Joan Callamezzo

What is going down re: Yale on the results board?? I know someone who dropped out Yale ~2009 because he said it was a toxic environment, but I've only heard good thing from people in my field.

My MA advisor went to the top university in our field (think HYP..), and her fellowship was so good that she went on the job market never having taught a single section or course. She got interviews and offers everywhere she applied. Same goes for a professor who was hired into the history department at my SLAC undergrad - HYP, elite fellowships, zero teaching experience. You have to be approachable and able to give an excellent job talk, but prestige of program and fellowships seems to carry way more weight than teaching experience. I actually think having lots of teaching experience can work against you even and even be a red flag. At the R1 where I got my MA the students with the most teaching experience were usually the "weaker" ones, because they were the ones who couldn't land fellowships or external funding and were forced to accept TAships to fund their study.

You want to go somewhere that is strong in classics, art history and archaeology. If I were studying Roman art I would set my sights on either Berkeley or the Joukowsky Institute at Brown. I have met a few people from Joukowsky and they've all had extremely impressive research and CVs. It bills itself as more of an "archeology" program, but their graduates get hired by art history and classics departments as well. How is your Latin?

Anyone know anything about Bryn Mawr? I haven't heard a thing from them, and as far as I know no results have been posted. It's unlikely that I'd go there, but it's the last program I'm waiting on and I'm just generally curious about whether or not I got in.

I know someone who goes there for the joint museum studies/art history MA and enjoys it. It's not a name that's going to open many doors for you, but if you are looking for a masters so that you can teach private school, do gallery work or entry level curating/museum admin it's not a bad option. The cost of living in Syracuse is very low, and from what I understand TAships are fairly available.

I am in Art History (so YMMV..) but I know a couple people from undergrad who did MAPSS and and pretty familiar with the program. Full tuition at MAPSS is practically (entirely?) unheard of, so you should take the offer as a HUGE endorsement of your preparation and potential. Are you applying straight from undergrad? This may not be the popular opinion, but if you can manage it financially and don't already have a masters I would choose the MAPSS over your PhD acceptances. If you were able to get into two respectably ranked programs with only your undergrad qualifications, a masters at Chicago could land you in the top tier for your next round. We all know it is unwise to take on significant debt or pay out of pocket for a humanities degree, but I know from experience that it can sometimes pay off. I was accepted into what I thought was a fully funded MA program, but in my second year our department experienced major budget cuts and my fellowship was converted into a TAship. During my last semester I opted to turn down my TA funding and pay out of pocket because my teaching load was outrageous and preventing me from doing my best work on my thesis. It was a scary decision but it paid off because I am now deciding between multiple Ivy league PhD offers. If you decide to take the MAPSS use the added financial burden as a motivator to do your best work and make the absolute most out of your year at Chicago.

I'm a Harvard admit, and based on the correspondence I have received from the department it sounds like all acceptances have gone out. It's possible that there is some sort of informal wait list, though.