Hegel's Bagels

Are you serious? Grad school is not intended for hobbyists, its intent is to train scholars so that they can get a credential to obtain a job. Don't romanticize it. 

It's fine to contact them, certainly, but I would stay away from pestering them. Bear in mind that they are dealing with waitlists, new admits and coordinating their visits, as well as updating systems and notifying all other applicants. 

I thought I would update you fellow CUNY hopefuls.  I called CUNY today and was told that decisions are still being made. They expect to have all email/letters sent out within the next two weeks. 
 
P.S.: At this point, I don't care anymore, so I will be contacting (read: bugging) all schools to get the results. Tired of waiting! : ) Besides I don't think I will get any offers so I just want to move on with my life. 
 
I will keep y'all posted!

German Quickly has been highly recommended on here. I bought it and skimmed through, so I can't definitively say it's great, but it looks pretty good. I can tell you for certain that Jannach's is not good. And I can't help with Italian or Dutch, but I'd be interested in Italian suggestions as well. 

Here's a friendly reminder that some of us are waiting to hear from schools you know you will not be accepting offers from. Please tell them "no" soon! Waitlistedness (a technical term) is the pits! 

I'm fairly certain that the above poster IS Dr. Weingarden..... 
 
The user created their account yesterday.... for the sole purpose of promoting Lauren Weingarden on two seperate threads....
 
Not sayin', just sayin'...

Yea that's actually a description of Tufts' funding situation.

Williams and Tufts are generally regarded as the top terminal MA programs in the U.S. Williams might rank slightly higher in terms of prestige but not by much. Based on my experience, I would say the two programs are split evenly between students focusing on museum careers and academics ones. I think Tufts funds their students more (in terms of tuition remission) but Williams does offer a select few (read top top top candidates) tuition remission and stipend. I don't know how often or how many. In terms of fields of interest I would say they both have diverse faculty covering a wide range of fields. Either would be great options.

Williams and Tufts are generally regarded as the top terminal MA programs in the U.S. Williams might rank slightly higher in terms of prestige but not by much. Based on my experience, I would say the two programs are split evenly between students focusing on museum careers and academics ones. I think Tufts funds their students more (in terms of tuition remission) but Williams does offer a select few (read top top top candidates) tuition remission and stipend. I don't know how often or how many. In terms of fields of interest I would say they both have diverse faculty covering a wide range of fields. Either would be great options.

Thank you for posting this, Bearcat1. I was shocked to wake up to that note on the results board. It is important for everyone, even those who have been accepted to schools, to remember that  this process is, at the end of the day, a total random crapshoot. You cannot take any rejection personally. Nor is it a reflection of your character as a human being. I hope the angry UNC poster gets over his/her rage and remembers the reason he/she has applied to graduate school. I'm assuming it is because he/she loves studying the history of art and cannot imagine doing anything else for the rest of his/her life. That's where we all are and getting angry/discouraged isn't going to reverse a rejection or makes one's dreams a reality. Rather, a positive attitude and persistence work wonders. I've only been impressed by the postings I've seen on this forum and wish everyone still waiting the best of luck! 

Institution Program (Season) Decision &Date St1 Date Added Notes UNC Chapel Hill Art History, Masters (F13) Rejected via E-mail on 25 Feb 2013 A 25 Feb 2013 GTH North Carolina. Based on the comments in the Forum, you accepted some real losers. Good luck with that.              
To this poster: Wow. Certainly all of the people on these forums know what it feels like to be rejected. It's really hard not to take it personally, no matter how many people tell you that it comes down to fit, blah, blah, blah. Turning in an application with your entire academic life on it makes one vulnerable and no matter how badly we want something, it doesn't always go our way. But not only do you come across as an immature, sore loser with your comments, but you sound ridiculous. Absolutely nothing I've seen of the posters who have been admitted to the UNC MA program even remotely leads anyone to believe they are losers. It's too bad for you that you weren't accepted, but based on your attitude, I think it's pretty lucky for anyone who would have been in your cohort. It's been noted previously, but I will reiterate: this forum is for people going through a really stressful process to find other people to lean on, learn from, and commiserate with. Grad school is really difficult and it can be made a lot easier if you are able to build friendships with the people around you, which is something you might want to consider if you do get accepted anywhere. 

*raises hand*
I haven't stopped dancing crazily in joy since the call

Williams and Tufts seem to be the most well regarded terminal MA programs-- and there's no competition from PhD students for funding or attention.  I did a terminal MA at a state school, though, which has worked out ok for me-- but more importantly, I was able to be fully funded there and get teaching experience.  Sometimes I wonder if that model is better.  I found that most of the people in that program were planning on museum careers and not looking towards the PhD at that time, but that people who did apply to programs were successful in their applications.  

So, exceptional applicant here. I'm an advanced graduate student who participated in both a terminal MA and a MA/PhD sequential program. I dropped by to see if my school had notified acceptances yet (usually means showing them around and getting free lunch) and saw this thread. I have to admit, there's a lot of ego and what I perceive as naiive hubris going on in this thread. Seems to me that quite a few of you are overthinking things or can't see the forest for the trees. Even applicants with publications and MAs in hand are babies. No one believes or cares that you will revolutionize the canon or even produce innovative research at this stage, or even in your first year or so. What many programs care about is that you're a good fit with a foundation capable of development and that you won't waste their time or money. As an advanced undergraduate, or even a MA candidate, you're a big fish in a small pond and sometimes ego can get in the way of looking at the application process simply.
 
If you're asking, "who the hell does nodens think she is," here's some self-vetting. I was accepted to both MA and PhD programs on my first round of applications. In each case I received funding, including from my MA institution which is not generally in the habit of funding MA students. I was accepted to state schools, a private and an Ivy. When I applied to PhD programs I was accepted to my first choice immediately with no tuition, six years of funding and health insurance. I have also applied to several fellowships and received them. At this point I consider myself an exceptional applicant when it comes to graduate work.
 
The most successful approach I found to applications was to treat them seriously as applications to entry level jobs and think about them like apprenticeships. When you consider them this way, the process becomes intuitive and less complicated. This is essentially the post I wish I had found when I applied to graduate school for the first time. I haven't listed my points in order of importance.
 
1. Don't perform abysmally on the GRE. That being said, doing so-so won't kill you. You're an art historian so you had better score highest in verbal and writing. I was in the 16th percentile of the quant section. No one cared. As for GPAs try and do the best you can. People with higher GREs than me didn't get in and some did. These particular issues are worth having your letter writers address if possible.
 
2. Pick your very best writing sample. If possible have a professor at your current institution (or past) look over it with full knowledge that it's part of a graduate school application. When I applied to my MA my writing sample did not cover a topic that fell within the purview of my subfield but it was my absolute best writing. In my experience the writing sample holds more weight if you are applying to PhDs. 
 
3. Get at least one letter of recommendation from someone important. Not just any old professor but someone with a respected name and, if possible, acquaintances at your school of interest. I realize that this isn't always possible and involves a good deal of networking. This has been a crucial element of my success. You want big deal people to think you are a big deal and tell others about you. Networking seems to be the most underrated part of graduate education among my peers and I still don't understand it. Like pretty much every other career, art history is as much who you know as what you know. 
 
4. Write a statement of purpose that explains why you are a good fit for your POI, the department and last but not least, the entire SCHOOL as a whole. This means doing serious research. Don't just talk to POIs. Read their work and fully understand their methodologies and arguments. Find links to your own interests or writing. You don't just want to say, "we are both interested in X." You want to demonstrate that this person's research is essential to your own. Your next step is to research other members of the department regardless of whether they're in your subfield or not. What are their interests and methodologies? How can they be useful to you in your graduate career? For example, if you're a classicist with an interest in say, phenomenology, then it's worth seeing if faculty in other concentrations like modern/contemporary are working in that mode even if your main POI is not. If your POI is too, then all the better. Finally, you should be able to speak to how the school in general has resources for you. Do departments encourage interdisciplinary work? Is there a collaborative program that you could make use of? When I applied to my MA institution  I made a big deal out of an interdisciplinary seminar track that encouraged global perspectives. I didn't end up working on globalism or exchange but my knowledge of the school's projects in a broad context helped in getting me accepted.
 
5. For god's sake come in with confident reading ability in another language. Reading ability in two is even better. Even those of you who work on mostly english-language material. In my first round I had reading ability in 3 languages all in heavy rotation in scholarship in my subfield. When I applied for my PhD I had reading ability in 4. I can't tell you how many of my peers I saw stumble over language exams in their first and second years. Coming in prepared makes you desirable.
 
6. Really make sure your POI isn't retiring or going on sabbatical. Seems like a no-brainer but you'd be surprised.
 
And that's my basic advice. How to behave once you're in graduate school is another kettle of fish. I can tell you that "rebelling" or "resisting" advisors and department chairs is exceptionally foolish. Of course think for yourself and make your own decisions, it's your life. But in art history jobs are scarce. You want everyone in your department going to bat for you. You want their approval in matters of funding, research support and career placement. Don't come in with a big ass ego and make enemies. I've seen way too much of that too.

Congrats TJ! I think it's gonna take a bit more than a few silly posts on a grad thread to tarnish my reputation in the Chicago art scene. Maybe not, maybe it's over for me. Outside of online living though there is this thing called reality where honest relationships free of online personas and code-names exist. I'm actually a really nice and thoughtful human being and I work really hard each day to connect regular non-art viewing/caring people with the subject we all love. I literally work to make what we do valued more in the dominant culture (not that it matters, but it may go to my real passion and it could lead you to see what I really care about). 
 
My posts have been off the cuff responses to the hostile reactions. I must say most of my writing has been a reaction to your reaction to me and I played a pompous character here (perhaps I got carried away in being immature). I will admit to not being myself. The post about the book was meant to get under your collective skin.
 
I am sorry for some of the things I've said here. In all seriousness, I do regret disrupting the harmony of your routines. I have those regrets, but what hurts me most is being labeled misogynist. I respect our gender positions, but it is hard to ignore the gender binary through the harsh treatment. I was just calling the tone as I felt it.
 
I am insecure, I think we all are and I'm okay with that.
 
My website is a free one, so I know the template is not "rad". It's not meant to be great (cheap shot).
 
I am really sorry though gang (no sarcasm), I hope you can accept the apology. Good luck on those apps.

I feel these are the questions that we were thought in 4th grade NOT to answer. "Don't tell strangers on the internet your full name, what elementary school you go to, what time the bus picks you up...." 
 
ArtilleryClinton, I found your original post very appropriate with the right amount of information. Thank you for extolling a bit more, but really, anyone who has looked at the Ivy school's websites will realize that they provide (or heavily hint) at much of that information already. 

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.

Hal --
 
You do realize that not everyone studies contemporary art? In my (pre-modern) sub-field it is first and foremost important to have a command of the primary sources and the historiography. This takes decades to achieve. It's not really appropriate for a new grad student fresh out of undergrad or some irrelevant masters program to throw down some Onians or Lacan and try to cobble together an argument. This is not innovative or appropriate for the field, and it will not get you recognized in a positive way. In fields that are founded on careful interpretation of historical details and encyclopedic knowledge of classical languages and iconography you first become a student of tradition. it is only once you have mastered the canon and traditional approaches/methodologies that you are positioned to question them in a way that is meaningful and responsible. I can't imagine you have spent much time in graduate level academia or in sub-fields outside of your own.  

To play devil's advocate... In my sub-field there are about 7 schools at which one can pursue a PhD. Out of those seven, 5 are the absolute top Art History programs, and the remaining two are considered top 10 or 15.  
 
------
 
On the topic of publications Brazilian, I am not sure if it is necessary or even advisable at this stage in your career. I *technically* have a publication from a paper I wrote in my undergrad days. It won an award and as a result was published, without my consent, in my undergrad university's journal. It's accessible online if you search my name, and is one of the first google results when you search a major artwork from my subfield. It's not a bad essay, but I wrote it when I was a junior and its not representative of the work I do now - I don't like the idea of adcoms, students and colleagues being able to find it online. Hold off on getting work published until you have matured as a scholar. 
 
This advice does not hold for things like museum catalogues, though. I think that catalogue entries can be a great way to get publications that show your commitment to the field without tying you to something you may change your mind about later. 

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.

My university recently interviewed for a new faculty member, with whom the students met apart from other faculty. One of these applicants had worked with, and listed as references, the top four names in their field. The applicant went on to state that these individuals had done absolutely nothing for them while they were a student, and that because of this she was invested in being very hands-on with her own future students because when she was a student of these specialists she had little to no clue what was going on. I prefer the younger (and by younger I mean less than say 50) scholars who haven't achieved a level of success and/or notoriety that somehow translates into less investment in students.
 
As far as those willing to put themselves out there, from the old guard, you forgot Leo Steinberg. He got a lot of grief for The Sexuality of Christ. And I'm confused Hal, because based on your previous comments you sound very conscious of race and ethnic absences in Art History scholars and the field in general, but I don't see any non-white scholars on that list of dissenters. My area isn't contemporary art, but I can easily think of many American scholars of color who are challenging the canon, as well as challenging other established academics in the field, in a concerted effort to change the way we look at art history. Please be aware, I am not attacking you, I am just not familiar enough with your area, as opposed to earlier centuries, to comment other than to say it seems weird.

Outing yourself via a message board (one where you are incredibly pompous) filled with potential future colleagues is so smart. The art community of Chicago is now aware of your antics, crippling insecurity, and not so subtle misogyny. Bad move, William Keith Brown.
 
Really rad website by the way (sarcasm): http://www.williamkeithbrown.com/index.html

This!  Let's take Alex Nemerov, a scholar who bounces between Yale and Stanford, for an example. He's working within his mentor Jules Prown's approach, but has gone further into Freudian speculation than Prown did while amping up the close reading of objects into a kind of historical art criticism. His work is creative, engaging and thoughtful, but the approch is by no means unique- many of the second and third generation Prown students produce similar work.  And many are highly successful.  Structurally, Nemerov had the advantage of the highly influential Prown, and of debuting his method in a spectacularly public fashion- the catalogue for the highly controversial West as America exhibition at SAAM.  This is not a unique situation, I think we could trace a number of lineages in the same way.
 
It's nice to think that "pushing boundaries" however one defines them will be enough to get you in and then get you a career, but a charismatic/influential mentor is waaaay up on the list too.  Isn't that why everyone applies to the same 15 schools?  When you are deciding on where you will go, choosing an advisor who will steer your career is almost as important as whether they will "foster" (ha ha) your development as a scholar. Look for those who are on editorial boards, fellowship committees, CAA board, etc...  Those relationships will come in handy.  If the professor seems isolated, no matter how brilliant, think twice. I would argue that this can work in the opposite way as well, a professor may want to work with a student who seems personable and even keeled as well as brilliant, inviting them into the program instead of the brilliant but weird kid.  From the prof's point of view the more charismatic applicant may prove more successful navigating school and career (carrying on the professor's legacy).

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.

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.