MFA 2026 Freak out Forum

[orangeorangecake]

2 hours ago, goodboycerberus said:

tbh, given how you’ve talked on the forum and other places online, it might be for the best that you reapply! 

I am not US citizen and come from a country that has extremely strained relations with the US, so my application was inherently more difficult than other applicants. Where I come from it’s quite common for people to be accepted into great programs but still be unable to obtain a US visa. Someone got in MICA but was denied a visa due to a speeding ticket.I have no control over international relations, there’s no point in applying again.

Edited April 7 by orangeorangecake

[kindacoolartguy]

6 hours ago, orangeorangecake said:

I don't want to go any of the schools that accepted me. But I can't guarantee that reapplying will lead to better results. Right now, I'm debating whether I should just go to one of them.

where did you get accepted? 

[jackieofficecouch]

On the waitlist at Tyler (painting). Anyone accepted planning on declining their offer? Do you have an impression of what the funding situation is this year?

[Q-Q8]

1 hour ago, jackieofficecouch said:

On the waitlist at Tyler (painting). Anyone accepted planning on declining their offer? Do you have an impression of what the funding situation is this year?

I’ll send them an email this week to decline the offer. same painting. I'm not sure if it's because I'm an international student... Anyway, they offered me a half-tuition scholarship; if it had been a full scholarship, I probably would have gone.

Edited April 7 by Q-Q8

[Q-Q8]

23 hours ago, orangeorangecake said:

 

Does anyone got into NYU Steinhardt? Why is everyone on the waitlist?🫠

Hiiii, are you on the waitlist? For the Studio Art/Painting program? I haven’t heard anything since my interview in March! I called them last week, and they said I’d definitely hear back this week

[Tippytiger]

2 hours ago, jackieofficecouch said:

On the waitlist at Tyler (painting). Anyone accepted planning on declining their offer? Do you have an impression of what the funding situation is this year?

Yeah what Q-Q8 said. I got a 50% tuition assistantship w/ 13k stipend. 6k scholarship for the first year. Two other painters were offered the same. 6 total painting students at the accepted students days.  Haven’t heard of anyone getting the whole enchilada but there seems to be some wiggle room. Some current students said that they got offered more money(even another 50% tuition scholarship to total a full ride) in July before they started in the fall. I’ll commit if I can get close to full tuition remission. I’m on the waitlist at Rutgers, so if I hear back from them I’d likely go there. Im thinking about applying another cycle. Hope this helps

[ash.jpg]

Still holding out for UWashington. Got an email a couple of weeks ago saying I was a ‘designated alternate’… if anyone has heard of any waitlist movement?

[RevolutionNowandForever]

U.S. News and World Report today revised its Best Fine Arts Grad School rankings for the first time since 2020 and there were some changes. The rankings are based on reputational surveys (Peer Assessment Score) and the differences between a lot of the schools are not very large. Yale is number 1 with a 4.5 score and there is a four way tie for number 2 all with 4.5 scores. From what I remember from the 2025 list (which was actually the same list from 2020 when it was last revised), SAIC dropped from 2 to 6. CalArts from 5 to 7. 

 

 

Edited April 8 by RevolutionNowandForever

[jobahza]

Woo! Got into the University of Arkansas. I was left off the waitlist and need to give a decision by April 15. I'm still waiting to hear from two schools who likely won't have answers until/after then. Scary! 

[HamburgerHelper]

To those undecided and holding on to a spot at UCI... give it up already 🤬!!!

[marxista]

On 4/8/2026 at 1:07 AM, RevolutionNowandForever said:

U.S. News and World Report today revised its Best Fine Arts Grad School rankings for the first time since 2020 and there were some changes. The rankings are based on reputational surveys (Peer Assessment Score) and the differences between a lot of the schools are not very large. Yale is number 1 with a 4.5 score and there is a four way tie for number 2 all with 4.5 scores. From what I remember from the 2025 list (which was actually the same list from 2020 when it was last revised), SAIC dropped from 2 to 6. CalArts from 5 to 7. 

 

 

I was just talking about this with the director of a school ranked #2. His impression (having acted as faculty and chair at most of these pedigree schools) is that this year you can clearly see that the schools that inaugurated “new genres” “kinetic” and “digital media” programs 5-10 years ago (when they didn’t use to be considered “fine arts” per se) are carrying the relevance of these rankings. In his opinion, art departments are going to survive only if they can adapt to the discourses that the era of hyper-mediation and fascism. Otherwise “their bubble is just going to fly further and further away from the world”. 

I don’t know if I agree since I don’t have his perspective having been in all these places, but I see that most of these schools’ poster-children are very concerned with what he is talking about and making work that responds to it—VCU Kinetic Arts and Sculpture and Expanded Media, Yale as a whole has a “common” department that is essentially a Media Art, UCLA has New Genres and DMA, CMU’s basically promotes itself as Digital Media, and RISD’s spearhead is Digital + Media. 

Edited April 9 by marxista

[RevolutionNowandForever]

1 hour ago, marxista said:

I was just talking about this with the director of a school ranked #2. His impression (having acted as faculty and chair at most of these pedigree schools) is that this year you can clearly see that the schools that inaugurated “new genres” “kinetic” and “digital media” programs 5-10 years ago (when they didn’t use to be considered “fine arts” per se) are carrying the relevance of these rankings. In his opinion, art departments are going to survive only if they can adapt to the discourses that the era of hyper-mediation and fascism. Otherwise “their bubble is just going to fly further and further away from the world”. 

I don’t know if I agree since I don’t have his perspective having been in all these places, but I see that most of these schools’ poster-children are very concerned with what he is talking about and making work that responds to it—VCU Kinetic Arts and Sculpture and Expanded Media, Yale as a whole has a “common” department that is essentially a Media Art, UCLA has New Genres and DMA, CMU’s basically promotes itself as Digital Media, and RISD’s spearhead is Digital + Media. 

That sounds like a reasonable analysis by the director of one of the #2 ranked schools. I was surprised to read in the US News page on their methodology that only one person from each school receives and fills outs the survey. I assume that is the chair of each Fine Arts Department, unless they designate someone else.

Survey recipients – one per school – were asked to rate the academic quality of fine arts programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). Those unfamiliar with a particular school's programs were asked to select "don't know," which counted neither for nor against a school. Scores for each school were determined by computing a trimmed mean – eliminating the two highest and two lowest ratings from all respondents – and taking the average of the remaining ratings. U.S. News ranked schools receiving 10 or more ratings in descending order; it listed all others as unranked. The survey response rate was 20.3%.

U.S. News discontinued its separate rankings of specialties within the fine arts.

[daylight.between.us]

Those who have accepted offers (congrats btw!), did you go into your portals and reject your other offers after accepting or are you waiting for the offers to time out on April 15th?

[salad13]

How would you handle being on multiple waitlists with a backup offer that isn't your top choice? At what point do you just accept the other offer? I really do not want to apply again next year

[kindacoolartguy]

21 hours ago, daylight.between.us said:

Those who have accepted offers (congrats btw!), did you go into your portals and reject your other offers after accepting or are you waiting for the offers to time out on April 15th?

is that the date we all find out? 

[daylight.between.us]

5 minutes ago, kindacoolartguy said:

is that the date we all find out? 

Generally, that is the deadline for accepting offers for graduate programs in the US. So if you’re on a waitlist for example, spots may open up after that date due to students who accepted offers elsewhere but never formally declined their other offers. Hope that answers your question! If you’re on a waitlist it just really depends on the activity of the students with current offers, if they reject before the deadline the program could reach out to you before the 15th with an offer, but if they wait until the deadline then you could still receive an offer in that week following the 15th. Best of luck!

[kindacoolartguy]

8 minutes ago, daylight.between.us said:

Generally, that is the deadline for accepting offers for graduate programs in the US. So if you’re on a waitlist for example, spots may open up after that date due to students who accepted offers elsewhere but never formally declined their other offers. Hope that answers your question! If you’re on a waitlist it just really depends on the activity of the students with current offers, if they reject before the deadline the program could reach out to you before the 15th with an offer, but if they wait until the deadline then you could still receive an offer in that week following the 15th. Best of luck!

ahhh thank you! 

[Q-Q8]

Has anyone heard anything from NYU's Studio Art program?

[RustyFalcon]

20 hours ago, Q-Q8 said:

Has anyone heard anything from NYU's Studio Art program?

I got waitlisted last week.

[marxista]

On 4/9/2026 at 11:56 AM, RevolutionNowandForever said:

That sounds like a reasonable analysis by the director of one of the #2 ranked schools. I was surprised to read in the US News page on their methodology that only one person from each school receives and fills outs the survey. I assume that is the chair of each Fine Arts Department, unless they designate someone else.

 

Survey recipients – one per school – were asked to rate the academic quality of fine arts programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). Those unfamiliar with a particular school's programs were asked to select "don't know," which counted neither for nor against a school. Scores for each school were determined by computing a trimmed mean – eliminating the two highest and two lowest ratings from all respondents – and taking the average of the remaining ratings. U.S. News ranked schools receiving 10 or more ratings in descending order; it listed all others as unranked. The survey response rate was 20.3%.

U.S. News discontinued its separate rankings of specialties within the fine arts.

It is the chair of the Fine Arts department. This particular one asked full time faculty to chime in if they wished to.

[Q-Q8]

6 hours ago, RustyFalcon said:

I got waitlisted last week.

Hi, are you on the waitlist after the interview? Do you know if anyone has received an offer yet?  I’m feeling pretty helpless waiting on NYU right now😭

[RustyFalcon]

3 hours ago, Q-Q8 said:

Hi, are you on the waitlist after the interview? Do you know if anyone has received an offer yet?  I’m feeling pretty helpless waiting on NYU right now😭

I was placed on the waitlist after the interview. If you didn’t get an interview, you were probably rejected—most schools do it that way. I’m not sure if anyone has been accepted; on this forum, there are only waitlist. I also know a few people who were rejected.

[Q-Q8]

30 minutes ago, RustyFalcon said:

I was placed on the waitlist after the interview. If you didn’t get an interview, you were probably rejected—most schools do it that way. I’m not sure if anyone has been accepted; on this forum, there are only waitlist. I also know a few people who were rejected.

I had an interview, but nothing has happened since then. I’ve called and emailed them, but they always say next week, next week....

[RustyFalcon]

2 hours ago, Q-Q8 said:

I had an interview, but nothing has happened since then. I’ve called and emailed them, but they always say next week, next week....

I’d suggest waiting. They’re extremely slow and poorly organized. Even though this program only accepts around 12 people, it still took them longer than similar programs to make decision.

[sillypersimmon.21]

On 4/7/2026 at 9:27 PM, ash.jpg said:

Still holding out for UWashington. Got an email a couple of weeks ago saying I was a ‘designated alternate’… if anyone has heard of any waitlist movement?

I released my spot with them a couple of weeks ago. Best of luck to you!