obscurefemale

Yes I believe it's been posted before. But it is hilarious and deserves to be posted again! My adviser actually sent me this when I asked him if we could sit down and talk about PhD programs.

I was actually bit a surprised to see that on the results board. I heard from the department that they aren't sending out notifications for another two weeks.

Isn't Whitney Chadwick at SFSU? She's a big name and a phenomenal teacher...

Right...but that doesn't exactly answer my question. What are those terms?

So I've noticed on this forum that Cornell's Phd program receives a lot of flac...it's often cited as one of those examples of "prestige isn't everything." But does anyone have any reasoning for this? Is it just a faculty thing?

I would definitely look into Tufts! (It seems like you are already considering it.) Their grad art history program offers a Museum Studies certificate and they have two very strong medievalists there (Overbey and Hoffman). Tufts might be a great place to bulk up on museum experience while also satisfying your medievalist interests.

Yea...I'm still waiting on BU also. They're taking forever aren't they? I think I remember last year that they didn't notify until the end of March - beginning of April. Best of luck!

Which art history books couldn't you live without? Could be general, methodology or theme specific...you know the books besides Gardner (haha ohhh those were the good days) I'm thinking... Panofsky's Studies in Iconology Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing About Art Broude and Garrard's Reclaiming Female Agency Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World What do ya'll think?

I'm starting to freak out that I haven't heard from any schools even tho I've seen people post their acceptances/rejections/waitlists for the schools I've applied to on the results board. Do schools usually do separate rounds of rejections and acceptances? Mostly I'm thinking of Williams...I saw two acceptances and one waitlist by email. I wonder if they've already made all their decisions and I'm getting rejected? But if so why haven't I received an email? I can't imagine they'd accept people by email and reject them by snailmail? Also I keep checking my Tufts status online and I see nothing. Does anyone know how these places send out rejections and acceptances? And do any of the Williams people know if they've already finished accepting students? Freaking out!

I can top that! I accidentally sent the SOP for my dream school to my 2nd choice school...you know the one that I would have been more likely to get into if I hadn't sent them an SOP talking about another school as my first choice.

Sorry for the second topic in so short of a time! But I thought this might be a good place to distract ourselves from all those gloom and doom thoughts running rampant in our skulls! Okay if I'm rejected from all my schools I'm going to be...a farmer. My boyfriend said he wants to live on a farm so we'll get a farm, live on it, I'll milk cows and have lots of babies and read art history textbooks when I'm not slaughtering chickens. Either that or I'll apply to some programs in the Netherlands. Or possibly look into a Library Science degree? So people...back up plans? What do you secretly want to be if Art History fails you? Any astronauts out there?

Also wondering...I saw on last years results that Tufts seems to accept by phone? I'm actually in Germany right now working on my shrecklich Deutsch. Obviously my phone is turned off though I'm pretty sure I set up a voice message saying that I'm out of the country until August and to email me at my email etc. Do you think I should email Tufts and let them know? Or will that seem too presumptuous?

I know! I love Williams but it's so hard to get into that I just want to get the rejection over and done with! Do you know how many people they usually accept? Around 12 or more?

Hey AH people...just out of curiosity...which schools are you waiting on? And are you all spazzing out as much as I am? Waiting: Williams, American, Tufts, and BU Rejected: UMD College Park (booo...)

No I didn't get an email from them....what did the email say if you don't mind me asking? I kind of gave up on Tufts anyway after I accidentally attached my Williams statement of purpose to the online app. I called them and told them and they said I could mail them a hard copy with my supplemental materials. But I'm pretty sure that sending the wrong personal statement is a guaranteed method to the trash can. Haha oh welll....let me know what happens!

Thanks for all the responses guys...I feel a little bit better. Hopefully we all end up at the perfect university...ahhh!

Ah! So the other week (actually the morning I was leaving for my 6 month trip to Germany...) I received a rejection letter from UMD College Park for their MA program. I'm majorly stressing out because I definitely thought College Park was going to be the easiest school to get into for their MA program. I have a 3.99999 whatever GPA (only one B+ my entire time at college and that was in French class), a 5.5 on my writing GRE and 720 for my vocab. I had great LORs (including one from the curator of painting and sculpture at the MOMA in SF) and have had three great internships. I'm a very strong writer and I had a million people go over my writing sample and LOP. I just don't understand what could have gone wrong? Any ideas? I'm just extremely anxious because if I didn't get into UMD I don't see how I'll get into any of the other programs I applied to. (Williams, Tufts, BU, and American...all MA programs) Also I should mention that it is doubly weird for this rejection since I'm an MD resident and pretty much my entire family went to UMD. I was also accepted into their BA program but I didn't feel like going to college with my entire high school since UMD loves to keep most of its population mostly instate.

Have you looked at the U. Virginia? They're really well known for for Ancient Roman/Greek etc...you should check it out!

Yea...I definitely thought it was some weird tricky thing they were trying to do by asking you that question. However, after asking my professor it seems as if its merely for statistical purposes. So that College X can see whether College Y and Z are being considered along with them. She wasn't 100% positive but I think the fact it's always an optional question seems to make it a pretty good theory.

Yes definitely! I'm an excellent editor and would love to help anyone out! And once I write mine I'd love for anyone else to provide feedback! Just hit me up!

Haha good call. I tend to ramble as well so that's a good approach! I'll definitely try that. Thanks!

My absolutely least favorite part of applications (I contemn {yes GRE vocab word...} them as much as cover letters for job apps...)! Any advice from those in the know or veterans of the task? I always feel so contrived when writing them. Some questions that come to mind...if a college doesn't give a minimum or maximum length...how long should they be? What should you talk about? What order should things go in? What's the most important thing to include? I know that you're supposed to talk about the professors you want to study with and why you like the school but I have a feeling that the school already knows why I'm interested in studying there. For example, I'm considering Williams College and I have a sneaky suspicion that they already know they're probably one of the most renown art history institutions with an awesome graduate studies symposium and interesting study abroad opportunity. So wouldn't it be redundant if I talk about all of that? Unless they're really into hearing about how awesome they are? For those that are curious I have my BA in Art History/Arts Management and my field of interest is Feminist Studies in the Baroque period (haven't decided on Northern or Southern...that's what an MA is for though I suppose!) specifically images of Biblical heroines/villains as well as self-portraiture.

Honestly, some advice (and I hate to be the negative nancy) for you is that I would definitely not bank on going straight to a PhD program...definitely look into some Master's programs as well. I made the same mistake applying for grad school 09...I thought I'd just apply to PhD programs and got rejected from all 5 schools I applied to (Northwestern, Brown, NYU, BU, and Bryn Mawr) I graduated summa cum laude, 4.0, 700 verbal GRE score, great references, curatorial internship at MOMA plus two other museum internships. I was pretty devastated obviously but after talking to a lot different people (including my grandfather's friend...a professor of history at Harvard) it had nothing to do with myself but the fact that I was just coming out of undergrad school. Most PhD Art History programs want to see either a Masters, publications, or other relevant experience in the art history world. Anyways, unless you are graduating from an Ivy League or are an older student...definitely apply to some MA programs as well. MA programs are more willing to accept students right out of undergrad school especially if you have the grades, writing skills and experience. Needless to say I'm pretty nervous about applying for round 2 here in 2010. I'm definitely only applying to MA programs - my top choice is American U...I'm really into feminist methodology and Norma Broude & Mary Garrard are my heroes! I really hope I will get in...the first round of applying has really shaken my confidence.