MFA 2024 Freak Out Forum

[cowboyheehaw]

I was also rejected from Northwestern just now. 

[sixseveneight]

On 1/17/2024 at 3:45 PM, paintgal said:

Do current MFA students play a role in admissions at all?

For Yale absolutely yes, to a degree that it can make or break your admission.

Source: Many friends who have been in the program and on the admission panels. 

[sixseveneight]

6 minutes ago, cowboyheehaw said:

I was also rejected from Northwestern just now. 

I'm so sorry and feel your pain. Did you find the format strange? Mine was a sort of personal/unofficial looking email from Lane Relyea the Director. I'm new to this so maybe that is typical. 

The tight turnaround is I guess a relief but also makes me feel so dejected..like they didn't even have to think about it before saying no lol. 

[Miso]

14 minutes ago, sixseveneight said:

I just received a rejection email from Northwestern. I know it is insanely competitive, but I'm devastated. Not off to a good start 💔 

 

 

5 minutes ago, cowboyheehaw said:

I was also rejected from Northwestern just now. 

 

Same, I'm surprised because I was a finalist last year for them with a worse portfolio, but now my portfolio improved, and this time I was rejected lol. Sometimes it's not even worth stressing about things out of our control. But I do know someone who was accepted last year deferred so they will be starting this fall. Because of this, they are probably only taking 4 people due to 1 spot already being decided. 

[cowboyheehaw]

It sounds like maybe we all got the same copy-pasted email. It is such a gut punch lol. Like y'all don't even want to talk to us? Fingers crossed you hear good news for the rest of your schools!

Gaara did you consider any of your acceptances last year? What made you decide to do another round of apps?

[californiagirlll]

Anyone know about MFA RISD interview invites? Esp for painting

Saw someone got an interview in painting, wasn't sure if they were sent out rolling, or if I was (unofficially) rejected

[Miso]

5 minutes ago, cowboyheehaw said:

It sounds like maybe we all got the same copy-pasted email. It is such a gut punch lol. Like y'all don't even want to talk to us? Fingers crossed you hear good news for the rest of your schools!

Gaara did you consider any of your acceptances last year? What made you decide to do another round of apps?

 

Lol yeah we definitely all got the same email. 

Last year I was only accepted into SJSU and it was my safe school and wasn't fully funded. I really didn't want to go and being waitlisted by Northwestern made me feel like my portfolio must be really close to getting better results. So I ended up saying why not try this out one last time. 

[cowboyheehaw]

That's fair, my partner had a similar situation with Yale several years back. Got an interview and waitlisted the first year and outright rejected the second. Total crapshoot. 

[xxxmfa]

16 minutes ago, randomperson123 said:

Anyone know about MFA RISD interview invites? Esp for painting

Saw someone got an interview in painting, wasn't sure if they were sent out rolling, or if I was (unofficially) rejected

From the info in the email I got, the dates of interviews for me to choose from were the 24th, 25th, 26th and 29th. But they didn't indicate whether or not all the invites had been sent out or if there are multiple rounds of interviews. 

[sixseveneight]

55 minutes ago, Gaara said:

 

Same, I'm surprised because I was a finalist last year for them with a worse portfolio, but now my portfolio improved, and this time I was rejected lol. Sometimes it's not even worth stressing about things out of our control.

Oh no I am so sorry to hear this! So insanely frustrating I can only imagine. But you are right.

57 minutes ago, Gaara said:

But I do know someone who was accepted last year deferred so they will be starting this fall. Because of this, they are probably only taking 4 people due to 1 spot already being decided. 

Definitely choosing to believe this...I'll take anything helps to soothe the pain lol

50 minutes ago, cowboyheehaw said:

It sounds like maybe we all got the same copy-pasted email. It is such a gut punch lol. Like y'all don't even want to talk to us? Fingers crossed you hear good news for the rest of your schools!

Ugh seriously so demoralizing. But I guess I expected it as such...sigh. Thank you so much and you as well!!

[Craftjunkie]

Has anyone heard anything from RISD furniture design or Parson industrial design about interviews? 

[murmur]

I also got rejected from Northwestern. had high hopes seeing how multiple people here were able to get interviews last year but oh well. 

did anyone apply to SAIC's painting program? I keep getting emails from them and also received a brochure a month back. trying not to read into it but was wondering if this email flow was standard for them. 

[mfaapplicant]

3 hours ago, murmur said:

I also got rejected from Northwestern. had high hopes seeing how multiple people here were able to get interviews last year but oh well. 

did anyone apply to SAIC's painting program? I keep getting emails from them and also received a brochure a month back. trying not to read into it but was wondering if this email flow was standard for them. 

I applied to a different program at SAIC & received one email saying "Thank you for applying" (thought it was a rejection letter when I saw the title LOL) and one email introducing outside scholarship opportunities in the past week. I think they sent these to all applicants so I wouldn't read into them too much.

[Phynch]

Been lurking here for a few weeks as the freak out has been building in I'm my head. This waiting is the worst!

I applied to 10 MFA Photo programs from a variety of levels as this was the 1st cycle I've applied. 

Parsons New School
RISD
Pratt 
Cranbrook
SAIC
University of Arizona
Columbia College
University of Oregon
Hunter College
RIT

So far no word from anyone. GHAAAAAAA!

I saw cowboyheehaw got a response from a different department at Parsons, and some other people are getting interviews with SAIC. The departments are different but it makes the waiting even harder.

Doing this multiple times seems so insurmountable right now! Everyone who's done this multiple cycles I tip my hat to you. I gotta say that this is so much tougher mentally and time management wise then I was expecting. For a bunch of artists, a discipline not known for paper pushing, we all should be proud.

[ohoh]

Ugh, huge sympathy for anyone who’s gotten negative emails! I haven’t heard back from any of my schools yet, but the waiting process is such a tough time.

Super interesting to hear that Yale takes input from current students. This must be under lock and key because I’ve never heard about this before.

Also—has anyone here applied to Bard’s MFA? Or know about their interview timeline from a previous year?

I’m wishing everyone here the best. I think it’s now at the point where I’m going to be checking this forum every morning

 

 

 

[Snailz]

Hi everyone!

This is my first time applying to MFA programs and wow I am an anxious ball of stress just waiting. I just found this forum and wish I had found it sooner!!

I am painting/drawing and I applied to the following programs:

SAIC both the regular and low res

Northwestern (I too got my rejection email the other day lol)

Tulane

UMass Amherst 

Michigan State 

TCU 

SMU

UW Madison

 Carnegie Mellon

U of Ark

Washington State 

I am totally new to all of this so any advice on interviews or anything else would be great! I am also about to go through last years forum lol 

 

Edited January 24 by Snailz

[RadicalDreamers]

5 hours ago, ohoh said:

Ugh, huge sympathy for anyone who’s gotten negative emails! I haven’t heard back from any of my schools yet, but the waiting process is such a tough time.

Super interesting to hear that Yale takes input from current students. This must be under lock and key because I’ve never heard about this before.

Also—has anyone here applied to Bard’s MFA? Or know about their interview timeline from a previous year?

I’m wishing everyone here the best. I think it’s now at the point where I’m going to be checking this forum every morning

 

 

 

Hello there. I applied in 2019 and received an interview invitation from Bard MFA in early February (applied again for the first time since then this year). The interviews were conducted in early March on a weekend, and from my recollection of that cycle's freakout forum, initial admission and waitlist notices went out the following Friday. At least at that point in time, I think everyone invited for interviews were held on a waitlist so they had a pool to pull from should their first choices go with other programs. I didn't get my official rejection until near the end of March.

Edited January 24 by RadicalDreamers

[swirlyswirl]

hi friends...been considering getting an MFA for a few years and finally applied this round.

now i'm just waiting like everyone else 😵

i applied to 5 schools for film/video:

UCLA new genres

Calarts Film/Video

UW Milwaukee Cinematic Arts

U Iowa Film Production

Bard Film/Video

 

seems like it's super quiet this year...wondering if it has to do with the state of the world...and the relevancy of an MFA degree nowadays?

good luck to everyone ❤️

 

[kjsdhl212]

Has anyone heard from Wisconsin, New Mexico, or Arizona?  Just wanted to check since I have not and going by past year threads they seem to schedule interviews pretty quickly.

[btwnthetides]

Just now, kjsdhl212 said:

Has anyone heard from Wisconsin, New Mexico, or Arizona?  Just wanted to check since I have not and going by past year threads they seem to schedule interviews pretty quickly.

I applied to New Mexico and Arizona and haven't heard anything. I saw that in a previous year someone was interviewed by Arizona on February 3rd, so we probably still have a bit of time to wait. When did you see people hearing back from New Mexico? If the posts were really old I sort of disregarded them, just because a lot could've changed in the department since then. 

[kjsdhl212]

11 minutes ago, btwnthetides said:

I applied to New Mexico and Arizona and haven't heard anything. I saw that in a previous year someone was interviewed by Arizona on February 3rd, so we probably still have a bit of time to wait. When did you see people hearing back from New Mexico? If the posts were really old I sort of disregarded them, just because a lot could've changed in the department since then. 

In the 2021 thread there is someone who mentions that they had heard back from both schools in a post on February 4th & 5th and that the schools had reached out by email two weeks earlier.

[btwnthetides]

5 minutes ago, kjsdhl212 said:

In the 2021 thread there is someone who mentions that they had heard back from both schools in a post on February 4th & 5th and that the schools had reached out by email two weeks earlier.

I guess we should be nervous then lol. Thanks for the info!

[Chelsea H]

General question: if you’ve been tapped for an interview, how quick was the turn around between submitting the application and being contacted to schedule? 
I’m applying to Carnegie Mellon (January 16), MICA’s Leroy E Hoffberger (January 19), and Cranbrook (not submitted yet, due February 1) and I’m totally psyched out waiting to hear back… even though it’s only been 9 days for CMU.

Any clues for with gauging the process timeline would be a help!! 

[sad face]

1 hour ago, Chelsea H said:

General question: if you’ve been tapped for an interview, how quick was the turn around between submitting the application and being contacted to schedule? 
I’m applying to Carnegie Mellon (January 16), MICA’s Leroy E Hoffberger (January 19), and Cranbrook (not submitted yet, due February 1) and I’m totally psyched out waiting to hear back… even though it’s only been 9 days for CMU.

Any clues for with gauging the process timeline would be a help!! 

Hi Chelsea, based on last year's info, CMU sent out interviews on 2/8, and MICA on 1/28.

I am not sure about Cranbrook but I wouldn't start to worry about it even two weeks after the deadline passes. Hope it helps!

[xxxmfa]

I had my RISD Painting interview. I think it went really well from what I could tell. They asked me pretty much everything I wanted to be asked, and I hopefully came off well (?). I didn't stutter or ramble which was my main concern lol. 

I figured I would share some details for future interviews:

- The zoom was all the core faculty - so the Dept head, the grad director and 5 professors. They were each on their own device, not all in the same room. 

- They asked me to introduce myself and then each person asked one question. There was one oddball question, Why Risd, and then the rest were really specific to my work. It was clear they had actually looked at my work and there was one explicit reference to my statement. I wasn't asked artist references or what I have been reading. But I had these in my statement, so maybe that is why. They also didn't ask me about the conventions of painting, it was much more about the depth of the themes in painting so - "how do you think about (theme) in your work?" I was also asked where I see room for development in my work towards the end.

- They went into the details of the program (course structure, opportunities, TAing, etc). So the questions were like 15 min, and then this was 15 min. (I wasn't expecting them to outline the program...because I extensively researched the program before applying. But I guess they are assuming this knowledge isn't universal)

- My interview ran long, but at the end I could've asked question if there had been time left. 

- They also asked if I filled out FAFSA yet. Even after I said yes, they really persisted that they cant give out scholarship until its submitted so submit it ASAP. lol. So make sure you submit documents before your interviews, I guess.

- They were friendly, but not explicit with any praise. There was only one or two moments that gave me the impression that they were impressed with me. I am sure this is pretty standard for these types of interviews (nice but aloof).

- They said I would hear back within the next 3 weeks.