How do you decide to apply to a school?

[soapeater]

Hey guys and gals. This is the first time I've posted here, i'm sure there are other posts that might answer this question but I didn't find anything posted recently. 

 

My question is, how do you personally find graduate schools to apply to and what do you look for?

 

Do you just look at the financial opportunities or the facilities or the faculty or the location or the grad student work.. etc? Which of these and other factors do you think are most important? Do you base your opinion on what you see on the program's website? Do you call or email the school? 

 

I'm applying for MFA programs in Sculpture and have started a little list of 3-4 schools I like but I want to add more. I pour over websites for hours but still feel like I'm not always looking at all the angles and factors for each program. I also feel that you can't fully grasp what a program is all about by just looking at their website, which can often times be very frustrating.

 

Look forward to hearing from you all. 

[kafralal]

This is a matter of personal priorities. I looked at a wide range programs and locations while I learned to identify what I wanted, then I narrowed it down to a specific location (this has a lot to do with family—I'm married with children). The location is SoCal, so there is a lot to choose from. I narrowed my choices on the internet checking out faculty work, lecture videos and texts, student work, alum etc., and then visited schools. Contacts made from visits have been very helpful. Also...writing and rewriting about my work, both broadly and in detail has taken up a lot of time but has helped me to really understand my priorities.