tendaysleft

Ahahahaha yes!! I would be the worst member of an adcom. When I'm really hungry I get so cranky. They would need to continuously feed me all day or I would just throw some apps away for no reason

Hi there! I'm applying to five programs, all with terminal MAs: McGill, NYU, UConn, SAIC, and Williams. I'm focusing on gender in late Modern/contemporary. Whether I think I will be accepted to any of them swings wildly from day-to-day, and this entire application process has been a lot more stressful than I thought it would. (Honestly, the thought of doing it all again if I don't get in anywhere is horrible to me, but I know I would try again.)

I think also that the range of topics available for study in a visual studies program is wider--not just art, but also TV shows, stamps, crafts, comic books, advertising.

Hey everyone, I'm applying to MA programs in art history and my first deadline is fast approaching (saturday actually!) so if you have time to take a look today or tomorrow, message me and we can swap!

That's a good point--perhaps it would be best to ask her exactly what she means by "proposal". I did email her a pretty thorough description of my interests (I thought) but maybe she just wanted something more specific or in-depth.

Hi everyone, I'm in the process of applying to art history MA programs, and in emailing POIs I've come across a situation that I don't really know how to deal with. After I explained my general interests to a particular POI, she wrote me back asking me for a proposal. Is this a common thing for a prof to ask of an MA applicant? Have any of you experienced this at the MA level? At any rate, I want to oblige her because I'm really enthusiastic about her advising me, but I've only ever had to write a tiny one-page essay proposal during my whole undergrad degree. Does anyone have any advice around the level of detail it should have, the length, and the sort of content it should include--like should I include citations, things like that? Any and all advice is very appreciated!

I have actually had a Professor tell me that it is inappropriate to give a gift to a prof as a thank-you for writing a recommendation, although I'm not sure why--maybe it could be misconstrued as a weird attempt at bribery? At any rate, given the chance that a gift might cause awkwardness, I agree with emmm. A heartfelt note is probably best.

Also, if I posted this topic on the wrong board, I apologize! Let me know if it should go somewhere else.

What about less tangible things, like being in contact with a professor before you apply? I'm applying to all terminal MA programs, and I'm really nervous about contacting professors... I wish I could bypass the entire thing but I realize my chances probably increase if you've spoken with someone who likes your interests. What are the odds of getting into a really popular program (or any program, really) without having contacted anyone beforehand?

Hey all, So I'm applying to art history MA programs, and I've been attempting to contact professors about my research interests to see if they would support my application/be my advisor upon acceptance. One professor, upon receiving an email outlining my interests (not a short email, but not overly long - a paragraph or two) asked for a proposal. Does she mean... a thesis proposal!? I'm not really sure how to deal with this. Should I actually be putting together a cogent proposal? Has anyone else experienced a request like this? (Isn't this kind of asking for a lot, for an applicant to an MA program?) I'm really enthusiastic about working with this person, so I'd really like to send her something, but I'm also not sure what a thesis proposal is supposed to contain, or how long it should be. I've only had to write a single one during my entire undergraduate career, and that was a full year ago. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions/examples on what a tentative thesis proposal should contain? Thanks a bunch!

Ahaha I just wanted to share this incredibly random "crazy art history"-related clip:

I thought about this too, but she was really enthusiastic about writing for me and she knows my abilities and personality much better than most actual professors I took classes with. I have two other recs that are full profs, one of which who is very well-respected and well-known in his field, so I'm hoping that plus the original recommender's enthusiasm make up for the fact that she is a graduate student.

These are both great points. Once I'm finished a semblance of a draft I will definitely put it up on gradcafe for consideration - and I really like the idea of combining giving over the materials with a polite request for feedback. Thanks for the advice!

Haha I think all of us grad student hopefuls are prematurely anxious about just about everything! Myself definitely included. I think I have to finish my damned SOP, and then I can just send everything away and I'll feel a lot better. But first I want to ask a prof to look at it... I guess I will contact someone else for now, and then if she responds it will just be another pair of eyes, which is always good. Do you think I should email her again about reviewing my SOP, or just leave it until I can provide her with all the materials for writing my letters?

This is a good idea. I just checked the course calendar and it looks like she isn't signed up to teach a class this semester so it looks like being able to pop in is unlikely, unfortunately.

Hey everyone, I'm having a problem with one of my recommenders and I'm not sure what to do. I emailed her around two weeks ago to ask if she would be willing to take a look at my SOP and she hasn't responded. It's fine if I need to get someone else to read over my SOP in the end, but I'm concerned that she'll be flaky about actually writing the LORs... I would go to her office hours, but she's a doctoral student and I'm not sure if she's even teaching any classes this semester. When should I contact her again? (I'm guessing soon?) What can I say to her that gently reminds her of the fact that she agreed to write me LORs but isn't pestering or entitled? I'm not really sure how to approach this situation. Any help would be very much appreciated!

Wow, all of these are great resources! Thanks Eddie and sabrinamichelle!

I think you could cite authors in your SOP, but only if it has a really long word limit and probably not for an MA SOP. Isn't your research not supposed to be excessively focused in MA-level applications? I think it would be difficult to cite sources but not seem like you're presenting a thesis proposal to them. (Which from my understanding is not the goal of an MA SOP.)

That definitely seems like a good point! Thanks for your point of view. At one particular school, the art historian I hope to advise me has an explicitly (as in, she has these words on her faculty info page) feminist, queer, anti-racist point of view. So perhaps I would be "safe" to mention feminism in my SOP at that particular school, at least. And regarding the acceptedness of feminist approaches in academia... it seems like they are accepted, but grudgingly so, and not by everyone. Depending on the scholar, I think critical approaches are still seen as being kind of... fringe, or something.

Yep that definitely sounds like good advice, eleanor and origin=goal--if I include itI I suppose I will have to make sure to be very precise and articulate about what I mean when I say feminist/feminism. I think Given that, I am leaning towards excluding the F-word just to avoid that potential SOP-sloppiness and just hinting at it in ways that Sparky suggested.

Hey Patrick, i think most of the above advice applies to people studying Art History at the doctorate level--there's probably more information on Business PhDs at this forum here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/14-business/ My understanding is that teaching experience is quite important when applying to teaching positions, but again, I think the expertise here is humanities-centric--perhaps it's different when it comes to Business? Definitely check out that other forum and ask around there, and also at this forum here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/72-jobs/ Good luck!

Aha - i think that's a distinction that I was having trouble making in my head for some reason. This was very helpful, thank you!

Hmm, looks like the 'my feminism' fraughtness is yet another reason for me to just sidestep the term completely! It's probably easier for me to explain my interests without talking about feminism than it is to talk about feminism and keep the professionalism in line. Thanks a lot for your in-depth response!

Hey all, I'm working on my SOP for a couple different terminal MA programs in art history right now and I'm stuck on how to approach a particular point. I approach my research from a feminist perspective, and I'd like to study gender, so I'd like to talk about that in my SOP. My feminism is really key to how I approach my research, but at the same time, I appreciate that different adcomms might not... appreciate that so much. They could be deeply turned off by it (especially in art history, which can be a very traditional discipline.) Of course, I'm only applying to certain programs in the hopes of working with professors who would be amenable to somewhat politically-charged research, but I don't want to make it sound like the only reason I want to study art history is to spread my feminist agenda or something ridiculous like that. My feminism is just the lens I look at art history through. At any rate, I don't want to sound like a crazy person whose ideological agenda is going to bias make all her research academically unsound, or something! But at the same time I don't want to present myself in my SOP in a way that would not be true to the kind of research I'd like to do, and it's hard for me to imagine talking about my field of study without mentioning my orientation towards it. I guess my question is this: would it be a bad idea to call myself a feminist in my SOP? Maybe there's a way to intone it without explicitly using the F-word? I realize this is kind of an awkward question, but any thoughts any of you might have are greatly appreciated!

This is a really well-regarded program--a professor of mine referred to it as the top place to study visual culture and visual studies.