TokuGirl

I'll be 25 going into my MA program this year. I also took 5 years in undergrad [Japanse Studies/Art History double major] and have been working abroad for the past two years. I feel more confident in my choice to go to grad school now than I did when I was graduating, and I think for that reason admission boards may sometimes prefer people who go into the programs at a [slightly] older age. I think it's great that you're able to work in the field post-grad and that will definitely work in your favor. As for me, I've only had minimal internship experience and was really counting on my writing sample and recommendations to get me in. Best of luck!

I e-mailed the AH program director and got a response a day or two later. It seems like people have started receiving letters in the past day or two.

Hi everyone! Thanks for all of your advice. I've definitely mulled over this a lot more since I posted, but in the end it all came down to this: While I'm very tempted to go into one of my "safe harbor" MA programs to ride out the economy, I just get this crushing feeling whenever I think of taking out the loans to pay for it. Yes, I will need an MA to work in my field, but I'm only 24 and my existing debt eats up half of my current annual salary. There's no way I could survive as an MA student even with a pt-job without having to turn to credit cards and private loans just to live in Boston or NYC (my two choices). I got in this time so I can always reapply (and do more research into outside funding) knowing that I have a decent shot of getting in again. Even if I don't get any funding again next time, at least I'll be able to take the loans knowing I had tried. Thanks again everyone!

So I've gotten into 2/4 MA programs that I've applied to. I'm an art history/museum studies major, but I won't be receiving any funding from the schools I've been accepted into. One of them is my top choice, but I'm already $40k in debt from undergrad and not willing to take out another $100k since I'll never make that money back in a humanities job. Quite frankly, I'm disappointed. I haven't declined any offers yet, but I'm not planning to accept them either. I'm alright with taking another year off and reapplying for 2011, it just sucks that I had to quit my job just in case I was going to get into grad school (I work in Japan and my yearly recontracting deadline was in Feb). What is your take on this situation? I feel like a loser, especially now that I'll be leaving my current (well paid) position in Japan and moving back to the US to deal with the dismal job market.