purplepepper

Don't worry, by no means is your statement of purpose to be written in stone. If you find something more interesting later on, you are free to study whatever you like! to address the question of what should you write about..hmm. that is a toughie. Looking back on the SOP i wrote for my MA it's a wonder I was accepted anywhere at all. In other words, it sucked. big time. Anyhow, my advice would be to somehow focus on something that you are interested in now. If it's modern art, talk about what aspect (one) of modern art you want to research. Talk about a paper that you were particularly proud of---bring up the questions that you raised, what conclusion you came to, and why that particular topic warrants further research. Then of course talk about why you fit that school, and what profs you want to work with. That should be a good start to work with. Good luck!

If you are interested in Buddhist art (I study East Asian Buddhist art by the way...) I still stand by my original response and ditch the internship. You'll be wanting to enter a program with a strong presence in South Asian art I imagine (Berkeley is pretty good, except that now, CA's economy isn't so, SOAS in London is brilliant and a perfect fit, although they don't offer funding...there are other programs out there for sure.) Find a way to get back to Nepal, or even India--teach English if you have to. Once you get there, you'll find ways to get involved in a temple community or Buddhist community or anything else that you are interested in. That is a much stronger, compelling, and more interesting component of an application that shows your commitment to your interests and field, rather than doing an internship at a museum. Some people will say that you could get a good rec from a curator if you work hard, although if you want to enter a good program, you'll need all your recs from former profs. as a curator, while they might have a big name, can't speak as well for your academic ability as a former professor could. As a side note by the way, SOAS's 1-year MA program is a perfect stepping stone to the PhD. Like I said, brilliant program, and they have so much to offer in the ways of South Asian art and culture, which is more than many US institutions. If you have time, check out their website at soas.ac.uk

A perfect is only the 94th percentile. You are being a baby!

if you have an MA, your BA doesn't matter, it's all water under the bridge. Don't explain your low GPA or low math GRE. It'll come off as insincere and whiny. Just explain how your ideas have evolved from your BA, to MA and what you want to do with them in the PhD. And I truly don't believe that schools cut off by the numbers at first, unless they are truly low, which yours are not.

I did my MA in the UK, and saw a lot of what typical Mphil students go through in art history and elsewhere. UK unis are very different than US ones. It's hard to explain in detail in such a short amount space so if you have any further questions feel free to PM me. But for now, all I can say is, on one hand, yes, the course content is much sparser than what you would find in a US curriculum. You take way fewer courses, and have way less interaction with your advisors. You have to do a lot of the heavy lifting yourself, which can be extremely frustrating at first, and you just don't have the opportunity to get the feedback and the help with your ideas that you would in the US. You also don't really teach or grade papers which depending how you look at it could be a good or not so good thing. With that being said, resources in the UK are amazing, and Cambridge is a brilliant place to live. Ultimately you decide what you want to get out of your education. Some people really thrive in that kind of environment and there are so many opportunities to hear your professors speak at conferences..as it's so easy to get to London, Oxford, Edinburgh, etc...and there are so many events to get involved in. Academically, I grew way more during my one year MA than I did during my entire undergrad. So it's a trade off, really. You just have to decide what your priorities are in your education.

those numbers seem to be pretty standard. i bet you'd get a 2% acceptance rate and any top English program, be it harvard or not. The misleading thing is, for the most part you compete against people only in your subfield. so between 30 applicants who want to study the same thing--they'll take only 1 or 2.

haha that's funny, I'm moving to NJ to start school. Was just happy to see a thread on BGSU, as it's closeish to home for me. Good luck with everything!

I think you are right about that...non-native speakers of English are given a whole lot more lenience when it comes to the verbal section. A friend of mine who went to an american uni for her BA, albeit a non-native english speaker scored somewhere in the 500s and is going to Harvard. For native English speakers the standard is much higher. Don't stress too much about it, as they'll see your toefl scores, which is much more important, and your writing samples.

nothing really constructive to add here...are you guys from Ohio? I've actually been to the BGSU campus a few times while cycling...there is a lot of green there and a big football stadium have no idea about student life as a grad student though. haha.

If you are interested in Pre-Columbian art, or of Latin america, or really any other spanish speaking country for that matter, I say ditch the internship and go teach english in Latin or South america. I'm totally serious. internships don't do much for applications unless they give you real research experience. Living abroad and aquiring langauges is a much stronger compoenent of your application, even though it might not have anything to do with art history per se. The discipline is a whole lot more about studying and researching culture (whatever that means) than dealing with objects in a gallery.

I'm starting a Phd in about a month, and I still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up..... I say, if it feels like the right path and it's something you love to do, just go with it. You never know what doors will open up along the road. If you close yourself off for good though you take away any chance of any interesting opportunity that might pop up. So keep doing what you are doing, and maybe 10 years down the road when it's actually time to get a job, you'll have things a bit more figured out. I hope I will....

Just found the thread and the link. that's actually really fun. and really scary. I'm glad I'm not in contemporary and 20th century art. geeeeeez!

I read books and play computer games in my spare time too as I'm sure every single Phd student does....and coming from a music background myself, it:s great that you were a voice student. Kudos to saving money in this economy. Unfortunately, the people reading your apps don't give a flip. To give you advice without being sarcastic, rewrite the whole thing and talk about your research only and how your ideas have developed. No one cares if you say you are ready or what you have done that may be useful...becuase you do not prove it with your SOP at this point.

hmm. your verbal is definitely fine ( i got the same score), and no one cares about the AWA since you have to submit a writing sample. Usually I would say that GRE scores really don't matter, but I'd take the test one more time to see if you could do better on the math. Princeton publishes median GRE scores of admitted students (sorry too lazy to find the link)..go on their graduate applicant website to check it out. Q scores don't need to be high, but try to aim for the mid 500s and up. I think i heard somewhere that adcoms also like to see improvement in scores so the fact that your Q is low isn't really a problem, but they will see that you didn't try a second time despite the lower score. I don't think it's necessary to take the test more than 3 times. Dont' worry if your verbal goes down..the fluctuation really won't matter if it's not too far from the percentile that you scored before. Good luck with everything.

I honestly think that it's never too early to start a dialogue about your research interests between a potential advisor, and to say that you are interested in discussing whether or not you'd be able to pursue your topic at X University. I contacted profs way back in April, met some of them over the summer, and no one forgot who I was come application time (last year). got into 3 of 4 schools, and one prof. actually remembered the exact introduction email that I sent her. Granted this all may be special circumstances, but if you have an interesting topic with relevant experience, profs. would be as interested in you as you are in them. If they aren't accepting students, they'll either tell you (without having to ask) or not reply.

cake

Hey, sorry for the paranoid sounding post but just to double check.... No one has gotten anything in the mail besides your email account info right? Nothing about registration, moving in, sign-in, or anything else of that sort? I was checking the website and it said that all that stuff would be mailed by mid-May, but I haven't gotten anything at all recently about anything. But perhaps, no one has?

A friend of mine was TAing for an art history class in something like the beginnings of Christian iconography. In an essay he was grading, a student was trying to explain when images of Christ appeared in the church. This is a quote "And then Christ rose up and came all over the church" Make of it what you will.

nosebleed (no really, the room was so stuffy and hot that i got a nosebleed during the test)

Slurp.

Definitely no decision before the deadline, unless the university has rolling admissions. But most Phd programs do not. Actually, I don't think I'd recommend sending your application a month or more before the deadline...send it early to make sure your school gets everything and you don't panic, but if you sent it in too early 1) people may wonder if you rushed the application (i've heard of this happening before, although i wonder how true it is..) 2) you might make silly mistakes that you would have caught otherwise- after having put your application down for a few weeks and then revisiting it. 3) you just might have your most brilliant idea after submitting it early. And while that may be true for anything, even after submitting it on the deadline, at least then you'll know you did all you could

I really don't know much about this, but there are joint programs (or you can make a joint program yourself if your university allows) and it can be done. I have a friend who is doing just that, a joint PhD MBA because it will really help him get to where he wants to go. Anyway, I suppose the thing to do would be to talk to people once you get to school to figure out how it works. They can be done simultaneously, might be hard, but doable.

Yeah...English is funny like that.... Take a look at freerice.com and just try to get past the first few levels (they'll start you in the middle on level 30)....then perhaps you will answer your own question. I mean I have actually never ever seen or heard the word "stook" before (among many many others.) hell. My computer doesn't even know it either as it tries to point out I've made a spelling error. I'd be damned if someone could guess its approximate meaning without knowing the explicit definition.....unless you are fluent in Middle English or Middle Low German.. Yes. A great deal of words used on the GRE are rarely used. There is a reason why 600 is the 85th percentile.

Just to add another perspective about going straight through from undergrad-Ph.D. This is not something that I did by the way, but simply the fact that you are applying as an undergrad has nothing to do with the decision process. Rather, adcoms for the most part will be looking at how ready you are and if you have the necessary experience and technical research skills to undergo a Ph.D. program. Some go and get 'em undergrads simply have what it takes, but me for example, and most people as well, are just not ready, and it's obvious from reading SOPs and writing samples. (as was told by someone much wiser than me...) That's where the MA comes in handy as being in an MA program helps you refine your research. If you need more language experience (and it's usually more than one year of study abroad.., unless you have some other types of experiences that go beyond a major concentration) you need to get more experience living/working/studying seriously in that country you are interested in. At least this is true with the East Asia people. Obviously American art will be much different. And likewise, when I went to prospective student weekends this past April, most of the American/modern people were straight out of undergrad. I have also heard that museum/gallery internships, unless research oriented, don't do much for one's application....unless of course you can get a good rec out of it. So apply as an undergrad if you want, but you have to understand the amount of maturity that must come through your applications and to really understand what the term "research interests" means--and how to express it/them in a meaningful and creative way. And definitely. Definitely. Have a plan B.

While I agree about the whole grade conversion (i.e. "grades" are relative to the university and even to the prof. especially those from foreign institutions) I think more credit is due to American universities' capabilities of translating/converting foreign GPAs. I really don't believe that an international transcript evaluation is necessary, as there didn't seem to be a problem with my foreign GPA. I too, was in a situation where my university graded a bit differently/more strictly from the rest of the country. Plus there is really no way of knowing how each university converts foreign GPAs, which I'm sure is institution specific anyway, so a transcript evaluation might not even be looked at. I do get the impression though, that admissions offices are quite versed in not only different American institutions' grading scales, but also the grading scales of individual institutions abroad.