MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou
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Everything posted by MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou
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I applied there. The results board is a little all over the place for them, so it's a tad harder to tell exactly when they are sending things out. But, it's usually around this time.
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I didn't either. It seems they are few and far between (at least on the results boards), so it's hard to tell. It appears they are more informal interviews, but it's always a good sign to get one...
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Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm totally freaking out. I'm just trying to pull myself back!
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Are you referring to the one to the tune of "Der Fuhrer's Face?" It's amazing.
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Yuuuuup. Just had to have a pep talk with my husband. Hang in there. :-) It's still early for us!
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Congrats to the Northwestern interview! Do you care to share who your POI is/what your field is? Thanks! Northwestern is one of my top choices... :-( :-(
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Any Older (30+) applicants out there
MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou replied to SarahBethSortino's topic in Waiting it Out
THIS. I think overall age is actually a benefit, not a detriment. I wasn't aware of this until after I graduated, but my master's committee chair had a 10-year span between her master's and PhD (she graduated from UCLA, which is a big school in my field). She told me time between degree programs is not important as long as you can describe intelligently your path to get back into academia, and how your past choices have brought you to this point. Is it best to have been active in your field during this time off? Probably. But as Shade said, we've had time to develop skills younger students have not, that ARE applicable to academia (for instance, I've spent the last few years as a grant writer/manager in a field that aligns with my own, and research grants, writing skills, etc. are super important). We've had more time to determine that this is something we definitely want to take on. I'm not sure 20's me would have felt ready for such an undertaking. So, be proud! And know that there are people on here who are cheering you on. :-) -
Any Older (30+) applicants out there
MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou replied to SarahBethSortino's topic in Waiting it Out
*waves* hi there! I'm in my early thirties, and got my master's in art history in 2013. I've found juggling application prep with working full time to be fairly challenging - coming home exhausted at the end of the day only to work three more hours on an application doc is about the last thing I wanted to do this cycle. I'm finding that once I get back into a groove of researching and writing about my real passions it's totally worth it, and my brain remembers how to push through long hours like I did in my graduate program. And hey, it's good practice for being back in school, right? :-) Its harder to make time to spend with my husband on week nights (he's a copywriter and sometimes has a wonky schedule) but I think the key is trying to be as flexible as possible, and DEFINITELY learning to let go of guilt sometimes when you're not doing something "productive" and feel like you should be. LOL, I think the wait is stressful no matter your age. I try to throw myself into work, do some reading/make a list of materials I need to get through to strengthen my knowledge base, and set aside time for something low-pressure and creative (I've taken up art journaling). How about you? How are you feeling about the process and dealing with the anxiety? -
I'm actually drawn there for a number of reasons. Dr. Mary Saltzman's research aligns very closely with mine, and I'd be thrilled to study with her. To your comment about the small department, I actually prefer a more close-knit core group, and you can take courses from the other two colleges in the area (UPenn and Haverford). I've also heard the atmosphere there is a little friendlier and more supportive than in some departments, which, hey, if you can get that and still feel challenged... i have not visited (lol I'm poor). Have you been there?
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I wasn't aware of what louisamae said about contact advice being field-specific. I made an effort to email my main POI at each of the schools I'm applying to, and have received some responses, even a few informal phone calls (including one from my first choice), as a result. Normally, the caution in contacting profs seems to be "don't be surprised if you don't hear back." My committee chair advised me to do it, and I can't see anything worse happening than that they don't respond. At best, you might get to talk with someone with whom you're really interested in working. Even if they're not on the adcomm, you at least get your name in front of them, as they likely have at least SOME input on whether they would work with you. So, I say it can't hurt. I would also actually recommend you get in contact with a current student or two. The students I've spoken with were really honest about the department's environment, gave me suggestions of other profs who might fit my interests inside and outside art history, and painted a great picture of grad student life at their school.
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I feel the same way about my app getting stronger - we'll see! I'm hoping we all get in this year - good luck to you, too! I'd love to have that holycrapigotaccepted feeling. :-)
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I was. :-/ I completely rewrote my SoP so each paragraph more closely reflected upon each segment of my past work and the research questions that came out of those experiences, tracing them to my proposed project area. I also revised my writing sample from last year-I actually wrote a new one, but due to a death in the family I wasn't able to wrap it up until my last few apps. I didn't bother retaking the GRE because I've read that for just a few points, it probably isn't worth it compared to revising your other docs. I'm hoping these actions, and some luck, will give me better results. Honestly, as tough as it was not being accepted the first time around, I feel like I learn something about myself and my work in prepping and revising all these materials, and I'm not as stressed about it as I was last year (though still stressed, really). Plus, I talked to a really nice Grad Studies person at Bryn Mawr about an issue with reapplying through the site and she said re-applications are really common in our field, so that made me feel a TINY bit better! How did/do you feel about reapplying?
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It depends on the deadline of each application. If you're referring to really recent deadlines (say, a few days or a week ago), it is more likely the department just hasn't matched your materials with your online form yet. However, if it's been a while since you submitted your application and you're really concerned, it probably wouldn't hurt to send a quick email asking if all your materials have been received.
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I know, right? Some results should come in as early as the week of the 20th...(at least for schools who have interviews)!
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Have you been to the Results Search board at all? You can search for the schools you're applying to and see in past years when notifications RE acceptance/rejection/interviews have been sent. In terms of interviews specifically, not a ton of art history programs do official interview rounds - I'm mostly thinking of Chicago schools (Northwestern/UChicago) and a few on the Eastern side. However, I'm sure some POIs conduct informal interviews with potential students at their discretion.
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- admissions
- admissions season
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Thanks! I have eight on my list, how about you? What's your specialty?
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It's super quiet on the board this year! How's everyone feeling?
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Hi all, So, I am reapplying for doctoral programs, and while pulling a score report to upload to an application, I noticed the percentile values for my scores have changed slightly since 2014 (one to two percentage points - one to my advantage, one not). I was unaware ETS recalculates your percentile scores every year, and entered my unofficial scores on all my applications thus far as the ones I received when I first applied. Is this an issue? Do I need to contact the departments at the universities to which I've submitted the "old" scores?? I don't want it to seem like I'm falsifying my scores, though it wouldn't make sense for me to enter a percentile LOWER than my actual score if I were actually trying to do so. Thanks in advance! I'm freaking out a little here. :-)
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I don't know what field you're in, but you could also probably access most of the journals you'd need through a public library. I'm no longer a student, but I joined the local city library (hey, it's free and easy!) and I can access all of their online journals/databases.
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Transcript Course Titles Missing
MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou replied to MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou's question in Questions and Answers
Oh no, I think I wasn't clear. I completely get why it would be a big inconvenience for them, and don't expect them to do all this work just for me. My frustration is really with the system itself (both for the university and for applying) - I have a really hard time understanding why neither the department nor the university keeps a log somewhere, as I can't be the only student with this issue. Course listings are required for a number of applications, and while I'm perfectly comfortable matching up the years/professors/titles to my own record, at least having a generalized list by year they could hand out would make things so much easier. I would just think the department, at least, would need these sorts of records for their own use. Perhaps not! -
Languages & Community College
MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou replied to tylermpearson's topic in Art History
My former thesis committee chair actually recommended I try and take a language translation course as opposed to a general speaking course (I'm proficient in French, but have only one year of German). You can bypass all the "where is the library" stuff - though you might want to do some of the self-study knp mentioned for basic grammar, conjugation, etc. if it is your first foray into a particular language. -
Transcript Course Titles Missing
MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou replied to MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou's question in Questions and Answers
Thank you to both of you! Your comments are something of a relief, as I feel the university seems unwilling to help me track down these course titles. I'm going to look into some of my old files, as well as try and contact professors - unfortunately, as I'm no longer a student I don't have access to course syllabi. :-) -
Hi there, I'm applying for Fall 2017 PhD admission, and am submitting both undergraduate and master's transcripts. A good number of my master's degree courses were "special topics" classes - that is, courses that use the same course number every year, but cover varied specific field interests. However, I was surprised to find that my final transcript does not include course titles for these classes, and it seems very difficult to obtain them. One or two of my PhD applications require a listing of previous pertinent coursework, and I am concerned it will harm my chances of acceptance if I can't retrieve these course titles. I've already spoken with my prior university department, and they apparently don't keep a record on file of the special course topics each year. Likewise, the university registrar has said it would require an extensive amount of work to go back and research the course titles for my transcript (they did not seem willing to do this). I have some idea of what courses I took (this was at least three years ago) and could probably guess on a few (so I could likely create a partial coursework list), but nothing complete. Can anyone offer advice about my situation? Thanks so much in advance!
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I never said I was an expert and I wasn't speaking about myself, I was speaking about all of the other people (who are not two people) who have countered what you have said. In that way, I have far more evidence than you - you speak from one (possibly two) programs, but I'm working from a sample of many. Let's chalk that up to a difference of opinion. So then tell me what is? LOL, you're right, that is a low blow, but (A). there are many reasons people can be rejected, that is simply one of them; and (b). the good thing is I don't care what you think. People like you are poisonous to the educational community and that is really unfortunate. I don't know why you feel the need to troll these boards, especially if, as you say, you are in a PhD program and should really be old enough and educated enough to know that someday the people on these boards could be your peers. Perhaps the anonymity of the internet emboldens you, but I hope you are more pleasant in person than you are online.
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Have you mentioned you are in an art history program? I don't believe so. You've said you are directly affiliated with specific institutions, and that you are a federal employee. To my knowledge, that's all. I don't know why you think in the age of Google you would be unable to find biographical details about me that are verifiable - I simply choose not to share them on an anonymous message board. I'm not hard to find online, either, by the way. Most people aren't. I'm not saying what I have offered as anecdotal evidence is "better" necessarily - simply that I have quite a bit more of it than the opinions of two people (yourself and your wife). "You have no way of knowing what I'm capable of, and it seems you have a very narrow definition of what "capable" is." -- you may very well be capable of finishing a PhD but you cannot support this claim, to borrow your phrase, until you have completed the degree. I also cannot say that I am capable of completing a PhD. I can say that I am capable of being admitted to a PhD program. THAT claim I don't need to support, because it's not about facts and figures, it's about personality, self-awareness and experience. There is no reason I could think of that I would not be capable of finishing a program; whether I do so is a separate question. Right, message boards can be about more than one thing. So saying this "isn't a support board" is false.