MFA 2026 Freak out Forum

[lefleur]

9 hours ago, 998student0 said:

Hi, first post! I applied for painting.

 

UC Irvine - interviewed

Saic - interviewed

Hunter - interview upcoming

UCLA - heard nothing

Yale - rejected

Columbia - heard nothing

Carnegie Mellon - heard nothing

Wondering: how common is it to get in after interview? I think interviews for schools I haven't heard from have been sent out.

I'm still trying to decide if I should apply for MICA late deadline but I haven't heard much about the program.

I am concerned I won't get in after interviews. UC Irvine is top choice. any advice appreciated! This is my first cycle and first time applying.

Thank you all and best of luck! It's stressful.

Have you heard back from Hunter about appointment times?

[Emolibra97]

9 hours ago, 998student0 said:

Hi, first post! I applied for painting.

 

UC Irvine - interviewed

Saic - interviewed

Hunter - interview upcoming

UCLA - heard nothing

Yale - rejected

Columbia - heard nothing

Carnegie Mellon - heard nothing

Wondering: how common is it to get in after interview? I think interviews for schools I haven't heard from have been sent out.

I'm still trying to decide if I should apply for MICA late deadline but I haven't heard much about the program.

I am concerned I won't get in after interviews. UC Irvine is top choice. any advice appreciated! This is my first cycle and first time applying.

Thank you all and best of luck! It's stressful.

Hi! Thank you for sharing this. Was your UCI interview in person or were you given the option for it to be in zoom/person? I was hoping to get an interview with them, but it seems not many photo focus disciplines get into this program.

[jobahza]

I saw someone got an interview at University of Arizona. Anyone else? 

[Autumn2026]

4 minutes ago, jobahza said:

I saw someone got an interview at University of Arizona. Anyone else? 

No haven't heard from them. Have you heard from them at all? I would be curious what concentration they applied for. 

[soupgirl77]

Has any heard from University of Iowa for graphic design?

[szarh15]

has anyone heard from RISD painting MFA post-interview?

[jobahza]

22 minutes ago, Autumn2026 said:

No haven't heard from them. Have you heard from them at all? I would be curious what concentration they applied for. 

I haven't. The grad coordinator has never responded to me, before applying, during and after applying. Seems like a red flag to me. I just looked at the results page on here and saw someone had an interview with Studio Art but didn't specify what discipline. 

[998student0]

2 hours ago, Emolibra97 said:

Hi! Thank you for sharing this. Was your UCI interview in person or were you given the option for it to be in zoom/person? I was hoping to get an interview with them, but it seems not many photo focus disciplines get into this program.

Zoom!!

[Emolibra97]

2 minutes ago, 998student0 said:

Zoom!!

Thanks! That's interesting. I saw others getting invited to go in person. I wonder how they decide that.  Best of luck!

[redpanda77]

Anyone hear from Texas State MFA Creative Writing or University of Texas at Austin New Writers Project? Thanks!

[crash1996]

3 hours ago, redpanda77 said:

Anyone hear from Texas State MFA Creative Writing or University of Texas at Austin New Writers Project? Thanks!

you'll wanna check out the forum topic for the creative writing MFAs--this one is for visual/studio art MFA programs! (also best of luck!!)

[Cclaura]

5 hours ago, Autumn2026 said:

No haven't heard from them. Have you heard from them at all? I would be curious what concentration they applied for. 

I have an interview with them Friday. It’s just the art MFA. They’re interdisciplinary. 

[Cclaura]

Finally made an account to comment on this forum. Im an interdisciplinary artist so I don’t have a single discipline I applied for—I’ve done sculpture, new genre, print, art/tech, etc. It just depended what program felt like it would fit my interdisciplinary installation based work. Here’s my MFA stats so far: 

 

interviews: 

U Oregon

U Arizona 

UT Austin 

uiowa 

uwashington Seattle 

calarts

pnca (offer) 

 

rejections: 

yale 

northwestern (one of my recommenders Alma mater) 

 

awaiting response: 

tulane 

UC Berkeley 

UCSD 

UCLA 

Columbia (one of my recommenders Alma mater) 

 

Edited February 17 by Cclaura
Add discipline

[jobahza]

46 minutes ago, Cclaura said:

I have an interview with them Friday. It’s just the art MFA. They’re interdisciplinary. 

That's great! I applied as an interdiscplinary artist too. Bummed I haven't heard back. I'm currently in Tucson. Nice lineup with U Oregon. Also haven't heard back from them. Hope you get the results you want!! 

[Emolibra97]

Could anyone who applied to UC Berkeley share what their application status shows in the portal? Mine says under review. Is this the same for everyone else?

[Cclaura]

49 minutes ago, Emolibra97 said:

Could anyone who applied to UC Berkeley share what their application status shows in the portal?

Mine also says under review. 

[Silliestgoose]

Has anyone heard from LSU for MFA Studio Arts? That's one of my top two and I haven't heard anything about them. 

[ReamsOfPaper]

12 hours ago, lefleur said:

Have you heard back from Hunter about appointment times?

I did. I would check your spam. It came in a separate email from the original interview invite. 

[GregOG]

15 hours ago, szarh15 said:

has anyone heard from RISD painting MFA post-interview?

From what I’ve seen no one’s heard back about anything yet with RISD. Did you get an interview for painting??

[ninjafrog]

Does anyone heard from ArtCenter?

I haven't received anything from ArtCenter and I checked my portal but there's nothing about my status...

[676767]

3 hours ago, GregOG said:

From what I’ve seen no one’s heard back about anything yet with RISD. Did you get an interview for painting??

I got accepted RISD painting 2/10

Still waiting to hear back from BU,MICA -interviewed

and nothing from BARD yet

Edited February 18 by paulthek

[GregOG]

1 minute ago, paulthek said:

I got accepted risd painting 2/10

Still waiting on MICA, BU who i interviewed with

and BARD which apparently interviews come today

Congratulations on the RISD acceptance! Can I ask when your interview was? Wondering when they started sending them out and if silence is an auto jection now lol

[salad13]

Did anyone apply to Notre Dame or UW-Milwaukee? I haven't seen either mentioned here yet unless I missed it!

[TwhowantsanMFA]

14 hours ago, Emolibra97 said:

Could anyone who applied to UC Berkeley share what their application status shows in the portal? Mine says under review. Is this the same for everyone else?

I think all of us who applied to and/or interviewed at UCB and haven't heard anything can consider ourselves rejected. They don't do any informing until the enrollment decision deadline basically. My understanding was that accepted students would have heard ~2 weeks ago. I had my interview on January 29 and the prof said they were making decisions later that day.

(I am not endorsing this approach. I think anyone who gets an interview should get an email letting them know they weren't admitted, not have to sweat it out to wait for a portal update. And in general I think schools should inform everyone who didn't get an interview of their rejection right away so they aren't left wondering.) 

[ceramics233]

Has anyone heard back from RISD or SAIC for ceramics after the interviews?