Applying for your MFA in painting/drawing??! GATHER HERE!

[raverlax]

Applying to USC, CalArts, and Otis this year; will be finishing up a year of Advanced Certificate in May. Does anyone know much about their styles? USC is my top choice, but I haven't found a professor there that I would connect with. My work is post-graffiti pop art with a background in oils. Has anyone been rejected/accepted/had an interview at any of these schools?

Any advice is much appreciated! Feeling a little overwhelmed at this point!

[inscho]

Actually a rundown of UCLA would be great. I haven't had the chance to visit, and I'm applying there on the merits of their student and faculty portfolio...I know very little about the program itself.

Just to offer a hand to people...

I attended UC Davis for my undergrad, so I can answer most any questions about that program.

In researching my MFA I have visited the following schools:

Tyler,

MICA,

Hunter,

NYU,

U Penn,

SFAI,

SF State,

UC Berkeley,

UCLA,

Cal Long Beach.

If you have any questions about the funding/studios/programs at those schools, I will try to help as much as possible. It will also serve as a distraction from this mess that is my personal statement. MUCH harder that I thought to sum myself up on paper.

Again, good luck to you.

[colbz]

Just to offer a hand to people...

I attended UC Davis for my undergrad, so I can answer most any questions about that program.

In researching my MFA I have visited the following schools:

Tyler,

MICA,

Hunter,

NYU,

U Penn,

SFAI,

SF State,

UC Berkeley,

UCLA,

Cal Long Beach.

If you have any questions about the funding/studios/programs at those schools, I will try to help as much as possible. It will also serve as a distraction from this mess that is my personal statement. MUCH harder that I thought to sum myself up on paper.

Again, good luck to you.

What is the funding situation like at NYU?

[Demain]

Sorry I didn't get back to you all sooner, I've been in the studio pretty solid this week.

UCLA: I can't say *too* much about this program as I came on the *one* day that the graduate adviser was out sick. I was unable to tour the studios. The UCLA campus looks more like an east coast campus than anything else in California. It's a brick, Ivy league kind of feel. That won't matter too much, however, because the grad studios are about 20 min south of campus. You'll need your own transportation because I tried to catch public transit down to the studios and it was non existent. UCLA is in a *very* upper class neighborhood and seems like they may frown upon buses. : / As far as funding, I was informed that most everyone get the chance to teach if they want and between that and the available finances, the costs are pretty much covered. (aka free). I had concerns about UCLA's program being too crisp and design centric for my work (more ab-ex feel) but after speaking with some of the people in the front office, and seeing the grad show catalog from 2009, I see that they do have a place for abstract/conceptual works. The main thing one would apply to UCLA for, however, is the access to the LA gallery scene. I was told that its fairly commonplace to have gallery owners tour the grad studios and have sometimes bought grad work right out of the studios. Can't beat that.

NYU: I wasn't really impressed with NYU, despite their having a really kind grad adviser. I got a full tour and 45 min of her time even though I didn't call ahead to make an appointment. Two main drawbacks at NYU: studio space (or lack there of) and funding (or lack there of). There is very little free money to go around at NYU and the only help they are able to get their grads is through grad teaching. You dont do a TA-ship like other schools, you actually get hired as adjunct and teach your own class. I forget the exact numbers on payment but I remember it covered less than half the cost of tuition if you teach 2 classes/semester. The remaining 1/2 of tuition was more than I could afford.

[I Paint Faces]

So... how many other people are starting to freak out?

I'm a procrastinator, I know, how odd for an artist. I have about 12 pieces done that I feel are worthy of inclusion in my MFA portfolio and about 8-10 more in progress. I haven't finished any of my essays, my statements or requested transcripts. : )

I'm not trying to 'brag' in any way, but I have to laugh at myself for the level of procrastination or I'll just end up being upset. I do think that I'll get it done, however. Two of my 5 school's deadlines are coming up on Dec. 14th and the rest are Jan 15th.

Anyone else in the same boat?

Best of luck to all.

Yes! Thank you for writing this. I am also a procrastinator and have been trying really hard to go against my nature and get everything done. I just completed the paintings I plan on submitting, but still have a lot of essay work to do and 2 of my recommenders are being really unresponsive and slow with the whole process. Also photographing my work is always a pain especially since color and display on every computer is so radically different. All of my deadlines are in January or later, but I just kind of wanted to chill for Christmas you know?

[colbz]

Yes! Thank you for writing this. I am also a procrastinator and have been trying really hard to go against my nature and get everything done. I just completed the paintings I plan on submitting, but still have a lot of essay work to do and 2 of my recommenders are being really unresponsive and slow with the whole process. Also photographing my work is always a pain especially since color and display on every computer is so radically different. All of my deadlines are in January or later, but I just kind of wanted to chill for Christmas you know?

Me too. I'm still finishing up 3 paintings, and was photographing for a few hours today. I really really hate tripods. Almost finished writing my most intense statement of purpose...but I've got about 9 more to go. I'm worried because even though I bought a really good digital camera, some schools like PAFA blow up the images on a 6 foot x 6 foot screen, and I hope my jpeg image quality looks alright at that size!

[caraa]

Well, I feel like I have only grazed the surface of what I still have left to do! It does suck, because I really DO want to chill for Christmas. Plus my grandfather just died, and I feel like spending time with family now more than ever. but here i am, sitting in my studio, trying to work...

got my recs and transcripts all worked out

most importantly, I want to squeak out a few more paintings before deadlines (at least two, but as many as possible is what I'm telling myself)

then I have ELEVEN statements to write (!!) I did this last year too, so I at least have last year's statements to go off of, but I think they will be different this time around

then I have to get to all the other nitty gritty details, like photographing recent work, resizing images, burning & mailing off cds, uploading, etc. oh yeah, and finding money to pay all those goddam app fees!

fortunately (kind of), I am pretty much jobless at the moment so at least I don't have that distracting me.

The way I see it, I just gotta bust my butt and be happy with whatever I get done. And then the wait begins...

[colbz]

Well, I feel like I have only grazed the surface of what I still have left to do! It does suck, because I really DO want to chill for Christmas. Plus my grandfather just died, and I feel like spending time with family now more than ever. but here i am, sitting in my studio, trying to work...

got my recs and transcripts all worked out

most importantly, I want to squeak out a few more paintings before deadlines (at least two, but as many as possible is what I'm telling myself)

then I have ELEVEN statements to write (!!) I did this last year too, so I at least have last year's statements to go off of, but I think they will be different this time around

then I have to get to all the other nitty gritty details, like photographing recent work, resizing images, burning & mailing off cds, uploading, etc. oh yeah, and finding money to pay all those goddam app fees!

fortunately (kind of), I am pretty much jobless at the moment so at least I don't have that distracting me.

The way I see it, I just gotta bust my butt and be happy with whatever I get done. And then the wait begins...

eww resizing images.....i need to do that too. and make CD's. I wish every school would just use slideroom.

[LeeP]

Just to offer a hand to people...

I attended UC Davis for my undergrad, so I can answer most any questions about that program.

In researching my MFA I have visited the following schools:

Tyler,

MICA,

Hunter,

NYU,

U Penn,

SFAI,

SF State,

UC Berkeley,

UCLA,

Cal Long Beach.

If you have any questions about the funding/studios/programs at those schools, I will try to help as much as possible. It will also serve as a distraction from this mess that is my personal statement. MUCH harder that I thought to sum myself up on paper.

Again, good luck to you.

what about tyler?

[I Paint Faces]

Me too. I'm still finishing up 3 paintings, and was photographing for a few hours today. I really really hate tripods. Almost finished writing my most intense statement of purpose...but I've got about 9 more to go. I'm worried because even though I bought a really good digital camera, some schools like PAFA blow up the images on a 6 foot x 6 foot screen, and I hope my jpeg image quality looks alright at that size!

I agree! I just borrowed a friend's nice digital camera but the quality still wasn't up to what I wanted but I don't really have $600+ to drop on a nice camera/tripod for this event considering all of the other costs/application fees. I say FFFFFFF it they should be able to tell if they want to see more and hear more from me about my work or not from decent quality photographs. I also felt like there was nothing I could do to quite get the color perfect with some of the photographs when I was editing them, but its like, what can I do?

[inscho]

I agree! I just borrowed a friend's nice digital camera but the quality still wasn't up to what I wanted but I don't really have $600+ to drop on a nice camera/tripod for this event considering all of the other costs/application fees. I say FFFFFFF it they should be able to tell if they want to see more and hear more from me about my work or not from decent quality photographs. I also felt like there was nothing I could do to quite get the color perfect with some of the photographs when I was editing them, but its like, what can I do?

no photography friends that can help you out?

[Cobalt]

Hi Everybody!

Somehow I missed this thread ~ I'm pretty new to this forum as well ~

I am applying to 15 schools (!), had a photography friend help me take photos

and just realized tonight that most of them suck! Turns out the photos were taken super

huge (like 70") because he has a super duper digital camera, but they were all taken at

72 dpi, so even when I make the images smaller at 300 dpi, it just doesn't matter. So make

sure when you take photos that you take them at the "Super Fine" quality setting. Of course lighting

makes a huge difference as well.

I think I'll be getting a different photography friend to help me next week, so I can have better images

for the later deadlines (~sigh~).

no photography friends that can help you out?

[colbz]

Hi Everybody!

Somehow I missed this thread ~ I'm pretty new to this forum as well ~

I am applying to 15 schools (!), had a photography friend help me take photos

and just realized tonight that most of them suck! Turns out the photos were taken super

huge (like 70") because he has a super duper digital camera, but they were all taken at

72 dpi, so even when I make the images smaller at 300 dpi, it just doesn't matter. So make

sure when you take photos that you take them at the "Super Fine" quality setting. Of course lighting

makes a huge difference as well.

I think I'll be getting a different photography friend to help me next week, so I can have better images

for the later deadlines (~sigh~).

I took all my work outdoors and photographed in the sunlight. My neighbors were a little freaked out by crazy 6 foot paintings in my driveway...I guess that should be expected in suburbia. But yea I think the bright sunlight helps, my images were much sharper than they had been when I shot them inside. I borrowed my dad's slr camera, but honestly if you have great lighting, a $200 price range digital camera will probably do the trick. I've hit a serious landmark in my process as I officially have all my work photographed, edited, titled, and measured for dimensions...once you get that done, you will hate your life a little less, believe me! I spent all day yesterday doing that. Of course I am not a professional photographer, so some of the colors aren't perfect, but I did as good of a job as I possibly could I hope. I can;t believe you are applying to 15 schools! Very ambitious, so good luck. I'm actually applying to 10 or 11...think it's better that way...less chance of having to reapply next year, but the only downside is the incredible amount of work.

I finally sent in all materials for one application...almost done with a second...and now I am hating my life over the Tyler statement of purpose! Anyone else applying there? It's my first choice school...I hadn't realized until now that I had misread the length of the statement. (I would have begun writing sooner, but I was desperately trying to finish painting) I went to submit my application with a 3,200 character essay that I felt was great...only to realize that it called for a maximum length of 32,000 character essay! That's like a ten page paper....ouch. I figured that if it is allowed to be that long, then I should probably write at least 5 pages. I'm assuming that they require such a long statement because they don't have formal interviews at Tyler. That is my understanding from my visit back in Sept.

[colbz]

I agree! I just borrowed a friend's nice digital camera but the quality still wasn't up to what I wanted but I don't really have $600+ to drop on a nice camera/tripod for this event considering all of the other costs/application fees. I say FFFFFFF it they should be able to tell if they want to see more and hear more from me about my work or not from decent quality photographs. I also felt like there was nothing I could do to quite get the color perfect with some of the photographs when I was editing them, but its like, what can I do?

F tripods anyway...I bought one for $15 at target..and couldnt get the darn thing straight. In the end I realized I had simply done a crapy job building some of my canvases, so they weren't perfectly symmetrical! I ended up just photographing without it.

[caraa]

That's what I have always done! It just sucks when stuff blows around in the wind and when it just wont get sunny for you. Other than that, I like photographing outside.

im glad to hear you guys are applying to so many schools, I am going to attempt to apply to 11, but we'll see if i can get everything in on time. right now i'm working on the northwestern online app which is due at midnight (tonight of all nights!) I applied to 9 last year, including tyler. i dont remember them asking for such a long essay, but it's all a blur now. they sent me a very prompt rejection letter, which I learned was a blessing because waiting and waiting to hear back from schools is just torturous. i was disappointed, of course...

what schools are you guys applying to? i'm hoping to get apps done for: slade (london), cca, pratt, uc irvine, yale, penndesign, mica, northwestern, uc san diego, risd, and mills college.

I took all my work outdoors and photographed in the sunlight. My neighbors were a little freaked out by crazy 6 foot paintings in my driveway...I guess that should be expected in suburbia. But yea I think the bright sunlight helps, my images were much sharper than they had been when I shot them inside. I borrowed my dad's slr camera, but honestly if you have great lighting, a $200 price range digital camera will probably do the trick. I've hit a serious landmark in my process as I officially have all my work photographed, edited, titled, and measured for dimensions...once you get that done, you will hate your life a little less, believe me! I spent all day yesterday doing that. Of course I am not a professional photographer, so some of the colors aren't perfect, but I did as good of a job as I possibly could I hope. I can;t believe you are applying to 15 schools! Very ambitious, so good luck. I'm actually applying to 10 or 11...think it's better that way...less chance of having to reapply next year, but the only downside is the incredible amount of work.

I finally sent in all materials for one application...almost done with a second...and now I am hating my life over the Tyler statement of purpose! Anyone else applying there? It's my first choice school...I hadn't realized until now that I had misread the length of the statement. (I would have begun writing sooner, but I was desperately trying to finish painting) I went to submit my application with a 3,200 character essay that I felt was great...only to realize that it called for a maximum length of 32,000 character essay! That's like a ten page paper....ouch. I figured that if it is allowed to be that long, then I should probably write at least 5 pages. I'm assuming that they require such a long statement because they don't have formal interviews at Tyler. That is my understanding from my visit back in Sept.

[inscho]

I went to submit my application with a 3,200 character essay that I felt was great...only to realize that it called for a maximum length of 32,000 character essay! That's like a ten page paper....ouch. I figured that if it is allowed to be that long, then I should probably write at least 5 pages. I'm assuming that they require such a long statement because they don't have formal interviews at Tyler. That is my understanding from my visit back in Sept.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is no way they want anywhere near 10 pages for a statement. The online application is for all of Temple's graduate programs, not just Tyler. The 32,000 is probably there to cover the programs that rely more on statements.

but I'm going to call them after the holidays to get some clarification on that. I'm working on a 3-4k statement for it right now.

[colbz]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is no way they want anywhere near 10 pages for a statement. The online application is for all of Temple's graduate programs, not just Tyler. The 32,000 is probably there to cover the programs that rely more on statements.

but I'm going to call them after the holidays to get some clarification on that. I'm working on a 3-4k statement for it right now.

Yea totally true...I will call as well. I was like whaaaat the h? That is positively insane that they would read all those statements...so I'm betting you are right. I will feel so much relief if it doesn't have to be that long.

[colbz]

Kaelynn, how are you doing with your process? We are all getting closer and closer to submitting all of our applications as deadlines are quickly approaching! I can't take the suspense.

Hello, hello.

None of us has really done this before:

this whole big, scary, exciting, rigorous process of applying for our MFAs.

So, in regard of the sleepless nights to come,

I propose that we gather here and support one another

on this, er, caffeinated odyssey of artistic slavery.

Where is everyone looking at to go?

Are you stuck in your vision?

What are the top 50 schools on that elusive list for painting/drawing?

How many coffees have you had today?

These are all questions we could answer for each another.

And maybe it won't be as difficult, knowing that none of us are alone.

Wow, was that sufficiently cheesy?

I daresay it was.

I hope people join this. SO JOIN!!

A good day to you all!

K.

[TheStranger]

When your looking at the department to apply to, and it simply states "Painting" and not "Painting and Drawing," am I to assume they still embrace drawings in your portfolio?

[colbz]

Yes, it is usually ok to include drawings, but i you are really worried about it then I would call and ask. I'm submitting drawings in mine.

When your looking at the department to apply to, and it simply states "Painting" and not "Painting and Drawing," am I to assume they still embrace drawings in your portfolio?

[colbz]

Just called today, and you were right...they said the statement should only be about 1 page. That takes a load off!

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is no way they want anywhere near 10 pages for a statement. The online application is for all of Temple's graduate programs, not just Tyler. The 32,000 is probably there to cover the programs that rely more on statements.

but I'm going to call them after the holidays to get some clarification on that. I'm working on a 3-4k statement for it right now.

[inscho]

Just called today, and you were right...they said the statement should only be about 1 page. That takes a load off!

BOO

YAH

(sigh of relief)

[Kaelynn]

Kaelynn, how are you doing with your process? We are all getting closer and closer to submitting all of our applications as deadlines are quickly approaching! I can't take the suspense.

hey hey!!

it's been a long difficult time. i sent all 16 applications out last week.

i applied to: yale, suny purchase, university of wisconsin at madison, university of washington at seattle,

ummm, columbia, virginia commonwealth, indiana university, georgia university..blah blah.

BUT GOOD NEWS IS i JUST heard from purchase this afternoon

and i've been selected as a finalist for the interview!!

wahoo! so it's giving me some hope!

how are you doing??

k.

[Kaelynn]

anyway!! how is everyone doing?

i started this thread and then got so busy that

poooof i vanished.

but i'm done with all my applications now.

and am just waiting.....

in suspense.

where did everyone apply to?

has everyone heard back yet?

i actually heard from purchase and i'm selected as a finalist for the interview.

which i was really surprised about since i just sent in my applications last week.

!!! scary!

[colbz]

omg congrats on the interview!!! I just got a bad stomach ache after i read that because i literally just sent my purchase slideroom portfolio last night (all my other stuff was already sent). I wonder if I will hear back either with a rejection or interview invite soon? I'm not ready for a rejection letter, but obviously none of us are I honestly think I will probably cry, and then go and drink a few margaritas and maybe feel a little bit better. Did you hear back via email? or letter?

I am also proud to announce that I have officially submitted all 10 of my apps! Only problem is I have had issues with my transcripts being mailed on time so i am hoping i dont get entirely screwed over at UT Austin and SAIC for that because the damn transcripts are late.

Ps I cannot believe u sent in 16 apps. It literally took me like 80 + hours to do the 10...after two straight weeks of it my middle and index finger of my right hand were sore from scrolling on my mac and typing to fill out the apps and writing personal statements.

anyway!! how is everyone doing?

i started this thread and then got so busy that

poooof i vanished.

but i'm done with all my applications now.

and am just waiting.....

in suspense.

where did everyone apply to?

has everyone heard back yet?

i actually heard from purchase and i'm selected as a finalist for the interview.

which i was really surprised about since i just sent in my applications last week.

!!! scary!