mrssalad

Oh shit. I forgot my actual favorite book: Deleuze on Francis Bacon.

Mieke Bal changed my life!

CUNY and Stanford are great for 20th cent and contemporary. If I did contemporary, I'd probably want to go to one of those.

The GRE is probably the least important aspect of your application. Focus on a compelling statement and writing sample.

Amen. At the end of the day, focus on your research. I was on a panel last year at CAA. To protect confidentially, I will say I was the only 1 who was from a public ivy as opposed to a private ivy (or Berkeley on the panel). The work from the other 3 individuals was absolutely sub par (undergraduate students in my lecture course turn in better work). A name and an advisor won't make up for bad scholarship that isn't doing anything to push the discipline. I will stress where the rankings are important at research is important - go where there is FUNDING TO DO SO. Typically "Better ranked programs" have more $$$. But, this isn't always the case. If a place wants you, really inciting packages can be made.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I am at a top 10-20 program overall. My advisor is well known in and outside of the field. My committee members are the top in their respective fields (English and History). Not the best but by far not the worst. My institution does have a top 5 English and history department. My friend (to leave it as anonymous) is a finalist for 3 tenure track positions at major phd granting places. He/she finished his/her dissertation 2 years ago and has been a visiting prof at a top 50 liberal arts college. I have another group of colleagues who have come from similar 10-20 programs who have done better on the job market than folks at NYU, UCLA and Berkeley. If someone is interested, I would be happy to respond in a private message. Some of the people you listed are not currently taking students. If your advisor leaves, good advisors typically take their graduate students with them (or give students the options). Out of the 4-5 PhD student Is know whose advisor moved, all were given the choice.

Oh no! Not this top 10 thing again! Ultimately, I think one person's top 10 will look very different from another. For example, if you were interested in Egyptian art, I don't think you would be looking at those programs at all. Rather, you might be inclined to look at Emory. Likewise, if you are interested in 18th cent painting, Harvard might be on your list and Berkeley (but Lynn Hunt isn't there anymore). But, you might want to look at Iowa (Dorothy Johnson), Missouri (Michal Yonan), and Wisconsin (Jill Casid, Suzanne Desan in history and they have quite a few lit theory folks). Long story short, I'd go with an advisor who is well known in an area that you are interested in. Granted, I'd also take it as contingent upon what funding package you get. If you get a good funding package 4-5 years guaranteed and have a top notch advisor doing work in your field, you are probably at a good place. For anyone in the admissions process, I want to stress that above all else, you should go to a play where you think you can formulate the best dissertation committee that you can. By best, I mean people who will push you to produce the absolute best work you can produce and folks who are willing to give you feedback on in class papers in order to turn them into publishable essays (I have many friends who wish they got any feedback at all on seminar papers).

Hands down UW-Madison. The Nelson Institute is the best there is. They have folks such as Bill Cronan, Gregg Mitman, and Paul Robbins there.

Yes! Defiently Rochester (Douglas Crimp) or Jill Casid (Uw-Madison).

What kind of theory are you specially interested in? A place like Rochester or Chicago seems to have a lot of film/media/cinema theory whereas a place like UW-Madison has a huge emphasis upon environmental studies (Nelson Institute) and Deleuze/psychoanalysis in the art history department. Bryn Mawr and Penn also have some psychoanalysts.

Jill Casid (UW Madison), Ewa Lajer-Burcharth (Harvard), Michael Yonan (Missouri), and Dorothy Johnson (Iowa)