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klondike

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    someplace
  • Application Season
    2014 Fall
  • Program
    art history

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  1. Does anyone have an idea of what is expected in the "autobiography" requested by CASVA? I have ideas/strategies, but since they'll already have our CVs, transcripts and a variety of research statements, I'm a bit unsure what to focus on. This is the last piece of the application I have left and everyone I know seems equally confused. I know it's a relatively minor part of the application, but if anyone has received concrete advice on what to focus on, I'd appreciate any tips!
  2. Not in the US, but if you would also look at Canada, Katherine Hacker at the University of British Columbia is great.
  3. I had my first class and of course when asked "what do you expect from this course" I would be the one to say the stupid thing, that the instructor repeats 3-4 times after our introductions as an example of something the course will and should *not* be doing. And just generally feeling too stupid and scared, wondering if my interest in this field is true or fake. I should have studied biology to become a veterinary nurse, I care about animals a lot more than I care about Hegel. The bus driver made a passive aggressive announcement after I entered at the back of the bus (because that's HOW IT IS in most cities in Europe where there are other options than buying only single tickets) and this lady kept glaring at me for the whole bus ride even though I went up to the front to show him my student bus pass. My good friend who's also come to this country, just on a semester exchange, is also having a horrible time. They still haven't processed my award so I'm running low on money and I can't get any more response than "I'm sure the system is just clogged up." I should have never come here... eek I just need to learn to not be an embarrassing person but I think if I feel this way still in a month I'm going to start the plans to withdraw.
  4. I hate the place I moved to, I just look around and nothing seems right. The apartment I moved into was so filthy - hundreds of spiderwebs and spiders, just disgusting bathroom and kitchen. I was stupid to sign the lease when I visited weeks ago, just after the viewing, without going over things properly. And so much about this country feels annoying and wrong and a hassle. I can't pay my rent with bank transfers. People shout from the very back of the bus "THANKS!" to the bus driver when they're getting off. My bag was searched at the airport. I had to show a receipt for a blender I was bringing with. I feel like I have so much I have to do - review a film's translated subtitles for a friend of a friend by Tuesday, go to 6 meetings, write a shorter version of a paper to make it a conference presentation in 3 weeks, write a grant proposal and an internship proposal in 3-5 weeks, get a bank account, a cell phone, a letter from the immigration saying I can work, a tax number, I need to pack again in 3 weeks to go to a conference, be prepared for that conference, track down the last images I need for my presentation (from people that are now 10 time zones earlier due to where I've moved to), do my taxes for last year still (ugh), send in 2-3 forms telling the government that I've moved, and I start classes in a week so I will have that work on top of this stuff. And it's so dumb and all my fault because I procrastinated this to prioritize doing an art project of my own, which in the end didn't work out. I feel overwhelmed and tired all the time and the only place I have to vent about it is gradcafe...
  5. Well I don't know where this tone is coming from or why it is necessary. I agree that it's common courtesy to let an instructor know you'll miss class - like the others said, a week or so in advance. What does not make sense to me is that I could be dropped from a course for missing one session, and if an instructor would for some reason not want me to miss one session I would be out a lot of money for travel to an international conference that would then not be repaid. Which is why I wrote the post, apologies if you don't think it was necessary. I think part of being responsible for your own education is managing your education yourself, and taking responsibility for your own attendance rather than sitting in a row being counted. Thanks for the responses - I will feel confident to contact the instructors later on.
  6. I would greatly appreciate some advice on this probably simple issue from you kind people! So I'm going to present at a conference in September after I begin my MA program, during the week, and would have to miss two classes. When I consulted my program's graduate advisor she told me she would email the instructors, and "while an instructor could refuse to let you go, none have in the past and I anticipate a positive response." The graduate handbook says if you miss class without having your absence approved the instructor could refuse credit. I have to confirm my place and pay the registration fees (they're reimbursing my travel expenses so this is not a problem for me) by the 30. When I told her this and that, because of travel and to take full advantage of the conference, I would have to miss two classes, she said she would email the instructors at the end of this month "so there are no surprises." The conference is also in a relatively remote area so I have to book my tickets soon as well or they will get too expensive and I might have to pay some of that out of pocket, which I definitely don't want to do. I've since emailed her twice reminding her to ask the instructors and she has responded saying I will hear from her soon, the last time was 10 days ago. So my question is: should I email her again today, or risk it and just assume the instructors will be fine with it in the autumn? I don't want to annoy her, but I also don't want to have spent money on travel and not be reimbursed if an instructor threatens to fail me from a course if I miss one session. As an aside I feel like a baby having to ask permission to miss one session. This is not the way it works in Europe at all.
  7. I would also like to know more about this, I'm not sure how to navigate it. (Preface: humanities-oriented response) I only made a profile after acceptances, but I put up my papers, articles and reviews that have been published (all except one, that was in a student journal in my first year, and I don't put my published fiction etc there). I have only had a few views and none of the documents have been viewed, but I also don't tag them with anything... I've heard that others that are available online in some form have been downloaded a lot. But almost none of the people I follow have posted anything, I think only 5 out of 30. One is a mid-level phd student in art history, and the others are professors and 1 phd student in social science fields. Many people seem to post just titles, at least for some papers including presentations, without attaching the text, so I guess some use it as an online cv (but then they also upload a CV so I don't get it...) It's strange, I have so rarely seen significant people in my field post anything it makes me wonder if I should take my papers down...Or are there privacy features I don't know about that allow you to hide papers from people you don't follow or something else that would explain it? I'm happy with my work and would like it to be widely available, but maybe only having 5-6 things there looks bad? And do people actually send messages on there? It seems like everyone just "follows" people and does nothing else! I don't think I would put anything there that hasn't already been published, it just doesn't seem like what the site is for. I definitely wouldn't put up any writing that I don't feel is publication-ready, but if you would like to share your writing there's no reason why you can't revise your better class papers to something you think is close to publication-quality (and then take it down if/when you feel your writing has advanced) My instinct is to model your page after those of senior grad students/young professors in your field. (hence my own question on whether I should take things down just to conform to how others use the site)
  8. Hello all! I'll be starting my MA in art history at UBC in the fall. A little panicked about housing as well, as I'm not sure I will be able to visit beforehand to find a place. Either I can come for a few days in late July to hopefully go to viewings, or I'll be coming in late August, staying at an airbnb place and hoping for the best...For those of you that live/have lived in Vancouver before, do you think there will be many people showing apartments in July for leases beginning in September? And I think I know the answer to this question, but...would it be prohibitively difficult to commute from the Sunshine Coast? I've seen some ads for small anexes/cabins there that look so lovely, with beautiful views and are incredibly cheap! And I will only have two seminars in my first semester (1 day a week each) and I don't think I'll be TAing until at least the second semester...
  9. Wait. Maybe I am alone in this, but knowing the "content" of these "quizzes" changes everything in my mind. I think everyone above was assuming these were *course-related* quizzes - questions about the material etc. that actually have something to do with testing knowledge. Were that the case, I would agree with everyone saying do not give him the credit. But if the quiz is really only questions about participation, maybe this is just my ignorance of other education systems, and no offense to you, but that seems like such a worthless exercise. While an instructor's observations of student participation will undoubtedly be somewhat biased, can we really assume most students will be completely objective in such a quiz? Not knowing the exact content or structure of your course or the quiz, couldn't a student who was not asked a question (etc.), but was completely unprepared for the class, easily give themselves a high mark without any way to disprove it? My point is, this other system does not sound that much less (inherently) flawed than ordinary participation-grading. And as you say, you can override the students' responses anyway when you know they do not reflect their actual participation. When you know the student has been one of the best in attendance, and has asked questions (even redundant ones), it seems so trivial to "let him fail" because he did not fill in a form that is basically a substitute for an instructor's observations (it honestly sounds like death by bureaucracy). Obviously he still didn't follow instructions, and shouldn't just receive full marks for this part of his grade. But it does not seem inappropriate to give him credit for the amount of "points" toward attendance in the quizzes (for example, if you know he attended 8/10 classes, and each quiz gives 2 points for attendance, give him 16 points). You know he attended, so I don't see how giving him the few participation points that equate to just attendance is "unfair" to the everyone else who has been in charge of grading their own participation, especially since (I'm guessing) you no longer have the memory/notes to go into their quizzes and correct any erroneous scores (THAT sounds much more unfair to the other students). If this grade were actually about work, I think the question would be entirely different. Unrelated, but 30% of a grade is participation?!?!
  10. Completely unrelated...but I just wanted to vent about something, in a place where I do not risk being sucked into a ridiculous internet war... So after some time I checked a thread on here I contributed to, only to see it turn into a tirade of ignorance, body-policing and saviour-ism. Being driven by someone who posts constantly on this site (in only non-academic folders...) and seems to be obsessed with constructing a "cool guy who doesn't care about any of ur stupid rules"-internet persona. And I realized this, and others like him, are going onto academic paths where maybe some (because type-a personality, etc.) will become prominent people in their own worlds. And I made myself sad. Anyway. Those are the types of people I have to deal with on a daily basis in my BA, one big (though not main) reason why I'm leaving. Beware the rich/middle-class/otherwise privileged, white/settler (notahipster)hipsters, and don't come to Norden, they are everywhere... I don't have news about anywhere, sorry for the off-topic. Hope you are having a nice day.
  11. In terms of culture- this may not be relevant in many places, and might require a lot of digging, but you could look at the university's/students' research in different departments to look for fat-positive topics (in the humanities/social sciences, most likely). I'm sure there are not that many, but if any of the universities you are interested in for your own research also have faculty or students working on fat-positive topics, I would guess there is much greater likelihood that the culture will be more accepting at least at the grad level. For example while I was deciding where to apply and looking at student research topics, I noticed someone in art history at U Alberta is doing a research project on artists who use their own bodies to engage in fat politics and body empowerment. Also consider the terrain of the cities themselves and public transport options. The hills of San Francisco might not be friendly, and when my mother and I went to New Orleans she got really angry that the pavement was cracked everywhere and jutting into the air because the roots of the oak trees are so huge! (she walks with a cane)
  12. Apologies if this has been asked before, but what are the best places to look for apartments in Vancouver? Craigslist and Kijiji for the most part? And would there be enough listings in July to make it worth flying out then, hoping to sign a contract for August or September? I really want somewhere with my own bathroom, and with a kitchen that actually has an oven, and the online listings are just depressing in that regard...
  13. -I have a million papers, articles, books, catalogues to read ( ) -Read as many as possible and then my books across the ocean ( :| / €$£) -I'm investigating the past reading lists from the seminar that is closest to my interest and will select things out of there that I have not read. Knowing of course there will probably not be overlap, but would help to get an idea of how this professor builds up her courses. -See my really close friends in other parts of Europe one last time ( ). I'm definitely going to northern Finland to see a best friend and an important exhibition. Also one of my closest friends from uni is from Venice and I still have never visited her at home (and never been to Italy!) so if I can manage both trips I'm going and can catch the architecture biennale too. -Make damn sure I get my diploma and final transcripts from this ridiculous pile of bricks before I depart. -I second the no-more-candy-crush-and-terrible-movies/tvshows so much. -Maybe try to polish/vainly build up my few connections at my current school so that they don't fade away.
  14. (Keeping in mind I write as someone also with limited experience with work/academia in North America) I am fairly sure that, except for many museum internships, no employer in and around art will be interested in looking at your transcripts, the only possible exception I could see being something like a large corporate collection maybe (because business likes easily readable aggregates; but in this particular case, some business experience would probably be an advantage). They may be interested in knowing what your MA dissertation topic was, but they will not scrupulously go over all of the classes you took. What is more important is your relevant research experience and skills (ie dissertation research, etc.) and work experience. That said, it looks like many internships (in North America) ask for transcripts, and you will probably need museum internships before you get to curatorial work... But I would guess that, after you receive your MA, most of those even would not care about your BA transcripts. From the museums I have looked at/applied at/interned at in Europe (Nordic & a few UK) no one has ever asked for transcripts (but i never looked at the huge UK museums) But if you want to work as a curator, you will almost certainly need a PhD. You could be hired as a curatorial assistant with just an MA, at small local museums (especially still in Europe, depending on where you are), but if you want to advance beyond that you would definitely need a PhD and demonstrable research in your area of specialty. But an MA is enough if you wanted to work in a large commercial gallery, and probably for a smaller public, non-collecting gallery, as well. That's all I can answer faithfully. Oh also, in my own experience, if you are considering an MA/PhD in North America, some places will be skeptical of what they view as a lower amount of coursework in European BAs. One place, for example, thought I should audit one or two undergrad courses in the first year of an MA (despite my long background and experience, bla bla. Would have meant that much more work, less time to study, no time left to find a job and do independent research in that year). This could possibly affect your ability to get funding. So I would suggest looking at departments that are either larger or more internationally-oriented (w/ international MA/PhD students and faculty members, etc.) as they may better understand non-North American BA structures. I don't think this would be an issue if you apply for North American PhD's with a European MA, though.
  15. When I accepted an offer the graduate advisor just wrote back "wow.....excellent....." and the ambiguity of these ellipses is freaking me out...but I think it means I should have asked for more money!!
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