unfortunately. 

me neither...

[lilyxia99]

9 minutes ago, Strawberrycat said:

I had the same thing happen to me in the past with SAIC in particular. I went to a portfolio review and they really seemed interested in my work and artist statement and gave me a fee waiver for the application to encourage me to apply. Then I applied and didn't get in or even asked for an interview. I felt really frustrated and confused too. This year, I applied again without doing any portfolio reviews, and got an interview with them. 

I think the only thing I can say from the experience is that we have to take those reviews with a grain of salt because they're only with one or two people (at least this was the case for me) who may represent the school, but may be just one person on the committee or may not even have anything to do with the actual selection process. There are also a lot of other factors to take into account that are out of our hands, like who else is applying, whose work someone on the selection committee really happens to connect with for whatever reason, the spot in the line up that your portfolio happened to be in when they were reviewing portfolios, the cohort they're trying to build in that moment, etc. Everything is subjective and I think all of those things can tip the scale in favor of one person over another when there are so many qualified applicants vying for so few spots. Some aspects of applying really are left up to luck, chance, and timing, and it absolutely sucks. But that's why there are so many people who end up applying for more than one round of apps and then end up going on to get in to a bunch of places the next year and having successful careers. 

I'm certain you're not the worst painter just because of a few rejections. I think the person you reviewed with was honest about liking your work. We all have room for growth in our practices, though, and can always build on them and explore new things for the next time, so rejections are just more time to do that. Even if they're not what we wanted. And I say all this as someone who has experienced a ton of rejection, but took that time and am now getting some of the interviews I'd hoped for in previous years. I also know I'm in a better position to do well in grad school than I would have been when I first applied and will get way more out of the experience now, so I look at it as a positive thing now, even though I definitely felt pretty bad about it at first. 

Anyway, that was really long, but I hope it helps you feel less alone in it! And I'd be super happy to look over your application materials if you wanted to share them, to see if I could offer any specific insight. ❤

 

 

 

 

My friend who got highly praised in their portfolio review also got rejects. I am also really confused ? 

[Strawberrycat]

Just now, AlyPet said:

I really appreciate you sharing your experience.  Thank you.  In all honesty, I created too much for a portfolio and too little from what I really wanted to paint.  This year I'm going to hit it hard and paint what I want to.  I know grad school is going to be difficult as this is my first time being in school hearing impaired and so far even auditing local college classes have been rough.  I think you are right. I really do need another year to prepare.

No problem. That exact thing is something I tried to do too and I think you're totally right. Paint for you first, and the rest will follow. 

I hope that whatever school you end up at is warm and accommodating and makes the challenges that come with it more manageable. You deserve nothing less. 

[Strawberrycat]

4 minutes ago, lilyxia99 said:

My friend who got highly praised in their portfolio review also got rejects. I am also really confused ? 

It's so confusing! But it comes with that subjectivity. Applying is such a weird and unpredictable and vulnerable process. 

[lilyxia99]

50 minutes ago, javpppppp said:

I got an interview request for cmu as well and saic (art and technology). In regards of cmu, I heard something similar to what you heard about it from someone who goes there.  The particular experience of the user against it is extremely disturbing and sad and speaks really bad about it though...

Do you know what they might ask in the interviews?

My friend said they just asked some basic questions about your body of work.