Hedonismbot2000

Wow. That part in particular is completely insane and borderline criminal. I'm so sorry this was your experience. Mostly I thought of the Courtauld as a feeder into top PhDs or as just a solid standalone MA. This however confirms something I've already suspected about MA programs at elite schools for those who are not funded (NYU-IFA, Courtauld, Columbia, even Williams in the past). They traffic in their reputations, locations, and supposedly robust alumni networks (which does no good when the jobs simply aren't there, like what happened on a mass scale to the art world this year). But from your description, it seems like their MO is to fleece international students and not give a s*** what happens to them after graduation. I'd prefer not to think that they are deliberately out to take advantage of students, but it's not hard to imagine, which is profoundly depressing. Ugh.

@jondewitt how did you know that the IFA was cutting its class size? I didn't see anything to that end on their website. Was it a rumor/grapevine thing? And @wookie55 damn that's crazy (re: record-breaking applications to the IFA). Did the prof give you any indication why? My guess is that museum, non-profit, and gallery jobs have dried up so severely that everyone is flocking to grad school. I'm told it was a similar situation after the '08 crash.

I thought we could share some effective reading strategies for those enormous reading lists, and particularly difficult texts in our field. 1. How do you make time for reading with classes, grading, work, etc.? 2. How do you improve your powers of recall on various authors and their scholarship? Do you organize notes electronically or on paper? 3. What do you do with a text that you find difficult to approach or understand? I'm sure there are some great ideas out there! ?