hardkore

Redpotato, did Bard make it onto your list? I worked in MoMA's education department as a tour guide while I was a fellow there. I know several people in the museum who had gone to Bard.

I understand what you're saying about small programs, but it's more than "a feather in your cap." It's about job security. Being an adjunct with no benefits or health insurance who moves to Kansas to be able to work isn't ideal when you're 45 years old. You get what I'm saying. With PhD programs, you should be as selective as possible, not desperate just to go anywhere and things will work themselves out later, unless there is someone you truly want to work with and the program has resources to send you to conferences, put you up in hotels, can pay you a living wage. I know some people who are very happy with their PhD choices that were not top programs. It just has to be worth it.

Hi there, I've been watching this forum because I am applying this Fall for my second round. I applied in 2007 to Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, Stanford in Art History, and NYU in Visual Culture and Media. I have a degree in Art History (American/British contemporary was my focus back then). I was accepted only to NYU which I have attended for my master's degree. Looking back on it, it was pretty presumptuous of me to just apply to the big four like that especially without really caring about fit. Yale and my interests? Please. Considering my visual culture bent, I will reapply to Columbia and Stanford. Berkeley, I don't know now that the dept is shifting so much. I'm a contemporarist, I don't even like to say modernist because my interests lay in technology, new media art, continental philosophy and cyberculture studies as they relate to visual culture. This next round will include Columbia (to study with Crary) Stanford (Paul DeMarinis & Pamela Lee) MIT's freaking ONE art history position offered a year (Bauer and Anderson) USC's History of Consciousness (Haraway) Berkeley (Rhetoric, Judith Butler) Brown's Media and Culture program (Wendy Chun) and possibly Rochester and Duke's art history/visual culture programs. I have some experience with the second round and what it now entails and remember that Berkeley and Yale dated their letters to me around February 14th and I received them early March. In a grad program at NYU I can tell you just how important the head of a department is, how important the actual people you work with are and for me, what kind of structure I require for my doctorate. Although there are some PhD programs I could add to that list for less competitive albeit interesting programs (I'm looking at you Binghamton), don't do a PhD at a school that isn't worth it and where the funding might be scant (NYU IFA is famous for this.) Good luck waiting- I know it's the hardest part, even harder than the rejections.

I've been following the results as a current MA student looking at PhD programs in the future and I find some of the statements (ahem, assumptions) about grad school life on here to be sweet but essentially over wrought and slightly strange. The main reason that grad school is a crap shoot is because professor A, who has long been known for studying X is now interested in studying Y, and is looking for students who can handle X and Y, or supplement the study for Y. As much as it might, I don't know, calm you or placate you to think that they even really care how much that fits into your personal life is kinda funny. They can't KNOW who you are and how much you are able to take, and committees dont make assumptions based on that. They can only go by what you've accomplished and your track record. Some people with stellar marks and experience across the board do leave, quit, not fit etc. In the end, it's really how much your interests fit into a department at THE MOMENT the committee meets. They honestly don't care if you have to move cross the world, have two kids in your arms and 500k in debt. It's..just..not about that? And also, the previous poster is truly right in this regard- you are expected to have a social life and schools encourage it, especially in the humanities- you are considered to be thinkers, philosophers and writers, not simply researchers. Go get an MLS if you want to do that. This is an artistic field- your colleagues are immensely important. A word of advice to those just coming out of undergrad- grad school is not about grades anymore, so follow your gut, remain polite but at this point in your lives, you're expected to have a voice of your own that you should be able to back up- professor's don't give a crap about how much you kiss their ass, in fact, grad students who do that are deemed to be immature. Grad school is becoming another thing to put on your resume...and its something other than that.

Hi Muse- I still check this forum! I am going to NYU's steinhardt school in the fall and although I'm in the midst of realizing my career goals as cultural studies with an art history focus rather than art history itself, I still have my background in art history so my opinion is A: I don't think you should get two masters degrees. Especially unfunded. NYU is so damn expensive...and they are not forgiving. I will be getting about 7k from them for scholarship leaving 23k in tuition, which I am paying with outside scholarships and loans. I will also have a part time job to pay rent. A1: Its still a 2 year program and I think, due to the interdiscplinary aspect of the program, its much too "liberal arts college". I glanced at the website and it just seems so general...perhaps in future you should apply for your PhD at different art history schools or look abroad? What about UCL? (I dont know your focus though..) B: I've never heard of this program. That doesn't necessarily mean its not prestigious..and Heather Lukes is kinda cool, but I honestly dont think it matters. You'll be paying out tons of money for a degree you already have and I honestly think that due to the broad scope of the program, it isnt a guarantee that you will even connect with any of your professors in a meaningful way for that to transfer to the IFA. And I personally dont think that NYU cares if you went to another school at NYU...its such a huge school. Where did you apply in the past? I wish you so much luck but maybe your scope is a bit too narrow in where you're looking...There are options that maybe you haven't considered for a PhD...

OOp! Sorry "As an undergrad" was meant to be "when I was an undergrad" I've been out of school since 06 working as a Fellow in a museum. Many thanks for your considerate post.

It's a two year program. 30 K a year. 6500 a year in scholarship money and 3000 in federal work study a year. I contacted the grad coordinator who is meeting me next week to discuss possibilities. Good job Smellie.

Hello there, I received a package for a MA that I very much want to pursue - the program is a perfect fit for my interests which are somewhat specific so to have found a school that offers a specialization in my interest is amazing. That said, I received my financial aid package. As an undergrad, honestly, my parents paid for everything so I never dealt with financial aid. I'm sad that I'm so naive about this process. So please help! Question 1: My package includes a scholarship for $6500. Tuition is a little under 30K. I've already asked the coordinator if this scholarship has the potential to increase should more funding become available but is this scholarship "average"? Question 2: Including my scholarship, I'm eligible for Federal Work Study, a Stafford Loan, a Stafford Unsubsidized Loan and a Plus Loan. I added all of these together and it comes to 42K. Why does my package include more than tuition? Is this package including cost of living loans as well? I certainly hope that I may be able to break into the 10K mark scholarship if the program is open to negotiations. Otherwise I may not be able to go. Thank you for any advice !!

17thScream If my memory serves me correctly, which it certainly may not so please disregard this if you have other information, but when I was given a tour of the IFA by a very kind student, I could not enter the building without him. There was a security desk at the front entrance, and they made me sit until he picked me up. I'm not sure how you can enter the building without an escort, but I'm sure NYU has already thought of that so it won't be a bother. If you can go in on your own, I'd email a professor and ask permission to sit in on their class, and then after class, ask some of the students questions. The students there seem very eager to express their thoughts on the school and actually came up to me to talk on their own.

I sat in on a class at the IFA, Linda Nochlin's Women Artists class actually. I unfortunately was not blown away. She's very hands off now- she's earned her worth- and she's nearly 80 years old. She mostly let the students lead the discussion and would interrupt occasionally. Seeing the IFA first hand and getting to know the students was great for me because I knew I couldn't ever be happy there. Gallery crawls in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC is a great way to get up on the current works, even though many of the exhibitions may be crap, its fun to find the few good gems. I crossed CUNY off my list after speaking to a current grad student, hearing his complaints and learning that their agreement with the Whitney ISP has evaporated.

Well I was rejected from Art History programs across the board- granted they were all Ivy and I somewhat decidedly wrote in my SOP that I don't want to be a historian per se, but more of a cultural theorist (Lucy Lippard, Donna Haraway and Baudrillard are but three of my heroes). So in actuality, everything worked out as it should- I got into NYU for Visual Culture and I honestly couldn't be happier. I do have an undergraduate degree in Art History but the more I think about the Visual Culture program, I get more excited then I did when I looked at Yale/Columbia's course catalog. Here's hoping I get some money! 8) Good luck to you all.

Hello! I look forward to meeting all of you! I'm very excited-this school was my first choice- and its going to be a lot of fun. I haven't received my fin aid info yet, so we'll see how some things pan out- I have some outside funding opportunities that may make it work. I've lived in NYC for about 4 years, working at museums, galleries, art magazines and as a studio assistant. I have a BA in Art History and I'll hopefully be working on my Visual Studies MA in the fall *squee!* The Visual Studies program is within the "Art and Art Professions" umbrella at Steinhardt. I'll still be in my apartment come September, so I won't be living in Greenwich village like many of you, but I certainly look forward to spending my days on the lower east side/the village !

I disagree that visual culture and art history are not related. I believe in some ways that a visual culture degree is more applicable to writing/researching/education than an art history degree, especially if your interest is in contemporary/modern/RIGHT NOW art, like me. By the way, Yale RAN away from me, and ya know what, that's quite alright. In my experience in museums and galleries, actually, I know several people in visual studies programs and many people shying away from art history programs because of the narrow focus and the burgeoning interdisciplinary philosophy of many American museums.

Hello out there. Any other applicants waiting to hear the results? I'm not too hopeful at this point

I'm still waiting on Columbia...not very hopeful since I didn't get a phone call BUT hear me out since the Grad Coordinator said that the class entering in 08 was still being decided and we will hear by Mid-March...my conspiracy theory is that say they had about 25 chosen applicants- called them, and due to the early decisions of other top grad programs (Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, Brown, Northwestern, Chicago, Cornell etc.) some people may have already given notice to their top choice and Columbia now has to review the strong apps to fill in the gaps...Anybody? :twisted: Oh well. Just give me the damn rejection letter so I can stop waiting for it Columbia!