Getting Into Grad School: 12 Months In Review

As many of my friends are preparing to walk across the stage and collect their diplomas tomorrow morning (yeah!) I’m reminded of this insane journey I embarked on about 12 months ago. Jesus, I had no idea where it would take me. I certainly didn’t expect to end up in Southwestern PA, where I am now sitting on my couch, writing this post.

It’s been an interesting ride. I started out seeking a graduate program with a lot of questions, and not too many answers. It turned out that many people just weren’t open to talking about their experience of trying to get into grad school. I can understand why – I mean, it’s your future. Where you go to grad school is tied up in not only how successful people will think you are, but also how successful people think you will be.

All this secrecy, really just makes it a lot harder to figure out what you should be doing to make sure you 1) get into a good program 2)get into a good program that’s good for you! How do you go about getting into a Masters Degree for Fine Arts?

I’m not sure. I definitely didn’t discover some magic formula to make it all make sense. If I did, I think it would be about a million dollars richer and far less confused. But here are a few things I *did* learn along the way.

Take Some Serious Time To Just Look

Boy-with-binoculars (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Look at a bunch of schools. Look at an evolving list of schools that grows, shrinks and mutates. I know I said that in my very first Getting Into Grad School post, but I mean it now even more than I meant it then. Of course, I didn’t know quite what I should be looking at:

• Begin with a list of things you know you want and you want to accomplish. What is important to you as an artist? What is vital to you for your happiness? Notice I didn’t say success — because sure, it’s possible to be successful in a program that maybe isn’t your best fit. Sure, you can make it work. But school is way to freaking expensive to go to a school that will give you a degree, but that’s all. What will make you feel happy, supported and ready to take on the daunting challenge of The Arts?
• Now compare that list to these schools. What do they have to offer?
• The faculty – what kind of art are they making? Do you like it? Is it interesting to you? Do you feel like you could walk up to that person and have an interesting conversation about that work? If not – take a step back. If you’re not inspired by the work the faculty members are making, how are they supposed to mentor you through your MFA?
• The students – what issues are important to the students that go to this school? Are those issues important to you? Are they fundamentally opposed to this issues that are important to you? Sure, you can decide to go to a program that has a solidly conservative, pro-life student body, but if you’re a liberal feminist, is it going to be much fun making every single day a fight to not want to rip someones (or your own) head off? Are you really going to be able to grow as an artist and as a person in that kind of an environment?
• The money – how financially supportive is the program of its students? Do they offer lots of scholarships and grants and TA positions? If they claim they do on their website, what information do they give you about the actual process? (One of the schools I applied to claimed every MFA student got a TA position in their department, and when I was accepted to the program also informed me I had been nominated for such a position, only to later let me know that there were no TA positions available. This anecdote is just an attempt to point out that what a department may want to do and what funding will realistically allow them to do may be different things. There may be no way to find out what is really possible for your funding assistance until after you ‘get in’ to a program, but it is something to be aware of.)
• The department – how big? How small? What are their resources? What sort of equipment do they have? What is their focus. At CMU, for example, they cut their entire printmaking studio (for relief, etching, litho – everything- in half so they could have an even more massive digital print studio. They had a gazillion massive printers, a 3-D printer, 2 huge metalworking studio, but their single printmaking facility was tiny. Sure all that technology was wicked cool, but, uh, I like ink too, please!  ** It can be easy to get swept up in the super cool-ness of it all. Plus, places with a bunch of technology like that typically have a lot of money. Like CMU. Lots of money. But if it’s not a place that has goals and a targeted aesthetic that match your own, not only will you probably not get in, but if you do get in, you would have to entirely change they way you work and think about art. Maybe you are looking for that kind of a change. Maybe you really aren’t. Be Honest With Yourself. **

So hopefully the above process has helped you narrow things down at least a little bit. Now, take a look at the areas the remaining schools are located in:

English: A Bully Free Zone sign – School in Berea, Ohio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Can you see yourself living there? Can you imagine yourself a part of the community. Being a grad student isn’t exactly like being in undergrad again. You’re probably not going to be living on campus, throwing beer pong parties and what not – or maybe you are – so you should think about how you are your life will fit into the surrounding community.
• How does the university interact with the community? For instance – there was this particular university I was really excited about. I didn’t end up getting into the program, which was a bummer but ok, because the more I learned about the community the university was located in, the more apparent it became to me, at least, that the entire arts initiative in the area was being controlled entirely by that one university. Any gallery, every museum show, every internship had that university’s name plastered all over it. Is that something you’re ok with? Or not so much?
• Are your personal politics and needs going to be met? This may sound crazy to you, but it could be a really big deal. For me, it actually determined whether or not I accepted an offer of admission to a certain university. The program was alright. The funding was decent. But I would have to live in a state where I couldn’t be legally married to my partner. Well, legally recognized as being married. And since I am getting married in about 2 months, that really just didn’t sit well for me. Screw being married but not really married for two years. Plus, I’m kind of stick of dealing with conservative crap all the time! Fly the rainbow flag and burn pro-life sentiments (which keep getting stuck in the form of little fliers with pictures of babies under my windshield wiper at some mysterious time when I am conveniently not looking.) Phew that was all a little bitter — but seriously — it’s got to be about your personal happiness. Life is too short and this is your terminal degree for fine arts. Do you really want to spend it in a community that makes you miserable? Hell no.
  

What kind of art is being made in the area?

“A new media installation, composed of a variety of organically textured paintings  large geometric sculptures, robotic lasers and disorienting soundscapes”

• So, went to a Gallery Crawl in Pittsburgh and I was STOKED. But I came home feeling pretty deflated. The whole evening I only saw a handful of pieces that I thought were interesting, and I didn’t really see a single thing that made my artsy sense just *tingle*. You know what I mean. That feeling when you look at something that has a moment of just pure awesomeness. It makes your whole day. It just rocks. Words cannot describe. Woohooo artsy elation! I didn’t even have a fraction of that, the entire evening.  >THAT MEANS SOMETHING<
• Are you inspired by the art that is around you? Are you making work that has anything to do with the art that is being made in that area? Are people supporting art that you make or is similar to work you make?
• 1) If you’re not inspired, you work is going to suffer. 2) If the kind of work you make is not being supported, your work is going to suffer
• >TOO MUCH TIME< TOO MUCH MONEY — For your work to suffer.

What sort of connections are you making with that university?

Holding Hands shadow on sand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the single most important thing I can emphasize. Pay attention to how people respond to and interact with you.

• Real connections make the difference.
• Is it worth going to a program where you don’t quite jive with the faculty?
• The interview process is a solid test of these connections. I had two very different experiences:

1. Although the faculty of this particular school did in fact, include women I was interviewed via iphone by three men. For me, that’s a pretty big tip-off. Seriously, they didn’t include a single woman on their admissions committee? And they expect me to take them seriously? Furthermore, but scheduling a 30 minute Skype-interview, and then calling my cell phone 25 minutes later for an 11 minute choppy conversation, they let me know they didn’t take me seriously. Plus, for the duration of the brief interview, they only asked me if I had looked at the work of certain male artists, told me my work was very disturbing and “what’s with the bird?”, and didn’t have anything to say at all when I inquired about their inclusion of gender studies. That kind of interaction matters. That kind of interaction screams, this is not for me!
2. The second interview was so, so soooo much better! I had an excellent, exactly on-time phone interview with meaningful conversation that not only dug into my personal process and thoughts, but also considered the larger issues of feminist work and feminist identity. It was a dream. Likewise, that kind of interaction matters.

• So, don’t just think of the interview as the university testing you out. YOU get the chance to take them for a test run! What are these people like? What do they care about? Do you care about the same things? How do you get along? If you can’t get along for a brief interview, you may not get along for a 2 year MFA program. Just saying.

So my final words of advice — you’re making life-changing decisions here. It’s ok to be freaked out and unsure and generally angsty. But remember, it’s not just about ‘getting into the right school’. It’s about finding a place that’s right for you, that you can afford, that you believe will really be worth it in the end. Maybe you’re not ready for that right now — in which case you should wait. Graduate school is a serious investment. Make sure it’s what you really want. If you are sure, then be committed to doing your research and doing yourself justice.

This post concludes my Getting Into Grad School Series!