hopelesslypostmodern

I'm in a similar situation of choosing between a funded PhD and an MA (waitlisted for funding), except with my MA acceptance being from Williams. I guess, the two big questions that I've been considering have been 1) When I'm finished/nearly finished with my MA and applying for a PhD again, would I apply to the school that accepted me for a PhD this round again? (If yes, then is getting the MA worth the time spent if I would consider that school again? For me, probably not) and 2) If I do not get funding for the MA, can I afford to take on more debt? (I've been advised that taking on debt for grad school is "bad," but on the other hand, it would only be two years and might help me land a funded PhD). There are other questions to consider, of course, but those two factors seem to be the biggest for me.

I see no harm in waiting. Assuming you haven't visited before, you'll have a chance to get a peak at what you are accepting. (And if, GradCafe forbid!, you find out that there is some reason why the school wouldn't work for you, such as a personality clash with you POI, you can still change your mind). This, at least, is the tactic I'm taking. To be fair though, my visit is only a week and a half away (much less time to go crazy while waiting!).

I am one of the admits. I got an email from the director saying that they had "unanimously voted to accept" my application (yay!) and that I am an alternate for a 2 year fellowship with tuition and a stipend. Other than that, the email just talked about the features of the program and said that I could contact them if I had questions. I didn't do the interview in January.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good place to buy some nice stationary online. I would like my thank you notes to look nice, since my recommenders have be nothing but helpful. I should probably start looking around Etsy when I have some free time...

Happy I could help!

My current advisor has all of her rejections in a drawer in her office. She says that she is going to frame them all once she gets tenure.

I got a rejection letter from U Michigan, which made the rejection hurt more than the email/website rejections I've gotten. It felt like they put more effort into rejecting me. On the other hand, it did give me an opportunity to burn the letter, throw the remains into a river, and drink whiskey, which is quite cathartic.

Just checked Northwestern after seeing the forum buzz. Rejected, naturally. Oh well, I knew the fit wasn't the best and that it'd be a long shot to get in.

Only one of my schools hasn't started contacting people yet. Of the schools I'm still waiting to hear from, I've only seen one or two results. It is sort of driving me crazy because I can't tell if they are just contacting their favorite candidates/ones who got prized fellowships or whether not that many people on gradcafe applied to those schools (and thus, no information).

I'm waiting on Williams as well. I'll be so happy when this waiting is over.

THIS. My life summed up in two sentences.

My first rejection was an email this past Tuesday. I angrily deleted everything the school had ever sent me. Then I ate fried mozzarella sticks and felt better. And got really excited about the one school that had admitted me. The second rejection (yesterday) was harder. First, I got an actual letter, which made it feel more...real. Ate a cupcake that was leftover from my birthday. I went to class and tried not to cry (mostly succeeding). Went back to my room and actually cried. Barely ate anything for dinner. Later, my friends and I went to the river, burned the letter, and I drank whiskey. The we went and ate food (more fried mozzarella sticks for me!). I felt better and went back to my room to watch some Arrested Development. Decided to skip class the next day (today) and went to bed. Today, I woke up and started feeling all depressed again. Tried to work on one of my papers, but felt too anxious to do so. This lasted most of the day until after supper, I put the soundtrack to There Will Be Blood on repeat and started writing my paper. Now I feel better! Also, I am such a stereotypical Wisconsin girl....comforting myself with fried cheese. Hah.

Thank you! I *almost* didn't apply to Williams, but one of my letter writers really encouraged me to do so. Looking at your signature, I can see that you have good taste in schools as well! It's pretty sad about the situation with the California schools. There are some amazing state schools there, but everything appears to be in such a state of flux because of the budget problems. I love how positive this thread has been. It's been a long week, but it's nice to visit gradcafe and read about/talk to people who are going through the same things.

Thank you so much for the kind words (and smiley faces! ). And I hope you're right and that I do get into someplace else as well, if only so I can stop thinking that the first acceptance was a fluke (I know it wasn't, but sometimes it just feels that way). I didn't apply to UCLA. I'm still waiting on Chicago (probably a lost cause), Northwestern (same), Bryn Mawr, CUNY, and Williams (MA).

Thank you! It was certainly a let down to be rejected, but I knew Michigan would be a long shot. On the bright side, I was accepted by UPittsburgh with funding, and I still have five schools to hear from. So I'm trying to look at the bright side. I hope things work out for you in this crazy process!

I just got rejected by Michigan today. So maybe no news is good news at this point...

If you need a humorous coping mechanism, there is always this Hyperbole and a Half: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

I was on a "shortlist" for a visual studies program and was told that they wanted to have a "short phone conversation" with me (not as exciting as your opportunity, but it was something!). From my experience, I would say that they are interested in you based on your application, but want to get to know you a bit better before they actually decide. I would prepare for it like you would an interview - my experience ended up with the conversation basically being a short interview about some parts of my application with a chance for me to ask some questions about the program at the end. Since they are flying you out to visit, they might be interviewing you and, potentially, doing some preemptive recruiting. But that's just a guess on my part. It does not, however, mean that you are accepted (yet). Again, just be prepared to interview and have some questions about the program and you should be fine. Good luck with your visit!

You might want to move your question to the art history forum here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/66-art-history/ Checking the results board might also help (just search for art history). I think some people have might have heard from Yale, but I'm not positive. Also, if you don't mind me asking, how/when did you find out you were accepted at UChicago and Northwestern? What's your subfield?

Congrats to the Northwestern acceptance! ... ... Now, details, please!

My birthday is also this week (Wednesday), so I am going to be especially unhappy with any rejections received this week (not that the adcoms have any reason to actually care about my birthday...). I did get accepted by UPittsburgh, though, with a pretty nice funding package, so hopefully that will soften the blow of rejections. However, if any further acceptances (not that I'm expecting any...but one can hope, right?) come this week, it would be THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER!

I would check out Washington University in St. Louis English program as well as the ones bsmith888 listed above. There are different certificates within the program (like American Culture, film and media studies, early modern studies, women and gender studies, data science etc), but they seem to encourage interdisciplinary work between areas as well. Hope that helps. Good luck with your search!

I know I don't really say much on these forums, but I just wanted to say that this is the most intelligent statement I've seen on this forum in some time. Many of the changes in the discipline in the last 40 or 50 years (for better or for worse) has been the result of an increased interest in interdisciplinary ideas. Where would art history be today without semiotic theory, Marxism, psychoanalysis, or the contributions of philosophers like Foucault or Derrida? My concern is that if we cannot respect the contributions of other art historians just because we perceive their specialty as "easier," then how are we to improve our discipline? I can't help but feel that by degrading one specialty or another (without really thinking about the challenges of that specialty or how the work being done in that specialty can relate to one's own) our various specialties will become comfortable resting on their laurels and not strive to improve by looking at the work of other specialties in our discipline or even at contributions from other disciplines. Then again, maybe we respect the work from those outside our discipline more than work from those different subspecialties of our own. But I hope, naively perhaps, that this is not the case.

Congrats on the acceptance!

Have you considered Williams College? They have one of the top MA programs in the country and offer some pretty nice opportunities to intern in Museum settings. They do have one Renaissance/Baroque specialist, Michael Cole, although I don't know much about his work (my interests are 20th c., especially postwar German/American). I'd also look at the Courtauld Institute in London. I've heard some good things about UCR, too, though you've already done some research on that program. Hope that helps.