Atlantis

I started my PhD in Art History at a major Midwestern program in 2009. I did not have a bachelor in art history, but I did have an MA from the Courtauld. I think an MA is definitely an advantage and is something you should seriously consider.

MAPH is what you make of it. While it is certainly expensive, it can be an extremely rewarding experience. You will never learn as much and work as hard in that one year than at any other time in grad school. Also, people have re-applied to the UChicago PhD track after they did MAPH and have been accepted. Others went on to other programs at UChicago or elsewhere. If you're able to stick around, you may also get credit for your some courses, which can be a plus. It is certainly a program to consider.

Chicago offers have gone out like two weeks ago, I think.

Sure. These are from years past and there may not be much change. But is everybody reading those? Also, there are 'official' dates for when acceptances are sent out, and then they are those emails you may be getting a couple of weeks earlier by your POI or department head.

Yeah - these things are difficult to parse… But congrats to you! You'll love Berlin. And if you have any questions about the place, let me know. I'm from there, originally.

I would think that some departments actively discourage those applicants that they accept to share their news on outlets such as this one for a variety of reasons. And those students will probably stick to that, since they don't want to jeopardize anything.

Well. The acceptances/rejections have been sent out. 63 applications. I guess about 10 got accepted. Not mine…

I agree. PhD Student in Hyde Park myself. Your stipend will be plenty… just don't spend 1k a month on rent, as I did! It may get you into trouble. But there are other options, besides MAC in Hyde Park. Look at Parker Holsman for example. They have a couple of properties, also in the 'safer', Eastern part of Hyde Park, like on Harper, where I lived for a while, and absolutely loved it. And you can get a bike. Really. It's perfect, especially in the summer. Happy to answer more questions, too.

Congrats c m on your acceptance at Buffalo. Jonathan Katz is awesome, and actually much more 'art historical' than you might at first expect him to be. But he sure has his own way of looking at the world. And I'm very excited for your research topic! You're not, by any chance, a current UChicago undergrad?!

I am enrolled in a PhD program at an institution that has an MA program either as a one year full time, or two year part time terminal degree in the Humanities, with a possible concentration in Art History. They tend to offer a place in that program to people who have applied to the PhD but may not have made the final cut. The program itself is excellent and very rigorous. You will definitely be prepared much better for PhD work. That said, it is generally not fully funded and not exactly cheap. But your chances of being accepted into a PhD program with an MA degree in hand are much higher at most institutions. While there is no guarantee here at my institution to move from the MA degree into the PhD program, it does happen occasionally, sometimes with a break of a couple of years. And you will most definitely have a much better writing sample for future PhD applications etc pp.

I had written to all my POI's before I applied. In fact, I made sure I visited most of the departments I applied to before I applied. I understand that that's not really done anymore, and my own department discourages it these days, but having built a relationship - any kind of relationship that leaves a good impression - will work in your favor when they sift through 250 applications...

I work on the German 1890s. There is a dearth of good scholarship. I have worked with Joseph Koerner before when was at the Courtauld. He is truly brilliant - I mean, out-of-this-world-brilliant - and I can only recommend working with him. Also look into the scholarship of Katherine Kuenzly at Wesleyan, even if you don't apply there. She's preparing a book on Van de Velde, which should be highly interesting.

Also, if I may add, the department is hiring a replacement for English, as well as a contemporary Latin American scholar. There are other contemporary art curators, with strong theoretical backgrounds, working at UChicago, also offering classes in the Art History department. Come Fall Quarter 2014, the department will never have been stronger in contemporary art and theory. And yes, there is lots of theory at UChicago, but it doesn't have to be in the art history department for a student to take advantage of it.

Some shameless self-promotion: While Darby English has left Chicago for Williams, the department is recruiting a replacement this year. It is also hiring a new contemporary Latin American scholar. The university has also hired contemporary art curators and practitioners in other places on campus, such as Jacob Proctor from the Aspen Contemporary Museum of Art, and Monika Szewczyk from the Witte de With, both of whom are offering classes too. The department should therefore go into next year as a very interesting candidate for people considering graduate school, in particular in the modern and contemporary field.

Another option to consider: Create an academia.edu account, and post your that brilliant chapter of yours there. You never know who may read that. You could always sneakily put a reference to the website on your CV where you list your previous academic career. I had listed all the titles and supervisors of major thesis. No harm in putting a short remark like " 'XXX and XXX in XX century: a study on YYY and ZZZ.' Available on my academia.edu profile." Or something like that. And you'd submit a much improved art historical writing sample. I think that's always the better course of action, especially with more conservative places, which the Ivy etc tend to be.

Definitely work on the non-math scores on the GRE. I had a near perfect score on verbal (99% percentile), but a horrid math score. The math score didn't hurt, but the verbal score surely impressed. So improve that instead. And yes, everything else seems more important, especially the writing sample and statement. They can't have enough pairs of eyes looking over them! And four, five, six rounds of editing. Or more.

Hi - this is exactly what my situation was like. I had my undergrad supervisor write a reference letter, and the supervisor of my first MA. Both of them Professors. My third reference was by an artist with whom I had worked, and for whom I had written catalog texts etc. Eventually, I applied in seven places, and got offers from UChicago and Michigan. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Columbia and the Courtauld rejected me though. So it may be that some more conservative departments may frown upon it, but that's speculation. And my artist was not affiliated with any academic institution at all. It also sort of depends who the other two people are. My MA supervisor is an academic wunderkind, now Art History superstar, so that certainly counted for something, too.

Try to dig deeper, too. For example, the University of Chicago has Anne Leonhard at the Smart Museum, who works on the 19th century and teaches classes. There is Chelsea Foxwell, who works on 19th century Japanese Art. There is Elizabeth Helsinger, who works on English art and literature of the 19th century and image/text relationships. There is WJT Mitchell. There's Joel Snyder and his important work on early photography. There is Tom Gunning and his explorations of early cinema and viewing machines, in a vein of Crary. The possibilities are endless.

Re credits, I applied to six schools here with an MA from the Courtauld. The offer that I accepted would not accept the MA as any credit, but mainly because i did my undergrad in a different field. One place that accepted me, but where I didn't go, offered to take a year off the program. Happy to discuss in private.

I say, finish your MA in Berlin, network, schmooze with Bredekamp, etc. And apply for a PhD next year. The grades are not that important. The writing sample however is. As are your letters of recommendation. And speaking three languages is a HUGE advantage! If your application shows that you have perseverance, they will know that you won't flunk out after one semester. Do consider the University of Chicago as well. They have recently hired a very smart new Renaissance person, as well as a new professor (not to start till next year) in Ancient Roman art, whose theoretical and methodological approach you might like.

May I suggest you consider the University of Chicago as well, in particular since the institution not only has excellent modernist scholars (Martha Ward, Christine Mehring, Matthew Jesse Jackson, Darby English, Tom Gunning), but also because it has one of the best film studies departments in the country (it's called Cinema and Media Studies). Furthermore, Chicago offers opportunities for internships that are often overlooked, and also much less competitive than in NYC. Both Northwestern as well as the University of Chicago (and Loyola, for that matter) have university art museums, which are usually more than happy to work with graduate students.

Another thing about this list in particular, or rather the source material from which it was culled, is that by the time the data got published it was already out of date. One could potentially argue that Berkeley, with the recent departure of TJ Clark and his wife Anne Wagner, as well as the overall mayhem in the University of California, has lost some of its standing, whereas the University of Chicago has been continuously expanding its offerings with some of the brightest and freshest people out there. Similarly, Yale has lost Alex Nemerov... and so on. Of course, most of these switches are being made up for somehow, but not always. Since the job carousel is turning perpetually, these lists are nothing more than historical snapshots, but rarely reliable tools to plan the future...

Contacting professors at all the places, and indeed traveling to those places to meet with the people in person, was an indispensable part of me applying. I did not want to go to a place where I had not met the people. It's all about the people. So, I say, by all means, contact the professor. If they don't get back to you, or are curt or whatever, you will know that you might actually prefer to look somewhere else.

UCL is quite alright, but not quite as good as the Courtauld, I think. But then. Does it matter much? I think everybody should have lived in London for some time anyhow... any excuse will be fine.

Come to Chicago! It's an awesome department!