Can anyone offer advice on Graduate Art Programs?

I want to gather information on Graduate programs, specifically in the area of Ceramic Sculpture. Does anyone have advice on schools or know any websites or magazines that rate different programs? Also, advice regarding portfolio's or any information on the process would be a huge help. Thanks!Can anyone offer advice on Graduate Art Programs?
check out tyler school of art, its part of temple university in philadelphia. also afred in ny.





as for websites: fastweb.com, gradschools.com, gradschoolsearch.com, anything like that.





one thing i did, was search for colleges on wikipedia. I wanted to stay in my home state of Pa so i searched for colleges in pa and then went to all of their websites. overall, its just a lot of searching and of course going to the campuses to see if you would like the program. a good idea is to talk to former or current students.





as for portfolios, have your best work in it. but make sure to show the full range of what you can do. put in some drawings from life, some sculpture, but mostely ceramics if thats what you do. also, some personal statements help. write a goals statement, a personal artist statment of what you think your work is about and where you want it to go, and of course, add some things that teachers or employers have written about you.





basically, you need to sell yourself. and if your work isn't as strong as you'd like it to be, you need to show the schools that you can improve! good luck.Can anyone offer advice on Graduate Art Programs?
In most schools, Ceramics and Sculpture are two different areas of concentration, so you will have to choose which to apply to. Good graduate programs for an MFA accept about 6-8 students a year, and will typically come with fellowships and/or assistantship packages. You can find books in a good bookstore about the ratings of these concentrations. Some that have high rankings for sculpture or ceramics are: RIT, Alfred, Ohio, VCU.
It would be helpful if you say which country you are in.


In the US Alfred university has probably the most recognized ceramics program. Websites which rank programs can easily found typing into google ';ceramics university ranking';.


I would look at the portfolio of the teachers to see how far they are interested in figurative ceramics or if they are more interested in more utilitarian ceramics.


And if the distance and price is not prohibitive it's always worth while visiting if you arrange to talk to some people there before. Some places may be good, but not for you, for you may not like the place or people.


Whereever you go, make sure you will have 24/7 access to your studio.


As for portfolios ask your current ceramics teacher for help or check out the national portfolio day association for an event close to you.


I would rather look at ceramics than sculpture programs. Sculpture programs typically are not that well equipped for clay work as a lot of people use other media. If the school is more conceptually oriented traditional methods of working are not that encouraged unless you can come up with a radically new approach to using it.