2010 MFA Visual Arts admission replies and results

[waiter]

i sent in my deposit to RISD this week for sculpture and they said 4 out of the seven had accepted. And for those wondering the dean did say that they number the waitlisters- they try to put together a "class" but it is tiered. Good luck everyone!

You didnt happen to decline any other schools for sculpture by any chance, Im on wait-lists for MFA sculpture programs. I wonder where the 3 who declined went or if they still have until tomorrow to decide. that's great you were accepted in the RISD sculpture program, congratulations.

[Jestem]

i just sent in my acceptance letter for yale. YIKES!!!

I also sent in my deposit for Yale via delivery service today. Have you got the admission packet?

See you at Yale!

Edited April 16, 2010 by Jestem

[lazycatfish]

For Painting.

I was waitlisted at RISD and yesterday took myself off and gave up my spot. If its any use, I was next to be admitted and in correspondence with them about this. Also if you applied to Cornell I know for a fact that they are struggling to fill the spots. All their offers to first pics wernt taken and the waitlist wasnt big enough to cover their losses. They rejected me but called and asked to have me reconsider, which I declined because I accepted Hunters offer.

[pionkowskig]

Very surprised by that news of Cornell especially considering they usually offer full tuition.

[mnchick]

I also sent in my deposit for Yale via delivery service today. Have you got the admission packet?

See you at Yale!

Hi Jestem!

I haven't gotten my admission packet yet. how is financial aid looking for you? '

[sophiab]

Me! What department are you in? I'm painting!

Congrats!

Digital Media! Congrats to you too! I will most likely be seeing you there because Digital Media has a floor in the building where the painting grad studios are.

If anyone wants to talk about where to live around RISD, message me. I'm trying to figure it out and don't really know what I'm going to do.

[mup]

For Painting.

I was waitlisted at RISD and yesterday took myself off and gave up my spot. If its any use, I was next to be admitted and in correspondence with them about this. Also if you applied to Cornell I know for a fact that they are struggling to fill the spots. All their offers to first pics wernt taken and the waitlist wasnt big enough to cover their losses. They rejected me but called and asked to have me reconsider, which I declined because I accepted Hunters offer.

This is strange: I am on the waitlist and they have not contacted me. Any thoughts?

What do you guys think of their program?

[MZZB]

just got an acceptance to Pratt, a little late!!!

Pratt vs Parsons?

any opinions??

Pratt!

[Jestem]

Hi Jestem!

I haven't gotten my admission packet yet. how is financial aid looking for you? '

Hi mnchick, I am greatly underwhelmed and disappointed when I received my financial aid packet. If I hadn't known it's a need-based aid instead of a merit-based one, I would have thought they don't really want me that much in the program. Even Calarts' looks more generous!

I guess I haven't demonstrated well my need for fundings in my application. Anyway, I talked to the lady who's in charge. She said she'll look over my case once I send in more information. Fingers and toes crossed!

How's your looking for you?

[mnchick]

Hi mnchick, I am greatly underwhelmed and disappointed when I received my financial aid packet. If I hadn't known it's a need-based aid instead of a merit-based one, I would have thought they don't really want me that much in the program. Even Calarts' looks more generous!

I guess I haven't demonstrated well my need for fundings in my application. Anyway, I talked to the lady who's in charge. She said she'll look over my case once I send in more information. Fingers and toes crossed!

How's your looking for you?

I felt the same way you did. I received more funding from the other schools then I did this one. I was a little disappointed. I am actually going to call the Susan and talk to her again. I was really hoping not to pay much cause I fall well below the poverty line in terms of income but it doesn't seem so cause my parent's income are a factor in my financial aid packet too. (weird)

Are you living in the graduate halls or you living off campus?

Edited April 19, 2010 by mnchick

[sandouka]

@ MnChick, Jestem,

I'll be joining you this fall too. No admissions packet as of yet and the aid seems fair, but its not particularly impressive. I'd be very interested to hear if you have any luck getting it changed. I am definitely planning to live off-campus.

[grad_wannabe]

I felt the same way you did. I received more funding from the other schools then I did this one. I was a little disappointed. I am actually going to call the Susan and talk to her again. I was really hoping not to pay much cause I fall well below the poverty line in terms of income but it doesn't seem so cause my parent's income are a factor in my financial aid packet too. (weird)

Are you living in the graduate halls or you living off campus?

That's weird they counted your parents' income to calculate your EIC. Are you 23 or older? If so, there's a section on the FAFSA where it says something like, "according to your reported information, it is not required for you to report your parents' income. Would you like to do so anyway?" Make sure you answered NO. Once you check that box in the online form, the entire "parents' assets" section disappears.

[mnchick]

That's weird they counted your parents' income to calculate your EIC. Are you 23 or older? If so, there's a section on the FAFSA where it says something like, "according to your reported information, it is not required for you to report your parents' income. Would you like to do so anyway?" Make sure you answered NO. Once you check that box in the online form, the entire "parents' assets" section disappears.

i was confuse too but apparently Yale does that regardless of age because they give aid base on need and not merit. there was another form i had to fill out aside from the fafsa that asked for my parents income and their expected income.

[grad_wannabe]

This one is for the NYU ITP kids out there --

An article in New York magazine dropped a few nice paragraphs on the school in a recent story on tech start-ups in the city. Thought you guys might like it:

________________________________________

The Interactive Telecommunications Program—or ITP, as everyone calls it—is an NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate program in art and technology housed on the fourth floor of a university building that takes up most of a city block, from Broadway to Mercer Street and Washington Place to Waverly Place. I’m there on a warm March afternoon with Crowley, the 33-year-old co-founder of Foursquare, who is a 2004 graduate and sometime instructor. Crowley’s first company, Dodgeball, a kind of Foursquare precursor that was sold to Google in 2005, was developed here with a fellow ITP student named Alex Rainert.

ITP feels like an Alice in Wonderland version of graduate school. There’s a piece of wall art that, Crowley points out, is actually a mirror; stand in front of it, and the wooden slats move. Crowley—who is wearing turquoise Adidas, jeans, and a gray long-sleeved sweatshirt—gestures to several innocent-seeming plants hanging from hooks near the big windows overlooking Broadway. “Those are Botanicalls,” he says. “When they need to be watered, they send you a message on Twitter that says, ‘Water me, please.’ I have it hooked up with one of my plants at home.” There’s a vending machine that, next to Twix and salted almonds, sells Photocell 200K light sensors for $1.25. The machine doesn’t take cash—you pay online, and the machine automatically registers it.

Crowley, who majored in communications at Syracuse, had been laid off from Vindigo, a city guide for Palm-device users, in 2001. He was planning on applying to business school when a friend invited him to “this weird art show.” It was one of ITP’s twice-annual student shows, and Crowley felt at home. “There was a girl who had a project that was just three robots following each other around. I said, ‘I need to be here playing with this stuff. This is where I belong,’ ” he says.

In the lounge, a bunch of students are sitting around tables on their laptops. “See that foosball table?” Crowley asks. There are four guys playing what looks like an intense match. “That was my first project at ITP. I put sensors in the goals. When you started playing, you swiped your NYU I.D. on the table and your stats got shown on the screens behind it. If you scored a goal, it would show.”

“I wanted to make the foosball table smarter,” he says. “My professor”—Internet-culture guru Clay Shirky—“said to go analyze a source of social data. I had all the data from the foosball table, and I started thinking, What do friendship circles look like? Who are the outliers? Who doesn’t connect to other folks? I was trying to wrap my head around it.

“To make a foosball table smarter isn’t that different from ‘Let’s make a city smarter,’ ” he says

___________________________________________________________________________

[Mary Ping]

That's weird they counted your parents' income to calculate your EIC. Are you 23 or older? If so, there's a section on the FAFSA where it says something like, "according to your reported information, it is not required for you to report your parents' income. Would you like to do so anyway?" Make sure you answered NO. Once you check that box in the online form, the entire "parents' assets" section disappears.

It is not quite so simple as just reporting or not reporting parental income... Yale uses the FAFSA information as well as Need Access, which from what I can tell, is also a kind of federal government evaluation of need. Need Access asks you to report on a wide range of information (like your parents' rent, the car they drive) that informs the impression of your assets. It is also not simply your parents' objective dollar assets that get weighed, but you are also asked what they have contributed in the past and what they will contribute in the future. Parent income on the surface seems to undermine the claims a student without significant personal assets could have to financial aid, but if in truth you are reporting the degree that parents contribute to your life expenses. The University, I am guessing, will take this as a sign that one's parents are more capable/amenable to contributing to graduate school than a kid's parents who have never contributed anything to their child's education. I'm curious how it is actually formulated, but that's all I know, and still waiting to see what my own situation is.

[savantarde]

It is not quite so simple as just reporting or not reporting parental income... Yale uses the FAFSA information as well as Need Access, which from what I can tell, is also a kind of federal government evaluation of need. Need Access asks you to report on a wide range of information (like your parents' rent, the car they drive) that informs the impression of your assets. It is also not simply your parents' objective dollar assets that get weighed, but you are also asked what they have contributed in the past and what they will contribute in the future. Parent income on the surface seems to undermine the claims a student without significant personal assets could have to financial aid, but if in truth you are reporting the degree that parents contribute to your life expenses. The University, I am guessing, will take this as a sign that one's parents are more capable/amenable to contributing to graduate school than a kid's parents who have never contributed anything to their child's education. I'm curious how it is actually formulated, but that's all I know, and still waiting to see what my own situation is.

ugh. That all sounds so ridiculous. At what age do they consider a graduate student an adult? I left home at 17, and haven't had ANY financial support from my parents since then.

Unfortunately, I had to wait until I was 24 to finish school--utterly ridiculous. There needs to be some form for people who are financially independent, regardless of age.

Sorry you guys hafta go through all that BS...

[Mary Ping]

ugh. That all sounds so ridiculous. At what age do they consider a graduate student an adult? I left home at 17, and haven't had ANY financial support from my parents since then.

Unfortunately, I had to wait until I was 24 to finish school--utterly ridiculous. There needs to be some form for people who are financially independent, regardless of age.

Sorry you guys hafta go through all that BS...

Actually I think that is the whole idea... The Need Access reflects your status a lot more accurately than the FAFSA alone, with all its voluntary parts, etc. People with the greater degree of financial independence and more demonstrable need should in theory benefit the most, regardless of documented parental income. Since there are few objective standards for when someone is an adult financially, it wouldn't make sense to say that those over or under a certain age submit different materials. Some thirty-year-olds live with their parents, some seventeen-year-olds paid their way through college. (And most are somewhere in between.)

[floralcouch]

I'm new to these forums!

Just got my financial aid package from Yale today for the MFA program in graphic design. I was waiting for the offer to decide whether or not I'm going to RISD (my first choice). Offer wasn't impressive...RISD it is! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

[littlenova]

I have alot of experience with this FAFSA/Independent Student thing. I think there is some misinformation here on the board...Savantgarde is right...Even if a student is independent from their parents, the parent's income will be still be calculated into the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) in most circumstances. Read about what is defined as an Independent student:

Dependent vs. Independent

In the federal government’s eyes, all students are considered primarily responsible for funding their higher education. But the government also recognizes that most parents contribute financially on some level. Parents provide assistance whether they’ve been saving for years to fund their child’s degree or simply provide housing while their children study.

Taking this into account, the federal government applies two different standards for students, one for dependent students and one for independent students. Dependent students are assumed to have parental support while independent students are not. The result: Independent students might qualify for more aid.

Being considered an independent student is not merely a matter of being responsible for your own educational expenses. You must meet at least one of the following seven criteria to be declared an independent student for the purposes of the FAFSA:

• Be 24 years of age or older by December 31 of the award year;
• Be an orphan (both parents deceased), ward of the court, or was a ward of the court until the age of 18;
• Be a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States;
• Be a graduate or professional student;
• Be a married individual;
• Have legal dependents other than a spouse;
• Be a student for whom a financial aid administrator makes a documented determination of independence by reason of other unusual circumstances.

If you are under 24 and unmarried, your parent's income will be calculated on the FAFSA. It counts as apart of your adjusted gross income. You'll see this calculated into your EFC number on the SAR printout.

The Need Access form/process is a horse of another color. It is only used at certain schools. At institutions like Yale that offer need-based institution funding, the age is determined by the school. Yale says you must report all parent's income regardless of age (even though the cut off to report parental income on their Need Access form is 25?). At Berkley, the age is 30, etc.

Taking parental income/assets into account is highly unfair to many students...This added income only hurts their chances at funding.

Schools do this, because they want to give more money to Student A with a poor family and a low EFC over say Student B with a comfortable family and a higher EFC. But, it doesn't take things into account like if your parents are estranged or how much debt they have even if they wanted to contribute.

When I looked at Yale's (and UPenn's) site I was also floored to find how little they pay their TAs and how little the fellowships are in relation to the tuition. Even though the education is first rate, it makes me a little sad that they charge their students so much.

Edited April 20, 2010 by littlenova

[Jestem]

I'm new to these forums!

Just got my financial aid package from Yale today for the MFA program in graphic design. I was waiting for the offer to decide whether or not I'm going to RISD (my first choice). Offer wasn't impressive...RISD it is! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

So it is true there are people choosing RISD over Yale! RISD offered me A LOT more funding but I chose Yale anyway because I really like the program. But I remember Bethany of RISD asked all those who are accepted to reply by April 7. Do you get an extension?

Congratulations on your acceptances and good luck wherever you go!

Edited April 20, 2010 by Jestem

[floralcouch]

So it is true there are people choosing RISD over Yale! RISD offered me A LOT more funding but I chose Yale anyway because I really like the program. But I remember Bethany of RISD asked all those who are accepted to reply by April 7. Do you get an extension?

Congratulations on your acceptances and good luck wherever you go!

Thanks!! I got an extension, yes. Congratulations on Yale! I think its just a matter of personal preference but I thought RISD's program suited my needs better.

[crey01]

I am CONFLICTED!

SO I got into a fair number of schools and I already sent in my letter of intent to Calarts just last week. Then OF COURSE, I finally get accepted to UCI (after being on the waitlist, I think.) UCI offers pretty much a free ride and its a great school. BUT what I have been hearing is that calarts is a better school all around. I am not too afraid of debt. Like I always say, you get what you pay for and my artwork (and me as an artist) is an investment...BUT still, free ride. does sound pretty nice.

Does anyone have any insight into the different programs, pros and cons (besides the money, I am very clear about those hard numbers)...I am looking for some good advice about the different MFA studio art programs. any personal experiences, inside tips, etc...ANYthing!

[caraa]

have any of the other MICA Hoffberger alternates heard anything? I am impatiently waiting to hear something...

[grad_wannabe]

I am CONFLICTED!

SO I got into a fair number of schools and I already sent in my letter of intent to Calarts just last week. Then OF COURSE, I finally get accepted to UCI (after being on the waitlist, I think.) UCI offers pretty much a free ride and its a great school. BUT what I have been hearing is that calarts is a better school all around. I am not too afraid of debt. Like I always say, you get what you pay for and my artwork (and me as an artist) is an investment...BUT still, free ride. does sound pretty nice.

Does anyone have any insight into the different programs, pros and cons (besides the money, I am very clear about those hard numbers)...I am looking for some good advice about the different MFA studio art programs. any personal experiences, inside tips, etc...ANYthing!

I did my UG here so I may be biased, but UCI's MFA is a great program and produces amazing alumni. Hong-An Truong went to the Whitney ISP her first year after graduating. Ruben Ochoa was in the Whitney Biennial and won a Rockefeller Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship within 5 years of finishing,

They have some star faculty, between Yvonne Rainer, Daniel Martinez, Simon Leung and Monica Majoli.

Between UCI and CalArts, there are so many faculty at Irvine that are affiliated in some way with CalArts (Deborah Oliver teaches at both, Daniel Martinez got his degree there, Andrea Bowers moved to CalArts from Irvine, Catherine Lord is the former dean of CalArts) that you'd be making a lot of the same contacts at a tiny fraction of the price.

[james]

MICA Hoffberger due to nnotify tommorrow the 3rd I believe via email. Even if I get in I'm pretty darn sure I'll go to Cranbrook anyways, so you got that going for you. Unless maybe they offer lots of money and it ends up being a lot cheaper. Was originally my first choice, but that was before visiting Cranbrook. Its Hogwarts and the people and the work there are spectacular.