MFA 2012 All Art ADMISSIONS freak-out forum!!!!!!!!

[smartin]

Congratulations to those accepted and good luck to the interviewees!!!! YOU GOT THIS.

Has anyone heard from Herron, Hope, or Michigan, yet?

Edited February 4, 2012 by smartin

[Fool4nine]

Congrats on SFAI. Your portfolio deffinetly deserves it. Your work in the subways, trains, and stations is prety remarcable. I enjoy you aproach to capturing structure especially with respect to platforms, staircases, and tunnels.

Thanks TheZane! I enjoyed looking at your photography too. I'm really glad that you are applying for painting and not photography - less competition! I enjoyed your paintings too. Especially the negative space work. They remind me of Kandinsky who is one of my favorite artists. You should check out the Argentine painter Xul Solar. He is my favorite and was inspired by Kandinsky.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Fool4nine

[Robin Li]

Got rejected by YALE as well. Good luck you guys.

[ol'spice]

Congrats on getting interviews guys and good luck.

I don't know about you guys but rejections make my gut turn weird. You get all excited and the adrenalin starts pumping as you load the page. The page loads, you click the link, and BAM!!! REJECTED!!!

I forgot what is was like to hear back from schools. Been since undergrad.

Just got my rejection email from Yale... I'm heading to the local water hole with my buddy to down a beer or two...

But the same day, today, when I got home from work I found a $400 check for the lease of one of my images... Well, you win some, you loose some, life is beautiful!

[gahh]

Just joined this forum... received the status update e-mail from Yale about 3 hours ago and am entirely too nervous to check, I think I'll wait until the morning!!

[billie jean]

Have people been hearing from UCSB? Or CalArts?

Edited February 4, 2012 by billie jean

[gumbojoe]

Also just got my rejection from Yale. I guess I'm defintely not alone. Glad I found this forum. I think it will help me not feel alone in my anxiety during the wait. 7 more schools to go. Luckily I'm headed to a residency at the Vermont Studio Center tomorrow, so that will help me take my mind off things. Goodluck everyone.

[kazoo]

Another rejection here. even when you expect it it's still hard to swallow.

...oh well, on to the next!

and of course: Congratulations Amazing_Corn_Chowder, Brown06 and tubularculosis for the interviews! we're rooting for you guys!

Edited February 4, 2012 by kazoo

[ms.TMZ]

Yale= rejected. been out drinking since they sent me the email at 11PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F*CK

;(

[OutWest]

Congratulations to those accepted and good luck to the interviewees!!!! YOU GOT THIS.

Has anyone heard from Herron, Hope, or Michigan, yet?

Have people been hearing from UCSB? Or CalArts?

I applied to Michigan and UCSB as well, but have not heard anything...esp. from Mich (though, I know their interviews are supposed to be mid-this month, so not feeling confident about that school)...I have seen a couple people get accepted to UCSB, as well as rejected, back around 01/20-23...so, my guess is, we are still in the running for "Second Round". Wish us luck!

And, again, congrats to the Yale people for interviews! Hope you guys kill it.

Edited February 4, 2012 by OutWest

[TheZane]

Congrats on getting interviews guys and good luck.

I don't know about you guys but rejections make my gut turn weird. You get all excited and the adrenalin starts pumping as you load the page. The page loads, you click the link, and BAM!!! REJECTED!!!

I forgot what is was like to hear back from schools. Been since undergrad.

Just got my rejection email from Yale... I'm heading to the local water hole with my buddy to down a beer or two...

But the same day, today, when I got home from work I found a $400 check for the lease of one of my images... Well, you win some, you loose some, life is beautiful!

Such is life, a beautiful collection of doors. We all bounce from door to door. Some are dead bolted shut and some take our shoulders with cushion and open up effortlessly. You just hope the other side of the door is a beautiful as the front porch that you have been hanging out on for days.

Congrats on SFAI. Your portfolio definitely deserves it. Your work in the subways, trains, and stations is pretty remarkable. I enjoy you approach to capturing structure especially with respect to platforms, staircases, and tunnels.

Thanks TheZane! I enjoyed looking at your photography too. I'm really glad that you are applying for painting and not photography - less competition! I enjoyed your paintings too. Especially the negative space work. They remind me of Kandinsky who is one of my favorite artists. You should check out the Argentine painter Xul Solar. He is my favorite and was inspired by Kandinsky.

Thanks! If painting doesn't work out I'll try again next year and add photography to the application mix. The amount of photographers out there scared me away this year - lucky for you. I have been finding more excitement working with paint too, so that adds to it. Photography gets to stay freelance for now. Thanks for the art rec too, Solar is pretty great.

The lack of people in normally populated places presents interesting energy in your work. It is like being there after closing time when your not really supposed to be. Check these guys out: Bernd and Hilla Becher, Vincent Laforet, and Edward Burtynsky

[faech]

I got the rejection email as well. I feel okay about it and I'm really happy for the people who secured interviews. I hope you knock their socks off.

I feel like my work just doesn't fit into the traditional setting at Yale and so it's probably best that I didn't get in. Maybe it would have changed my style in a way that wouldn't be natural for me. And from what I can tell, folks who get rejected from Yale do tend to get into the more conceptual schools.

Has anyone heard from Columbia College or have any idea about when we hear?

[kazoo]

even though it didn't surprise me, and in a rational way it makes sense, and i've gotten rejected from schools before, it still shattered my confidence for today.

i keep going back and forth between knowing that my chances at other schools are completely independent from this first rejection, and feeling like it's a bad omen.

anyone else taking it hard despite themselves?

[gahh]

@Kazoo...you have to remember how subjective art school is. I was just rejected by Yale too and I feel that it's fine to be down about it, but definitely not worth confidence shattering. Keep your head up and maybe work with the rejection somehow by making more art.

[faech]

Don't let it reflect on you. Don't internalize the rejection. There are so many factors that go into the decisions schools make and some of them don't have anything to do with your work. For example, schools look at the entire puzzle of the student body and see which new pieces will compliment the existing puzzle. Does that make sense?

And if the decision does reflect on your work, it doesn't say that your work is "bad" it just says that it doesn't share a similar aesthetic with Yale. After looking at a lot of the student work from Yale, I've realized more and more that my work is really not aligned with what's going on up there. It's not better or worse. It's just different.

[doeasyart]

I'm joining the ranks of Yale rejects......Yay!

Honestly though, I applied because my mom pushed me into it, but no way in hell do I want to go to school for 2 more years right after graduation (I'm a senior at UCLA)

I'm looking forward to going to Beijing, possibly working for an art center or bilingual arts journal, and splitting my time between China and Italy.

FREEDOM!!!

[kazoo]

Thanks to both of you, gahh and faech for your encouraging words. This is my second year applying, so yeah I should know better than to let it affect me. last year I talked to the admissions department at MICA a lot about the whole process, and I understand that it's not a reflection of us. The way you describe it Faech, as a puzzle, is very accurate to how they explained it.

But that's my rational, logical side that understands that.

The other part of me can't stop from worrying about being rejected everywhere. Just have to be patient i guess.

Edited February 4, 2012 by kazoo

[OutWest]

@Kazoo...you have to remember how subjective art school is. I was just rejected by Yale too and I feel that it's fine to be down about it, but definitely not worth confidence shattering. Keep your head up and maybe work with the rejection somehow by making more art.

This is so true...it's like getting accepted/rejected to art shows. It's a total crap shoot...also, look at our creative friends in the creative writing MFA world. Those people have at least the same difficulty (if not more so) in getting into top grad schools for writing. It's absurd. For instance, Brown University is considered one of the top programs in the country and they admit 4-5 out of a pool of nearly 700. That is more difficult than getting into than Harvard med school. Brutal.

So, no worries. All any of us need is just one program to love us out of the places we've applied to, and we'll be on our way. If not, we have a whole year to make more work, and that's not a bad thing.

[Fool4nine]

We can all look at the rejections as a good thing (provided we get at least one acceptance

Art is so subjective. Professors response to our work will range from love to hate and everything in between. If a school doesn't really like our work, then it would be really uncomfortable to study there no matter how good the reputation of the school is. If the profs at Yale don't like my work enough to want me to study there, then they have nothing to teach me. Since they have nothing to teach me, its good to get a rejection letter from them so I can focus on schools that appreciate what I do.

Yes, rejection can feel painful. But think about how many people that have seen your work and give it about 2 seconds when other people could look at it for an hour. Many people are just not going to get it. It may not be the fault of the work or the artist. When I showed my portfolio at a grad school meet, some loved it and said it is really strong, and some hardly glanced at it. The work was the same. The difference was the viewer.

I'm ready for more rejections so I can focus on the schools that want me.

[shmwy]

I also just had the most prestigious honor of being rejected from Yale! Just have to hope that it isn't the beginning of a pattern.

[TheZane]

I'm ready for more rejections so I can focus on the schools that want me.

Cheers to that.

[frez83]

even though it didn't surprise me, and in a rational way it makes sense, and i've gotten rejected from schools before, it still shattered my confidence for today.

i keep going back and forth between knowing that my chances at other schools are completely independent from this first rejection, and feeling like it's a bad omen.

anyone else taking it hard despite themselves?

I took the Yale rejection rather hard as well. It is hard not to have it strike a blow to your confidence, especially when it is so early on in the process. But like everyone else wrote, it really is such a complicated process that you really can't think about it as a reflection of your work or you. Yale was my first choice, so it would have been nice to at least interview, but I have other schools that I'm waiting on that are just as good as the program at Yale. The key is to just take it all in stride.

I've spent a lot of time looking over the old posts and there are so many people who get rejected by Yale early on, and then later get accepted into awesome and equally exclusive programs.

This is all a crazy and stressful process, but it is really nice to have a place like this forum where we can all kind of vent out our frusterations and concerns. It's certainly much too early to worry too much about it and I am sure you will be getting some good news soon enough! Hopefully all of us will!!

[frez83]

This is so true...it's like getting accepted/rejected to art shows. It's a total crap shoot...also, look at our creative friends in the creative writing MFA world. Those people have at least the same difficulty (if not more so) in getting into top grad schools for writing. It's absurd. For instance, Brown University is considered one of the top programs in the country and they admit 4-5 out of a pool of nearly 700. That is more difficult than getting into than Harvard med school. Brutal.

So, no worries. All any of us need is just one program to love us out of the places we've applied to, and we'll be on our way. If not, we have a whole year to make more work, and that's not a bad thing.

Really good post! Yes, all excellent points.

[kazoo]

I also just had the most prestigious honor of being rejected from Yale! Just have to hope that it isn't the beginning of a pattern.

yup. I see that you also applied to slade? glad to see that you haven't heard back either! last year interviews were sent out on the 3rd, so its possible we will soon hear...

[kazoo]

I took the Yale rejection rather hard as well.

ah i'm just glad i'm not alone! I haven't been taking it as a reflection of my work, more as a reflection of my application, which I know I shouldn't, if I look at things in a level-headed manner. but sometimes feelings are just feelings.