MFA 2022 Freak Out Forum

[HJAn]

4 hours ago, _redrabbit7 said:

Hello! Anyone online who's had their interview with SAIC? Mine's in an hour. And I'm freaking out already!!! 

I already had my interview with SAIC yesterday. I think the dates may be different per department. I really enjoyed their interview process of having a whole weekend full of activities where I got to meet and talk to the faculty and current students prior to my scheduled interview. I was actually chatting with my interviewers during the lunch time Q&A and my interview was right after, so it just felt like an extension of our conversation, which was great. The only downside is maybe at the end of interview when they asked if I had any questions, I had run out of things to ask lol. I asked like a dozen questions to the faculty as well as the students prior to the interview already.

Hope your interview went well!!

[HJAn]

Also I thought I would share my status so far:

Yale - rejected

Northwestern - rejected

Tufts(SMFA) - interviewed

UPenn - interviewed

RISD - interviewed

SAIC - interviewed

Waiting on: Columbia, Hunter, MIT, VCU, Pratt, UCLA

I'm assuming rejection from VCU and UCLA - as I've seen people have already received interview invites.

Also, assuming rejection from Pratt. I realized after I clicked submit that my essay had another school's name... ? 

I think Columbia should come out next week, but I'm not so sure on Hunter and MIT. Has anyone heard from these?

[Forms Without Formula]

38 minutes ago, HJAn said:

Also I thought I would share my status so far:

Yale - rejected

Northwestern - rejected

Tufts(SMFA) - interviewed

UPenn - interviewed

RISD - interviewed

SAIC - interviewed

Waiting on: Columbia, Hunter, MIT, VCU, Pratt, UCLA

I'm assuming rejection from VCU and UCLA - as I've seen people have already received interview invites.

Also, assuming rejection from Pratt. I realized after I clicked submit that my essay had another school's name... ? 

I think Columbia should come out next week, but I'm not so sure on Hunter and MIT. Has anyone heard from these?

Hunter interview requests should be coming out this week based on past forums!! Ahh can't wait

[GradCat2022]

2 hours ago, HJAn said:

I already had my interview with SAIC yesterday. I think the dates may be different per department. I really enjoyed their interview process of having a whole weekend full of activities where I got to meet and talk to the faculty and current students prior to my scheduled interview. I was actually chatting with my interviewers during the lunch time Q&A and my interview was right after, so it just felt like an extension of our conversation, which was great. The only downside is maybe at the end of interview when they asked if I had any questions, I had run out of things to ask lol. I asked like a dozen questions to the faculty as well as the students prior to the interview already.

Hope your interview went well!!

I actually applied to SAIC's New Arts Journalism program, their other writing program, and adored the whole process/the people I met and really want to go there now! My interview didn't go too great so, fingers crossed I get in! They actually only interviewed 5 people for my program (not sure how many applied) and each incoming class is only about 3-4 people, which I really like because I like the individualized attention and the opportunities you get. But we'll see!

[thehamburglar]

Anyone who applied to MECA:

Check the promotions folder in your email! A link to my decision went there for some reason!

[Strawberrycat]

15 hours ago, AlyPet said:

Yale, SAIC, RISD, UCLA, and Pratt.  Personally I feel the size of my paintings were the biggest drawback and that I do exclusively watercolor.  I'll take you up on the review offer, but in a few months.  I'm scrapping my entire portfolio and going larger and more for myself rather than for a university.

Ahh okay, yeah, those are some of the most competitive schools, so I think a good amount of people that end up going to them apply more than once from what I've seen. I think that working in watercolor could definitely be a benefit, rather than a drawback, depending on what you're doing. Going larger could help. But there is merit to small works as well. But making work for yourself sounds like the most important part. Good luck with everything and I hope you find joy in the making. ♡ 

[Hjuoollpphhfcvn]

16 hours ago, lilyxia99 said:

My interview is yet to come ? mine is on 26th. But I do have interviewed KMD, and the interview is just asking very specific question about the portfolio, like the difficulties and what I found in the process, which are really easy to answer as you must have very deep feelings about those. 

Mines on the 27!! Please let me know how yours goes!!! 

[AlyPet]

39 minutes ago, Strawberrycat said:

Ahh okay, yeah, those are some of the most competitive schools, so I think a good amount of people that end up going to them apply more than once from what I've seen. I think that working in watercolor could definitely be a benefit, rather than a drawback, depending on what you're doing. Going larger could help. But there is merit to small works as well. But making work for yourself sounds like the most important part. Good luck with everything and I hope you find joy in the making. ♡ 

I think you're right.  If your offer to look over my work still stands, I could use an objective eye.

[Strawberrycat]

3 minutes ago, AlyPet said:

I think you're right.  If your offer to look over my work still stands, I could use an objective eye.

Yeah, of course! Feel free to DM me with it whenever. 

[learner22]

I had the interview for UCLA DMA MFA last week. Does anyone has news on the other programs?

- UC Berkeley Art Practice - no response

- UCLA DMA MFA - interviewed

- UC Santa Barbara MAT (Master of Science, not MFA) - no response

I am guessing I will be declined on both UCB and UCSB because there was no interview request so far. I have applied to other masters but they are not MFA (MIT, Columbia, McGill and NYU).

 

[nobodyok]

6 minutes ago, learner22 said:

I had the interview for UCLA DMA MFA last week. Does anyone has news on the other programs?

Hope it well for you! I've not heard from UCLA Sculpture yet, and I don't think I've seen anyone on here say they have yet either. 

[lalalalalalalalalala]

For those who have interviewed with RISD what department was it with? I haven't gotten an interview but was pretty confident I would have from feedback from alum and within the school. Slightly confused right now but not sure of the timeline 

[_redrabbit7]

7 hours ago, HJAn said:

I already had my interview with SAIC yesterday. I think the dates may be different per department. I really enjoyed their interview process of having a whole weekend full of activities where I got to meet and talk to the faculty and current students prior to my scheduled interview. I was actually chatting with my interviewers during the lunch time Q&A and my interview was right after, so it just felt like an extension of our conversation, which was great. The only downside is maybe at the end of interview when they asked if I had any questions, I had run out of things to ask lol. I asked like a dozen questions to the faculty as well as the students prior to the interview already.

Hope your interview went well!!

Yes, yes, my interview went well. I wasn't aware of the other activities so I totally missed out on that.

I was interviewed by Michelle Grabner, and she was so friendly, so open and so lively. When she asked whether I had any questions for her, my head went blank too, and so I told her I was actually prepared to answer questions, not to ask. Eventually I inquired about the institution's scholarship program.

She told me she would be delivering a seminar today, Monday, or something. Are you aware of that?  

[_redrabbit7]

7 hours ago, HJAn said:

Also I thought I would share my status so far:

Yale - rejected

Northwestern - rejected

Tufts(SMFA) - interviewed

UPenn - interviewed

RISD - interviewed

SAIC - interviewed

Waiting on: Columbia, Hunter, MIT, VCU, Pratt, UCLA

I'm assuming rejection from VCU and UCLA - as I've seen people have already received interview invites.

Also, assuming rejection from Pratt. I realized after I clicked submit that my essay had another school's name... ? 

I think Columbia should come out next week, but I'm not so sure on Hunter and MIT. Has anyone heard from these?

?????

The Pratt thing, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Sorry about that, lol. 

You applied to so many schools. I applied to only four. Yale (rejected), RISD (interviewed), SAIC (interviewed), Columbia (pending). 

Would have added Cranbrook, but then I changed my mind at the last minute coz I felt either RISD or SAIC (or both schools) would accept me. My application for Cranbrook was completed and all, even submitted a recommendation letter, but I just refused to press submit until the grace period passed. 

How'd your interview with RISD go?

[_redrabbit7]

26 minutes ago, lalalalalalalalalala said:

For those who have interviewed with RISD what department was it with? I haven't gotten an interview but was pretty confident I would have from feedback from alum and within the school. Slightly confused right now but not sure of the timeline 

Had my RISD interview last Wednesday. I was given three consecutive dates, so I picked the last one, Wednesday 9th. My interview was with the painting department. 

[whitewhales]

47 minutes ago, _redrabbit7 said:

?????

The Pratt thing, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Sorry about that, lol. 

You applied to so many schools. I applied to only four. Yale (rejected), RISD (interviewed), SAIC (interviewed), Columbia (pending). 

Would have added Cranbrook, but then I changed my mind at the last minute coz I felt either RISD or SAIC (or both schools) would accept me. My application for Cranbrook was completed and all, even submitted a recommendation letter, but I just refused to press submit until the grace period passed. 

How'd your interview with RISD go?

Red rabbit I’m so curious as to why the Pratt thing is funny, or what it is, are we missing something? Please do tell us! 
 

— edit . Oh it was the letter. ??‍♀️ 
 

Edited February 14, 2022 by whitewhales

[lalalalalalalalalala]

@_redrabbit7 Gotcha! Thank you ! I am waiting to hear from the sculpture department, so hopefully those haven't gone out yet? The waiting game ?? I guess we will see! I hope everything went well!

[HJAn]

2 hours ago, lalalalalalalalalala said:

For those who have interviewed with RISD what department was it with? I haven't gotten an interview but was pretty confident I would have from feedback from alum and within the school. Slightly confused right now but not sure of the timeline 

I interviewed with RISD's Sculpture department on Wednesday. 

I got the invite on Feb 1 and had choices of time slots on Feb 9 and Feb 14. I'm not aware if RISD does multiple rounds of interviews. In total there were about 20 different time slots to choose from, so I'm guessing that means they're interviewing 20 people.

Edited February 14, 2022 by HJAn
forgot to mention

[HJAn]

2 hours ago, _redrabbit7 said:

Yes, yes, my interview went well. I wasn't aware of the other activities so I totally missed out on that.

I was interviewed by Michelle Grabner, and she was so friendly, so open and so lively. When she asked whether I had any questions for her, my head went blank too, and so I told her I was actually prepared to answer questions, not to ask. Eventually I inquired about the institution's scholarship program.

She told me she would be delivering a seminar today, Monday, or something. Are you aware of that?  

hmm I interviewed for sculpture and they had like an info session in the morning before the interviews. It's pretty standard/same as other schools - fill out your fafsa. That's pretty much it. And they said don't bother asking your interviewers about scholarships since the admission has no bearing on that.

 

2 hours ago, _redrabbit7 said:

?????

The Pratt thing, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Sorry about that, lol. 

You applied to so many schools. I applied to only four. Yale (rejected), RISD (interviewed), SAIC (interviewed), Columbia (pending). 

Would have added Cranbrook, but then I changed my mind at the last minute coz I felt either RISD or SAIC (or both schools) would accept me. My application for Cranbrook was completed and all, even submitted a recommendation letter, but I just refused to press submit until the grace period passed. 

How'd your interview with RISD go?

Haha no worries.. I laughed too ? good thing I applied to 11 more schools LOL

It's my first time applying but I've been preparing to apply for a number of years so I wanted to make sure I'll never have to do it again.. hopefully.

RISD interview was.. alright I think. It was one of my earlier interviews so I was super nervous and wasn't as articulate as I would like. I also realized in hindsight I kind of misheard one of their questions and didn't answer what they were asking fully. Not totally inaccurate, but also kind of missed the target if you know what I mean. And no one corrected me and they just moved onto the next question. It was also slightly more intimidating than all the other interviews because there were 5 people interviewing me at the same time. What about you?

[_redrabbit7]

4 hours ago, whitewhales said:

Red rabbit I’m so curious as to why the Pratt thing is funny, or what it is, are we missing something? Please do tell us! 
 

— edit . Oh it was the letter. ??‍♀️ 
 

Exactly, Whitewhales. 

I had a similar experience. I almost made that mistake with my statement of purpose because I used the same SOP for all the schools and almost all my applications were submitted during the grace period. I remember a particular occasion where I'd uploaded an application with the wrong school name and it was while cross-checking I found out the error so I quickly pulled down the document. It was so awkward, the way I had only a single message to pass across, and had to keep bending the ... narrative to suit each school's requirement.

And, speaking of @HJAn applying to many schools, I was merely trying to communicate my surprise (because reading what I wrote just now, I realised I'd given the wrong impression). I didn't know to apply to so many schools, didn't even consider the possibility.... Perhaps, if I had ended up being rejected by the four schools I applied to, I would have known to plan better. 

On a different note, Michelle Grabner from SAIC asked what I thought about grad school during my interview. She specifically referred to Kerry James Marshall's partial indifference and animosity towards grad schools, the rate at which students go into debt, even though KJM himself is a professor of art. I recall she also intoned that KJM is of the opinion that art cannot be taught the way grad schools attempt to. I have been combing the internet since yesterday, trying to verify her story, but hasn't found anything. Do you know about this? Does anyone? I would like to hear the full story.  

Thank you. 

[_redrabbit7]

3 hours ago, HJAn said:

hmm I interviewed for sculpture and they had like an info session in the morning before the interviews. It's pretty standard/same as other schools - fill out your fafsa. That's pretty much it. And they said don't bother asking your interviewers about scholarships since the admission has no bearing on that.

 

Haha no worries.. I laughed too ? good thing I applied to 11 more schools LOL

It's my first time applying but I've been preparing to apply for a number of years so I wanted to make sure I'll never have to do it again.. hopefully.

RISD interview was.. alright I think. It was one of my earlier interviews so I was super nervous and wasn't as articulate as I would like. I also realized in hindsight I kind of misheard one of their questions and didn't answer what they were asking fully. Not totally inaccurate, but also kind of missed the target if you know what I mean. And no one corrected me and they just moved onto the next question. It was also slightly more intimidating than all the other interviews because there were 5 people interviewing me at the same time. What about you?

11 MORE SCHOOLS?!! WOW!! All that application fees, and stress, to begin with, wow. 

My RISD interview. I pretty much had the same experience you had, and I'm surprised to know that. It was also my very first interview. I was soooo nervous, and being the shy type that I was made it worse. I spoke very briefly, too briefly for an interview on which my future placements in life literally hung. I was asked to explain a piece of mine and when I was done explaining (in less than two minutes) there was this weird silence that followed, as though they expected more. And in that moment it felt as though I'd lost already. But there were also brief, exciting moments that really brought smiles to their faces. I'd never been to America, but my work interrogates the racial past of American history in connection to Black people, and they were amazed by how much I knew about it. Did you know that Brown MFA in Literary Arts has a literary aspect that encourages their grad students to collaborate with artists at RISD? Told the faculty I was looking forward to that, because I did a little creative writing besides painting, in fact I was working on the first draft of a novel. Told them I was seeking for ways to merge creative writing and painting, and/or the processes/elements of both. Angela Dufrense was pleased to hear that; she wasn't expecting it. She told me there'd been such collaborations in the past and they'll be looking forward to another one. It made it seem as though I was intentional about coming to Providence and anywhere else wouldn't make up for my aspirations. Another faculty asked about something I wrote in my application, a style I intended to execute when I commence my grad program. I told her I'd started working on the style, and when I showed her my first successful piece, a sculptural painting (I'd added a material onto canvas), she appeared really pleased and suggested names of two other artists I should check out.

Was the interview intimidating? In my case no, not really, although I met 4 faculty members. Two of them, the men among them, only spoke once. Dennis Congdon, 69, laboured to articulate a sentence, to buttress a point made by Angela, and I didn't even hear him alright. 

Angela kept saying "when you come over here" and "I'll be looking forward to seeing you do that". She said she hoped my "face looks as interesting as" she was seeing it. She said she'd accepted me but, as I must know, she had to hear from the other faculty members. She was the one who asked the most questions. After the interview, I wasn't too sure what to feel. A part of me felt her emotions were genuine, and another part of me wanted to believe it must have been characteristic of her to react that way... and still end up rejecting my application. 

Do you have any specific reasons why you would attend RISD?

 

 

[hellotothefuture]

HEY!

Hope you are all doing well. Did anyone apply for MIT Art, culture and technology program? 
I am a bit curious about that program but couldn't find the exact things they would look for in an application? I have a multidisciplinary art practice and not sure how that would fit in? 

Could anyone share their experience or knowledge about that program?

[hellotothefuture]

7 hours ago, HJAn said:

hmm I interviewed for sculpture and they had like an info session in the morning before the interviews. It's pretty standard/same as other schools - fill out your fafsa. That's pretty much it. And they said don't bother asking your interviewers about scholarships since the admission has no bearing on that.

 

Haha no worries.. I laughed too ? good thing I applied to 11 more schools LOL

It's my first time applying but I've been preparing to apply for a number of years so I wanted to make sure I'll never have to do it again.. hopefully.

RISD interview was.. alright I think. It was one of my earlier interviews so I was super nervous and wasn't as articulate as I would like. I also realized in hindsight I kind of misheard one of their questions and didn't answer what they were asking fully. Not totally inaccurate, but also kind of missed the target if you know what I mean. And no one corrected me and they just moved onto the next question. It was also slightly more intimidating than all the other interviews because there were 5 people interviewing me at the same time. What about you?

hey! Congratulations for the interview.

I had an interview at RISD in 2018 and I was going through my old emails and I had an interview with them on March 3rd. Unfortunately, I did not hear back from them till now. I applied for MFA Sculpture. Quite disappointed tbh. I was expecting at least an interview call lol. 

[hellotothefuture]

16 hours ago, HJAn said:

Also I thought I would share my status so far:

Yale - rejected

Northwestern - rejected

Tufts(SMFA) - interviewed

UPenn - interviewed

RISD - interviewed

SAIC - interviewed

Waiting on: Columbia, Hunter, MIT, VCU, Pratt, UCLA

I'm assuming rejection from VCU and UCLA - as I've seen people have already received interview invites.

Also, assuming rejection from Pratt. I realized after I clicked submit that my essay had another school's name... ? 

I think Columbia should come out next week, but I'm not so sure on Hunter and MIT. Has anyone heard from these?

Congratulations on all the interviews and I hope you end up at a place where you want to be.

I am an international applicant. I did not apply to Yale, Columbia and UPenn thinking that these are all top notch schools and I might never get an acceptance here. lol

Could you please advice me about MIT Art Culture and technology program? Also the MFA program at Columbia say Visual Arts+ Sound Art, does that mean that applicant's work should include something related to sound and stuff?

I am sure your work must. be cool that you end up getting all the interviews at all these amazing places.

[hellotothefuture]

Did any International applicant get an interview call from RISD or Hunter?