Virago

What a great topic! the following are some pretty great ones:

Goya's Ghosts (2006 with Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman)
Mad Love (2001 Juana La Loca-Spanish Film, exquisite costume design, great acting)
Perfume-The Story of a Murder (2006 with Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Ben Whishaw)
Vision- From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009 German Film)
Los Borgia (2006 Spanish Film directed by Antonio Hernandez)
Mona Lisa Smile (2003 with Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst)
Caravaggio (1986)
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
Lust for Life (1956 for those of you interested in the life and works of Vincent van Gogh)

I LOVE historical films and I'm big fan of good (historically accurate) costume design. These films are some of my absolute favorite. Don't miss out!

Oh and I wholeheartedly agree with the above suggestions of Black Orpheus and The Agony and the Ecstacy I would've also included them but didn't for the sake of repetition.

I'm hoping to work in my state's compliance & review department (in the division of historical preservation) once I finish my coursework. They basically try to prevent developers and individuals from screwing up active or potential archaeological sites while taking legal action against those who do. 

If you want "someplace cool with great museums" and plenty of museum collections to visit over time -- that is definitely Philadelphia.
 
However, graduate school's main focus is not visiting museums. It's about setting yourself up for scholarly research.
 
It would be one thing if you are committing long term to this area -- perhaps for an ordinary job, where things to do outside of work is essential part of life -- OR if you needed to have access to a particular museum(s) for research, but I think your attention now should really be weighing "if this is the MA program for me?"

I would also like to add that a very wise person once told me "Go to the highest ranked program that you can afford" Do you agree or disagree?

Mary's answer reminded me of what Michelangelo replied when asked to weigh in on the superiority of either sculpture or painting.  To summarize, he said that all the artists involved in the debate should stop arguing and get back to making art.  Touché.

Rutgers has a very good program with great faculty and a good reputation (in my personal experience, its reputation dramatically increases the further away one gets from the NY metropolitan area...).

Great resources available in terms of the facilities themselves: their library holdings in all three locations, and in multiple disciplines beyond art history, have proven to be much better than the holdings of the two nearest Ivies I've visited for research purposes (Columbia and Princeton), which is helpful for someone like me who expects to be buried in a library for the next few years.

The program is small, but active, and the students I've met are of the highest caliber. Expect to be challenged as much by them as by the faculty. The scope is decidedly traditional, but making such generalizations about the scope of a school makes me uneasy, as I know that a student's particular opinion of a school's "scope" will be heavily influenced by the people he or she ends up working with directly. I, for one, am basing my opinion on the sheer number of graduate courses available each year on what I consider to be "traditional" fields (Renaissance, Baroque, early Modern, Western, etc).

The program is also affordable; as a state school, tuition is actually manageable, especially if you're an in-state student. Most schools grant in-state status after one year of residency anyways and the difference between in-state and out-of-state is not as great as it is in other places...

Finally, the school's location cannot be beat. You would be living sort of in between New York and Philadelphia, which opens up more options for summer internships at cultural institutions.

In the wise words of one of my advisers, the best school is the one in which you believe you will thrive, intellectually and professionally... but there's no fool-proof, objective way to decide this. After gathering all necessary facts, it all comes down to a sophisticated form of gut feeling.

Hope this helped...

lp

This has been helpful. I spent a good portion of last night trying to draft a reminder email without using the word "motherfucker."

My favorite was when a fellow classmate made a facebook status update "highly recommending" we all go to a certain exhibit, even going so far as to offer us a tour of it "in case we weren't familiar with the topic." ! Oh yes, please tell me more about your expertise on this obscure topic, I was just dying for a private tour from you.

I had lunch with the a group of people including the DGS earlier this semester, and this question came up. His answer was that they don't get too worried if an undergrad has something like that on his/her record. If it happens once, they assume the student was adjusting to college life. If it happened a couple of times but was a while ago (time has passed between the probation and the graduate application), they really don't worry about it. As long as it is in the past and more current records show it is not likely to happen again, they look at the rest of your application.

It is if it is recent, I would be concerned, but if it was your first year, I wouldn't stress about it. I would, however, answer yes. I would not feel comfortable answering no, especially since it is on your transcript.

who is applying to cuny for art history ma or phd?

what's the deal. i get word of mouth that it's a good program. but as far as i can tell..well i cant tell.
i cant tell a darn thing anymore. god. i just want to think about art
and get paid.

I'm willing to read and review- gradcafers did me the honor last year, so I'm happy to do it for anyone applying this year! Just shoot me a PM