Hegel's Bagels

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.

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!!

THIS a million times. And also why are there are so many female art history students and such a higher proportion of male faculty at top ranking institutions.

Okay this was an amusing thread until you brought up rape scenes as part of a joke. :/ Really not appropriate. 

I can second this. I'm not a student at Princeton, but a friend in the department told me that both Heuer and Zchomelidse were denied tenure. This is not so much a result of a particularly dysfunctional department, but of a particularly dysfunctional relationship with the administration. In both cases the department recommended them for tenure, but they were denied by the Dean (President? or whoever makes that decision). It's a bleak time to be in the humanities...

It's official, guys... Williams extended me an offer today!
 

Thanks! I'm over the moon!! One of them was one of my top choices: a PhD w/ full tuition remission, big stipend**, and a curatorial track. The fit is perfect and I'm going to accept (they even said they thought they were perfect for me and I may have blurted that I was glad they agreed with me). No point in going to an MA when the PhD program I want is already on the table.  
 
**It's so silly, but I'm so excited I'll be able to afford a cat! And not have to work two extra jobs on top of being a student. My boss gave me a big hug when I told her. 

Whoo hoo. Two offers in a 24 hour window.  

You know this isn't really an undergrad homework help forum, right? 
 
Sorry, but the actual work of finding, making, and researching comparisons should be your own. Go check out books and resources on Baroque art like all of the rest of us would do. You don't seem to have trouble with this, so why are you asking us to do more work for you? This is part of taking an art history class. You have to do this work yourself. 

Literally JUST as I read the first line my phone started ringing and it was a North American number. I practically fell on the floor gasping. It was some American coming to a conference who thought I was a hotel. I'm dead now.

Ok.  I've just got to jump in here.  No matter what your financial position, I fervently believe that it's very dangerous to attend a PhD program that does not fund you.  The chances of getting a TT job are SO SLIM that you would have to be delusional to think that you're not going to be crushed by debt when you finish.  A word of unsolicited advice for those who make the decision to attend unfunded PhD programs (and really, for anyone in a humanities PhD program, whether funded or unfunded): work it, develop a possible career path outside of the academy, make contacts, develop a Plan B that is truly viable after you get your degree.  I am one of the lucky few to have scored a good TT job (meaning: light teaching load compared to some of my friends who teach a 4-4 course load, great benefits, good salary) and it took me three years after finishing to secure a position.  I had to hustle between grad school and job land and it was a very scary time.  I cannot imagine how much harder it would have been if I had to make debt payments.  I went to a very good, well-respected R-1 terminal art history PhD program that is serious about professionalizing its students (the importance of this cannot be overstated) AND funding them completely.  It's crazy enough to go to grad school in the humanities, but even more crazy to take on 100k+ of debt to do so.  Sorry to be so blunt and potentially offensive to those who are cool with going to into major debt, but let's not pretend that we are isolated from financial concerns; the life of the mind is great, but you also have to eat.   

Idealism is wonderful and all, but even if you are lucky enough to score a tenure-track job after you complete your degree, you're still looking at shouldering that debt for a long time. Look at http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/English_Lit_Salaries_2012-13 to see what academia entails; in most cases, you're looking at $40-50,000 a year. Education is wonderful, but investing over $100,000 to spend 7-8 years of your life working towards a degree that will only  potentially net you one of these jobs is a pretty tenuous financial decision. 

At the risk of sounding like an asshole, you say that you didn't understand what grad school was, but at the moment I don't think you really realize what comes after grad school. What are you planning on doing in the case that you don't get a tenure track job? For example: https://chronicle.com/article/Should-Working-Class-People/131283/ . 

I have to say that you and Swagato, as much as you both have benefited from the MAPH program, should probably stop talking for a bit. The level of insistence is quite aggressive, and is coming off as rude. I'm very glad that you have both had excellent experiences, but that is no excuse for the continuous advertisement of the MAPH program. No one is denying that it is an excellent program, with ample opportunities for its graduates, but for some it is simply not financially feasible. At a point where even Princeton graduates are having trouble acquiring tenture track positions, going into a job search with $100,000 in debt is really not something most people want to consider. 

I'm not sure why when I clearly state multiple times that it is how I feel about myself and my own finances, not about other people, I must be corrected. I'm sorry, but I would have well over $132,000 in debt with my proposed situation. That's debt I would never escape. Far be it from me to be a raincloud, but if I strike out this year with no funding anywhere, then so be it. But I'm not going to apply to unfunded programs next year. I don't want to be a Professor, so the name brand matters a little less to me. 
 
I'm also not sure what you mean by not having any idea what grad school is. 
 
But regardless, that's great for other people. But I refuse to do that to myself, where I must continue to fund myself solely on debt. It sucks. It is an awful feeling. I've already been doing it for four years, and I really don't want to continue. 

The thing about microaggressions is they happen in a variety of ways, usually never intentionally harmful, and yet -- well, intent doesn't quite matter. And telling people why they're being offensive often doesn't amount to anything but defensiveness, so I weigh my options carefully before I tell them so. The thing about micro-aggressions is they are not always so direct as harassment. 
 
Before I got to UG, I had quite a few "friends" insinuate I was only getting into good schools because I was a minority, because Affirmative Action would give me anything I wanted. In art history, I think the clearest microaggressions are the lack of diversity. I had one guest speaker explain they refused to show a famous contemporary artist because the paintings had beads and feathers (being "too Indian") and thus didn't have a universal quality they wanted. Now I don't know about you, but I have say (for example), nothing in common with Andy Warhol and his prints of Marilyn Monroe -- "universal quality" generally means white. 
 
In this instance, my fellow classmate who is from the rez was more upset on a personal level than I was, but we commiserated afterwards. 
 
And while no art historian, I'd put forth http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/ as a shining example of bringing attention to the  lack and the arguments flaunted in return out of defensiveness. 
 
Hm. Off the top of my head: I get a lot of comments arguing my ethnicity if it gets brought up, my "mixed" qualities, the only class which covers my race (in America) in art history....doesn't count for a Diversity in the US credit. I had to take a history class on my heritage to get the same effect. I have had museum folks try to act condescending when I explained I don't speak Spanish, when it's a heritage language -- to which I have cheerfully replied: "My grandparents were beaten in school when they spoke Spanish, so they emphasized learning English to my mother, and in turn, to me."  That usually gets people to stop being so confrontational about it. 
 
Trying to stop such comments would be pushing a rock upslope. There's no place in America where I'll avoid all of them (I'm Mexican-American, the very term illegals or aliens is an aggression, there's a wide variety of constant political streams which dehumanize and demean us), but in lieu of avoidance, you look for shared community that will validate the issues you face. 

To be sure, I have noticed the gender balance is, I think, comparatively much better (even just examining the forum's conduct/reactions). But that certainly doesn't say, alleviate concerns of general bullying or unprofessionalism.
 
It also doesn't address other concerns some of us might have -- sure, the old boy's club might not be as wide spread anymore, but does that fix other micro-aggressions? I've rarely faced sexist comments (and never harassment) in my undergraduate art history classes. But micro-aggressions about race? 
 
Well, that's another story entirely. It doesn't come from Professors, as often as it comes from fellow students and "guest speakers", etc. I don't honestly believe I would find a place free of such behavior, but I would like to think I could find a department or school which would have support for me when it does happen. Being a person of color, or someone who is LGBTQ also comes with its own concerns to navigate. I wish it was as easy as "Well there is less sexism in our field." That wouldn't preclude instances of harassment, assault, micro-aggressions, etc. 
 
It seems like general questions can be asked in interviews: Do you feel students and faculty are comfortable with the environment of the department? How do you feel the general attitude of the department comes off? (Driven? Competitive? Cooperative? etc) Are there resources available to meet the needs of students? What sort of association do they have? Is it school-wide? Departmental? What is the composition of the student body like?
 
But other, more in-depth questions might be better directed at students, and searched for on websites: Do you feel safe in your department? What kinds of Graduate student associations/unions are there? (E.G.: Black Graduate association, Latino, AAPI, LGBTQ graduate association, etc) Are they active? What purposes do they serve? Would people in those orgs (if you ask) state they feel safe on campus? Not just like there is an active community, but safe, unafraid, not harassed. Is there support (or at the very least, community) when you encounter discrimination or aggressions? Safe spaces/places? 
 
These were all things I was very concerned about when I initially applied to undergraduate schools. Graduate school feels like it should be no different, in that respect. 

"It can't be too hard to get in. I mean, there can't be that many students who are applying to Art History programs."

So, if I happen to be accepted to one of my top choice, very exclusive, absolutely fantastic programs, it's because there weren't that many students applying? *facepalm*

Yes but the reality is that many schools will not even LOOK at your application if you don't meet their minimum requirement for # of art history courses taken or western/non-western distribution. 
 
Here is the problem I see:
 
OP fell in love with art history after taking one class as a part of a study abroad program. Studying art in situ is amazing and life affirming, but it makes up <1% of what I do as an art historian. The other 99% of my time is spent reading hundreds and hundreds of pages for seminars that usually have noting to do with my area of interest, grading HORRIBLE undergraduate papers and exams, translating latin/german/french/greek, writing response papers, etc. For every hour of work I get to do on my own research, I have probably spent three on unrelated busy work. OP liked the one class s/he took, but until s/he takes more classes s/he will not know if s/he is ready to commit to the less glamorous aspects of art history that are the realities of the discipline. 

I think people are really, really, really overstating the importance of Art History coursework, and I agree with condivi. More often than not, students are accepted to doctoral programs in Art History with BAs in Literature, History, etc. To argue that Art Historical methodology is so radically distinct from that of other fields in the humanities that one would have trouble moving between said fields, is realistically quite stupid. Obviously there's a definite Art Historical "canon" (Alberti through Gombrich, etc), but I would guess that the near majority of sources used in Art History are sources found outside of the "field." Most "Theory," for example, is based in and around literature programs.
 
Also, as a side note neither Hal Foster, nor T.J. Clark or Julia Bryan-Wilson has a B.A. in Art History. You're looking at History and Literature degrees in all three cases, and they're top-notch in their subfields. I'd assume the same would apply to other subfields, with undergrad degrees ranging from Women's and Gender Studies to Medieval Studies. 
 
Don't worry about your undergraduate degree. If you have done well, have language capabilities (French, German, Italian, etc), and have a good, field-related writing sample, you're fine. Don't do a Post-Bacc; apply to MA programs, and potentially PhD programs if you feel comfortable enough.  
 

This has changed within the past couple of years (from friends who attend there). They've restructed the program to be more in line with other graduate programs where they have started taking less PhD students (12 were accepted in my friends' cohort) with a guaranteed stipend. I don't remember how many years you get the stipend, at least 4. I don't think they offer any funding to their MA students nowadays.

This is information a few years old and so could benefit some fact checking from members here who have recently dealt with the IFA PhD program. But, in any case, IFA's Art History PhD program is notorious for not having guaranteed funding (and MA is absolutely no funding). The way I understood it - first year or so (maybe two years?) PhD students will receive stipend + tuition waiver. After that, funding is competitive. That means you are competing with your cohort for $ to pay rent, etc. Eek. Like I said, this might have changed in the past few years but I have not heard otherwise. It would be well worth your time to email or call the department and ask for more specific information about their funding.

Also, IFA's funding is very unusual and not like other PhD programs. The reason the funding situation is weird is because IFA takes a really large class of students while others usually only take as many as they can afford (around 4-7 students per year). Funding varies from program to program but if you are accepted to one that does not offer tuition waiver + stipend for at least the first 4-5 years then think hard before attending. Most other schools (at least the ones I've been accepted to in the past and the ones colleagues have gone off to) offer this. And if you're really lucky you just might get healthcare thrown in too!

I strongly advise against planning to transfer schools before you've even started. Transferring from one program to another should only occur because of SERIOUS grievances that you possibly couldn't anticipate now (and if you could then decision made! go to the other school...) MA programs are what you make of it. In your case where you don't have a clear winner (Rutgers vs. Temple right?) there is no bad decision to be made. But in order to get the most out of what the MA program has to offer then you have to stick around to benefit from it...e.g., LoRS from professors that have known you for more than one semester.

Have you talked to your undergrad adviser? If you're still stuck at the end of May you should definitely be asking for their help in making a decision.

Speculum, Sixteenth Century Journal, I Tatti Studies, Renaissance Quarterly - representing the other side of the temporal divide

Also Imago Mundi for those interested in critical cartography

Instead of applying for a poster session, I would apply to smaller regional conferences in your field or a graduate/undergraduate art history conference. A lot of deadlines will be this summer. I think you will have a better chance at having an abstract accepted and it will look a lot better on your CV. I think a poster session would be a waste of time. Unlike the sciences, scholarly presentations are the litmus test for your worth and having one under your belt will show potential departments that you will able to handle seminar presentations during coursework. Also I have been to CAA multiple times and I have never seen an undergrad or a graduate student who was not ABD present. This is not gospel truth but it is my understanding that CAA is for scholars who are further along in their research/career. Maybe this is only true for my field?

Instead of applying for a poster session, I would apply to smaller regional conferences in your field or a graduate/undergraduate art history conference. A lot of deadlines will be this summer. I think you will have a better chance at having an abstract accepted and it will look a lot better on your CV. I think a poster session would be a waste of time. Unlike the sciences, scholarly presentations are the litmus test for your worth and having one under your belt will show potential departments that you will able to handle seminar presentations during coursework. Also I have been to CAA multiple times and I have never seen an undergrad or a graduate student who was not ABD present. This is not gospel truth but it is my understanding that CAA is for scholars who are further along in their research/career. Maybe this is only true for my field?

@anonymousbequest: you are so right about "Oh No Where's The Whole Foods University." Not having a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's was really hard to deal with at first.  More to point, it's soooooo important to be realistic about the very real possibility that you may end up taking a job in a place that you would never have considered living in.  I agree completely will all of your excellent advice!