m-ttl

I think I might just send out Graduation/Acceptance announcements. People will either simply congratulate me or congratulate me and send me money. I don't think it's necessary to state it outright, you can simply say something like: "CLASS OF 2014, STATE UNIVERSITY M-TLL GRADUATE. M-ttl is celebrating her upcoming graduation from STATE UNIVERSITY and acceptance to the PhD program in Art History at OTHER UNIVERSITY and upcoming move to NEW CITY, NEW STATE. If you are able, please join us for a celebration at ADDRESS on GRADUATION PARTY DATE, and RSVP at PHONE NUMBER HERE." I'm not going to my commencement ceremony, but instead having a party for my family. And I'm guessing a moving announcement combined with grad announcement and new school announcement is also the classiest "give me money, please, I'm moving thousands of miles away." statement you can come up with. I mean you're not really being coy. People know why you send graduation announcements. It's for money. I wouldn't ask for money outright simply because it's redundant. I have a toooon of extended family, so I figure I'll send them to everyone and then instruct my Nana with what is needed when asked (she is generally the go-to for word of mouth in my family) -- Money, gift cards to Ikea: Target, Crate and Barrel, etc, and certain specific regional/family items that I would love to have in my new home if I was gifted with them. EG: For my HS graduation, someone in my family hand crafted me a stained glass ornament I could hang. I'd love to be able to say: "Me and my roommate would like nice cast iron pans" but also I'd rather have the cash to buy it myself since I'm moving so far.

Agreed. Said friend spent a summer at a local (to her) naval museum doing work with/for them and then applied to her MA at UF. The small history museum gave her tons of experience while everyone else fought over the Smithsonian and other such large museum internships. I had the opportunity at home to choose between an internship with the flagship art museum of my state, or the slightly less well known one in my grandparent's home city. I chose the smaller one, lived at home, and got twice the hands on experience that I would have gotten at the bigger museum. My curator/supervisor was amazing, and I still work with her on research projects. Although I didn't work with the contemporary curator (it's not my area, really) I was still exposed to contemporary work. Big takeaway advice #1: the best preparation for a career working in a museum is to work in a museum, and the smaller places often need your help more, and can give you a lot of direct skills, even if you don't love the size. Gallery work can also be helpful to an extent - I did a gallery internship and discovered...I don't want to work in a gallery. But I did installation work, I made tombstone labels, catalogued, organized their storage, and got some retail experience while I was at it (great back up job skill, no?). Getting gallery or museum volunteer work means you just need one person to take a chance on you. Big takeaway advice #2: I often fondly refer to what I do as "art history plus some". For folks driven to be curators, you'll want a strong research background in art history (like you were saying, take art history classes, prove your mettle, write some stellar papers), and on top of that you need to gain museum experience somehow. You have to do both, otherwise you'll be unprepared for your desired career at the end of a PhD or MA in Art History. I had an ABD TA who lamented that she had never really waded into the museum waters, and by that point she was years behind those who did gain some experience with that.

I would just check if Columbia's program has minimum cut-offs. If they don't I would worry a little but not so much about Quant scores. I bombed mine and came from "not so special state school" and it apparently didn't matter that much, but I didn't apply anywhere with cut-offs. I'm inclined to think that A.) most committees don't care overly much if you can do algebra and B.) an amazing application in total is more important to them, eg: SOP, rec letters, experience, etc. AFAIK, the auditing won't actually affect your not-so great GPA though, so you'd need letters probably from said professors as your recommendations explaining you were an A student? I'm not sure how that would end up working out!

I think to expound on this point a little more: The choice of you degree should follow what you want to do. If you don't want to do curation, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the PhD, because the majority of educators have MAs. You can still get a PhD in art history, but admitting you want to work in a museum rather than become a r-1 professor can be a bit trickier, and you would ideally hunt down specific programs that believe in prepping students for museum work if they would like that option. The difference is the educator doesn't need the PhD, but they still do plenty of research on the art since they're going to be teaching people about it. I think both are great - and most educators and curators I know agree that education is broad knowledge, and curation is depth of knowledge in terms of what you research. There are very few jobs, but even less Professor jobs. That said, I knew going in from my mentor friend (who is an educator) that this was true even before the economic crash. You have to really foster your connections and you absolutely need to be okay with "paying your dues" so to speak. My friend worked for awhile doing retail jobs before she got a front desk job at a museum and was able to meet the head of the education department at a different museum. That connection didn't turn into anything right away, but after a few years post-MA of retail/reception at a museum, her MA + MA experience + Museum front desk job turned into a "You should really submit your resume for this opening we have" from her contact which ended up being a job. If museums are your passion, then you'll find a way to make it work. A museum studies/museum ed MA will have you complete internship requirements. This is because like Greenepony pointed out, lots of jobs want years of experience. Back when I was still considering applying to museum studies programs for an MA (my BA is already in that!), I looked at San fran state -- and saw they wanted a full year of prior work or interning experience at one institution before applying (being a student, much of my experience is semester long). So in a few cases, people do treat this like a professional program where they want experience first and then for you to apply. That can be a catch-22, you have no experience, so you can't apply anywhere because you have no experience. My advice is to go small and local first. It will be hands on, and much of the time, they're grateful for the help. If you balanced say, an internship or volunteer experience with art history classes, a french or german class, and an extra class (Education based if you want to be an educator, or perhaps chem/drawing for a conservator, etc) then you could easily prep yourself for either the MA if you choose that route, or more seriously prepare for a PhD.

Oooh, update: Pine Brook called me and said they changed their declaw policy and don't really care if cats have claws. They were very assuring about it, and I said I knew it seemed like a small concern but was grateful they assuaged it. Think I can live with ugly carpets, haha! I'll save for a rug.

My recommendation: Get some experience interning with an education department, or docenting! If you want to teach in a museum, you don't necessarily need a PhD at all. It's loads of fun, but it is best to know exactly what that's like ahead of time. The MA would suffice -- you could choose museum studies, or a contemporary/modern art history MA. I say that knowing museum educator, and a curator of education. One has her MA in museum studies, and the other in art history. Check out the CAA programs guide to get a feel for if the museum studies programs are more or less appealing than the MA/PhD programs to you. Plenty of museum studies programs will allow you to work with contemporary/modern art and train you for museum work which is not curatorial focused. They also don't always have the language requirement, whereas art history almost always does. Definitely find internships, volunteer work, or even work a front desk job at a museum!

I'm not sure why chemistry would be necessary unless you are hoping to do conservation work? If you are you would probably be looking at chemistry/material sciences and fine arts in addition to art history. Are you interested in the art history of fine arts? Or would costuming history be equally acceptable? There's an MA in Costume Studies http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/art/costume/ which can be combined with a MLS. I thought that looked amazing! If you have a specific field of focus in Art History, you will want to have french or german, plus whatever language would be most helpful to your field. (Be it Latin, Spanish, Italian, etc). What are your end goals?

Oooh I'm a massive to-do list nut: Clean my place, and donate, donate, donate! There's a lot of stuff I shouldn't keep during a move. I just need to cut down my collection of "stuff" by a lot. I've ended up with multiple free museum catalogues and academic journals thanks to professors and curators "cleaning out" so maybe I should actually read some of those. If you're moving, now would be a great last time to check out exhibitions at local museums! I'm going to create a plan of attack combining duolingo - French and my French for Reading book. Personally I really enjoy Joseph Campbell's works regarding imagery, myth, narrative, etc and think they can be applicable and enjoyable reads. TED talks also have an app and are free online. Museum podcasts and Itunes U for sure.

I think for many of us, the difference between an unfunded Tufts or Williams degree and MAPH is that the degree is two solid years in Art History which is preferable for someone who knows they want an Art History PhD. The concerns I laid out: It's essentially a moneymaker, there's no traditional language prep (like there would be at say, Williams) although you can enroll in language courses, which is nice, you start your thesis basically while PhD apps would be due, and thus the program admits applying during the process would be difficult. What you described: the success of some, and the failure of others, is how a lot of programs work. The key success point you noted was that some of them fostered valuable relationships, and others didn't. Other questions which I feel would be fair: How many classes had "repeat" professors in only 1 year? How did you get to know them if you didn't take classes with the same people? What do you do if someone you're interested is on leave? Are there MAPH events? Can you attend department meetings or use departmental resources? How was your Autumn advisor assigned - was it based on your SOP? Did you get along with your Preceptor? Do you feel that program works, and is a Preceptor assigned based on your SOP/interests or at random? Is it helpful to have a doctoral student guide you on your thesis, or can you also ask for a professor's help?

I second TakeruK, and politely suggest if this is a serious concern of yours, that you contact the school's disability services center just to get a feel for how slight mobility issues would play out on campus. If walking long distances is as much of a problem as you say it is, their disability services center should be able to guide you and help you with the walkability and accessibility of any given campus. They are probably much better equipped to give you suggestions than we are! Better to narrow down school choices based on actual studies/research/POIs first, and then contact the DRC before you apply. I couldn't possibly name such campuses in any helpful way without knowing your field, and I suspect I'd only be able to link you to their DRC pages even then.

Generally speaking, if you accept an offer, the polite thing to do is to decline all other offers because you are freeing up the wait list by doing so.

Sounds like Pine Brook is my best option. My roommate might have a car, but I can't rely on her for going to class! Still I'm MASSIVELY concerned with the fact that they require cats be declawed. It's really inhumane and I'd RATHER pay steep damages or not get my safety deposit back. I want a kitty but don't want to brutalize them to do it. I was going to go with colonial garden but...they asked me for my hair/eye color and weight?? On the waitlist application??

Because as I have repeatedly stated, I have been informed by a wide variety of professionals the pitfalls of paying for an MA completely. (Also come on, UChi isn't even an Ivy school. Let's not kid ourselves here.) Because as I am pointing out, and as Borden pointed out, your cases of financial feasibility are the outliers, and recommending the program BROADLY from the start when there are other, more feasible options available IS you expecting the vast majority of people to be able to do what you did. My lack of experience is going to put me in $0 more debt. I am criticizing any option which is presented above the free or considerably cheaper and equally good options to potential upcoming applicants. I've never been the only one: From the English forums: http://theprofessori...ant-guest-post/ I'll point out that it's unnecessary to act as if my advice is completely individualized simply because I vehemently rejected the MAPH as irresponsible for me financially when swagato tried to pitch it to me. All it takes is a quick search of this forum "MAPH" to run across dozens of other similar comments to mine. Since the people having "moral objections" in my circles have been tenured professors with PhDs, I see nothing wrong with listening. Look if you're rolling in cash, literally nothing is stopping you but your pride. Everyone knows people with money have more options -- the advice of this forum tends to be for the median student who probably already has prior debt to consider and based on the BROADER accepted ideas about humanities funding. As for the purpose of the thread, since the questions I did raise: are you prepared for the language requirements? do you do internships while taking coursework (apparently only after?) went unanswered... My initial misunderstanding -- teaching is not tutoring, and I assumed you applied straight out of the gate -- is my own error. (My own major was museum studies which meant my methods course was directly in art history. I've also taken museology methods based courses.)

My undergraduate major is not in art history either... I still took a methods class because I was required to, and because I knew I wanted to go to grad school. If you have to apply during fall and winter, you still would have had plenty of time to take a methods class in the spring. I am sensing you probably didn't ask professors what would prepare you for the very thing you wanted to do. They probably could have told you why applying only to the Ivies was a bad gamble even for a perfect applicant. I have no desire to rainbow-piss here. What I AM saying is that right now, today, at my university there was a rather large conference on-going wherein one of my professors live-tweeted and other uni-profs and guest speakers in academia criticized this very same model for all the reasons I've outlined. When an entire conference of professionals meets to say: "Hey this is really bad for our field, how can we stop this and/or fix it?" I am inclined to believe them that it is a problem. (They discussed: The danger of unfunded grad programs, the risky behavior in taking more students than can be funded, the need to downsize classes and fund more, the future of PhDs, the future of an influx of MAs and PhDs, balancing this, and emphasized strongly not to profit from students.) A wide variety of professionals don't simply talk because they're "paranoid". All my advisors didn't just up and decide "Paying money = bad." for no reason. I don't "hate" you. I think the program takes advantage of students and is risky in an undesirable way. Also given that funded and stipend-ed offers in the MA world do exist, I don't think MAPH is necessarily cheaper by any means. Everyone here is a person of hubris, we just try not to be victims of ourselves. Your qualitative pros are basically that they taught you things and you became a better scholar. Bluntly put: every graduate program should do that. Why choose MAPH over something else?

I also went to a large state school (as well as a smaller LAC) so the idea that a student would pay more to relearn things they should have already learned, could have studied in their own time, or are standard for learning at the graduate level is disconcerting to me. Art History Research methods is a required course at my school, and a minimum of two internships to graduate. I understand after the fact that the fact that getting the offer I did directly following my BA is almost unheard of (especially coming from a school which doesn't even make the top 100), but I think it's still fair to reject the commodification of the humanities degree because it takes advantage of people. I see absolutely zero difference between this scenario, and the for-profit BFA school problem. Students are warned away from going to for-profit art schools because the program cares about making money first, and everything else second. You may have great teachers and learn a lot at a for-profit art school, and you may even have a successful career afterwards, but you are still being used as a cash flow. The same seems to apply here: your desire to learn and better yourself as an applicant shouldn't be predicated on your ability to pay them for graduate studies. It's taking advantage of you, and as of right now, none of us can really determine the win/loss ratio happening right now. There are plenty of other MA programs available whose reputations don't center around being cash cows. Supporting these generalized cash funds as "good educational options" isn't just potentially mildly risky to the individual, it opens up space for the acceptance of this in the field, and the lowering of value placed on the students rather than the income they can bring in. I wish you all the absolute best, but I can't see supporting this program as a kindness to the future health of the field and have had various professors vehemently state much of the same - it's not good for us, or anyone. I think it would be wiser to choose a less expensive, or partially supported MA that may be less name brand than to encourage people to fork over money for a generalized MA and a maybe success. Applicants deserve to not be treated like income. The website states you need special permission to enroll in seminar courses. My critiques are: 1. A mere six internships isn't much - especially if your cohort is larger than say, ten. I say that as someone as (like I said) required to do two for my BA. I've done at least four. You should easily, especially in Chicago, be able to do far more than a single internship. 2. That the program is explicitly for people unsure or unprepared and then wants to profit off of that is exactly why I object. Exploring your options should be free. Why pay money to prepare for uncertainty? If you want to obtain a PhD go to an Academic MA. If you don't, find one equally suitable (e.g. Museum Studies) which is more practically oriented. Both will have academic and/or professional aspects. I've never heard of a program that didn't at least touch upon both. 3. Of course you have yet to see anything trump Chicago. You've been to what, three schools? Are we supposed to use a non-quantitative barometer here of your personal gut feeling for an important, educational and financial decision? You could (and many do) get equally great instruction and rigor elsewhere. 4. While you may have had zero experience in art history (??? Why not take a few community college courses to at least test the waters??), the OP has a minor in it, and claims they went to a great school. So why pay so much money to attend MAPH? Other rejections aside, if they had truly believed they wanted to be a PhD a year ago, why not spend a year gaining experience and then reapply to full or partially funded MAs? If they thought they knew what they wanted then, why attend a program for people with zero prior experience, or no solid idea of what they want? Plenty of people change their mind after an MA no matter what, but wouldn't it be ideal to make sure that choice cost you very little?

Gotta love family! I told my ahead of time (to great protests!) that I wasn't going to inform them until I'd chosen a school (which I have), but also that I wanted to surprise them. I ordered like "____ UNIVERSITY MOM" mugs and "_____ U DAD" window clings and so on so it's going to be a to-do I'm also going to rather lovingly write down where exactly the Catholic Newman center is on campus for my Nana (and where the other local churches and/or cathedral is) because I know she won't rest until she knows they are nearby if I "need absolutely anything at all." My cousin who is about three years younger than me decided he wanted to move to seattle, so my Nana immediately google mapped the nearby churches to the apartment he was staying in. Anything less than that and I'll be receiving detailed emails and step by step directions. Someone also taught her how to use skype so when I first went to college I lied and said I didn't have an account so I wouldn't have to carry her on my laptop around campus as per her requests... This upcoming week is my spring break, which will make it easiest to "tell".

I think my apprehensiveness of the program is not based on quality of what they do, but that the program itself seems to have unclear goals. It's not a straight up MA in Art History (Williams, as far as I know, does try to fund students), and it's only a year long. From what you said, it essentially sounds like a general advanced humanities prep degree (which can focus on art history!) but if it wasn't to prep you personally for a PhD, what does it prep you for? Alternative options all have their own MAs - Museum studies, cultural preservation, public history, arts administration, etc. It sounds, essentially, like a very expensive career exploration class combined with a strong foundation in art historiography, theory, and criticism from a really well known university. That's mostly my problem -- that they've made a cash cow out of uncertainty about what to do next. Can you complete your language requirements for a PhD in that time like you could at Williams? How many internships can you complete (are you required to complete them)? I would recommend any serious potential graduate student begin reading books on Art history theory and criticism long before they start applying to PhD programs. To talk with their advisors about theory and method. If you went to such a great undergraduate school, surely some of these things should have been available to you? I don't want to be rude or confrontational but these are all things that my not so ranked university had available. It seems like the program is designed to prepare students who weren't ready for graduate studies -- but if you're not going on to obtain your PhD, was the program even necessary? I would be especially discerning that if I was going to undertake such a program, it would be because the end goals I had in mind would be reached, or that at the very least I would be fully prepared for them. I feel like I'm largely skeptical because the entire premise of the program's worth is that UChi is 1.) very famous and 2.) very rigorous at teaching things that are also rigorously taught elsewhere. (Also that you cannot take any seminar courses seems detrimental to me) The very fact that the program must be constantly defended (whereas other MAs rarely need such defense) sets alarm bells off in my mind.

Yeah (I am) but I hear they do like a spread out notification? I have conveniently not told my family anything yet...partially for this very reason.

I turned down a school explaining the package wasn't enough and I was regretfully turning it down in favor of a funded program and they wrote back asking if I was serious about turning them down or would still consider it if more money was found. Awkward? I don't want to have to explain why it's financially impossible for me...

Yeah I totally want to know if I got in, haha. Also what is an "EXPLODING OFFER" ?

Not to be rude, but don't you feel the financial aspect is the single most important part of undertaking an unfunded MA? It seems like this is the sort of decision you admit: A.) Won't hold true for everyone, and B.) that you don't yet know how it will affect you later on? Personally, I just turned down an MA program that essentially wanted $80,000 out of pocket from me for two years. It would have literally been cheaper to not graduate from my BA and spend another year as an undergraduate taking internships and more art history classes! If the problem is lack of coursework preparation and field experience, do you have a reason why you chose to spend money on an unfunded MA as opposed to simply taking non-degree graduate coursework at a university and interning/working/volunteering? Is that not as feasible a route in your mind? Many of these opportunities have been available to me elsewhere, and for free! re: "Horrors of the job market" stories, it's usually free or dirt cheap to take a professor or museum professional out for coffee and ask them about what they do, how they got there, etc. In fact, one of my professors required us to interview 5 different professionals -- her claim was that enough people are willing to talk about themselves that she's never had a student unable to get into contact with so many people. I guess my main question is: when cheaper or free options are available, what made the steep costs seem worth it?

Hahahaha I got accepted to Bard Graduate Center.....and they wanted $20,000 per year in loans and that didn't even cover the $60,000 projected total costs. YIKES. Absolutely no way to even live off of loans alone. Guess I was right in thinking it was a school for the rich :/ Disappointing but solidifies my school choice elsewhere.

Oh!!! I didn't realize I didn't specify. I am ABSOLUTELY going to adopt, and am open to older cats (and black cats which often struggle to be adopted). One of my best friends is a cat rescue volunteer and got her cat during her MA. I've only ever adopted from no-kill shelters before, I wouldn't dream of going to a cat breeder or pet store.

Makes complete sense! I looked at UK prices and went "Nah." In that case, I'd definitely live in dorm housing. Probably the better option, in terms of stress! Wheee a third acceptance.

Yeah, I thought it was weird? They definitely accepted me, but put me on WL for the money. But like I said, it looks like I'm going to turn down their (uncertain money) offer in favor of a bigger PhD offer.