Hicks

After looking at their stats this isn't as bad as I thought. Over the last 10 years they've made 6-10 offers a year and enrolled 3-6...so it doesnt' look like much of a change.

Ouch! I didn't realize that. My interest is in the relationship between Contemporary Art and religion, especially Christianity. So, David Morgan would be a good fit for me. He is the only person i know of who does related work and is on faculty in the art history program. Sally Promey at Yale is grat, and they are my first choice, but she is in the Divinity School and American Studies department. We'll see...I'm sad to hear that they are looking to take so few this year.

Like others on these forums I keep getting e-mails from Duke letting em know what application materials they have. These have never bothered me until this morning. Simpy because we are getting close to when they invited people to interview last year. So, I got thinking. According to the results page they sent out interview invitations last year on Jan 21 but didn't reject people until March. If we don't ge the invitation does that automatically mean we are rejected and just waiting for it to be official? Just curious.

I'm getting the e-mails also. The previous ones didn't bother me so much. But, we are getting close to when they invite people for interviews...so yes my heart did skip a little beat.

That shouldn't be a huge problem...assuming you have developed an idea of what your art historical interests are. How much art/ architecture history have you taken in undergrad/ grad so far?

I don't know of any Post-Bacc programs in art history. But, some M.A. programs are not too difficult to get into. Youu may want to consider just going for it.

All my applications are now done. It feels good! I still have on eletter that hasn't arrived but she has done all the others near the deadline so I'm not too worried. Now it is just a lot of waiting.

LOL...I just saw that I said two days before Christmas. It was actually two days before Thanksgiving.

I took mine two days before Christmas and got the scores in 16 calendar days. I'm not sure which days were holidays. Also, don't pay the $12 for the phone they show-up on-line at the same time.

I'll be 38. I already have two masters including an MFA. I've been teaching the last four years at a small liberal arts college but have gotten more interested in art history and want to also transition to more significant institutions.

Personally, I would very seriously consider taking it. You will have to move soon anyway to start your PhD program. But, possibly more importabt is the networking potential of the internship. It will give you an idea if you do want to go into museum work but it will also give to the opportunity to make connections. NYC is expensive, but it is also only for 14 weeks.

It sounds like you contacted them with a purpose not the annoying stab in the dark approach described above. That said congrats on the Fullbright and good luck on your applications. You and I have applied to six out of seven of the same schools.

Thanks. That is basically what I've done on the ones I've submitted so far. I've also included the table of contents so that if they want they can see how the section I've submitted fits into the overall structure fo the paper. My thesis was on the history of the Bob Jones University Art Collection so a rather odd topic. After the first seven pages of introduction and the state of the problem I then spend over 30 pages discussing the history of the university and the biography of the collector, Bob Jones Jr. This of course is all done with an eye to how it influenced the development of the collection but would seem odd, I think, as a writing sample. I spend the next sixty pages of the paper on an anaylsis of the development of the collection. I have turned in excerpts which cover the foundation of the collection and the collections major growth period. That seemed, to me, to be the most accessible on its own. It still seems to me to be truncated but I guess every deals with that conern.

Arthistoryvoe, Thank you for your feedback! It makes me feel better about the contact I'e made with professors. I've done it at two schools and when I had specific questions and in one case was going to be near by and wanted to visit the school. In other cases, I've not contacted them. It felt foced to me so I did but was second guessing that decision. I always wonder about the advice of fourms like this and tend to take it all with a grain of salt but still find it cathartic. Do you have any advice about excerting from a longer thesis for your writing sample. Thanks again for your feedback.

Nice to have you here. 1) I totally agree. Having an MA from Williams is not going to hurt anyone. I don't know that an M.A. really hurts anyone but I'm not always sure it helps either. Those who get an M.A. at Williams likely would have had a real shot at PhD programs from the beginning. For some people with marks on their undergrad record I would imagine a strong performance in an M.A. program would help...at least I hope so. 2) This seems right. I've contacted some of my schools but not all. In retrospect I should have made that extra effort. 3) I've heard mixed reveiws on the GRE. But, in general I agree. I know some prefessors on admission committees do care while others don't. But, a low score on the verbal would certainly raise red flags. That said the NRC rankings seem to indicate at least a loose relationship between the quality/ selectiveness of the program and GRE scores. Personally, I was surprised at how low the averages were for most programs. I see your in a PhD program currently. Do you mind if I ask where?

What have your professors said? I would think that it is not preferable but ont he other hand you certainly want to submit a strong writing example. I have a similar but not as stark situation. My thesis was on the history of a collection which is not what I am interested in on the PhD level. The former grad director at Yale suggested that I write something new closer to my interests. But, unfortunately I wasn't able to get that done. So, I'm doing an excerpt from my thesis. But, in my SOP my explain how my thesis does relate to my interests. I hope that will work. My bigger concern is what part of the thesis to excerpt and how readable it is to pick up in the middle of a long thesis.

Nice to meet you. I'm up for swapping SOP's if anyone is interested.

I did the dual MFA/MS degree at Pratt. For some weird accrediting reason the Art History master's is an M.S. not an M.A. The program is solid and not just an after thought to the design and fine arts programs. But, one thing that many enjoy about the program is the close associating with the fine arts. There are some really good well respected faculty there. But, that said I don't know the current contemporary art professor. She is a young professor just out of Princeton. It looks like the new Chair is also a 20th century person. They started teh Museums Studies certificate after I left so I can't say much about it. At the graduate level you won't be dealing with many if any of the visiting professors. They mostly teach undergraduate surveys. Though there are a couple from the Brooklyn Museum conservation lab who help with the methodolgy course. If you have any questions I will try to answer what I can.

Hi all. I noticed that past years seem to have been much more active here than this one. I'm curious who else is out there and applying for PhD programs. As for me, I'm not the traditional PhD candidate. I'm a bit older. I already have an MFA and Master's in Art History from Pratt Inst. I'm in my fourth year of teaching studio, theory and art history at a small liberal arts college. I never got really interested in art history until the last semester of my BFA. I hoped to go on for my PhD after my grad work at Pratt but family obligations and a couple of job offers kept me from it. But, the art history courses have been my favorites and my research interests have developed so I've decided now is the time. I'm interested in Conteporary art and its relationship to religion but from an art historical perspective not a theological. This odd interest of course complicates my application. David Morgan at Duke and Sally Promey at Yale (though she is in the Divinity School) have work that is most related to my interests. I've settled on applying to Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Penn, Chicago, Northwestern and Duke. I had personal probelms early on in my undergrad but transfered around some and finally ended with a 3.5. My grad GPA (studio and art history) was 3.89. So, I don't know how much of a strike my problems in undergrad will be. I got 690 verbal and 730 quantitative on the GRE. Solid but a little less than I was hoping. That is my introduction. I look forward to meeting anyone who is around here.