cluelessandpanicking

Dear All, I had forgotten about this post for a while in my joy and the whirlwind that is the end of school year, but I wanted to let you know how helpful your advice were. Thanks to all you kind people, I was able to secure a full tuition remission+stipend support from my dream program. Once again, thank you for your wisdom and support.

I know that you specifically said that you are not looking for the "You don't need to pay someone for it" answer, but sadly that is the case. There is no service out there that will match you with a program where you will grow as a scholar the best, or a program that will get you the best job prospect. It's more like "you can't pay your way through application" rather than "you don't need to pay someone for it." Go through the faculty profiles of programs that you would be interested in and decide who you want to work with. Once that's done, check the funding situation and the pros and cons of the programs associated with your potential adviser. Which and how many programs you want to apply to is entirely up to your discretion. As for the personal statement, your best bet is to ask your recommendation letter writers to take a look at it and incorporate their feed backs into your edits. I do want to let you know, however, that your attitude in approaching the application process is oh so totally wrong. Graduate program admission in the humanities does not have a golden ticket that guarantees you a spot; every contingency ranging from program budget to the faculty retirement plays into it and there is simply no way to go about it but to bite the bullet and do the research on your own, do your best, and hope for the best.

As I have written in the title, I just got admitted into a m.a program which is a good fit for my research interest and has a good track record of sending students to good doctorate programs. The only problem is, they are offering me only $9000 in scholarship which only covers half the tuition. Do you think it is a good idea to try to negotiate with the department to convince them into providing additional funds? Would it help to tell them I have a fully funded offer from another less prestigious but solid program? Please help!

To the Williams admits, congratulations! Wish I was in the same boat as you, but seems like waiting game continues for this ol' boy. If it is not too terribly obtuse of me to ask, are you considering accepting the offer?

Anyone care to claim the Williams admissions in the result page? Anxious to hear back from them so any info would be nice

Bumping this up after a new entry. And modmuse is right, funded MA information is especially important for people who want to build a solid knowledge/skill base before applying to PhD programs.

@ReichenbachFalls On the last day of the extended deadline, so it's a pleasant surprise!

Hey y'all, just wanted to share some good news. I got admission from UC Davis's master's program! The department website says that it usually offers funding to all its students so I am so very thrilled at the moment.

Yeah I really don't see why some people are using what should have been a commiseration+empathy thread to stroke their ego. We all know that you are scared and everyone is insecure from time to time, but posting gpa and gre on an internet forum to ease your angst is hardly the answer.

Hey, I'm an undergrad thinking about PhD in art history, and need some advice on what could be my potential field of interest. Unfortunately I have found that my primary method of research for my dream schools - feverish googling and scanning university art history department pages- has its limits. So I thought it would be a good idea to ask the insiders who actually know their stuff, a.k.a you beautiful people, for some advice. Any suggestions on where I should start my research on institutions that have faculty members whose sub-field is in modern/early modern Eastern Asian art will be very appreciated.