MFA 2024 Freak Out Forum

[ZtotheD]

Hey guys! Earlier today I got a very nice phone call from Rebecca Keller from SAIC Sculpture letting me know I got in!!! I interviewed in person and had an amazing experience with the faculty and facilities (not to mention the city) I would love to connect with others that got accepted and are going or considering going to SAIC for Sculpture! Shoot me a DM I would love to chat! Congrats to all of the other applicants that got accepted to SAIC today, much love!! 

[gghiccup]

Two rejections, 5 interviews, waiting to hear anything from VCU or RCA.  I opened my SlideRoom to check on letters of recommendation and saw that a school had extended its application period for a month or so.  Is that normal?  Has anyone heard anything from VCU sculpture?

[Beenthereonce]

4 minutes ago, gghiccup said:

Two rejections, 5 interviews, waiting to hear anything from VCU or RCA.  I opened my SlideRoom to check on letters of recommendation and saw that a school had extended its application period for a month or so.  Is that normal?  Has anyone heard anything from VCU sculpture?

nope

[cinnamoroll8]

19 minutes ago, gghiccup said:

Two rejections, 5 interviews, waiting to hear anything from VCU or RCA.  I opened my SlideRoom to check on letters of recommendation and saw that a school had extended its application period for a month or so.  Is that normal?  Has anyone heard anything from VCU sculpture?

in my interview on friday 2/23 they said I'd hear back from them by the end of next week, meaning like March 1 or March 3 about. 

9 hours ago, acron24 said:

Received unofficial acceptance from CMU, but still concerned about those negative comments about the program...

carnegie mellon? what negative comments? Through phone call?

[sad face]

1 hour ago, cinnamoroll8 said:

in my interview on friday 2/23 they said I'd hear back from them by the end of next week, meaning like March 1 or March 3 about. 

carnegie mellon? what negative comments? Through phone call?

I think acron24 meant negative comments in the forum about CMU, there was a couple of long posts stating CMU has a horrible and abusive program...

[acron24]

1 hour ago, cinnamoroll8 said:

carnegie mellon? what negative comments? Through phone call?

 

3 minutes ago, sad face said:

I think acron24 meant negative comments in the forum about CMU, there was a couple of long posts stating CMU has a horrible and abusive program...

Yes Carnegie Mellon, and it was through a zoom meeting. 

As sad face mentioned, you can find those comments from the recent few MFA freak out forums, and they are quite detailed. The program itself seems great, but those comments sound so alarming.

[cinnamoroll8]

10 minutes ago, sad face said:

I think acron24 meant negative comments in the forum about CMU, there was a couple of long posts stating CMU has a horrible and abusive program...

ohh thank you

1 minute ago, acron24 said:

 

Yes Carnegie Mellon, and it was through a zoom meeting. 

As sad face mentioned, you can find those comments from the recent few MFA freak out forums, and they are quite detailed. The program itself seems great, but those comments sound so alarming.

ohhh i see I found them. yeah i visited a friend in the MFA program at CMU in june and they made it sound like eh its alright. thats a quick turnaround from if you had your interview this past saturday! thats when mine was but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ if itll be a rejection. 3 years is too long anyway i want to get on with my life lol

[acron24]

45 minutes ago, cinnamoroll8 said:

ohhh i see I found them. yeah i visited a friend in the MFA program at CMU in june and they made it sound like eh its alright. thats a quick turnaround from if you had your interview this past saturday! thats when mine was but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ if itll be a rejection. 3 years is too long anyway i want to get on with my life lol

Yeah maybe they're alright, I think I have to think hard about this... I saw that you already had interviews with other great programs, so I believe you will find a better fit for you!

[Beenthereonce]

Got into VCU!

[Beenthereonce]

31 minutes ago, Beenthereonce said:

Got into VCU!

Sculpture as well!

 

[Lollypoponeday]

Did anyone here from Hunter College? 

[acron24]

18 hours ago, bunnie99 said:

Sure, but why cant they just say what they're gonna say over email 😭. My anxiety cant handle this. Did you have your call yet? What did they say? 

It was a call to inform of my acceptance, so don't be worried!

[Showtime123]

24 minutes ago, Beenthereonce said:

Sculpture as well!

 

Did they notify you by email? I applied to but haven't seen anything yet

[Beenthereonce]

13 minutes ago, Showtime123 said:

Did they notify you by email? I applied to but haven't seen anything yet

call and email

[palmtreefig]

On 2/28/2024 at 3:44 AM, Lollypoponeday said:

Just got rejected 😭

Does anyone has feedback on Bard low residency MFA?

Here is my post from last year. With some updates to things that have changed (Some for the better)

The program is broke so funding is shit for new students (I've heard students getting anywhere from zero dollars in scholarships to the most being $10k after some tough bargaining). The director has said many times that the program has no money. One international student went to the administration to ask for more money as they can't legally work in the US and the admin told them to "move back home" lol. PS Bard does not sponsor student visas. This is still true. The college lost a lot of donors when they pissed alums off in 2020 and it hasn't rebuilt since then.  Additionally, over my time there tuition increased by 3k. I had an incredible aid package but I had to beg every year for additional money to cover the tuition increase.

Painting is especially a mess. With Painting having some absolute tyrants as co-chairs last year who tried to kick out two students just for asking for critique of student works within their discipline. A faculty member who would follow students around arguing with them and poking them lol. Many of the painting faculty will not be returning. So if you are planning on working with Firelei, I have bad news for you. 

Painting is better now. The faculty were great. The co-chairs were awesome. Caucus was interesting. However, I don't know any recent painting grads who have had shows at galleries. The college simply doesn't do anything to bring galleries to the thesis. And they would not even pay for a photographer to document the show. They told us as artists we have to get used to documenting our work ourselves. lol. Meanwhile, tuition is increasingly expensive. Last year the curator told me zero people showed up to the walk-through for art world people. 

Photo has had a constantly revolving door of co-chairs and faculty so I would triple-check on the faculty before accepting a spot and don't go by past years' faculty. This is still true. Photo has new co-chairs for the third summer in a row. Photo also has like 4 students. It is a mess. Who knows who the photo faculty will be because when the cochairs change all those relationships get broken. 

What is wild is that right now writing has zero cochairs. I have no idea what writing is going to do this summer. If anyone on this forum interviewed in writing, I am very curious who interviewed you.

Sculpture is still in good shape. I have only positive things to say about sculpture. Engaged faculty, strong work, high enrollment. 

The other unfortunate thing about Bard is like so many schools' the administration truly does not give a shit about students. During the thesis last year, 24 hours before opening day, there was a giant flood . A student's work was destroyed. The college wouldn't hire adequate cleaners so all the students were in the space swiffering and sweeping for hours. Mind you this is disgusting flood water. Unacceptable.  Especially because students had been asking for sandbags around the space for months before this happened. This year they did move the thesis but to a venue that has a wedding planned on opening weekend so they have to close the show the Saturday of the opening. Just so inept. I do not recommend Bard maybe unless you are in painting or sculpture and your financial aid is amazing or you are independently wealthy. 

[sweet dreams]

I just received an email with the subject line "SAIC invitation to apply for housing". The first line of the email "Congratulations on your new admission the the school"... so I guess I got in lol? Anyone from painting have any details? I can't find an acceptance letter anywhere 

[bunnie99]

1 hour ago, acron24 said:

It was a call to inform of my acceptance, so don't be worried!

I just had my call too. Accepted! Yay. Now I have to make a decision... did they happen to give you any info about financial aid? In my phone call I asked but she said she didn't really know about that stuff but I would be getting an email in the next couple of days

[sad face]

Got a strange email from SAIC inviting me to apply for housing and it said Congrats on my new admission to SAIC... but I never received any acceptance letters or calls from them. Anyone else got this? I am so confused😅

 

I applied for painting btw.

[epelias]

Has anyone heard anything from LSU? Apparently they are going to release today

[Beenthereonce]

4 minutes ago, sad face said:

Got a strange email from SAIC inviting me to apply for housing and it said Congrats on my new admission to SAIC... but I never received any acceptance letters or calls from them. Anyone else got this? I am so confused😅

 

I applied for painting btw.

me too nice housing but waiting for the letter

[eatsomeveggies]

6 minutes ago, Beenthereonce said:

me too nice housing but waiting for the letter

me too lmao

[acron24]

10 minutes ago, bunnie99 said:

I just had my call too. Accepted! Yay. Now I have to make a decision... did they happen to give you any info about financial aid? In my phone call I asked but she said she didn't really know about that stuff but I would be getting an email in the next couple of days

I didn't get any info about financial aid. It sounded like they are giving the call not to make us wait too long before sending official letters, so maybe they are still working on it. 

[Lollypoponeday]

56 minutes ago, palmtreefig said:

Here is my post from last year. With some updates to things that have changed (Some for the better)

The program is broke so funding is shit for new students (I've heard students getting anywhere from zero dollars in scholarships to the most being $10k after some tough bargaining). The director has said many times that the program has no money. One international student went to the administration to ask for more money as they can't legally work in the US and the admin told them to "move back home" lol. PS Bard does not sponsor student visas. This is still true. The college lost a lot of donors when they pissed alums off in 2020 and it hasn't rebuilt since then.  Additionally, over my time there tuition increased by 3k. I had an incredible aid package but I had to beg every year for additional money to cover the tuition increase.

Painting is especially a mess. With Painting having some absolute tyrants as co-chairs last year who tried to kick out two students just for asking for critique of student works within their discipline. A faculty member who would follow students around arguing with them and poking them lol. Many of the painting faculty will not be returning. So if you are planning on working with Firelei, I have bad news for you. 

Painting is better now. The faculty were great. The co-chairs were awesome. Caucus was interesting. However, I don't know any recent painting grads who have had shows at galleries. The college simply doesn't do anything to bring galleries to the thesis. And they would not even pay for a photographer to document the show. They told us as artists we have to get used to documenting our work ourselves. lol. Meanwhile, tuition is increasingly expensive. Last year the curator told me zero people showed up to the walk-through for art world people. 

Photo has had a constantly revolving door of co-chairs and faculty so I would triple-check on the faculty before accepting a spot and don't go by past years' faculty. This is still true. Photo has new co-chairs for the third summer in a row. Photo also has like 4 students. It is a mess. Who knows who the photo faculty will be because when the cochairs change all those relationships get broken. 

What is wild is that right now writing has zero cochairs. I have no idea what writing is going to do this summer. If anyone on this forum interviewed in writing, I am very curious who interviewed you.

Sculpture is still in good shape. I have only positive things to say about sculpture. Engaged faculty, strong work, high enrollment. 

The other unfortunate thing about Bard is like so many schools' the administration truly does not give a shit about students. During the thesis last year, 24 hours before opening day, there was a giant flood . A student's work was destroyed. The college wouldn't hire adequate cleaners so all the students were in the space swiffering and sweeping for hours. Mind you this is disgusting flood water. Unacceptable.  Especially because students had been asking for sandbags around the space for months before this happened. This year they did move the thesis but to a venue that has a wedding planned on opening weekend so they have to close the show the Saturday of the opening. Just so inept. I do not recommend Bard maybe unless you are in painting or sculpture and your financial aid is amazing or you are independently wealthy. 

Okay well I had my interview yesterday and honestly your message confirmed the vibes I got from it! 

[Pootylang]

Has anyone heard anything from vcu photo? I can’t find anything anywhere other than other people hearing nothing as well. There website says they’ll contact for interviews late February but it’s march first. This is so annoying!!! I can’t focus!!!!

Do they send out rejection letters before the interview process?

[greengrass]

1 minute ago, Pootylang said:

Has anyone heard anything from vcu photo? I can’t find anything anywhere other than other people hearing nothing as well. There website says they’ll contact for interviews late February but it’s march first. This is so annoying!!! I can’t focus!!!!

Do they send out rejection letters before the interview process?

I still haven’t heard anything ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I had kind of written myself off but does make me feel a bit more optimistic if others have also not heard?