Eggleston

Agreed - this is a terrific book to read if you're wrestling with the giant question of just what methodology is, as well as how various art historical methodologies differ and overlap, and how they developed historically. The writing is very clear and accessible, and I think also treats the topic with the kind of nuance that @poliscar is calling for. Also second @poliscar that looking at a scholar's sources, assigned readings on their syllabi, etc. is a good way to glean their methodological orientation. Now that I've done my exams, I often find myself looking at the bibliography or footnotes of any new book first, precisely for this reason.

I know one person in my department bought a house or condo on the northwest side of Providence (I believe in North Providence or Smith Hill) and is happy with it. The East Side is definitely going to be the most expensive, whereas I believe there are more good deals to be had on the West Side (like in Federal Hill and off Broadway Ave), and in Pawtucket to the north. Check out the neighborhoods individually for safety though - here is a handy map for that: http://www.providenceri.com/police/crime-map East Providence is a good option if you have a car, because otherwise it's hard to get to campus from there (the buses don't run that often) and almost everyone lives in the East Side, so if you're in East Providence you'll be a bit isolated from department socializing. But it is very fast to downtown Providence and the campus via the highway.

Welcome to Providence! I'm a current grad student and I found my apartment on Craigslist, which turned out well. But there is also this Brown-run website for apartment listings and I know some friends have had pretty good luck with it: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Auxiliary_Housing/Listings/ Lots of grad students also regularly post apartment and sublet listings on the Grad Student Listserv, which you can sign up for by looking at this page here: http://students.brown.edu/gsc/resources/mailing-lists/#subscribe Specifically, the "GSBB" ("bulletin board") listhost is the one where people post about apartments. I would recommend signing up for it in digest mode because then you just get a big summary of the e-mails at the end of the day, instead of all them throughout the day which can quickly clog your inbox. Good luck!

Jeffrey Muller at Brown is an option and has been taking more students lately.

Williams, Tufts, UPenn, Rutgers, and BU are all good bets- either for the quality of their programs or the presence of faculty who are trained in photo history themselves. Don't forget about the University of Arizona or New Mexico- both have faculty in the specialization as well.

For photo history, Stephen Pinson's Speculating Daguerre (University of Chicago Press, 2012) is terrific.

Hi PiTwoComplete, I'm not sure if you've already been to Brown for your visiting day since you posted a few weeks ago, but here are the graduate housing boards that are mentioned above: http://brown.edu/Administration/Auxiliary_Housing/Listings/ It's not a forum as much as a mini Craigslist specifically for Brown affiliates. If you do end up coming here to Brown you can search for a roommate by sending out an e-mail to the grad student list host in summer. I live with my partner so I don't have an opinion on the roommate situation, but I can definitely suggest neighborhoods and/or specific streets to consider based on your preferences, if you're interested!

What are your interests in photography? Since you'd be applying (at the PhD level, at least) to work with a specific professor/group of professors, you can begin to narrow down your list by looking at the courses those professors teach, as well as their publications. Try to get a sense of whether their interests and (more importantly) their methods appeal to you. Another thing to consider is whether any given school would provide you with a community of other photo history students- some schools have only a handful of students studying the subject, while others (like Brown and BU) have quite a handful. As for free-standing MAs, you should keep looking at UNM (Zuromskis), Arizona (Albers), BU (Sichel), Tufts (McTighe), and SUNY Stonybrook. For PhDs look into Brown (Nickel), Harvard (Kelsey), Columbia (Alberro, Elcott), Princeton (McCauley), UCLA (Baker), UCSB (Keller), Penn (Silverman, Beckman) and Rutgers (Sheehan, Zervigon)- and BU also has a PhD in addition to the terminal MA. I'd recommend Chicago but Joel Snyder is currently chair of the department and hasn't taken a student in a few years now. ^The specialties and approaches of these individuals, as well as the resources their institutions have, vary incredibly widely. Since you have quite a bit of time left in your undergrad, I'd suggest trying to narrow down your list to a selection of both MAs and PhDs (even if you think they're "reach" programs) where the interests/approaches of the particular faculty members are to your liking, and go from there. Good luck!

I second that recommendation. Wu Hung is fantastic.

I might! The art history department (where I'm headed) is quite small, and though my advisor is awesome and teaches a variety of great courses on my specialization (history of photography), I might try to take just a few more modern/contemporary related courses at Harvard in my 2nd or 3rd year if possible. Boston is such a short train ride away, so if you signed up for a once-a-week seminar, I'm sure it would be easy to get back/forth one day a week.

There are also the Auxiliary Housing listings- this is where current grad students and recent grads who happen to own or rent out apartments post: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Auxiliary_Housing/Listings/ The downside is no pictures :/ But I had a few current grad students tell me that this was a great way to go if you're looking to avoid Craigslist. I plan on probably using Craigslist anyway. I've found quite a few nice listings by doing what LLajax suggested- searching "East Side" or any of the main street names/neighborhoods (Wickenden, Wayland Square, Thayer, etc.)

Congrats!!! I second the person above- I was hoping you were the UDel admit too

As someone who did their undergrad at UChicago, and having been in some mixed ug/grad classes and solely grad classes alongside MAPH students, I can definitely vouch for the quality of the coursework and interactions with professors that you'll experience if you come here and take full advantage of what the program has to offer. My impression has been that some of the philosophy department faculty don't view MAPH and its students as favorably, but that certainly isn't the case in the art history department. You begin conceptualizing your thesis as early as the end of fall quarter (which ends in December), and from there it's a fast track to completing it, under the guidance of both faculty and current PhD students who act as your preceptors. The program is ideal for people who didn't have much undergrad coursework in their intended area of PhD study, and want to build a solid foundation to switch fields. As for whether it would "make a big difference for your application," having MAPH on your CV could serve as affirmation to other peer institutions that you have what it takes to do rigorous grad level art history work even without an undergrad major, and at a fast pace. Recent art history department 'rankings' (whatever they're worth to you) have placed UChicago in the top 3 programs in the nation. Also, what is your concentration within art history? Are you probably going to continue with medieval? Aden Kumler, the medievalist in the art history department, is awesome and teaches some really exciting grad seminars. That said, you are very right to bring up the fact that if you choose UChicago MAPH (which is only a year), you'd only be about a third through the program by the time you'd be submitting PhD applications for 2013-2014. It's possible, but not ideal, and even "discouraged" according to this page on the program's website. I have a friend who has also been accepted to MAPH for this year (for Anthropology, switching from Philosophy in undergrad) and she's certain that she's applying to PhDs this fall. So it's definitely possible, just maybe not what most people would advise you to do. You start your MAPH Core 2 weeks before UofC's fall quarter even begins, so in early to mid-September- which would give you some time to develop relationships with professors early if you 1) really hit the ground running and 2) choose your fall classes very carefully. I don't know much about Rutgers but it sounds like a very solid program, and the fact that you'd be there for 2 years might really appeal to your desire to take a tad more time before applying to PhDs. Given that you haven't had much art history coursework yet, just as you brought up in your latest ^ post, it also might be really beneficial to take classes across a wide spectrum of media/time periods, etc. just in case you end up becoming really excited about a subject and shift your area of focus. And of course, you can't beat the proximity to New York. All in all, I suppose that however much I love UChicago and tell people to come here , I'd probably go with Rutgers in this case because the 2 year length of the program plays into your desire to "really establish a strong background in art history." The art history classes I've taken at Chicago have been outstanding, but Rutgers would give you a lot more time to hone your specific interests, which would be good to eventually showcase in your PhD applications.

Thanks for the advice, guys! Very helpful to know that most apartments include a parking space and that Zipcar takes care of most needs like Target trips anyway. I'll probably just stick with Zipcar for the first semester or year, at least, and leave purchasing a car to second year or later.

Does anyone have any advice as to whether a car is necessary in Providence? I know that the city proper is walkable, and that there are some buses, but the nearest Target is in all the way in Cranston... just wondering whether anyone has an opinion on this. Thanks!