ZeeMore21

Also, fullofpink, I don't quite see how your admissions process would be so drastically different than someone from English...please don't try to put yourself above anyone else here. Obviously, all applicants would be confident going into a programs with a strong G.P.A and GRE scores...there is no need to differentiate your field from anyone other field. Before you go off trying to do so, perhaps you should familiarize yourself with other fields. I specialize in African American visual studies, and am attending an interdisciplinary program, so I do have the experience to answer posts such as the ones found on this thread.

Since art history is still the humanities, I have every right to be able to voice my opinion on the subject, thank you.

To whoever voted my post back up, thanks! Perhaps I just have grown tired of some posters using this forum for their own self-aggrandizement. hisarthopeful, if I am misjudging your intentions, then I do apologize. However, do you honestly expect another poster to look at your qualifications and say, "no, you are absolutely not qualified enough to get into a PhD program"? And what would you say if a poster actually said this? You should definitley read a post somewhere else in this forum that gives advice about things you should think about before asking about your admissions odds. Frankly, your grades and gre scores do not really matter at the doctoral level. If you do not have a well-written personal statement and writing sample, then, no, you are not getting into a doctoral program. You said you had a well written writing sample, so well done. But please don't really on your numbers to get you into a doctoral program....this is graduate school we are talking about, not undergrad.

I think that in my case, I did make sure that I chose an institution whose political views, for the most part, aligned with my own.

Well said hejduk.

That's unfortunate! I'm starting my PhD in the fall so I have some time before I have to think about comps, but from what I here, the experience is pretty stressful. I do find the whole process to prepare for comps kind of exciting though...by the end of it, you have pretty much read a significant portion of texts in your field. That's pretty cool, I think.

The worksheet is very helpful theregalrenegade! I definitely will keep it at hand when I read academic articles.

Haha yay! Glad I am not alone in the skimming guilt club

Also, I think I also fear skimming because it is frustrating when you skip a part of an article that becomes the focal point in classroom discussions. I'm not good at pulling things out of my you know what, so it helps me to read the article carefully and in its entirety. In this way, I am more comfortable joining in seminar discussions without the fear that I am missing an important point from the text at hand.

I still can't help feeling a bit guilty if I ever do skim sections of an academic article...I feel as though I am missing something important, especially considering that the author is building one argument on top of another before getting to his or her conclusion at the end. I definitely can be a slow reader (often get distracted when reading a difficult, dense academic piece...usually theory) and I always like to underline and write marginalia. When I do start my doctorate program I will try my best to refrain from skimming unless I really do not have time to read an entire article or book in a given time frame. I'm hoping that better time management will allow me to read at a comfortable pace and still get my reading done.

Haha, well you will certainly get there with enough commitment and time! It's bound to happen. At some point you won't even have to try to think History...your brain will just run on its own. I will say it can get a bit crazy sometimes

The advice my advisor gave me as far as the structure of my SOP was concerned was to write it in narrative form...the SOP flowed a lot more naturally when I took this approach. I started the first paragraph detailing my research interests and included a little bit of my personal background. The next couple paragraphs dealt with giving a narrative of how I became interested in my field: What courses i took and projects I did during undergrad that sparked my initial interest, how I built upon my undergrad interests while pursuing my masters degree (namely how I developed a theoretical framework), and how I refined my interests during a fellowship program after my M.A. The next to last paragraph dealt in explaining why the school I was interested in was a good fit, and which professors I wanted to work with. The very last paragraph dealt with my goals after pursuing a PhD and why my research would is important in my field. My statement was about 1 page and 1/2 single space I think. You definitely can organize your SOP whatever way you want, but I did find it easier to understand for myself why and how I became interested in my field by organizing my SOP the way I did. I do think members of the admissions committee are interested in the story of your intellectual development...you come off a lot more personable and definitely more genuine. I did get into 6 doctoral programs with my statement, so that should count for something I guess.

I wonder if posters would mind not being anonymous if they do vote a post down.

I am not in art history but I do study visual art as part of my research. For my writing sample, I did include images within the paper and it came out to be 25 pages...I think the maximum number of pages for most of the schools I applied to was 25 pages. To be safe, you could ask departments whether put your images inside your paper or include them in an appendix. I actually didn't ask around...it made much more sense to include the images in the paper so that readers wouldn't have to hassle with going back and forth from the paper to the appendix.

Thanks for all the advice. I will be attending Vanderbilt, actually. Since I am in English, I will mainly be working in Benson Hall I assume. I have been researching bus lines and I think there is a bus that stops not to far from my residence and does make a stop on the Vandy campus. Are you familiar with this bus line? I commend you on doing the graduate school thing and raising a toddler on top of getting around Nashviile! That really is something to be proud of.

Oh, an no, I don't vote posts down a lot, but I find it helpful to attract administrators' attention to online trolls.

Am I assuming correctly that posters can no longer vote posts down?

Loving this forum!!! Looks great, good job guys!

Hilarious....I didn't know anyone could possibly act that entitled in an email to an admissions office, even if he or she is already accepted.

Thanks for the great advice posters!

Hey! Nice to meet a fellow Vandy (is that what you call someone who goes to Vanderbilt? lol). I will be living on Acklen Drive...so I won't be too far from campus. Where do you live?

Hey ktel, didn't meant to imply that. I was speaking to your argument that you weren't able to justify going into humanities because it is not as lucrative as the sciences. I was simply trying to argue that most people that go into humanities aren't looking to make money.

And again, I am not familiar with the application review service, but I would argue that professors would have more of an expert eye when it comes to knowing what it takes to get into a program...obviously they were successful not only getting into a doctoral program, but also finding employment in their field. They have been in their field for years, so they know the inside and outside of their field in particular and academia in general. I honestly would take the advice of posters in this thread encouraging to seek help elsewhere, but of course, the choice is yours at end of the day.

I don't really see what the problem is with just giving your draft to professors to read, they too could have read many personal statements. I think most posters here recognize how expensive this whole application process is and are offering you a way to cut down costs. It really isn't necessary to pay someone you don't know to look over your statement. It makes more sense, however, to give it to someone who is not only familiar with your work, but would do the work of editing for free.

Commend you on that Eigen, of course.