Application Process (Updated July 11, 2011)
Admission to the graduate art program requires (Step 1) admission to the University through the Graduate School and (Step 2) acceptance by the School of Art and Design on the basis of professional competency.
Applicants for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art program in the School of Art and Design must have the equivalent of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from an accredited institution.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to visit the program to meet faculty, current graduate students, and tour the facility before applying for the degree.
All University and School of Art and Design admission requirements must be satisfied by October 15 or January 15. Applications MUST BE RECEIVED by January 15 in order to be eligible for out of state tuition waivers, for the following Fall semester.
MFA in Art applicants do NOT have to take the GRE or MAT test to submit.
Please review this page before applying http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/MFAsubmission.cfm
Step 1
Carefully read and follow the Graduate School application guidelines. You will be required to provide them with the following;
• All of your official transcripts
• 3 letters of reference
• The Graduate School online application form
• Application fee
See full specifications at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/gradschool/applicationinfo.cfm
You have not officially applied until you receive confirmation from the Graduate School. The graduate school processor will notify you of any missing items via e-mail once the application is processed. Until the application is processed there is no notification.
Step 2
Assemble an application package that includes;
• A statement of purpose that articulates why you are seeking a Master of Fine
Arts Degree; conceptual and research interests; historical and contemporary artistic influences; and professional aspirations
• resume
• CD with your portfolio of 20 JPEG images of recent work
• Image list that includes title, medium, size, and date each work was created
• A link to any websites or blogs that you would like the committee to review.
Mail this packet to:
Scott Eagle, Graduate Coordinator
East Carolina University
School of Art and Design
Room 2000
Mail Stop 502
Leo Jenkins Fine Arts Center
Greenville, NC 27858
Please e-mail Scott Eagle eagles@ecu.edu to confirm receipt of packet. You have not officially completed your application until you receive confirmation from the Graduate Coordinator.
Please include the degree you are applying for, and area of concentration with your e-mail.
Tuition and Fees
http://www.ecu.edu/financial_serv/cashier/tufee.cfm
Financial Aid
The School of Art and Design offers a number of teaching and research assistantship opportunities beginning the first semester of attendance. Teaching assistantships may be awarded once students have completed a teaching observation assistantship and have successfully completed 18 hours of coursework.
Assistantships can pay between $7,500 and $9,5000 per academic year for a full-time assistantship of 20 hours per week. Additional funds may be in the form of out of state tuition remissions (non-resident tuition charges waived) available for meritorious students and scholarships (which are awarded to currently enrolled students.) Financial aid and work-study programs are also available through the Financial Aid Office http://www.ecu.edu/financial/ or http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/gradschool/funding.cfm for more information.
For additional information about the Graduate School application process, contact gradschool@ecu.edu
For additional information about the application process, contact eagles@ecu.edu
Image requirements for submitting an electronic portfolio of artwork for the MFA program in the School of Art and Design, East Carolina University:
To prepare your images properly, all work in your image-editing program should be done while working on the images in an uncompressed format like TIFF or Photoshop.
Prepare and resize your image following these procedures to end up at the required size.
If you're having original slides scanned, make sure they are scanned at a minimum of 2000 pixels per inch and saved as an uncompressed TIFF or PSD; not Jpeg. Higher resolution is better as it gives you room to crop and more options on what you can do with the images besides jury slides. The original slide that the dupes have been made from will scan the best, as it will contain more detail in the shadows and highlights.
If you are shooting with a digital camera, fill the frame with your subject. A digital camera of five mega pixel or eight mega pixels is recommended so you will have room to crop and not degrade the image. Always shoot at the full size and highest quality image the camera is capable of. Jpeg is OK, but cameras that shoot TIFF or RAW are better.
For three dimensional artwork, be sure to fill the frame with the object. If you're photographing jewelry, make sure to focus close enough to fill the frame with your jewelry.
The Workflow
1 Open the camera original or scan and immediately save it as an uncompressed TIFF. You never want to work directly on a JPEG file, because every time a JPEG file is resaved, it looses quality.
2. Work on your image at full resolution until it looked as close as possible to the original.
3. Flatten your image and convert to 8 bit (if necessary).
4. Resize your image to 1920 pixels long dimension at 72 pixels per inch.
5. Save your image as a highest quality JPEG as the last step under a new name so as not to overwrite the original full size image.
6. Naming your images: name each image with your last name and first initial followed by a number and the jpg extension. EX: SmithW1.jpg
7. Assemble 20 images following the above instructions.
8. Create a Microsoft Word document with a list of titles of artwork, media, date created and scale for each of the files. Make a printout of this list to accompany your CD and add the file to your CD.
9. Burn a CD of images and inventory list file in a Mac compatible format. Submit along with printout of image inventory as your electronic portfolio.
