We attempted to submit two short stories yesterday and last year’s entries are in the YoungArts system. What? It says that changes can’t be made to the application. What? Has anyone else had this experience? Has anyone else already fired off a submission in a category that they applied to last year? Did you have any problems?
I actually got feedback for one of my entries last year @FlameAlchemist since it made the final round of judging.
@wistfulwords Wow, cool! What was it like? Were they fairly detailed, was it by email, etc…?
The feedback is not that detailed. I received it for poetry as well.
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Hey y’all! I just want to say that I just submitted my short story pieces to Young Arts! I’m pretty confident in them for the most part but at the same time, I have literally no hope at all because of how subjective and competitive it is. I’m hoping for at least a merit if I’m lucky.
Does anyone know how they’ll be contacting winners this year? A part of me hopes that they’ll just drop the list because the whole calling and emailing people last year was a complete nightmare and a total disaster. Unless they’re going to be more organized about it this time, then I think dropping the list will be kinder on everyone’s emotions so we can just see if we won right off the bat rather than getting anxiety and jumping whenever our phone rings or getting our hearts crushed if we receive a false email that we’re finalists. Just my thoughts 
I submitted my short story entries the day before yesterday, and I’m deeply regretting not re-editing one of them, because I just found a continuity error that I’m freaking out about! Still, since it’s YoungArts, I’m not crazy invested in winning… It’s such a subjective contest.
I agree with @Lunarlitgend about winner notifications. Last year’s were an utter disaster, and left me fairly unhappy with the competition. I’m ok with winners being emailed, but if they do that, I hope they post on their website when the emails are being sent and send them in bulk (kind of like how IYWS lets attendees know they’ve been selected). I’d also be OK with, as Lunar suggested, the list being up on their website at a certain date. The insanity of phone calls and emails at different times seems pointlessly stressful.
@FlameAlchemist Oh, I’m sorry to hear that dude 
I’m sure your pieces will still be considered fairly, though, so try not to stress about it too much 
Yeah, same dude.
In fact, I was actually on the website and they made an update to their FAQS page about notifications! They must’ve learned a lot from the mess that we call YoungArts 2018-2019 because they made a schedule of when notifications will be coming out.
"Winners are announced, with an official winners list posted to our website, by the end of November. Please refer to the full application timeline* below.
Application close: October 11, 2019 at 11:59 PM ET (Eastern Time).
Week 1 through 4: Application reviews.
Week 5: Notification of Finalists by phone.
Week 6: Finalist confirmations received.
Week 7: Honorable Mention & Merit email notifications sent, full winner announcement and winners list posted to our website."
Of course, they also added at the bottom “This timeline is subject to change.” so we shouldn’t be dead set on this happening but at least it’s something
I’m assuming week 5 is like the 2nd week of November, Week 6 is the 3rd week of November and week 7 is the 4th week of November.
@Lunarlitgend Oh yeah, I saw that too! I really hope they stick to that timeline. It seems fairly solid to me. It means we’ll get results in about a month, which I, personally, am very happy about–less long term suspense, thank goodness!
Good luck to everyone who has submitted!! Does anyone have any idea how poetry is judged?
I also submitted for photography, so fingers crossed!!
I hear it’s incredibly subjective which is kinda scary
Hello! I am a junior and applied for Visual Arts–is there anyone that submitted to that and/or have any info on how that discipline works aside from being blindly adjudicated?
I submitted to poetry! It’s my first and last time submitting to YoungArts, so fingers crossed!
Does anyone know how competitive it is to get a Merit/Honorable Mention award for YoungArts? Maybe comparing it to a Scholastic award?
@elielieli Because you can only submit once per category for YoungArts (unlike Scholastic, where you can submit a multitude of pieces, which are judged individually, unless you do a senior portfolio), YoungArts is probably more competitive. National Scholastic awards are pretty difficult to get (esp. special achievement awards) and statistically more competitive than receiving a YoungArts award, but YoungArts’ pool is more self-selecting imo. For reference, YoungArts had about 10,000 applicants last year I think, whereas Scholastic had 340,000 entries. . .
Scholastic tends to reward work across a broad spectrum of themes, voices, styles, etc. whereas YoungArts seems to be more picky and niche about what they like (in other words, more subjective). Also, YoungArts doesn’t publish the work of its winners (there’s videos online of them performing/reading stuff, but still. . .) so it’s harder to get an idea of what they’re looking for. They’re both prestigious contests though, and winning an award in either one is an accomplishment! Good luck
Hello, I applied to Visual Arts. I talked with several YoungArts alumni, most of which were finalists. They told me that one of the most important pieces of your portfolio is the Statement, since it explains who you are and what the art means to you. Everything, from the order of the pieces to their titles, mediums, et cetera, must have a reason of being.
That being said… I don’t think I have a chance! The few photos I’ve seen of art exhibits of the Finalist winners show pieces that are huge, experimental, and seem so new. My work is by no means that, so I think I have very little of a chance.
Hey guys, on the status heading for my youngarts submission, it says my submission is ‘submitted’ but not ‘pending.’ Does that mean anything?
@FlameAlchemist So does mine, but I would be hesitant to jump to conclusions about its meaning
@Pentatonix123 Yeah, you’re probably right. I doubt it means anything. It’s just so close to finalist notification that I guess I’m a bit jumpy, lol.?
Are we expecting Finalist notifications this week or next?
@kdm1582 I think it’s next week, but I could be wrong.