skydancer
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JuniusBattius reacted to a post in a topic:
Fall 2017
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ShewantsthePhD reacted to a post in a topic:
First Time Living in a Big City Advice
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Congratulations!!! It must feel absolutely incredible to get such wonderful news at the penultimate hour!
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First Time Living in a Big City Advice
skydancer replied to ShewantsthePhD's topic in Officially Grads
We DC-folk shop at the grocery stores that are close by, like most people do! We pay attention to prices and most of us are not coastal elites that can shop weekly at Whole Paycheck ;). There are Targets within the city limits, but the lines are such that it's not always great to shop there for normal groceries. We have Safeways (some are better than others), Giant (great in the suburbs, awful produce within the city), Trader Joe's, Whole Foods. I usually shop at TJ and Safway, and I'm in the Columbia Heights/Petworth area. It's all going to change depending on which neighborhood you live in - it's worth google mapping the time to grocery stores from any apartment you're looking at. City grocery shopping can be a bit different, especially if you don't have a car. I'll get two large paper bags full of groceries on my way home from work and hop on the bus the rest of the way. Or occasionally I'll do a bigger batch of shopping and get a ~$5 uber home with my groceries. Do be careful with this though, and get a store employee to let undo the automatic wheel lock so you can take the grocery cart to the curb! Target is really awful about this so I try not to shop there much. City stores usually lock cart wheels once they pass the exit so people don't steal. Sometimes I'll do Amazon Pantry for heavy staples that I don't want to cart around. People WILL go out of the city to get to Costco or H-Mart, both of which are up just a bit north of the DC line. That's when you and a friend share a car and everyone loads up on non-perishables for months. It's a pain though, so most people don't go very often. -
skydancer reacted to a post in a topic:
Comparing Art History MA programs: BU, NYU(IFA), Tufts, Columbia
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skydancer reacted to a post in a topic:
Where did you end up?-Fall 2017
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I'll be going to UBC Vancouver! I ended up choosing it over Columbia, the Courtauld, and Tufts - it didn't start out my top choice, but I ended up choosing it over everywhere else I applied except for Williams, where I was waitlisted. The funding is great, it's a wonderful city with a dynamic arts scene, and the professors are all heavy weights who seem genuinely excited about their students. The current students I talked to are all really happy with the program and job/phd placements. So, I'd definitely encourage future applicants to take a look at Canada!
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MA in Sotheby's or Christie's in New York
skydancer replied to 1401renaissance's topic in Art History
Another word of warning about the auction house programs - I went to an info session by Sotheby's a year or two ago, and part of their program had a pie chart of where their grads ended up. The sections were basically, major galleries, curatorial museum work, auction houses. And....the chart added up to 100%. So I asked the rep if this statistical info was based on only people who got jobs in the field, only people who responded to the survey, or all graduates - and they couldn't answer but promised to look it up. I very followed up on this by email, since the program sounded interesting, and I received a very hostile reply before never receiving a response from them again. I'd advise anyone contacting them to look carefully at the numbers in their program advertisements and remain skeptical of anything that sounds too good to be true. On the other hand, one of the people who worked for my college's art gallery went to Christie's and enjoyed her time in the program and got a job in an academic art museum. So, it's not a worthless program. -
MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou reacted to a post in a topic:
Fall 2017
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Hi! I had this same dilemma, and I'm sure there are tons of opinions out there. I've heard that a curatorial MA can help for some people but can also be seen as limiting, since you can acquire a lot of curatorial knowledge through work experience. It seems to be preferable to acquire deep knowledge of the period of art history that you would want to curate. Then, maybe find a program that is strong in curatorial studies and take classes in that department, find internships, curate a show with artists from the school. Pick an MA where it's possible to do an "unofficial minor" in curatorial studies! I've chosen the MA in Art History at UBC* partially for that reason - they have a critical curatorial studies department at which I can take classes, opportunities to work with galleries around Vancouver and on campus, and still offers an absolutely amazing array of faculty who are strong in my areas of interest and a department culture of strong engagement with critical theory. (*For those who were interested, Williams was not very helpful except for basically saying admission was possible but unlikely. UBC upped their offer, they had a deadline, and I love them! I'm done!)
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I know, I don't want to ask and them be like "oh well she has an offer let's just reject her so she can make a decision" instead of keeping me around in case things pan out. Because My mind is currently conjuring up that scenario side by side with the fairy tale "omg wait we totally meant to accept you with piles and piles of money" response. I'll keep you updated!
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Thank you, that's what I thought! Do you happen to know if it's best to email the admin people, email the DGS, or call? I know it's acceptable at this point but it *feels* so rude and like there should be very specific etiquette for doing this.
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Does anyone have any experience contacting Williams to ask for an application update? They seem to send out rejections pretty late, and I just want to know now so I can hurry up and get uncomplicatedly excited about one of my other offers. Or to know if there's still a slight chance of admittance and that I should ask for an extension to decide! On that note, does anyone have experience asking Canadian schools for such extensions?
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You might not get a response from such an inquiry, but asking is certainly not prohibited. I know of at least a few people who asked for recommendations to improve their application and who received constructive, helpful feedback. They also received generic responses on 'fit' or other factors outside of their control. Still, I have one friend who received specific feedback on her personal statement and how certain aspects of her application needed to be addressed, such as a shift in academic focus, or suggestions for a writing sample that better fit an intended course of study. Give yourself a couple days to process and cool off a bit (as in, make sure you're calm enough to not start crying on the phone when you receive criticism - this is an emotional time!), and reach out to see if you can talk about ways to improve your application for next year.
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It's such a huge decision! I've found that weighing significant but not insurmountable cons from both leading offers to be remarkably confusing. It's the age-old conflict of good financial package and good academics vs ok finances and great academics. I'm clearly leaning towards the latter option, but it feels quite risky.
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Is anyone else finding that their priorities and even research interests have shifted due to the entire application process? In December, I wouldn't have dreamed of turning down the Courtauld, and now I'm leaning towards doing so and it's not even that hard of a decision. I just want more time, more potential paths of inquiry, and more a bit less financial risk. And to think that at the beginning of this process, it was probably my second choice! Anyone else finding their decision making process going differently than expected?
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igotangels reacted to a post in a topic:
Fall 2017
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I've never heard of anyone getting funding from Columbia for an MA/MODA, unfortunately. One of my undergrad professors also seemed a bit hesitant about the program due to mixed reports from other students who've gone through it. Still, it's Columbia, and it would be an extremely tempting offer if the debt were closer to, say, $50k and not $150k.
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Kinda shocked that there's only one Williams admit and one Williams waitlist up right now, but, I'm guessing that signals rejections for the rest of us who haven't heard. Congrats to those who got in!
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Any other UBC admits here? While my funding covers tuition and not living expenses, I'm surprised at how exceedingly fond I've become of this program! It almost snuck into my application file and I'm unexpectedly over the moon and falling more in love with the program every day. Really, I think only a scholarship at Williams (and maybe Tufts) would beat it out now.
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If you check the results board and search for Williams, it will show that the first round of acceptances usually come out within the first ten days of March. Of course, acceptances continue to trickle in as the first round of people decline, but that's the general timeframe.