losemygrip

OK, let's face it. I'm the Yale hater. My problem is the really terrible work I've seen coming out of there, coupled with the hushed reverence people have for Yale because it's Ivy League. Big deal. The proof is in the pudding, and Yale pudding is pathetic. No offense.

That's why they're fallbacks! Really, check out anything in southern California. I think the LA art scene is more innovative and less ossified than NYC. ASU is possibly the nation's largest art school that's part of a university. There's something to be said for critical mass. You might also look into SAIC if you're wanting a big city that's different from the south. Oh! I can't believe I forgot Carnegie Mellon. They don't even have disciplinary divisions in their grad program. I find them kind of pretentious, but Pittsburgh is way cheaper to live in than some of these other places.

I really like your work. It seems pretty ambitious for undergrad work, so you should definitely be getting in somewhere. You didn't say what discipline you want to be in--is it sculpture? Combined media? I agree about UCLA. It's the best, and very selective, but worth a shot. I'd also recommend Virginia Commonwealth (the best for sculpture), UCSD, WUSTL, U. Washington. As usual, I'm not too keen on the NYC area schools, except SUNY Purchase. I'd recommend U-Conn also. Once again, I feel Yale and Columbia are way overrated, as is RISD. Indiana is also good in sculpture. CCA, SVA, and Pratt are not good fallback schools because they're expensive, and in Pratt's case, not very good. Your fallbacks should be Georgia State (in-state tuition if necessary), Tennessee, Florida.

Oh, you weren't funded in this program? In that case you probably made a good decision. I'm a latecomer to this discussion, but I'd just add that having the MA in International Studies would undoubtedly help you to get into a good law school. I know from the experience of my friends in law school while I was in grad school that 1) the school you attend and 2) your rank in the class are of primary importance in landing a job. If you are in the top half of your class, you're fine. If not, forget it. I'm not sure you're cut out for either, however. You definitely need to take time off and figure it out. You really have to be dedicated to be successful in either grad school or law school.

You will need to have an EXCELLENT portfolio. You may also be required to make up "deficiency" work in some programs. For instance, they may require that you have an undergraduate degree with "X" hours in ceramics and "Y" hours in art history. They might provisionally admit you while you made up those credits, or admit you as a special student until you reached that point. In fact, it might not hurt you to go ahead and see if you could enroll somewhere as a non-degree student and actually take some ceramics courses and art history so that you'll be better prepared for graduate school.

In the past SMU's art history program was quite traditional; this is a brand new focus for them. I suspect they had to justify the establishment of the new Ph.D. by creating a niche for it, and this is what was chosen. To my knowledge this new program is still entirely in the art history division. They really don't have a lot of theory-oriented faculty yet from what I can tell. As an alum from the MA program many years back, I can tell you that the undergrad population at SMU is, well, remarkable. And not necessarily in a good way. Vast majority are white (VERY white), wealthy, privileged, and somewhat entitled. But usually pretty bright and well-prepared. The most dominant Greek system I've ever seen. Students used to expect that missing class for a bridesmaid dress fitting was an excused absence. Also had a student who stole a page from a doctor's prescription pad to fake an excuse (it was his father's buddy as I recall). Could have changed a little over the years, of course, but my contacts in Dallas tell me those traditions are still alive there. Grad students are a different story, of course. Campus is modeled after UVA.

Since you seem to be geographically limited, try CSU Fullerton or UCSD. If you can go a LITTLE further afield, try Arizona or Arizona State.

Aojumper has given you some excellent advice. Maryland or GWU might be the way to go. I think Maryland allows you to enter the MA program separately from the Ph.D.

There are a lot of perfectly decent MFA programs in Texas. While UT is the best known, I personally do not feel it is the best. In photo I would probably go with University of Houston first, then North Texas. North Texas is actually quite competitive as well, so you might use UTSA and Texas Tech as fallback schools.

It shouldn't be too late to apply for fall 2012, but you need to sign up immediately for the next possible GRE testing. You have sort of a weird combo listed there--museum studies and medieval. My guess is that it would be really hard to do something professionally with medieval materials in a museum without a Ph.D. Good medieval collections are very limited in the U.S. The Met, maybe Cleveland and the Getty . . . . My point is that if you are super focused on doing medieval, you may need to go a different route and get a Ph.D. If you're more interested in getting a museum job, then you may need to give up the idea of focusing so tightly on medieval. They used to have a combined M.A. art history/MBA arts administration at SMU. And medieval was quite good with Annemarie Carr, but since she's retired I don't know what's going on with that. I've never heard this "cess pool" attitude about the MA from the IFA. Some years back there was an article in Art News about how fantastic the MA at the IFA was, and how it was as good as a PhD at some other schools. But the fact is that the IFA has very strong attachments with the Met, and you'd probably be able to work that angle if you went there. But it'll cost you . . . .

Can you say what state you're in? I recommend applying to a number of decent state schools. Then, in case you don't get funding, at least you can pay in-state tuition. (Or for when your funding runs out, which is what happened to me.)

I don't agree with anonymous. While I can't cite specific examples, I'm sure that students with MAs from Cal States must have moved on. There's no reason for them not to. I'm very suspicious of "It's generally understood." I'd say it's up to anonymous to provide more specific information to prove this very vague and, from my point of view, strange generalization.

German is generally required for most art history PhDs, no matter what the specialty. It's because it's the founding language of the discipline. The other language(s) are the ones related to your specialty. There is of course some variance among specific grad programs. At the masters level you typically only have to pass one translation exam; it's unlikely your program would require it to be an Asian language. But there is no question that you'll be expected to learn those languages in order to do your research.

No, she would not have gotten those jobs without the MFA. Imagine you're reviewing applications for artists-in-residence. Lots of good people. Who are you going to take: the BFA, or the MFA? Unless the BFA is W-A-Y better, you'll get the MFA. And an advanced degree is pretty much a must in the museum field. The thing is, you will learn absolutely nothing about the "practical" fields that you mention in the course of an MFA program. It is ONLY about making your art and being an artist. You'll have to do that on your own, or separately get an arts administration degree.

Well, I'm far beyond the "prospective and current student" status. But if you want to stay in California for an MA, and then go elsewhere for a PhD, I'd say to focus on a terminal MA program such as UC Riverside. I think UC San Diego--while it has a PhD in visual culture or something like that--also offers a regular MA in art history. UC Santa Barbara may also offer a terminal MA option, although they do have a PhD program. Several of the Cal State schools may also offer them--Cal State Long Beach comes to mind.

USC has a decent reputation. They just don't seem to put out that many grads--I think it's because their program is relatively small. It's not because the faculty aren't good or well-known.

It depends on what direction you want your career to take. It sounds as if you want to go the auction-house/commercial route. If so, I'd say go ahead and indulge your love of decorative arts. It will be easier to find a place that focuses on that, and has Asian art secondarily, than would be the reverse. You should not, however, treat them as mutually exclusive. The terminal MA programs you list are really designed for people who want to enter the art trade business, so if that's your goal, your path is clear. In that case, taking another year or two to work would be fine. In fact, that might be a good idea, just so that you could be certain of your career path. If you decide you want an academic career, then go for the Japanese. Asianists are in demand. HIGH demand. (As long as you can teach a range of Asian art.) Skip the French for now. Do German instead. Many grad programs will substitute another language for French, but not for German. Some (like Columbia) require three.

Unfortunately, Various is basically correct, if a bit snarky. The artist Terry Allen once said that if you wanted a career as a producing artist, an MFA was a waste of time. This is why I'm always asking people on these forums why they're going to grad school. In your initial post, you hit upon the two reasons for getting an MFA: as a college teaching credential, and to devote time to developing (and hopefully improving) your work. In some cases (such as in NYC), artists will enroll primarily to get studio space. Unfortunately, a lot of MFA students are there because they don't know what else to do. However, that said, you can do LOTS of things after getting an MFA. It IS an advanced degree equivalent to a PhD. My sister worked for a cable access company for a while. Then she was an artist-in-residence for many years (in many places). Then she worked in the education dept. of a museum. Sometimes artists start their own businesses. Sometimes they end up doing graphic design. I mean, artists are problem solvers from the get go--finding a job shouldn't be hard to solve.

She's smart, but pompous and overbearing (in my experience). YMMV. She would not be someone I would want to work with personally.

It's always worth a try. The overall GPA wouldn't matter so much if you had just made all A grades in art history. You have an interesting background. I'd say you're a good example of someone for whom getting great GRE scores could really help. I don't think the writing center person is necessarily a bad choice, if they can write you a really good letter that addresses your academic skills. Do you have a favorite French professor? I used a French professor as a recommender; he knew me and my abilities really well. You're probably going to have to get your recommenders to address the issue of the less-than-stellar GPA. Might need to address that in your statement as well.

You can pick this up along the way. Just make it clear in your application that you've recently decided on Byzantine and you're looking forward to learning Greek and Latin (and make sure they're available where you go, which they should be). Having the German already down helps a lot. Byzantinists are an interesting lot. Get ready. I think Johns Hopkins is probably the place to go for Byzantine.

Javits Fellowships are about it.

When it comes to academic hiring, Yale MFAs in photo do not have a good record. I don't know the reason why, but they don't. Look around at the photo faculty at good art schools and see where they went.

You need to pose this question to the undergrad advisor in your area at UCLA. They can help you better than anyone. If an academic position is what you're looking for, graphic design is the way to go. There are way more positions than there are qualified applicants.

McKee, sorry we hijacked your other thread! Kind of took a squabbly turn. Good luck to all you guys, and don't sweat it too much. Just remember to apply to a wide range of schools, and try to avoid expectations. It's a little like a lottery--throw in your entry and see if your name pops up. Sometimes what you think would be best really isn't.