insight on international student chances for MFA painting?

[Frequent Flyer]

hey all,

i am an international student with a diverse educational background (western europe and africa). any input on how american painting schools see international students? for those in the MFA painting programs are there are lot of international students? And if so do you know anything about funding opportunities for them?

also, what do you think is the most important in one's application file? I assume portfolio is the first criteria but afterwards? SOP or grades? thanks

[michaelwebster]

schools always want international students because it shows they are a "world renown" institution. Grades don't matter too much, I would guess SOP would be the next most important. Or connections, if you know someone or built a relationship with a faculty member, or one of your recommendation writers is BFFs with one of the faculty, I would say that is second most important.

[colbz]

schools always want international students because it shows they are a "world renown" institution. Grades don't matter too much, I would guess SOP would be the next most important. Or connections, if you know someone or built a relationship with a faculty member, or one of your recommendation writers is BFFs with one of the faculty, I would say that is second most important.

I've got connections like that: one of the faculty members at a school I applied to had one of my recommenders as a professor when he was an undergrad. I'm thinking it could help me...but probably not unless I make the first cut so I wouldn't rely on those things. I'm pretty sure that most schools look 98% at your portfolio for the first cut...that's from my understanding when I visited schools. But SOP is probably the second most important thing for sure.