PetroniusArbiter

Who does Princeton have besides Koortbojian (only Arrington--newly appointed, but not established)? You want to make sure that you have a "team" that can carry you to the job market and give you three strong references. You never know if the supervisor you start out with will be the one who chairs your dissertation. Also, Koortbojian--how closely have you read his stuff? (I'm not a huge fan of all of it--but who is a fan of everything a person puts out?). I've heard that he is a very good supervisor though. Some other people who are "hot right now" in the field that you might consider: Verity Platt (Cornell) and Chris Hallett (Berkeley).

Likewise, you should check out Columbia Classical Studies or Art History & Archaeology: Francesco de Angelis and Ioannis Mylonopoulos now both have their own excavations in Italy and Greece. BTW Gazda is nearly retired, and Kleiner is getting there too-- always be mindful of where Professors are at in terms of their career and the next 5-7 years (when you will be there under their supervision). As for the "jack of all trades, master of none" risk: yes, there is the risk, but only if you make poor coursework choices and don't have a clear group of people you want to work with. If you have an idea of the area or topic you'd like to explore in the early years of the program, then you'll be less likely to go dipping your toes into too many proverbial ponds. As for becoming a curator: Art History programs would actually be better suited to this than Classical Archaeology programs--here the IFA, IPCAA, or Columbia Art History & Archaeology (AHAR) would be right up your alley (look at their recent placements too!)

To those who seem to be in a state of agony: A guide to waiting (or knowing that you have not been accepted): 1) Have people posted about interviews or visits? If you didn't get an interview or further email contact from a POI, then your chances are reduced. Not all schools interview, but *most* do. 2) Have acceptances been posted on Grad Cafe? If yes, and you don't get one within a week of them being posted, consider yourself not on the admittance list. 3) At this stage, if you know others have been admitted, then you should expect that you've been rejected. 4) If you really want to put yourself out of your misery, I would email your POI(s) directly to see if you're on a wait-list or rejected. But this may show a lack of patience. It's up to you. In my year, I was directly emailed by Harvard's DGS about being on a wait-list, asking me to wait it out, despite other offers. So you may yet have hope. But if you haven't heard a peep, then you're probably not their radar. 5) And after APRIL 15: If you get rejected from ALL of your schools, be brutally honest with yourself and ask if you really should go on to the PhD. It's hard, but necessary. Don't settle for less in this job market. I've seen too many people apply a few years in a row and in the end they were just putting their lives on hold for a dream that really wasn't going to happen (or suited to them--as much as they wanted it). Other information: - I know from a friend that Brown has sent out at least 1 admittance. - The only Harvard post on the results search for this year is indicative of something--they are considering that person for a place in the program; perhaps wait-listed. I speak from experience.

The Classics Job Wiki (http://classics.wikidot.com/1-2013-2014-classics-ancient-history-archaeology-job-market) reports that Naomi Weiss, fresh from Berkeley Classics, will be the new Assistant Professor in Greek (she is a Euripides specialist). It also reports that visits are happening now for the Phil job (so I would look at their events calendar if they have one), but no news on the Latin job.

Sappho, this is an excellent post. I see that this year places such as Yale, Harvard, and Princeton are offering quite a few more offers than in previous years (or at least a few years ago when I was an applicant). Once upon a time, 3 or 4 admittances were par for the course. Does this signal renewed faith in the potential job market, 5-8 years down the track from now? Perhaps. Perhaps not. This season, two ABD candidates at our school landed tenure-track assistant professorships at very solid schools. A few years ago, even to land a VAP would have been a major win. So perhaps the job market is becoming stronger. Maybe some of our teachers will rebuild their retirement funds and feel that they can retire in another 5-10 years. Perhaps then our generation will see opportunities again. But note: I never went into this process without knowledge that it would be tough, financially, and in many other ways too. Granted, if you are not in a top 10 school, then you have a much harder task ahead of you. I once had a conversation with an Emeritus Professor who told me about their hiring process (at a well known North American Classics Dept.): 1 T-T job, 400-500 applicants; cull them down to 50 by throwing out any application that was from a university they had never heard of (Ivies/top 10 to the front of the line), then create the short list for interviews, and so on. The key moment: the culling process. Yet even though I am at an institution, a top 10 one, I am still thinking about alternate career possibilities for when I have the PhD in hand: Higher Education administration, or even working for a major consulting company. The money will be better, but I doubt the intellectual satisfaction of teaching and research will compare. And so, as you can see: I do care. I care that every single person should be warned about what they are getting themselves into when they accept an offer. The DGS, the faculty, the graduate school, have an ethical responsibility to discharge such a warning to their students. Yet many graduate programs, especially the best ones, will rarely disclose their drop out rates; and you will usually only hear from them about their successful placements. Well, there's my two-cents, as incoherent as they may be.