brown_eyed_girl

I was told by all my advisers that the topic was irrelevant as long it was a well-written AH paper, but I'm sure it varies by school/dept/POI preference. The biggest refrain I heard in asking what kind of paper to submit was "whatever you consider to be your best work." In any case, hopefully the topic you choose is something to which you don't mind dedicating many hours.

I wouldn't submit a linguistics thesis because it really won't give admissions committees an idea of your knowledge and writing style for art history. Usually departments specify "art history paper," sometimes with a note that another Humanities paper is acceptable, but Linguistics is on the border between humanities and sciences so that becomes even riskier. My feeling is that it may be easier to rework/rewrite one of your existing term papers than to start from scratch, but you probably have a better sense of whether that is feasible. Length-wise, you can check the length requirements on the department websites to which you're thinking of applying. In my experience, MA programs often have a max length around 15 pages and PhD programs often have a cap at 20 pages, though some have a 30-page maximum length. I only applied to PhD programs, and since some of the programs had a 20 page max I made my paper slightly shorter than that so that it would be 20 including bibliography, just to stay on the safe side. (Obviously quality is more important than length as long as you don't go over the cap, and I talked to some admissions people who said a 10 page paper would be fine if that's the best example of your writing and you're coming out of undergrad without having written an AH thesis). The basic goal is to demonstrate your writing and research abilities. In terms of format/style, you might want to take a look at a book like "A Short Guide to Writing about Art" to get some general guidelines. Of course, reading articles in your field is another obvious way to get a feel for the style/format of discourses in your discipline. And definitely reach out to some of your AH professors for help and guidance. Not only will they be a great resource for helping you with refining something into a viable writing sample, but it will also open the door for a dialogue about grad school and your interests. You'll definitely need recommendations from AH professors.

I've lived in a 400 square foot studio for four years, and I love it. Personally I'd way rather have location, a building and landlord you like, and a cute space with less square footage. A small space doesnt' have to mean not entertaining - I have a "living area" and a bedroom area, and friends love my little apartment. It also means you save money on rent that you can use to decorate.

My test scores did not change much from Powerprep, even after studying (I took PP before studying to gauge where I was). I went up 2 points on the math and down 1 point on the verbal.

I'll be 25 when I start my program so I'm not exactly in your shoes, but I am very petite and look young, and I've found that (in various professional scenarios) putting a little extra effort into dressing in a way that's polished and pulled-together makes a big difference in how you're perceived. And finding a flattering hair style and doing regular upkeep on it (for either gender) and wearing a little understated makeup (if you're female). Nice shoes and a nice jacket are very helpful in getting taken seriously/not looking 15, for either gender, even on a day when you're just wearing jeans.

I agree that I'd take into consideration the strength/reputation of the overall department, plus your fit with other faculty. Even if your professor does not leave during your time at the institution (if a star professor is in a lesser dept you have good reason to wonder whether they will get a better offer in the next few years) and is committed to working closely with you, you want to make sure that you can take classes and seek advice from other people in the dept. And when it comes to hiring, employers may be familiar with the best departments but not the best prof within each subfield. You may also want to take into consideration other resources in the vicinity of the schools (i.e. could you cross-enroll at nearby campuses to take classes with other top people? are there good facilities for your field in the area where you can get hands on experience?) Another big factor is funding... Duke certainly has more money than the UCs, and UC funding gets cut all the time. Ultimately of course, you should go with what feels right to you!

Wow. So sorry. And... this is exactly why I've been holding off on making a Facebook announcement of my admission before I get my final GSAS letter.

Re: clothes. I think this varies a lot by department. I majored in Art History at a top-25 university (top 15 AH dept) and my TAs were all very fashion-forward women. TAs in other departments at my school wore jeans, but Art History TAs tended to be very well-dressed (an artsy version of business casual). I've also seen studies that professionally dressed TAs are rated more highly by students and have better learning outcomes, so I wouldn't discount the importance of personal presentation. Getting ready to enroll in a AH PhD program this fall, what to wear as a TA has been on my mind... Luckily I took a year off to work so I'm not totally at a loss for professional clothes. I'm actually looking forward to being able to dress more casually day to day - but as a petite 24-year-old woman, I also want to make sure I don't get mistaken for an undergrad and make good impressions when networking.

Who are the other Columbia admits? Are you going to the Open House? I suppose we'll meet soon enough but I'd love to connect with you guys beforehand.

Don't write yourself off yet! It ain't over till it's over, and you sound like you have a very strong background. But if you don't get in anywhere, another issue could be over-saturation in your field, or that your potential advisers weren't jazzed about your topic. What is your focus? (I imagine I have an edge in that my research interest is extremely specific and not common, so there are fewer applicants and even fewer good applicants.)

I did an unpaid museum internship (on top of paid work at a gallery) while in school and for a few months thereafter, but I was enticed to do the internship because I was told there was a full-time job prospect (curatorial Research Assistant) for me down the line (which there was). I wouldn't do an unpaid gallery internship unless there is a promise of job openings down the line, or unless you can't find anything else in your field and need to build your resume. That said, this is coming from someone for whom moving home to take an unpaid gig post-grad was not an option. In light of that fact, I hustled a lot during UG to find relevant paid work, and made a 100-mile round-trip commute on the weekends to work at a gallery that offered me a job just to build that experience. I didn't have much social life, but I did build up decent paid experience in the art world before graduation and therefore wouldn't have felt that I had anything to gain from an unpaid gallery gig.

If you don't meet stated GPA cutoffs, you could take some more AH courses at a community college (as long as you get As in them) to bring your GPA up slightly and prove your continued interest in the field. I also wouldn't apply right out of undergrad since your academics won't carry you -- find a museum, gallery, or art nonprofit job to show you are employable and motivated. Also, Art History programs will need longish (15-20 pages usually) writing samples, so see if there's an undergrad thesis option in your program or whether you can work on an independent research project with a member of AH faculty.

Umm... really? I did quite well on the GRE (other than quant), thank you very much.

Well, I hadn't heard anything from any of the 5 places I applied until yesterday, so I wouldn't despair yet! I was starting to fear it would be all rejections for me too. Re: writing sample: my advisers told me that you will be viewed very differently if you have an MA versus coming from undergrad. If you already have an MA, then WS should demonstrate your ability to do original research and ask interesting research questions, plus of course write well and have a meticulous bibliography. I applied with only an undergrad degree, so I was told that it's much more about having a very strong thesis, writing well and clearly, and having a meticulous biblio and footnotes -- less emphasis on originality. From what I've been told a great deal also comes down to SOP and your fit with the department/POI. And of course work experience in your field (beyond internships, ideally).

You may also want to look at U of Michigan (Nachiket Chanchani), NYU (Barry Flood, Dipti Khera), and UCLA (Saloni Mathur, Bob Brown). I'd also consider which schools are located in cities with substantial South Asian collections, and which schools have strong language and history departments to supplement the art history training (since few places have more than one South Asian specialist in Art History, and you may want to have adjacent fields available to you). Boston, NY, and LA all have very good South Asian museum collections, for example - which could prove a useful resource to your study and also be potential places to intern or work.

Hi guys, I'm hoping some of you may have insight on whether I should retake the GRE before I apply to grad school. I've taken it once and scored 166 V (96th percentile), 150 Q (41st %), and 5 AW (87th %). (According to ETS, this is equivalent to 700 V, 630 Q in the old scoring system.) I'm hoping to apply to top PhD programs in Art History - Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Penn, Michigan, Chicago. My verbal is in the right range, but my math is obviously low. Given that Math is pretty irrelevant to Art History and I've always been terrible at it, I don't want to spend the next few months cramming high school math to raise my Q score if I don't have to. Then again, I don't want an average GRE score to keep me out of top programs. I'm also a little nervous to retake because I'm not sure that I can improve my V & AW scores, and certainly don't want them to drop. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Should I bother retaking? To put this in a bit of perspective, here are my other stats: I just graduated summa cum laude -- 4.0, College Honors program, did a departmental honors thesis. My work experience is in museum education, research, and gallery sales. I believe I will have strong recommendations. I'm also a URM, if that provides a boost. Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you.

Hi guys, I just took the GRE for the first time and my unofficial scores on the screen at the end of the test were 166 Verbal, 150 quant (no essay scores yet). (According to ETS, this is equivalent to 700 V, 630 Q in the old scoring system.) I'm currently a senior at UCLA with a 4.0 in the honors program, and I expect to have strong recommendations. Do you think my scores are okay, or should I try to raise my quant score? I, too, was a little put off by Columbia's desired 160 Q score... and hope ProspectStu is right about it being a clerical error! I've noticed that U of Chicago doesn't even mention math scores on their website so that makes me feel a bit better. I'm thinking of applying to PhD programs at Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Chicago, U Michigan. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!