tommyzero

Congratulations watersnake!

Yes. To paraphrase 'Trainspotting': I don't choose life, I choose art history.

In a similar vein to this strand of premature post-doctoral employment angst, I remember reading (on this website, or perhaps another) a statistical analysis of the colleges at which professors at major art history departments had taken their PhDs. But I can't seem to find the link anywhere - has anyone ever seen such a thing, or did I imagine it in a fit of fevered paranoia?

Thanks for the congratulations. I am still very ambivalent about what my 'top choice' might be.... Columbia for location, and future career options, certainly; but perhaps UCL for faculty. Or Princeton... Gah! Thanks for the info on Princeton by the way!

I was the poster on the results board admitted by Columbia. To the person who asked, my subfield is modern. Thanks for the congratulations. And to those of you who haven't been accepted by their top choice this year, this is my second attempt on Columbia, so there is hope...

* Won the prize for best MA score & dissertation of my year. * My MA tutor (& principle LOR writer) is very prominent in his field and personally known to most of the faculty to whom I applied. * Recently gave a lecture on my research topic at Oxford University. * My writing sample was graded 80% (about as high a grade as British schools hand out). * GRE verbal: 800. GRE AW: 6. And to top it all... *GRE quant: 460 (like I give a crap! - ok, that might sound conceited, but I don't think art historians care much about this).

Just finished my last application - to a British school. We're snowed at at the moment though, so don't know when I'll be able to mail it.... Looking at last year's results on the gradcafe board, it seems that people start to hear around mid-Feb, but only if they've been successful. I only got into my safety school last year (didn't get any rejections til April or something horrible like that) and decided to try again.

Have you considered Satish Padiyar at the Courtauld Institute? I studied with him last year and he's a great teacher. http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/people/padiyar-satish.shtml

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this. I applied to 3 schools - 2 top-tier, one decidedly middling. I was rejected by the better schools, and have just received an offer from the lesser one. Should I wait a year and apply again, when I have finished my MA with stellar grades and a ground-breakingly original dissertation (ha)? Or should I make the best of what I got this time around? There is no-one who fits extremely well with my project at the middling school, but would it be taking too much of a risk to assume a completed MA will make my application that much better next time around?

Yes. Like you, I underapplied (only three institutions), and was not much surprised by the outcome. Here's hoping the intervening year improves our applications (I will have completed my MA by then, which must help.... please God).

I am surprised (and slightly nauseated) to see that someone on the results board has already received a mail rejection from Chicago. Their website states that they will only be mailing results in the first week of March. Anyone else heard from them?