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ADMISSION

Students are admitted to Yale’s MFA for the Fall semester of each year only. Applicants are notified of the admission committee’s decisions on preliminary selections in February, and final decisions in early March. No information about decisions will be given over the phone or advance of the batch written release to all finalists.

To apply for more than one area of concentration, separate applications and supporting documentation must be submitted. The work submitted should be representative of the applicant’s experience in that particular field. Applying to more than one program does not increase an applicant’s chances of selection.

Please note: Yale School of Art does not practice admission deferment; An offer of admission is valid only for enrollment for that year regardless of the in-residence conditions of the Yale campus at that time. Applicants who are offered admission but choose not to enroll are welcome to reapply to the School in a future cycle.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Online applications for programs beginning in the 2023–2024 academic year will open October of 2022 with a due date of early January 2023.

Please expect that when many applicants are uploading simultaneously near the deadline, lengthier processing times will be experienced. To avoid this, please consider submitting prior to the deadline day.

Admission Procedures for Preliminary Selection

Instructions for All Applicants

An application to the School of Art requires forethought and planning. It is important to read all of the application instructions carefully. Following these instructions will ensure that your application is viewed to best advantage.

The Yale School of Art application for the 2023–2024 academic year will be available October 2022. The information that follows will assist you in filing the application online. For an explanation of specific requirements for each area of study, please refer to the departmental sections that follow.

Application materials:

The following materials are required for consideration of your application for admission:

1. Submit the online application. Application portal opens early October 2022 and may be worked until the early January 2023. As it generally takes several weeks to complete an application, it is strongly recommended that applicants prepare their materials early to ensure completion by the deadline.

Please note that the School of Art is NOT part of the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and it is not possible to apply by using application materials found on the Graduate School’s Web site.

Nonrefundable application fee of $100. Please follow payment instructions at https://apply.art.yale.edu/apply/. Forms of payment include credit card and checking account.

Yale School of Art practices “need blind admission”; meaning that, candidate financial need or ability is never disclosed to the admission committee during review of MFA applications. For this reason, and because the processing and careful review of each individual application demands great time and human resources graduate fee waivers are not available.

Beginning in January 2022, Fee may be waived only for applicants with primary citizenship in the following nations only, those with the lowest US exchange rates Venezuela, Iran, Vietnam, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Sierra Leone, Laos, Guinea, Paraguay, Cambodia

A one-page statement that addresses influences, interests, current work direction, brief life history (as it relates to art/design practice), and reasons for applying to graduate school at this time. Statements should be limited to one page or no more than 500 words.

Applicants to the Painting/Printmaking program should make reference in their statements to the “representative work” in the portfolio; this is not critical for the other programs.

References from three persons, either practicing/teaching in the field in which application is made, or who knows the applicant’s practice well and can attest to their ability, competency, potential, etc. in Yale’s MFA program.

NOTE: The admissions committee reviews applications shortly after the deadline. While it is not uncommon for letters of recommendation to come in past the deadline, please impress upon on those who will be writing on your behalf that late submission of supporting documentation may risk exclusion from the review. Applicants can always view the receipt status of reference requests on the application status page.

Transcripts of academic record for the bachelor’s degree and/or professional art schools attended. Student/unofficial copies may be uploaded to the application for the preliminary jury. Official transcripts will ONLY be required for applicants invited to interview. If invited to interview, official transcripts should be mailed to: Yale School of Art Admissions, POB 208339, New Haven, CT 06520-8339. Neither junior college transcripts nor Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores are required.

Portfolio of work. Applicants who fail to upload a portfolio as outlined by the stated deadline will NOT be considered. The portfolio should represent images of your best work, indicate your current direction, and demonstrate your ability. At least half of the images should represent work done within the last twelve months, and all should be from within the last three years. Chronological order of year is embedded in our system, and you will not be able to override it. The application system used by Yale requires that one image from the portfolio be designated as a “representative work.” This selection is simply the default image for the cover page of each application file. As such, applicants have historically selected the piece which most strongly represents ideas central to their current body of work.

Do not include more than one image on the screen, nor embed other pages of a publication or video within the images you place in your portfolio. Do not include detail photos of work in your portfolio unless you consider them absolutely necessary. Under no circumstances should more than two detail shots be included. Portfolio requirements differ depending upon area of concentration; be sure to follow the instructions for the area to which you are applying. We strongly recommend that you review your images on a Mac OS to be certain that they are accurately represented.

NOTE: All supporting documents that are submitted as a requirement for admission become a part of the official file and cannot be returned to the applicant or forwarded to another institution either in copy or original form.

FALL 2022 ADMISSION DEADLINES + NOTICES

The Application for Admission in Fall 2022 has closed.

References and supporting documents: While references and TOEFL scores (if applicable) may continue to be received after the deadline, review of applications begins soon thereafter. Applicants are thus urged to impress upon those writing reference letters, or submitting items on their behalf, that the timely submission of such documents is critical to guarantee inclusion in the admission committee’s review.

The non-refundable fee to apply is $100. Please note that Yale School or Art practices need-blind admission. “Please see details in the next section of this page.”

Application Status: Due to the high volume of incoming applications and processing which will be happening remotely this cycle, our office is unable to provide application status checks or confirm the receipt of items by phone or by email. Applicants should familiarize themselves with their Yale admission status page (accessed by logging into the application system) which will indicate outstanding items.

Receipt of items submitted by digital upload is updated in real time on the application status page checklist. Please allow one week for credentials received by postal mail to be reflected in the status page.

Admission Decision Notification: First-round admission decisions, which include interview invitations as well as denials, will be sent in early February.