complexprocedure

@ NaturallyAesthetic: One thought was to use the parking lots for large-scale installation projects. In fact, the author you mention is a friend of my artist friend... I was supposed to have dinner with them last year. Julia was in town for a lecture that my friend had helped arrange (sort of funny story: that talk almost didn't happen because of a freak southern snowstorm!), but I had other commitments at the time. Definitely something I'd like to revisit in the future. I think it's great how you're approaching your work, and your cataloging the specimen sounds very appropriate. I am, unfortunately, not much of a scientist; it's one of those "missed" callings (hoping to learn GIS basics this semester - why not?), but despite my deficiencies in that department, I'm deeply interested in scientific history and generally like an empirical approach to explaining how the world works. Always good to see someone leaping between disciplines in order to give us a better idea of the subject(s) at hand.

Congratulations, VeryNearFutureGrad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, hey - mucho congratulations on your admit!!! Avocados FTW!

Yes. Definitely overreacting. Unless your married name is McNazi Puppydrowner. In which case: yikes!

Oooooh, I want to read your thesis! I'd love to hear about what you discovered, as my City Beautiful knowledge is fairly limited to the 1893 Columbian Expo and I'm interested to see where that went post-fair. Any online access to the tome? Also interested in the "Future Relics" project; an artist friend and I spent last summer discussing the future of the big box, mainly in the context of how to use these as art projects.

I will totally claim that oldest spot, hah! The house could get fairly quiet (read: tense) when both my oldest and I were going through finals at the same time. At least we weren't going to the same uni. I think this whole process would be considerably harder if I had kids that were younger and more dependent (3! whoah!). Kudos to you for being able to juggle, well, everything!

I've been 2009, 2010, 2011... but, sadly, not this time around. :/ This year Los Angeles is a more out of my price range than it's been in years previous, so I will not be around. Are you going? What panels are you eager to listen in on?

And an email from Hal Foster, no less! Coat me in covetousness - that's a fine, fine treat someone got for their Thursday. (Never mind the fact that I didn't have the nerve to apply to P'ton, and that I'd surely not survive being intimidated into an intellectual corner by the Fosternator!!!)

Wellllll... at 42, you're not older than me. I remember thinking to myself when I finally went back to school that I'd be over 40 by the time I applied to grad - and lo, it has come to pass! But, as the saying goes, I realized that I was going to be 40 whether I pursued more education or not. That said, I'm completely unsure whether or not that's reflected in my application packet. I certainly didn't mention age on any of my statements, because it didn't seem relevant. After all, I hadn't engaged in serious scholarship until after I'd gone back to school, so my CV, although probably more full than the average applicant, covers the relatively brief time period from when I went back to school and began to do work and research in the field. Do adcoms even notice the age of the applicant if it's not brought up otherwise? Sure, DOB is on your application, but I have to wonder if they really look for that piece of information if one doesn't call attention to it. Based on my transcript/CV (I just graduated from school last year) alone, I would appear to be considerably younger than I actually am... Very curious. Somewhat funny and related: Most of my professors thought that I was in my mid-20s when I went back to school. It wasn't until after I was a year out from graduation that they had any idea that I have not only three children, but that at least two were at the age of majority or very nearly so. The past year I think age (and the attendant physical decline) has been catching up to me a bit, so all vanity aside, I'm enjoying the prospect of not having people go into shock when I tell them my age or life experience!

@ NaturallyAesthetic and OnceAndFutureGrad - Thank you both for sharing your experience! Actually, that goes for all who've been willing to share: your stories really boost the camaraderie factor around here. It certainly helps to remind each other that there are many things out there besides a shiny PhD, and many paths to contented adulthood. I hope to share a little more of my own tale at some point, but I've just come home from a looong museum day of thinking and writing (I know, I know... but it was on about three hours sleep, so help me!) and am at a point where I can't face reading one more staff email, much less string coherent thoughts together. And I still have to save at least a couple of those for writing an LOR tonight for someone I mentored who's now applying to MFA programs. Speaking of which, it feels a little bit weird writing LORs when I just finished my undergrad last year and am trying to get into grad myself. I see a number of us on this forum have taught, so I know I can't be the only one in this situation. Hicks? Anyone else?

Yes, "worrying about not worrying" seems to describe the situation perfectly. I will do my utmost to improve, haha! I'm very sorry to hear of your loss; major kudos to you for persevering with the application process in the face of such a difficult time.Thanks for your kind words for my mom. Although it will be a while before we're totally confident that we're out of the woods, there's not a day that goes by that I don't realize how lucky we are. My condolances to you and yours, and best wishes for coming through this with strength and grace. (And the acceptance of your top choice would be pretty sweet as well, so I'll be rooting for you!)

I just wanted to pipe in with the fact that I'm commiserating - quietly. Part of the reason for my silence is admittedly a bit of paranoia - you never know who's out there listening, right? Another contributing factor is pure superstition - I don't want to jinx myself, after all. Well, there's the neurotic bits taken care of, then! That said, I'd really love to find a place at Duke, Temple, or Rutgers. I see I am not the only one who would love to not have to deal with issues of long-distance, so Duke is not only attractive in terms of who I'd like to work with, but also in terms of proximity to my significant other (in NC), my children (I've a middle-schooler who's decided - at least for the time being - to remain in GA; the other two are adults but still live in the same area, and because we are quite close, I want to remain as near as possible), and the rest of my family (including my mother, who just completed a battle with cancer, with thankfully excellent outcome, and who also resides in the South). Of course, I will be thrilled with ANY acceptance. The necessity of travel - possibly for some distance - in order to persue graduate education has been a topic of discussion with all the people in my life for some years now, but since I finished undergrad last year, it feels much more real and I suspect any acceptances have a greater degree of bitter to temper the sweet than they do for many others, given my family situation. One rule in my applications process was that I would not apply to any schools outside of my family's time zone. Another litmus test was ease of travel between key cities via plane, and general cost of airfare between cities. Fortunately, that still leaves an embarrassment of riches, but all other things being equal, I would still prefer to be closer than farther from those I love. I am running into a situation that seems to be a bit opposite from many of you - I fear I may be a little overly relaxed about this whole process. Naturally, I wonder about how my packet is faring under the various adcoms, but I can't say it's a moment-to-moment (or even daily) curiosity. I spent the last couple years of undergrad worrying myself into a froth over that much more than I have since the apps have gone out. Maybe it's just because I feel like everything I *could* have done to better my application were things that I did/didn't do over the past few years; no sense in worrying over it now. In fact, because of my lack of obssessiveness, I fear more that in my low-key approach, I may have overlooked something (and my reluctance to hound the poor grad secretaries over whether they received such-and-such from so-and-so) than I do worrying over whether the adcom feels I am a suitably shiny candidate for their program. Case in point: I recently had a program contact me about not receiving my GRE scores when I thought they'd already been sent to the school - so perhaps I would do well to be a little bit more OCD about the process itself! I just keep reminding myself: ANY yes is a good yes. And I'm not here to collect prizes: I only need that ONE.

As if there wasn't enough to be anxious about, an invitation to Rutgers Open House just appeared in my inbox. I'm assuming this was sent out to all applicants and not just shortlisted candidates, but if anyone knows any better, I'd love to hear about it.

And then there are would-be avisors who are deep in both critical theory AND identity politics - what's a hopeful scholar to do?! I have heard that you don't necessarily have to align with a professor's methodology and that you can still thrive as long as the POI really knows the topic that you're working on... but as a lowly applicant, I'm happy to be corrected on this point. I imagine it makes a huge difference depending on whether or not your POI has a generous and open attitude about divergent methodologies. I'm sure it would make life a lot easier to be on the same wavelength. Do you have any geographic restrictions? If you can give me an idea of what direction you'd like to take in your future research, I might be able to throw out some names. What projects did you not have a chance to work on in your MA program that you've been chomping at the bit to attack?

I truly do hope it's not a big snag; it's been a growing area over the past decade, but it's still not everyone's cup of tea. Then again, as was pointed out elsewhere, if a dept. feels that my interests are not supportable, then it wouldn't be the right fit for me in the first place. But it's not been an easy search. So often I've found a professor whose work I really like and that I feel my work would flourish under, but find there's no one else in the department to back up the other half of my interests (ie., wherefore art though Contemporary art faculty at Washington University in St. Louis?). I am VERY wary about hedging my bets on a single faculty member, because in the end, even the best advisor isn't married to you.

*giggle* If it makes YOU feel any better, my Latin is so nonexistent that it appears only as an occasional miffed glare emanating from the general direction of the neglected Wheellock's on my bookshelf... and my German is downright flaccid. All jokes aside, LLajax, keep in mind that your statement reflects but a temporary condition. You sound like you're on your way!

That. Great point about not wanting to be in a department that can't support the way I work best. Thank you for the reminder AND the encouragement.

The vizcul thing isn't exactly "traditional," I'll give you that. In fact, if it weren't for my need to stay relatively bound to the east coast, I'd love to find my way into the PhD in Visual Studies program at UC Santa Cruz. Sure, it's a new program, so it's hard to say where it might lead, but I believe it would be a good fit. In another dream scenario, I am accepted into Columbia and Jonathan Crary adopts me as his new child and we live happily ever after. However, as the prospect of living on a grad student stipend without any outside support in a small closet in New York City for the next seven years requires more bohemian sans souci than I can possibly muster, I must pass on living *that* dream and consider other options. Where does that leave me? For MA programs, I'm looking at American University (Helen Langa; I am particularly fond of the faculty's feminist bent), but my top choice for a Master's program is UNC Chapel Hill (with the hopes of eventually moving on to the PhD). John Bowles, Lyneise Williams, and Cary Levine would be great to study with, but then again, the entire faculty is strong - Mary Sheriff, Daniel Sherman, etc. More European, but definitely tackling some contemporaneous issues that I intend to mine. Another plus at UNC is that the American Studies dept. offers a certificate program to grad students, which would be just fantastic, as the Kassons (Joy and John) are on faculty there. I'm applying to six PhD programs: Duke (Richard Powell and Kristine Stiles), Princeton (Rachel DeLue and Hal Foster), Rutgers (Tanya Sheehan and Carla Yanni), Temple (Susannah Gold and Alan Braddock), U Chicago (W. J. T. Mitchell, Darby English, Martha Ward, Joel Snyder, Tom Gunning... anyone? Bueller?), and U Pittsburgh (Josh Ellenbogen and Kirk Savage). All of these programs encourage, to some degree, interdisciplinary cross-pollination which promises some very attractive research possibilities. I feel somewhat ridiculous for applying to some on my list (Chicago, Princeton), simply because they feel so far beyond my reach that, well... it feels silly to even try. But who knows? Perhaps the magic combination of events will unfold so that: a) target POIs/adcoms actually find me an interesting and viable candidate, and, the dept has room for someone like me this year. You pays yer money and you takes yer chances.

I am applying this year as well. LLajax, I can't imagine anyone not finding this process stressful. As to the "numbers" aspect, here goes nothing: GPA 3.89/4.0 in major; GRE: 690v; 530q. Presentations: four paper presentations; three talks; two panels organized (plus one additional invited talk and panel confirmed for fall). Publication: over a dozen critical pieces for a regional arts publication (it's small and not peer-reviewed, but award-winning nonetheless! More importantly: it pays), plus an essay in an exhibition catalog. Now for the worst of it: my focus? The dreaded Modern/Contemporary. Representation of race/gender, 19th century to today. I suppose I should be cheered up by the fact that at least I'm not interested in turn-of-the-century France? Oh, well. To tighten the lens, I've got my eyes on American visual culture, especially representations of science and medicine, depictions of war and trauma, and public art, monuments, and expositions. I'm also interested in bodily representation in contemporary performance. I don't know if it will warm adcoms' hearts or not, but I've spent the past 3.5 years working in a mid-tier contemporary art center, albeit in an administrative capacity. I've also curated eight shows in various venues over the last couple years. I do sort of worry that my work in contemporary art will spook my POIs who are stuck in the nineteenth century, while my writing sample (which is likely to be a chapter from my thesis) will peg me as irrelevant to the Contemporary POIs. At the end of the day, it really does feel like a crapshoot, and I'm not liking the odds one bit!