artschoolhopeful

Hi Acetylcoa, I'm not too familiar with your field, and I do believe it's the people and not the program that's most important, but be sure to think broader than the next 4-5 years. If you want to be in academia, you need to focus on you and pick the program with the advisor you think will be the most beneficial in securing your academic success--someone who is active in helping you develop your career and produce publications and a solid dissertation. If you plan on marrying your partner, being able to secure a job after grad studies near your partner should be your absolute focus, which means you have to pick the strongest grad program that will get you a job. I've done long distance before and it's tough, but if you want to be in academia, the job hunt starts now. It's only 4-5 years out of a lifetime.

Since I saw a few of you waiting for Michigan, here is some info. I received my unofficial admit from my POI last Wednesday and official admit with funding yesterday. The cohort for Michigan is 6 this year. People should be receiving their decisions soon--they invited about 14 to an interview/recruitment weekend (which I did not attend).

Hello all, I apologize for bringing up USC again, but I still haven't received ANY contact from them and I'm a little afraid to email them myself. For those who have received decisions, did the decision come just by email? Was the status of your application on the site changed from the usual "submitted" at all? Should I just bite the bullet and email them and ask what's up? They're the only one of my three schools that have made no contact with me and it's starting to make me anxious.

Has anyone not heard from USC?

Moi non plus. Anyway, what is your area of research in particular? For an MA, if you took "a bunch of post-grad continuing studies courses" in art history I think you should be fine, but if you want to go directly into a PhD program, maybe check out some visual studies programs? Especially if you are interested in social history and identity politics and what have you. I did undergrad at one of the more traditional art history schools and I'm actually trying to branch away from that. PM me if you want some articles on visual studies.

just out of curiosity--is anyone still waiting on Northwestern?

To those of you rejected by Northwestern--did you turn in your applications early? I gave up on Northwestern a long time ago, but I still haven't received my rejection. I feel like these Chicago area schools are doing really cruel rounds of rejections.

has anyone heard anything from SAIC?

I have a couple of friends that have done the econ/ibanking/consulting route, some of whom love it and some of whom feel trapped (I also graduated from an Ivy that was very, very internship oriented). I admire that you have decided to pursue your passions. Please understand that it is EXTREMELY difficult to become a "curator at a large museum" or "becoming a Professor at a good school." That being said, it seems that very few PhDs are unemployed, so I believe you could look forward to a fruitful life with an art history degree regardless. Please read these articles: http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the-Huma/44846/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A15182-2002Jul16 OKAY, now that I'm done being responsible and holding up my big "GO BACK" sign, welcome to the club! Here is my advice to you. To Build Up Credentials: 1. Work on languages. Do you have already have proficiency in any languages? This is very important for art history graduate school applications. Which languages you SHOULD work on depend on what period/area you want to study. GENERALLY SPEAKING, proficiency in German and French is important for art history. If you do not know either German or French, I would suggest you work on German as more people know French. 2. Start taking art history classes. Most universities have continuing education classes--Columbia included. I know banker schedules are extremely hectic and making time to take these classes will be nearly impossible, but if you could enroll in one or two art history classes, it would be extremely beneficial for you to add to your transcripts and for you to further demonstrate interest in the subject. 3. If you cannot take classes, read. And read some more. If you DO NOT have an inclination towards any particular period, I would highly recommend you stay away from modern/contemporary Western art because it is already quite saturated. If you are proficient in other languages, it's good to work around that (i.e. latin/medieval art, Chinese/Chinese art, etc). 4. Have you thought about trying to get a job or an internship in a museum--not a curatorial department, but in development or finance division? A foot in the door is always helpful. During the application process: 1. Buy this book: Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice--Donald Asher I did not use this book for this round of applications and I regret not having made the purchase. 2. Contact advisors. I believe for masters programs it is not important to establish a main advisor or what not, but this is where number 3 from the former list is important. Demonstrate you have a breadth of knowledge that you acquired independent of your academic background to professors in the programs that you are interested in early on. 3. WRITING SAMPLE! Your writing sample will be a very, very important way to evaluate you. This is why it is important to read. A lot. So make sure you write a kick-ass writing sample and get as much feedback and advice as possible while writing it. I really do not know much about masters programs--I only applied to one because the only professor who works in my sub-field happens to be there and they only have a terminal masters. This is my advice for beefing up your art history resume and graduate application in general.

Don't Fulbright finalist notifications usually come out late January? Anyway, I would not say anything to anyone until you have all your cards securely in your hand. If a particular school can only offer positions with no wait list, telling them you have other options that you may weigh more heavily would scare rather than encourage them. If you can secure a Fulbright AND PhD admission, based on my experience from watching others, most schools will usually allow you to defer the PhD. This is specifically referring to a research (not ETA) Fulbright grant in the discipline that you applied for a PhD in. Also, notification varies by country, not discipline so try to figure out when your country usually notifies for an approximate date.

I just wanted to step in and add to this conversation a little bit. Where I went to undergrad happens to be one of the top schools in art history and I was always under the impression that I would get into graduate school. This may not be the case this year or ever--I'm okay with this precisely because of what bobo has said. There is A LOT of sacrifice to be made for an academic career and the people I look up to as my mentors are either curators at top museums or professors at my alma mater who have so clearly "made it" as art historians. They do seem to be a bit out of touch with the difficulty of securing jobs as a recent PhD student today; as they have only had success, seem to forget that many, many others fall along the way. I really, really appreciate and understand bobo's point of view and I have watched others with both humanities and social science PhD degrees struggle to find jobs. I don't believe that bobo is being cynical at all, but trying to sensitively relate the severe situation for aspiring academics. This application process has me guiltily questioning whether I have the strength to go through this over and over and over again--to apply, to put my heart and soul into my research and writing and to hope that somehow, somewhere, I will be the special chosen one. Even now, I am reluctant to commit to long-term engagements or relationships because of all the "what-ifs" associated to graduate school applications. This will happen over and over and over again. Some of us will certainly succeed and never fail--due to luck or extreme capacity. Some of us will fail a lot and then have a gleaming moment of success. Some of us will succeed and then fall. And some of us will just fall. I question if this is how I want to live the rest of my life when I do so badly want to research and write about my topic. My question is this--is anyone else feeling these pangs of doubt during the application process? Do you feel guilty about them--as in if you feel this nervous already, maybe you're not as passionate or cut out for academic life as you thought you were? I am extremely passionate about my research and would love nothing more than to write and disseminate knowledge as a living, but maybe sometimes I question if I am strong enough.

It feels pretty grim this admissions round, doesn't it?

Hang in there watersnake!! It's a tough year for all admissions, but I really do love that I can rant on this board, calm my nerves down and allow other people around me to live functioning lives.

This is an excerpt from a post in art history that mew27 put up for the 2008 cycle: "it's amazing and very aggravating how shady the whole admission process can be. there's a lot of under-the-table stuff going on that i was completely unaware of. my advisor called me in one day recently because he 'had something very important to talk about.' apparently what happened is that a professor from school X had called him over the weekend and expressed great interest in my application. he really wanted to work with me, but so did professor so-and-so at school Y. so what happens? between the 3 of them - the two professors and my advisor - they work out a "deal" as to which one i'll get into. both schools can't accept me because it lowers their chances that i'll go to either one of them, but if i only get into one, i'll probably go there (god knows we can't ruin their matriculation rates). so i ask my advisor whether i get any say in the matter/get to decide which school i want more, and he tells me no. the "deal" has already been worked out, and i'm not supposed to know anything about it. he just wanted to tell me so i wouldn't feel bad when i get rejected from school Y. i thought this was unbelievably shady - here they are treating applicants like freakin' business deals. so anyway, i shouldn't be ranting, but hopefully it makes some of you guys feel better knowing that there's a LOT of fishy crap going on here. everything is so political..." Anyway, I do not know if whether or not this scenario was true, but in my opinion, it does kind of make sense if you're applying to "top" tier programs, ya know?

we need to talk.

OoOooOoOo looks like the board was slaughtered by UCLA. Oh well--congratulations to those they may have made it that do not post on the board! I know it's only one rejection, but it was the best fit school for me and I only applied to three PhD programs total--all of which are competitive. It was not necessarily my top choice, just the school I thought I had the best shot at getting into. I guess I kind of just want to make a call for inspirational stories and ones of determination. My fear is that I'm just not good enough and I'll toil away like everyone else who wants it so bad and never gets it but as this is my first time and I am only 22, I will try again next year. I don't mean to sound down either! I'm surprisingly upbeat about it. Academic life is tough and I would rather know that I tried and had no choice rather than reminisce on what could have been once I do settle down into a comfortable life.

yes masochistic that's the term-- Bdsm terminology tends to confuse me. I will keep positive but I did make some mistakes this time so we'll see.

Ahhopeful stole my name (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery). I'm just kidding, I support all those sadistic enough to apply to grad school for ah like me. So I got my first rejection and I feel a little bit like giving up. I am not a special snowflake. Does anyone else feel a little bit defeated by the process? Sorry for typos, writing on iPhone.

I'm usually a good standardized test taker, but I took the GREs having barely studied and having had barely slept the night before. I told myself it was a practice round and that if I broke 1300, I wouldn't take it again. I broke 1300, said HELL YES and was very happy with my score. I asked a couple of professors I met with about the importance of GRE scores and most of them said they barely glance at it--as long as the verbal isn't below 550-600. They DO use GRE for funding reasons though. I guessed on a good third of the math questions (I had four minutes left with 8 questions left) and knew that there was no way I could pull off that kind of luck again, so I decided my GPA was good enough to accept a decent GRE score. I am only applying to PhD programs that are the best in what I want to do. And then I came onto these stupid message boards where everyone else has a 1500 or above and added MORE anxiety to my already anxious and paranoid self. So to clarify, I don't think my score is bad, I've just become so involved in this numbers game that I really just need to block access to this website .

Whoa. Is it sad I've done the exact same thing???

This sounds ridiculous and will probably reflect on what a paranoid, neurotic crazy person I've become but I'd rather keep my sub-field a secret for as to not jinx myself before admission. If I get admitted, I will certainly feel comfortable sharing. I'm preparing for the second round in my head too! I have a little post-it of things I need to apply to/achieve in order to beef up my application. I need to retake the GREs. My verbal score was in the 86th percentile (600), but my analytical writing score was a 6.0. I'm hoping they'll overlook my not so stellar vocabulary and focus on the fact that I can string what limited words I DO know into pretty badass sentences.

My heartbeat has definitely become faster now that the big schools are pulling out their guns. Everyday I play the why my applications suck, why my applications rock and what am I doing to improve for the second round game in my head over and over and over and over and over and over again. One bite. All I want is one bite from a school that'll give me some monies.

This. I also believe that keeping the loan and doing your payments boosts your credit score, but we may have just been reading the same Suze Orman books.

First of all, you made my day. Second of all, was this a recent conversation? After the tuition and fees increase hoopla? I met with some UCLA professors in late October, and they did not seem too concerned about the budget at that moment either. One of them did point out to me that they do lose some great students because they are not able to offer as stable or substantial funding packets as other schools with similar academic caliber for art history. I also talked to another graduate student who was accepted to two of the programs I am applying to and chose not to go to UCLA. She told me one (amongst a few) of the reasons was that the other school offered her much better funding while UCLA remained vague about funding past her first year. So we'll see what happens.

Oh, wow, other people like me. So the most stressful thing so far about applying abroad is getting all your stuff snail mailed. This just shows how extremely neurotic this process has made me. I'm fortunate in that my family back in the States is willing to help me mail applications and writing samples that need to be snail mailed. Unfortunately, not doing these things myself makes me RIDICULOUSLY paranoid. Every time anything needs to be snail mailed, I send an extremely detailed email to my sister with a large PDF of everything that needs to go to that school telling her that an emergency email will come shortly after. I title that email "READ THIS ONE FIRST." Then I write another email with the emergency instructions with individual word documents as oppose to one large PDF. I give her the order in which these documents are to be arranged. I title this email "EMERGENCY WORD DOCUMENTS." Then she mails it, gives me the tracking number, and I check it over and over again. Then I stay up until the middle of the night when the school offices are open just to call and MAKE SURE they have my things because sometimes tracking doesn't show up if the package is delivered too quickly. So one day my sister emails me back and tells me that one of my fellowship applications that was mailed out by my mother and gives me the tracking number--but she left off the last two letters because they were "u" and "s" and she thought it just meant US. I tracked it and USPS told me that they had no package with that number. I panicked, sent her a million emails asking if she was SURE that mom sent it out (my mother does NOT want me to go to graduate school for art history and for some reason I just maybe thought that she was secretly sabotaging me). I asked her if she had seen our mom's receipt. My sister told me she would scan and email the receipt to me. Once I put in the right tracking number in, I saw that my package was received by the central mail center at the school--whew. The most unfortunate thing is that I wasn't sure what my international phone number would be during the application process, so I listed my home phone and all of my letter rejections/acceptances will be mailed to my home which means I find out after my fam does . ALSO, if I could have done it on my own, I could have been a lot more secretive about it. Now that my whole family has helped me with this process, they assume I'll just get in. They don't understand that for every 200-300 applicants or so, between 2-8 will get in from the programs I applied to.