trewq

Once more, "bumping" this thread since we are in the beginning of a new round of admissions and financial packages for the 2018-2019 year. 
Please update and add to the data already accumulated here: Art History Funding Packages
 
 

I was contacted a week ago by CUNY for an interview that is early next week.

Thanks for calling and checking on this. It's wild that only three people (including the possible one troll?) have updated the results board as accepted from Harvard!

Thanks, lmenol. I took your advice and contacted the department by phone. For those who are wondering (and still somewhat hopeful), I was told official decisions will be released via email later this week. 

I kind of wish notifications came through snail mail as in the olden days. It would have to be more sane than this endless email–portal–gradcafe cycle I'm on.

Hi ChickenVoices,
I grew up in DC and did my undergrad at UMD College Park. I moved to Takoma Park (MD side) and commuted to school everyday via the UMD Shuttle 111. (Shuttle 111 is from Silver Spring metro, through Takoma Park, Langley Park, and the campus. Here is the summer schedule and a map, it obviously runs more often during the fall/spring semesters: http://www.dots.umd.edu/shuttle/schedules/summer/111.pdf ). They have a phone app which gives you detailed arrival times, and the front of their buses allow for you to bring a bike as well. Best of all it is free with your UMD ID. My living situation was totally do-able and much less hectic than living on campus or in College Park. There are also RideOn buses which are operated by Montgomery County, which connect riders to metro buses and the train if need be. Many of the neighborhoods around UMD aren't that safe or they have terrible sprawl and thus less than effective public transportation. I think Silver Spring and Takoma Park are your best bets if you don't want to live in the College Park neighborhood.

I think it's also worth noting that there are many institutions that have hired new PhDs who were not included in the survey. My undergraduate institution added three tenure track jobs during the time period, hiring from UNC, Penn State, and Harvard. But because my institution was not included in the survey, these hires do not appear on this list. I think these numbers are deflated due to the sampling. The list also doesn't take into account curatorial positions in the field. So cheer up everyone! There's hope after all! 

I would say inquiring about funding and research opportunities is definitely important if you haven't yet done so and if it hasn't been adequately explained on the department's website. I only found out the full extent of research funding during my school visit for one of the programs...it wasn't described in detail on the site or in the grad bulletin, so I'm so glad I asked about it!
Other things I might ask about: how advising works/how often you might be meeting with your advisor...how independent studies credits work...what kind of graduate facilities there are (i.e., cubicles of private library space, kitchen or fridge for students, lockers, keys to the building, etc!)...