MFA 2023 Freak Out Forum

[biklo]

36 minutes ago, impliedpaste said:

Ok question — say you’ve got a school that wants you to accept or decline their offer within 2 weeks or you’ll be moved to the waitlist, but you’re still waiting to hear back from other places — how would you deal? 
Ask the schools you’re waiting to hear from about their admissions timelines? 
Beg for an extension? 
Just get moved to the waitlist? 

This happened to me last year. I sent an email to the school with the deadline doubling down on my interest in their program, but also explaining that I wanted another week or so to gather all the information I could and also expressed interest in visiting first before I made my decision. They were very understanding and extended the deadline an extra 7 days. Never hurts to ask!

[SocialKonstruct]

OMG, had a total blast with my Calarts interview for Art and Tech. Just chill, lots of humor, and crazy amount of art/cultural fun... etc.

In any case I'm taking a break now after two interviews in a day.

[greengrass]

24 minutes ago, reallyfamousartist said:

Question for yale finalists: from my understanding- they required in-person interviews, right?
If so-- did they pay for your flights, hotels, time taken off from work, etc.? What kind of financial support did they offer for the interview? Just curious! 

They switched to zoom for covid and have no plans to go back. But before covid, from my limited understanding, you had to pay for everything. They understand it was sooo cost prohibitive and horrible logistics for everyone hence the no plans to move away from zoom interviews. 

[SocialKonstruct]

The status of where I am at as of today:

MFA PROGRAM Fall 2023	CONCENTRATION	STATUS
Yale University	Sculpture	Rejected
Yale University	Painting and Printmaking	Rejected
UCLA	New Genres	Pending
Columbia University	Printmaking	Rejected? (Assumed)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago	Painting/Drawing	Rejected
School of the Art Institute of Chicago	Photography	Accepted
School of the Art Institute of Chicago	Sculpture	Rejected
Calarts (California Institute of the Arts)	Art (Integrated Media)	Rejected
Calarts (California Institute of the Arts)	Art + Technology (Integrated Media)	Interviewed
Calarts (California Institute of the Arts)	Photography and Media (Integrated Media)	Rejected
ArtCenter College of Design	Art	Interviewed

[onetwothreefourfive]

Northwestern posts application and admission statistics for all of its graduate programs. You could also find it by searching for "northwestern admission statistics graduate". Apparently, they accepted 7 students last year, and only 4 enrolled. 

 https://tableau.northwestern.edu/t/TGS/views/OnlineDataMasters/OnlineData?iframeSizedToWindow=true&%3Aembed=y&%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3Adisplay_count=no&%3AshowVizHome=no

 

[Miso]

33 minutes ago, reallyfamousartist said:

Question for yale finalists: from my understanding- they required in-person interviews, right?
If so-- did they pay for your flights, hotels, time taken off from work, etc.? What kind of financial support did they offer for the interview? Just curious! 

Just curious, did you pay for everything for your in-person interview with Northwestern? In the past I've heard they cover the expense of your flights, but I don't believe they consider the time taken off work and hotels. I'm wondering what they did this year 

[reallyfamousartist]

2 minutes ago, onetwothreefourfive said:

Northwestern posts application and admission statistics for all of its graduate programs. You could also find it by searching for "northwestern admission statistics graduate". Apparently, they accepted 7 students last year, and only 4 enrolled.

 

I absolutely love how transparent and straightforward northwestern is in every aspect. Thanks for the link!

[Miso]

3 minutes ago, onetwothreefourfive said:

Northwestern posts application and admission statistics for all of its graduate programs. You could also find it by searching for "northwestern admission statistics graduate". Apparently, they accepted 7 students last year, and only 4 enrolled. 

 https://tableau.northwestern.edu/t/TGS/views/OnlineDataMasters/OnlineData?iframeSizedToWindow=true&%3Aembed=y&%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3Adisplay_count=no&%3AshowVizHome=no

 

Oh wow, so they over-accept on purpose anticipating that 2 or 3 people will decline the offer. I wonder what they would have done if all 7 people accepted their offers. Thanks for sending that! 

[impliedpaste]

35 minutes ago, biklo said:

This happened to me last year. I sent an email to the school with the deadline doubling down on my interest in their program, but also explaining that I wanted another week or so to gather all the information I could and also expressed interest in visiting first before I made my decision. They were very understanding and extended the deadline an extra 7 days. Never hurts to ask!

Thank you! I will try the same approach! 

[reallyfamousartist]

19 minutes ago, Gaara said:

Just curious, did you pay for everything for your in-person interview with Northwestern? In the past I've heard they cover the expense of your flights, but I don't believe they consider the time taken off work and hotels. I'm wondering what they did this year 

They offered a hotel for two nights, but nothing beyond that. 
edit: I thought was nice of them to offer the hotel btw, especially since in-person wasn't required

Edited February 25, 2023 by reallyfamousartist

[Miso]

1 minute ago, reallyfamousartist said:

They offered a hotel for two nights, but nothing beyond that. 

Wow that is surprising, I thought they would have covered your hotel and flights. Thanks for letting me know : )  

[edgecase]

5 hours ago, biklo said:

I applied to ASU's MFA with a focus on painting this year and haven't heard from them yet. I sent an email a few days ago asking about the status of applications and no reply. Has anyone heard from them? I heard they don't do interviews (not sure if this is true) and am curious if they have sent out any acceptances or not.

Hi biklo, 

I think ASU has done acceptances, I am high on the waitlist for photo although maybe they have yet to notify further down the waitlist or for other genres so I wouldn't be sure it's a rejection per se. They are doing an in-person recruitment day next week. Congrats on UT Austin - I'm on their waitlist... just curious if you know if they are doing in person recruitment day? Not going to to crash it, just wondering about all these processes...  

Edited February 25, 2023 by edgecase

[Mar-Kiece]

10 hours ago, ArtCloset said:

I think you mentioned applying to Tyler (Temple) print in a previous post, have you called them to check in on the interview status? 

And has anyone received a letter or acceptance from Cranbrook after the interview? 

Thanks, y'all. I appreciate the group support and commiseration. 😓

I received my Cranbrook photo acceptance today and got my Tyler (Sculpture) acceptance a while ago

[Sweetie123]

On 2/22/2023 at 7:22 PM, scraps said:

Hi

found out today i was rejected from Tulane (painting).

I found out yesterday that I was rejected from Tulane's Sculpture. I had an interview a couple weeks prior and I thought it had gone really well. It sounds like their program is very small. It was one of my top choices so I am bummed. 

[barbax]

I've been following this thread and just to put my 2 cents:

this is my second year applying to MFA programs in sculpture, 

	interview	status
MCAD	no	silence
Notre Dame	yes	Waiting
SAIC	yes	accepted
Cranbrook	yes	accepted
RISD	yes	accepted
MICA multidisciplinary	yes	waiting
MICA sculpture	yes	waiting
Carnegie mellon	no	silence
Yale sculpture	no	rejected
Washington U Samfox	yes	waiting

[Sweetie123]

4 hours ago, biklo said:

I applied for the first time last year and had a similar experience. I had to recollect myself and opted to produce a fresh body of work and spent a lot more time on my applications this year. It is a really daunting process and can certainly be disappointing. Just know that you do have options, and don't be afraid to keep trying until you get into the right program!

Thank you for sharing your experience - I really appreciate it. It's so hard to have no context since this is my first time around. I do have an offer with funding, but I am not 100% sure about the program so I may do exactly what you did - take a step back and create a new body of work to apply with next year. I have been reading through the forum and, while I may be wrong, it does seem like people who have been out of undergrad for at least a coupe of years have more interviews and offers within the prestigious programs. I think you are right, and the *right* program is key. 

[Sweetie123]

4 hours ago, Gaara said:

 

That seems like a very bad question to ask. Idk why certain programs feel the need to ask applicants what other schools they applied to, it's not relevant at all and seems really inappropriate. It would be extremely messed up if the answer to that question impacted their decision. 

But don't be disappointed, first-year applying...9 schools and 3 interviews...is a huge success! This is my second year applying, I've applied to 8 schools, had 3 rejections, 4 pending rejections based on the info in this forum, and 1 interview. Remember it could always be worse, you're doing great!  

Thank you so much for your support ❤️ ! When I went into the application process, I knew there would be rejections, and I was trying to be realistic, I think I'm just sad that I didn't get any of the schools I was hoping for...AND it's been such a stressful few months that I can't imagine doing this all again next year...but I will. Good luck with your programs! I'll be waiting to hear about the school you interviewed with! 

[SocialKonstruct]

21 minutes ago, Sweetie123 said:

Thank you for sharing your experience - I really appreciate it. It's so hard to have no context since this is my first time around. I do have an offer with funding, but I am not 100% sure about the program so I may do exactly what you did - take a step back and create a new body of work to apply with next year. I have been reading through the forum and, while I may be wrong, it does seem like people who have been out of undergrad for at least a coupe of years have more interviews and offers within the prestigious programs. I think you are right, and the *right* program is key. 

I agree with you here

This is my first time too and I applied straight from my BFA (pending) to grad school. Hope that I land well this round!

[biklo]

1 hour ago, edgecase said:

Hi biklo, 

I think ASU has done acceptances, I am high on the waitlist for photo although maybe they have yet to notify further down the waitlist or for other genres so I wouldn't be sure it's a rejection per se. They are doing an in-person recruitment day next week. Congrats on UT Austin - I'm on their waitlist... just curious if you know if they are doing in person recruitment day? Not going to to crash it, just wondering about all these processes...  

Thank you for the info regarding ASU. I am not counting them out just yet (I know some programs dig into waitlists etc. in early April) but it is nice to have clarity about where they are in the process. And no, UT Austin is not doing a recruitment day, but they are providing a travel stipend for my independent visit next month which is nice. 

[biklo]

43 minutes ago, Sweetie123 said:

Thank you for sharing your experience - I really appreciate it. It's so hard to have no context since this is my first time around. I do have an offer with funding, but I am not 100% sure about the program so I may do exactly what you did - take a step back and create a new body of work to apply with next year. I have been reading through the forum and, while I may be wrong, it does seem like people who have been out of undergrad for at least a coupe of years have more interviews and offers within the prestigious programs. I think you are right, and the *right* program is key. 

I think that's correct, I have been out of school for awhile now and feel that a lot of programs I am applying to/getting interest from have older grad populations (25 and older). I spoke to a current Columbia MFA before applying and he said that if I was accepted, even though I'm a bit older than someone fresh out of undergrad, I would still be one of the younger MFA students. Also, I found that applying the second time around really clarified my process, and allowed me to be a lot more intentional and informed with how I wrote about my work and presented my portfolio. You'll only improve from this experience!

[Sweetie123]

20 minutes ago, biklo said:

I think that's correct, I have been out of school for awhile now and feel that a lot of programs I am applying to/getting interest from have older grad populations (25 and older). I spoke to a current Columbia MFA before applying and he said that if I was accepted, even though I'm a bit older than someone fresh out of undergrad, I would still be one of the younger MFA students. Also, I found that applying the second time around really clarified my process, and allowed me to be a lot more intentional and informed with how I wrote about my work and presented my portfolio. You'll only improve from this experience!

Yeah totally - I'm in my 30's so I would definitely be older than most, but I also think that these grad programs like to see that you can have a studio practice outside of undergrad. It took me a long time to graduate from undergrad and I just finished it up this past May (yay!). But you are totally right - all of this experience helps us gain knowledge for next time. The interviews I have had have really helped me with how I think about and talk about my work. I think my next hurdle for this upcoming year will be to make the work that I want to make, not work that I think will look good in a portfolio. 

[Miso]

1 hour ago, Sweetie123 said:

Thank you so much for your support ❤️ ! When I went into the application process, I knew there would be rejections, and I was trying to be realistic, I think I'm just sad that I didn't get any of the schools I was hoping for...AND it's been such a stressful few months that I can't imagine doing this all again next year...but I will. Good luck with your programs! I'll be waiting to hear about the school you interviewed with! 

No problem ❣️

I feel you, in order to avoid that sad feeling of not getting into my top schools, I decided to apply to 8 programs that I didn't view as safe schools. Unfortunately applying to 8 competitive programs has backfired, but I would rather go to a program I truly love as opposed to going to a "safe school" and having that feeling of knowing I settled for a school. I'm glad you've decided to try again so you can be accepted to a program you're actually excited to go to. That is a smart decision.

I interviewed with Northwestern over Zoom and I think it went well but you never really know. And it's looking like I have 7 rejections...3 of them pending. I expected rejections but I didn't think I would be this unlucky, but there's still hope for NW, which is my top choice after the interview I had. Would be crazy to be accepted to NW and go 1 for 8....must be the world telling me it's my destiny to go there lol.  

[Forms Without Formula]

Got my official rejection for U of O tonight. This is where I’m at:

SVA: accepted

Pratt: interviewed

Mass Art: interview on Tuesday 

SAIC: rejected 

University of Oregon: rejected

Tulane: *hopeful but realistically skeptical crickets*

[Huis.clos]

For those accepted to a program at SAIC, have you received your financial aid package yet? I signed into the applicant portal and I only see a merit based scholarship listed. 

[SocialKonstruct]

47 minutes ago, Huis.clos said:

For those accepted to a program at SAIC, have you received your financial aid package yet? I signed into the applicant portal and I only see a merit based scholarship listed. 

Not yet and looks like they are sorting things out here atm.

I only got an admissions letter but no mention of any merit based scholarships so no clue whether they come separately or I didn't get anything atm.

Edited February 25, 2023 by SocialKonstruct