ellengloria

Hello GradCafé! I'm in my final year of undergrad at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and am planning on applying directly to PhD programs in Art History after a gap year. My advisor very emphatically told me that I should take time off to increase my chances of being accepted to a top program – I'm working on a thesis and she told me I should wait until the thesis is finished to apply to programs so I can show them a finished product. Since I know I want to complete a PhD, I'd much prefer to go directly into a doctoral program than to do a terminal MA somewhere first. I worked on my thesis research in Paris this summer (at the INHA, the Orsay Archives and the Quai Branly archives) and have gotten several grants to fund travel but I haven't published anything yet. Do you think it's realistic to apply to top PhD programs without any MA coursework or publication experience? My GPA is strong, I've taken a lot of advanced coursework and I know my recommendations will be strong but I've also heard that programs look for publication experience and prefer students who've already completed an MA. Thanks in advance!