The strangest part is I’ve had some friends attend the courtauld in the last few years out of our program (which is admittedly at a school not particularly known for art history or the humanities in general really) and while neither has pursued a PhD yet, both ended up in pretty great jobs in museums or galleries less than six months after graduating, and said that while our small program led to some imposter syndrome at the courtauld, they felt perfectly prepared and on par knowledge wise.
I’m wondering if perhaps my professors are just confused? Like I said my program was very small and while they are both great academics they’re also pretty removed from the sort of “academic machine” since our school is so far removed from it.
But as you and everyone else has confirmed, the reputation of the courtauld I think is hard to beat, especially if you look at student bios at top PhD programs.
I’ve received half tuition at tufts so monetarily the costs aren’t super disparate, so I’m reasonably sure I’ll be seeing you at the courtauld!
