I saw her work once, when I visited a painting crit. And it is obviously technically undeveloped compared to her fellow classmates. I don’t think she is operating at a level (yet) to merit the Master’s in Painting from Yale. The work stood out on the wall as “does not belong,” and not of the same caliber as her classmates’ paintings.

But, to be fair to her, I don’t think the school treated her well. This must have been obvious to the school BEFORE admitting her. I think the school was just hoping to make some headlines with their child “prodigy” and then turned their backs on her when she didn’t manage to catch up and they saw they had no chance of producing a star.

She is NOT a prodigy. Sure, smart kids move through homeschool fast when they can learn at their own pace, and then they get into college early because people are impressed by their age. This doesn’t make prodigies! There are many artists her age who are far more advanced painters, both technically and conceptually, but those seem to end up as undergrads, and at Cooper, MICA, Cranbrook, RISD, and similar. Hardworking, smart, and ambitious – yes, clearly. Talented – maybe a little, but nothing out of the ordinary. Prodigy – no.

No, she doesn’t deserve a Master’s degree from Yale. Not YET. Yes she has an undergrad in painting, but from a school that has lower standards than the ones mentioned above. Yale doesn’t admit sub-par grads from uncompetitive schools without Osberg’s compelling age narrative. Her work was naive and not ready for the cut-throat, art-market, history-theory-criticism environment of Yale. But, as a young person with ambition, she could’ve kept on as an autodidact – or if she wanted to be more formal about it, go back and do a 2nd undergrad degree at one of those aforementioned schools, and then apply to Yale when her work is up to par. I am not saying that she is untalented or unintelligent- just agreeing with the Yale painting department that she is not ready for graduate school.

That said – Yale did admit her, and while her work truly wasn’t up to par from what I saw (around midterms) and I suppose they have the right to dismiss her – it their own fault. There is just no way her admission portfolio had stronger work. Maybe they should just take the hit and let her graduate, although I don’t know why she’d want to, after being rejected. It’s a tricky situation. I think they should at least give her some kind of tuition refund and some SERIOUS apologies, because this was clearly their blunder.

PS I am not an art student, just hang around them.