snooze

Don't worry! I think it should be okay. You could always call them in a few days too... Couldn't hurt.

Glad to see this thread's jumpin'. I just submitted my app to UPenn too! I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I'm still in undergrad and feel so tiny in comparison to other applicants.

Seriously! Thank goodness most of these are completely online so I don't have to worry about mailing things, ugh.

Is 300 words over the limit way too much...? One of my SOPs are supposed to be no more than 1,000 words, and mine is about 1,300 right now. Problem?

Thanks, guys. I ended up going with the seminar prof. She's really nice and has had more of an opportunity to see my work. Thanks again!

Thanks ameshu205! That was definitely helpful and something I was thinking about. Are you at the University of Delaware by any chance? That's one of the places I'm applying!

I could use some tips too. I'm having a hard time getting started. I want to give them a sense of everything I know and what I have done, but I don't want it to be boring... but I also don't want it to be cheesy with stories like "I cried when I saw my first Rothko!" or something.

Thanks!

Hey all, So very briefly: I have two letters of rec from art history profs that should be pretty good, but I'm stuck on who I should ask for the third. My options are a) my art history senior seminar professor who has only known me and my work for 2 and a half months but seems to really like me (and has nominated me for a few things) or b ) the Executive Associate Director (second in command) of the art school, who has known me since freshman year and personally gave me a scholarship. He knows me pretty well but doesn't know my art history work much, and I think only knows my artwork. However, I think his rec would be glowing, and I think his title might be eye-catching? And since I plan to present him with my CV and my interests, etc., he should have enough to talk about. I'll also be working on an exhibition with him in the Spring, so he could talk about that as well. Thoughts...? Thanks.

This is probably obvious, but you should definitely read articles and such by the people you're interested in studying with, so you get a sense of their interests and methodologies. You should also be prepared to articulately define your interests. And definitely come up with some good reasons as to why you want to be an art historian and not an architect anymore. I would also avoid asking any questions that are easily found on the school's website. That's all I got, really. I've never been on an official interview, but I've awkwardly approached professors at seminars, and I think they're more inclined to pay attention to you if you have good questions and don't appear to be the typical eager graduate school applicant. Oh, also: RELAX. I was really nervous once when I went to talk to someone I admired and as a result, I tripped up the stairs right in front of them because I was so frazzled. So just be yourself and stay cool!

Hi everyone, I just recently met with one of my advisers and am having a bit of a panic attack. I'm applying to a slew of competitive programs this semester, but my writing samples are less than stellar. They are well written and creative, but the longest one is 8 pages... I know some schools just say "send us what you have"... but what if what I have is not good enough? My options now are: beef up my 8 page paper, write a new research paper in a month, or take a year off (which I really don't want to do). So what have you all heard about writing samples? Maybe I can submit two great shorter papers? Help.

I used a Princeton Review book and it made a world of difference. Obviously, you'll want to learn as many vocab words as you can, but the book also teaches techniques for when (god forbid!) you don't know the words in the questions or don't remember how to compute with exponents, etc. It was really helpful and was only like $20. Also, definitely aim for a 600+. Although it was mentioned numerous times that GRE scores don't necessarily make or break you, I think most programs consider a 600V or combined 1200 to be a "good enough" score...

What did you say in your email? And did you just leave your number and say if they wished to contact you they could?

Hey 2011s, I'm applying to mostly PhD and a few MA programs this semester. I'm pretty freaked out, and am anticipating several more months of agony, judging by the 2010 application thread. At least we can all suffer in good company! I've been so consumed by grad school thoughts the past few months and I feel like that's all I talk to people about. This puts me in an awkward place since I'm not expecting to get accepted to most of the programs I'm applying to, and won't really know what to say when people ask me how it all went. Anyway, my primary focus is nineteenth-century British and American art, all media. I'm also interested in twentieth-century American and European, material culture, and museum studies. I guess my biggest interests are cross-cultural influence, identity, and society. Initially I was planning on pursuing a post-PhD curatorial career, but being a professor sounds more and more enticing every time I learn something new about it. My list of schools keeps changing, but I'm aiming to apply to roughly 8 or so. I took the GRE really early in the semester so I could apply to a fellowship with it... It went okay. I only had five days to study, so I just crammed for the verbal and winged the rest. 600v, 540q (ugh), and 4.0a (UGH!). Good enough for now, and I'm taking it again in early November. I'm looking at Williams (MA), UPenn, U of Washington, U of Minn (Twin Cities), Yale, Princeton, The Art Institute of Chicago (MA), and maybe U of Chicago. My GPA is a 3.89 from a pretty reputable Big Ten state school, I've done a few good internships, studied in Florence for a semester, speak Italian/started French, am writing an honors thesis aaaand can really only beef up my writing sample, knock out some good statements and hope for the best! I keep telling myself if the results are dismal in the Spring, that the next round will be better since I'll have a completed thesis and a couple more internships under my belt. Who knows. Are my school choices totally out of the question? Aaaagh. Are we supposed to visit them in the Spring? Not sure I can afford it. What about everyone else? Don't be shy! Frantically yours, Snooze