Hegel's Bagels

And I'm guessing this isn't it...(in your opinion at least. I may or may not be on this website) http://jumpinginartmuseums.blogspot.com/

April Wilson's German Quickly is known for being the best reading comprehension book of German. It is geared specifically toward humanities students.

Last year after my partner proudly told his family how I was accepted into [ivy School X] his (jerky) uncle said: Well it's not like there was more than ten people applying to that school for a PhD in *Art History* (asterisks added to denote his tone of utter contempt for my chosen field) So humiliating and infuriating.

That might have been me. I wrote about that a few years ago when I was applying to MA programs. I accidentally sent in my SOP with the wrong school name (the name of their rival program no less) and still got in :-) Also, last year I sent in a writing sample to the one Ivy I applied to with missing words from the last sentence; it made absolutely no sense...and I still got in! Seriously, don't over think these kind of small mistakes, especially if they are few and far between. Good luck everybody!!

OMG THAT. Anyways, hang in there! I went through the same thing last year and came out relatively unscathed. Take deep breaths, proofread a million times, and find activities to keep your mind off of it...I learned how to crochet during the application process last year. It was a life saver.

Haha whoops...that is embarrassing. I have no excuse except that Alpers disciples are EVERYWHERE...and it is really difficult to keep track of them sometimes. I also just thought of Christiane Hertel at Bryn Mawr...another one of those 30-40 programs considered to be in the top 15 Although I'm not sure what the funding situation is like right now...I heard not so great? Someone correct me if I am wrong. Also Courtauld (Nash) and Duke (Vans Miegrot)...

I'm not contemporary but I heard that JHU won't be taking any students in that field next year. I'm fairly certain Michael Fried is retiring so it might be worth it to shoot the department an email to make sure they'll consider your application.

UPenn (Silver), Berkeley (Honig), Northwestern (Swan), Johns Hopkins (Merback), UT Austin (Chipps Smith), UIowa (Hochstrasser), Yale (Wood), Harvard (Koerner), BU (Zell), American U (Pearson), Columbia (Freedberg, Moxey, Schama), Williams (Filipczak), ...those are the ones that come to mind right away. Unfortunately for us northerners, most programs only have one Northern Renaissance scholar. Often they'll be the only early modern professor on the faculty. Also, keep in mind some of the bigger names will be retiring in the next few years and might not be taking students. It would definitely be worth your while to email these professors (or their respective departments) to ask if they will be accepting students. I'm about to start my PhD in Northern Renaissance Art at a top 15 program so pm me if you want to talk more.

As someone who is turning in their thesis tomorrow, which is on maps, I was very pleased by this post! So add that to my list of motivations: I want to continue to seriously study 16th c. cartography and topography.

Well that says a lot about your 'knowledge' of the current art historical field. So I'll end up my part of the discussion here since there doesn't seem to be much point arguing with you. Sorry to everyone else for hijacking the thread! This a million times! Having a passion for art is not a reason to go into graduate school. Having a passion for thinking critically about art and the desire to bring the field in new directions are the right reasons. I think part of the reason why my field (Renaissance) is viewed as a dead one is due to its previous dominance (and continued dominance in the canon)...Is there really anything new to say about Michelangelo? Is there really a need to continue debating what on earth Giorgione's Tempesta is about? (Although as a sidenote I should say that Stephen Campbell's article on the Tempesta is a great example of addressing a worn-out topic in a really provocative and thoughtful manner.) And oh god, please, I was about to poke my eyes out if I had to read another undergrad paper on Artemisia Gentileschi. I hope I didn't offend anyone if these are their areas of interest. I'm not really saying there's absolutely nothing write about...I'm just making the point how important it is to think of a new and interesting way to approach these canonical topics. Thinking critically is what separates our field from art appreciation. Anyways, I guess that is MY motivation for starting a PhD program next fall. I believe that there are a lot of interesting things to be said about the Renaissance (really! I swear!) and I can't wait to share that with the rest of the art history community. That and also because I wanted to be a PhD student ever since I find out in 7th grade that I could be PAID to be in school.

I think I figured it out! Mattmcg is actually Roger Kimball posing as a hopeful grad student...(http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/1893554864) All joking aside - I am constantly amused that those who are the quickest to decry the leftist feminazi "agenda" in art history are the ones who are actually unable to set aside their political dispositions and engage critically with the field. All theories have their drawbacks; but it seems immature to completely deprecate a school of thought soley based on the perceived merits of their political affiliations. Also, on a completely different note: how on earth does a man's seeming ability to throw a football determine how masculine they are? (That was rhetorical btw)

There are so many things that are offensive and presumptuous about this post that I don't even know where to begin. You have a strange conception of the current field of young scholars. There might be one or two vapid students that somehow make it into less prestigious programs, but it hardly seems to be the cess pool of shallow girls babbling incessently about how much they looove Da Vinci that you make it out to be. I thought all 13 students in my MA cohort to be intelligent, interesting, and very ambitious. I thought the same about the students (half of whom were male btw) I met at my PhD program's visiting day. Your comment about "theory heads" definitely raises a few red flags and really raises the question about why you decided to enter a field filled with "grievance studies" and plagued with "less-than-serious" conference notices.

There are already some threads in this forum about the MAPH and I don't know much about it so I can't speak much to the quality of the program. However, it is a major red flag that our POI will only be there 2/3 quarters. Since it is only a one year program, there will be almost no time for your POI to get to know you. Also, you will have to apply again to PhD programs again next fall. Will your POI be there to write you a letter? Your second option isn't that awful. In fact, it is really common. I struck out at all the PhD programs my first time around as well. I spent my gap year working on my languages, applied again to MA programs, and was accepted with some partially-funded offers. Now I'm finishing up my MA and had a really successful application round to PhD programs. I think many here on this board share similar stories. In short, I've heard there are some great benefits to the MAPH program, however, the absence of your POI will be a serious detriment in applying again next year.

I vote: Great Idea! I honestly cannot emphasize enough the importance of the gap year. About half of my incoming class in my current MA program took the gap year, and they all say they're the better for it. I know many others who wish they had taken a gap year between BA and MA/PhD. It really is a great time to work on languages, catch up on scholarship without the pressure of school, figure out what you want to do with your life, etc. etc. Don't fret. As long as you are doing something constructive (e.g. language study, internship, etc.) the gap year will reflect well on you during admissions season.

Whew. Today I accepted one of my offers and declined the other two. Of course now I'm plagued with regret and wondering if I made the right choice. I thought all the anxiety would be gone by this point! Aghhhh!

I went through a similar experience that you're going through now. A few years ago, I was rejected from all the PhD programs I applied to and only received an unfunded offer for the MA at the IFA. At the advice of those wiser than me, I decided to take the year off. I spent a few months working in a coffee shop and then about seven months in a language program abroad. The first few months before I left the country, it was miserable. There was no work I could find with just a BA and I was really dismayed with my prospects. However, I applied again, mostly to MA programs (not the IFA) and got some great partially-funded offers. I went to a really strong MA program that paid for most of my tuition and I'll be finishing up this spring with only 21k in debt. Since I don't have any undergrad loans, this is a manageable amount for me. Going to this MA program was the best decision I ever made. I told my adviser right away that I was using this program as a stepping stone to a PhD program and the whole department was absolutely fabulous in helping me become an attractive candidate. I applied again this year and I have three wonderfully funded offers from three top 20 programs. I strongly recommend that you reconsider the IFA MA unfunded. 70k is a lot of debt to incur, especially when you will not be getting the attention that a terminal MA program would provide. There are some great terminal MA programs out there that will prepare you both for the job market and a PhD program (e.g. Williams, Tufts, UMass Amherst, UConn, some of the UC schools, SAIC, American U, etc.) You should definitely talk to your academic adviser if you can about your options. Best of luck!!

Thanks for clearing that up!

Thanks Sigaba for the recommendation. I had only found texts that were at least 30 years old and I'm looking forward to reading this over the summer. As for the rest of your comment, I'm not sure how to interpret it. I apologize if my post came across as facetious; that certainly was not my intention. I was only using humor to alleviate my discomfort from interloping in the history forum. Finally, I'm not sure what part of my post suggested that I consider German history 'inane' or 'convoluted.' There is remarkably little about the Thirty Years War in art historical scholarship and I am only trying to find other avenues to learn more. In any case, I'm glad for the recommendation. Thanks again.

To all my brothers from another mother - I was wondering if any of you historians could recommend reading on the Thirty Years War. I'm an art history student so I wasn't quite sure where to begin. I've already read Kenneth Setton's Venice, Austria, and the Turks, which gives some background on the war, however I'm looking for something more comprehensive. Thanks Liever Turks dan Paaps!!

I've had a few friends in both the Christies and Sotheby programs and I've heard good things about them. However, the programs are geared more towards those wishing to enter the auction/art market world. Is that kind of job you would like? If so, it's hard to qualify which area is more desirable on the job market. Generally, in academia, Renaissance is considered pretty much a dead field. A lot of important AH departments are not replacing retiring early modern professors. Modern/Contemporary is definitely the most popular field, however, EVERYBODY and their mother is studying mod/comp, which obviously means job-market saturation. My best advice would be to look global. There aren't enough specialists in Latin American or Asian art and it's a really hot trend. For the art market world, when I took my Art Market and Art Business class about three years ago, it was my understanding that Chinese art was hot hot hot. I advise that you think about what sort of career you'd like and then decide from that what you'd like to study. If you want to go into academia, choose whatever field you like since there is no job market crystal ball. So study Renaissance! I do and I'm pretending there's going to be a big comeback the same year I enter the job market...

Yea, I was accepted to BU's program a few years ago, but the funding wasn't so hot, so I opted for an MA instead in the hopes of later obtaining a fully-funded PHD program when I was finished. Which I did. So YAY funding.

Congrats complexprocedure! Better get some serious longjohns. Rochester has four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction.

Yep. Had the same exact reaction this morning. Sorta bummed, too. Maybe we should start a "Screw you Yale, we don't need you" Club? :-)

I believe SAIC has a Masters related to art history and writing? You should look at their website.

Was it one of those impersonal one-liners? Rejection letters are the worse, but cold rejections are even more depressing. Glad to see though so many acceptances on the board! Congrats to everyone so far! I finally received my first acceptance last week. I thought I'd be totally relieved but now I'm even more anxious (who knew that was possible) to hear back from all the other schools so that I can finally sit down and weigh my options then figure out where I'll be in the fall.