Confused&Depressed

fineartsmajormom
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 09:33:00 +0000

I am not in the art field so I can’t comment on what are the consequences of the grad school question–not applying, applying without being ready/sure etc. but I assume that in three years my S may well be in the same situation. I suppose, I will still be ignorant about the art world and art education so I could only encourage him to do the following: Imagine that you receive a letter of acceptance to the grad program at your first choice program…do you feel relief? anxiety? happiness? fear? If you have some positive feelings, well perhaps you should spend a few days working on your portfolio (never wasted energy or time)…as you do the work, keep going through other scenarios and imagine your feelings (getting a really good job at a graphics design company? taking off and working at anything for a year and traveling? completely changing fields and going back to school to study psychology? getting a job at a bank?) It is a bit of a game, but it can be very reassuring to know that you really don’t want to work at a bank, the idea of working at a design company is attractive, etc. The problem with being in your fourth year of school and applying to grad school (in any field) is that you are tired, you are, frankly, tired of your major and your work so the idea of extending this for another two years (or four years) is not necessarily inspiring right when you have to do the application and portfolio. Also, there are so many options–work, change fields, study something else, travel, join the circus–and all seem so much easier than applying to grad school. This is why many people take off a year or two. However, if when you imagine that if you could just magically get into VCU without the work/stress of application you would be excited, energized at the prospect of an MFA then you probably need to muscle through the application. The investment in preparing the application and the portfolio will be a good exercise even if you end up not applying. Try to think of it as a trial run so as not to get too anxious about it…after you have put everything together you may have a much clearer idea about what you want to do. Good luck and don’t get down…you and a million other seniors in many fields are going through the same crisis this break.