I'm a recent MA graduate who's considering applying and getting steadily more defeated as i talk to more people/obsessively stalk forums. Naive as i may be, as one of the lucky students who've only ever had profs encourage them toward a phd, for better or worse 2020 has really forced me to revaluate my life goals and whether academia/art history is truly the calling as i've always known it to be. i'm also in a weird place as an upper middle class queer person of color who's been fed through the pipeline and happens to really care about ethics and justice-oriented research, and i perhaps have lofty ambitions of ~transforming~ the discipline. I don't have much advice... only to say that if you're in the same boat, please know that you're not alone -- anyone who is seriously applying (esp under current circumstances) already shows immense dedication to the field and deserves a place in it!