[DO NOT GO TO COURTAULD]

22 hours ago, Benton73 said:

Additionally, their writing resources and other academic advising is only allowed to be access by student physically located in the UK. As an international student who couldn't move to London  during COVID, I was told faculty couldn't assist me even though meetings were over Zoom because I was not physically in the UK and their contracts did no allow them to help students abroad- EVEN THOUGH COURTAULD ADVERTISES THESE RESOURCES.

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.

[Fall 2021]

13 hours ago, jondewitt said:

I think it went ok? I feel like self-assessment is difficult unless you did an extremely good job, and I can't say if I did lol

In addition to the expected interview questions like "why our program," many were highly specific to my interests and the interview felt like a formal Q&A with some conversational stuff sprinkled in. I heard that many programs will have interviews that are much more conversational and designed to specifically gauge for personality compatibility (i.e., you're basically in and they want to make sure you're not going to be a pain to work with or teach). But this one was definitely also geared towards seeing a goodness of academic fit. My POI was there as well and asked a couple of questions, but it's now up to the selection committee to make a decision. The interview was also capped at 30 minutes, which is no time at all if you're trying to impress a selection committee AND ask your own questions.

I know the IFA is severely cutting its incoming PhD class so I fully prepped myself to be rejected and I'm just happy to have made it this far. @wookie55 did you get an interview too?

@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.

[Reading strategies]

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! ?