MFA 2025 Freak Out Forum

[dj_buckweed07]

Hey everyone:) Anyone also interviewing with ASU and USF this coming week? I cant wait for this process to be over holy shid

[VanillaYogurt]

Congrats to everyone on their interviews! I have an interview with Tufts, otherwise no crossover with any of the schools people are asking about. 

Anyone hear from MICA or SVA?

[boltcutter]

27 minutes ago, VanillaYogurt said:

Congrats to everyone on their interviews! I have an interview with Tufts, otherwise no crossover with any of the schools people are asking about. 

Anyone hear from MICA or SVA?

Nice! What is your area of art? I'm interviewing with some sculpture/installation professors.

[frazzle]

Hi all, hope everyone is hanging in there. These forums have been super helpful thru this insane process, thanks to everyone that contributes.

This is my first year applying, and I applied to 9 MFA programs, all interdisciplinary or in sculpture:

Northwestern (interview)

UC Davis (interview) 

UT Austin (crickets, but saw someone else here got an interview, so not feeling super confident) 

UChicago (same ^)

UIC

SAIC

Tulane

UNC 

Kent State (deadline isn't until 2/1)

Good luck out there, everyone!

[Freakie]

22 hours ago, eatsomeveggies said:

Hii congrats on all the interviews so far! Do you know if risd usually sends out interview invitations for all the finalists at the same time? i applied for painting as well

I don’t! The process is pretty opaque to me.

[Silentscreaming]

1 hour ago, VanillaYogurt said:

Congrats to everyone on their interviews! I have an interview with Tufts, otherwise no crossover with any of the schools people are asking about. 

Anyone hear from MICA or SVA?

Nothing from SVA so far! Hoping that no news is good news 

[manti]

Any bets for when we will hear back from Yale? 

[eatsomeveggies]

17 minutes ago, manti said:

Any bets for when we will hear back from Yale? 

Last year they sent out emails regarding interviews around Feb 5th so I think we should expect something the first week of feb this year as well

[sarinnn]

11 hours ago, dj_buckweed07 said:

Hey everyone:) Anyone also interviewing with ASU and USF this coming week? I cant wait for this process to be over holy shid

I'm also interviewing with ASU for the digital/tech route! Excited but my nerves are fried 🫠

[sundayscaries]

26 minutes ago, manti said:

Any bets for when we will hear back from Yale? 

my bet's on feb 4th for some reason

[manti]

9 minutes ago, sundayscaries said:

my bet's on feb 4th for some reason

 

18 minutes ago, eatsomeveggies said:

Last year they sent out emails regarding interviews around Feb 5th so I think we should expect something the first week of feb this year as well

I'm going to copy and paste something someone wrote on last year's thread. Last year they heard back on Tuesday, Feb 6: 

"Nothing from Yale, but based on grad cafe this is when they sent interview invites for the last 6 years: 

2023: 2/5
2022: 2/1
2021: 2/6
2020: 1/28
2019: 2/1
2018: 2/2

Besides the COVID year, they consistently send them out the first week of February, but that doesn't look like it's going to be the case this year. I'm guessing they received more applicants than ever this year, maybe we will hear back Monday or Tuesday"

 

For the record, I think that we will hear back early next week, maybe the 3rd or 4th.

Edited Wednesday at 04:26 PM by manti
Typo

[nanaaaa]

5 hours ago, VanillaYogurt said:

Congrats to everyone on their interviews! I have an interview with Tufts, otherwise no crossover with any of the schools people are asking about. 

Anyone hear from MICA or SVA?

I had my Interview with SVA on Sunday, I applied to the painting department! 

But good luck for all your other schools 

[Oscar25]

4 hours ago, frazzle said:

Hi all, hope everyone is hanging in there. These forums have been super helpful thru this insane process, thanks to everyone that contributes.

This is my first year applying, and I applied to 9 MFA programs, all interdisciplinary or in sculpture:

Northwestern (interview)

UC Davis (interview) 

UT Austin (crickets, but saw someone else here got an interview, so not feeling super confident) 

UChicago (same ^)

UIC

SAIC

Tulane

UNC 

Kent State (deadline isn't until 2/1)

Good luck out there, everyone!

Congrats on the interviews! When did Davis reach out to you? I'm still waiting to hear back!

[freshman2024]

Hi everyone hope you are all holding up okay. I applied to the following schools, all for sculpture unless the program was interdisciplinary and heres where I'm at. I'm also an alum of SVA, for photography & video but have spent a lot of time in their continuing ed programing post grad for printmaking and studio arts residency so if anyone has any questions or advice about SVA / their facilities happy to chat! 

 

Boston University - nothing yet

Hunter - nothing yet

Indiana University - Bloomington- nothing yet

Kent State - nothing yet

Maine College of Art & Design - interview scheduling next week

MassArt - interviewed, accepted

Ohio State - interviewed, accepted

Pratt - nothing yet

Tyler - interview tomorrow!

UConn - nothing yet

UCSB - interview tomorrow!

UMass Amherst - interviewed in december, havent heard back

UNC - interviewed 1/20, no update

University of Georgia - nothing

UT Austin - nothing

[mmav]

On 1/24/2025 at 12:47 PM, mmav said:

I also heard back from UCSB and have an interview scheduled with two of the professors on the MFA faculty next week! I applied with a transmedia/new media portfolio.

Other schools I've applied to not in order :

Northwestern (rejected, but expected since they don't have faculty that do a lot of new media stuff)

Carnegie Mellon

U Michigan

U Washington

UCSD

UCI

UCLA

Parsons

VCU

Besides UCSB and Northwestern, haven't heard anything back yet...

Just got an interview for UCSD

[dj_buckweed07]

41 minutes ago, mmav said:

Just got an interview for UCSD

Sweet!! What medium? 

[flores444]

Hey guys! This is my first time applying to MFA programs (photography) for this fall. I have seen so many people get notifications already about interviews and it’s making me super nervous since I haven’t heard from anyone yet (as of Jan 29). 

 

These are the schools i applied to:

UCLA

SAIC

UT Austin

University of Houston

VCU

Texas Woman’s University 

 

If anyone has heard from any of these I’d love to know how they’re progressing with that, I can’t seem to find anyyyything about any of these starting interviews besides I believe I saw a post about a sculpture interview for UT Austin. 

 

Anyways thanks and good luck to everyone! 

[Jwack]

I haven’t heard from anyone yet either, super nerve wracking. I’m applying in painting ( unless interdisciplinary) to these schools-

UCSB

UT AUSTIN

STANFORD

YALE 

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

UTAH STATE

[sillygooseart]

Congrats to everyone for their interviews and acceptances! My top schools send out requests in February usually so I’m just sitting here waiting..

[VanillaYogurt]

Got an interview request from MICA yesterday (Illustration)

[Oscar25]

9 hours ago, flores444 said:

Hey guys! This is my first time applying to MFA programs (photography) for this fall. I have seen so many people get notifications already about interviews and it’s making me super nervous since I haven’t heard from anyone yet (as of Jan 29). 

 

These are the schools i applied to:

UCLA

SAIC

UT Austin

University of Houston

VCU

Texas Woman’s University 

 

If anyone has heard from any of these I’d love to know how they’re progressing with that, I can’t seem to find anyyyything about any of these starting interviews besides I believe I saw a post about a sculpture interview for UT Austin. 

 

Anyways thanks and good luck to everyone! 

I have an interview scheduled with UT Austin for photography

Edited yesterday at 01:30 PM by Oscar25

[DTW-LGA]

I applied to Hunter and Yale. I applied to both a long time ago with a terrible application (yikes!) and I hoping for a better result this time.  I heard from a student that Hunter interview requests should be out by Valentine's Day.  Very nervous to hear back... 

[Oscar25]

Hi everyone! It is my first time applying for an MFA. I wanted to continue expanding the conversation on photography if more photo people are out there! Here's my list so far - some of the deadlines haven't passed yet 

University of Arizona - Interview on 1/31

UT Austin - Interview on 2/1

UC Davis - nothing

UCSD - nothing

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa - nothing

Utah State - nothing

UCSC - nothing 

[prosthetic_head]

No updates from me yet 😞 I have my SMFA interview on on Monday. Pretty sure I'll be rejected from Tyler since it seems like they sent all their invites in mid-January. I'm still holding out for RISD Printmaking but it sounds like all the other departments have contacted finalists already...

For other people applying to VCU, based on last year's thread, they sent out invites between Feb 8-16. Hoping we all get some invites next week!

Anyone else here apply to SUNY Purchase? I wonder when they will start sending theirs out since their application closes on Saturday.
 

I'm having a lot of ~hindsight is 20/20~ feelings in terms of what schools I chose to apply to, and that I should have been a little more specific in my statements about each program. Also I'm wondering if I should have looked into more interdisciplinary programs due to the nature of my work. It's tough considering once you're admitted you can work with any medium you like!

[sillygooseart]

42 minutes ago, prosthetic_head said:

No updates from me yet 😞 I have my SMFA interview on on Monday. Pretty sure I'll be rejected from Tyler since it seems like they sent all their invites in mid-January. I'm still holding out for RISD Printmaking but it sounds like all the other departments have contacted finalists already...

For other people applying to VCU, based on last year's thread, they sent out invites between Feb 8-16. Hoping we all get some invites next week!

Anyone else here apply to SUNY Purchase? I wonder when they will start sending theirs out since their application closes on Saturday.
 

I'm having a lot of ~hindsight is 20/20~ feelings in terms of what schools I chose to apply to, and that I should have been a little more specific in my statements about each program. Also I'm wondering if I should have looked into more interdisciplinary programs due to the nature of my work. It's tough considering once you're admitted you can work with any medium you like!

On their website, Purchase says interviews are late Feb-March with decisions being late March to early April. But in the past, people seem to have interviews early Feb and have a decision mid Feb when accepted. So, I don’t know! I think it depends on how many people are applying and I’m seeing more people on the forum this year saying they’re applying to Purchase than last year. I’m banking on interview requests going out by last week of Feb