TaraConservation

I am a pre-program art conservator who just finished going through their first round of application/rejections to American art conservation master's programs. Rejection on the first go around is pretty normal given the small class sizes (5-10 students accepted a year) and how few American master's programs for art conservation there are (4). So I was expecting this - and I was very happy to get to the interview stage with several of these programs, as I understood that this improved my chances of acceptance into a program next year and that the interviewing committees would be open to offering me advice on how to improve my portfolio/application for the next year. I just received a response from a member of one of my interviewing committees (to my initial request for feedback on my application and interview so that I could prepare for next year) that contained some grains of useful advice thoroughly mixed in with a recommendation that I put aside my current aspirations (to earn a master's degree in art conservation) to go work in another tangentially related field - along with the implication that much of the pre-program conservation training I had was inconsequential because it wasn't in the conservation of fine art objects. I am not going to deny that I am pretty shocked and more than a little hurt. Its been a long road for me to get to this point - to fulfill the academic requirements to apply to these programs, to rack up the internship hours, to build professional relationships and acquire mentors and god knows to get a reasonable score on the Quantitative section of the GREs. I know this person's behavior was inappropriate, and I don't understand what I did to merit this kind of response. But this is also an incredible program that I would very much like the opportunity to apply to in the future. If I register any form of complaint I could destroy my chances of getting into this particular program. Any recommendations or thoughts as to what to do/how to deal with this would be most appreciated.

Hi Fragonard So I just received an invitation to interview in late March today, if that helps at all. That being said - I applied to the MA/MS program for Art Conservation and Art History not the pure Art History program so I'm not sure how different programs time interview invitations. Good luck!

This in particular seems like a good idea to me. Unless your advisor is firmly rooted in contemporary African art , the possibility of bringing in a second advisor who specializes in Medieval European art and rejiggering your dissertation to look at the intersections between Medieval European & African art would seem to be a good solution to the incompatibilities in your current course of study.