policysecond

In with funding!

Haven't heard anything. I have a feeling we'll hear back by the end of the week though.

Ok, keeping fingers crossed. A little helpful tidbit: I'm friends with a current Ford student who's friends with student on the interview panel, and according to this person, the interviews were for "exceptional candidates who are being considered for fellowships." So, that's good news for us methinks! Don't wanna get ahead of ourselves, obviously... Ahhhh, the wait is killing me! I keep checking my email a thousand times a day (even on weekends, which is just stupid). I'm so anxious to hear! Patience is the name of the game. Good luck everyone!

Did anyone else applying to Ford get a fellowship interview? i got the below email last week, and then had a 20 minute interview with a student a few days later. "Dear ____, As part of our fellowship review process, we would like to schedule a brief conversation for you with one of our current students. This should take no more than 15 to 20 minutes. No preparation is required on your part, this is just to get to know you a little bit better than what can be gathered on paper. We are hoping to complete the calls this week. Here is a link to a google doc that lists the available times for interviews..." what is this about? anyone have any idea?

Program: MPP Schools being considered: U of M Ford (dual degree REES applicant), Carnegie Mellon Heinz, Berkeley Goldman, Chicago Harris Undergrad Institution: top 10 school in California Major: Art History Graduate School: got a Master's in Art History (2012) GPA: 3.5 GRE score: 155V, 158Q, projecting 6.0 AW Years since undergrad: 6 (graduated 2009) Work experience: 2 years spent on first MA degree, followed by 1.5 years as administrator at a university, 1 year AmeriCorps VISTA in Detroit, followed by 6 months of working with same non-profit in Detroit Coursework: Calc 1 & 2 in college (retook calc 1 a year ago to refresh memory), micro econ in college, statistics Language skills: fluent in Russian, fluent in Arabic (immigrated to US at 15; lived in Russia & Middle East before that), intermediate French (took French all through high school and 2 years in college; studied in France for a semester), intermediate German (Middlebury Language School, 2011) Statement of Purpose: Not worried about it Letters of Recommendation: former graduate school advisor, current supervisor, former boss Concerns: GREs (standardized testing is not my forté), GPA, random-ish career change. Would like to avoid loans (have none right now), so concerned with chances/likelihood of receiving scholarships. Applying for FLAS, obv. Thoughts??

I'm interested in war photography (and photography history in general), so Classic Essays on Photography, edited by Alan Trachtenberg, was a must-have. As was The Photography Reader, edited by Liz Wells. Great essay compilations in each.

waiting: BU, Williams, Bryn Mawr, and Northwestern (though I can sense the rejection already). why is Williams staggering with their admissions decisions like this??! it's torture.

woops- just repeated your question. haha

Admission offers or rejection letters? or both? I'm on the waitlist, and the anticipation is killing me!

That's a helpful load of statistics there. It kind of angers me that in 2004, Northwestern received all but 62 apps, but had 144 last year. I bet it's somewhere up in the 160s (or higher?) this year, which is just great. Bah. I wonder how many acceptances they're handing out this year, and how many of them will actually accept their offer. And I wish that this forum/venting board actually DID represent every applicant to every graduate program in AH, but it doesn't. That said, I don't think it's entirely factual to assume that posters to this forum are the most likely to be admitted to their school of choice, just because they're aware of a website that can clear up application questions. The application process is pretty straightforward as it is, and confusing points (if there happen to be any) can easily be cleared up with an email to the department in question. I think admissions decisions to graduate programs (particularly to PhD programs) are not made lightly, and are least based on whether or not someone's application was presented well. I personally know a number of AH applicants from this round that had never heard of this site (when I asked), and don't ascribe to any livejournal or other blogging communities. And they've (each) received a number of offers this year, and from PhD programs at that. (In a way, I'm kind of glad they're not aware of this site, haaaaah) On another note, anyone else finding that weekends go by too slowly now, since no decisions are sent out then? I look forward to Mondays now. Who AM I????

congrats to the Northwestern admits- speak up! who are you / what is your subfield? SO. JEALOUS.

The confusing thing about this is that before I even looked at the deadline chart on their (alarmingly?) disorganized website, I decided to call the Art History department directly and they told me the deadline was April 15th. No mention of the February 1st deadline, or any talk of financial aid. So I emailed the admissions office and asked if I would still be considered for financial aid if I submitted my app now, and they wrote back "That’s up to the Art History department." And the AH department said, "We have one deadline for Fall admissions and it is April 15th. Once students are accepted into the Program, they will be notified on how they can apply for financial aid." So...whatever. I submitted my application. Hope this wasn't a waste of $125.

Thanks - I must be blind. Though I just got the following response from them by email: "As was mentioned to you, we have one deadline for Fall admissions and it is April 15th. Once students are accepted into the Program, they will be notified on how they can apply for financial aid." Hm.

Is that somewhere on the website? Ahhhhh I can't believe I didn't know this, and wasn't told when I called in! And it's just awesome that every single CUNY phone line is busy right now, and has been for the past hour. dshjkhfsjhfsjakd.

I think most programs select a few short-listed candidates and offer them admission right off the bat (either with a phone call from their potential advisor, or a general admission offer by email). Then they have their next batch of favorable applicants, who probably all get their offers at the same time. At least that's what it seems to me. Congrats on Columbia, tommyzero! You must be thrilled! Question about applying to CUNY Grad Center (to anyone who's applying/has applied): is the deadline really April 15th for fall admission? Because that's what the graduate admissions website says, but on the results page here from last year's applicants, it looks like people received offers in early March. Someone else on last year's forum mentioned a February 15th deadline but that it was unclear on the website...but that deadline is nowhere to be found on their website. I called them to clarify, and the lady said that yes, it's due April 15th (though she didn't seem very confident about it, so I'm STILL not sure if that's right). Anyone know when it's actually due? Or WAS due?

Yeah who IS the admit? speak up! we're dying of curiosity here.

I think the person above was talking about art history programs...

Yeah I remember reading that, couldn't remember where though

since I'm up at this hour anyway, I might as well post a question that I haven't (yet?) seen covered on this forum...at least not too extensively. Has anyone used/consulted CAA's art history grad school directory? I somewhat irrationally bought it and it's been good for one of two things: a) either totally making me feel bummed out about how low my chances of acceptance are for some of the schools I've applied to, or b ) made me feel confident that I would most likely get in SOMEWHERE. It's just scary to see the numbers sometimes, like, "Applied: 283, Admitted: 8". And in certain cases, these turned out to be schools I thought could be my safeties. Awesome. So yeah, just wanted to see if anyone else out there is using and/or has used the directory to...gauge their appropriate anxiety level, like I have. On a side note, is anyone here applying to Williams?

That's completely evil! I feel like departments need to be aware of the connotations of large envelopes, especially to applicants of their graduate program. I would have had a heart attack too. I got the same kind of thing from Bryn Mawr, but it was 2 weeks after I submitted my materials, so I was fairly certain it wasn't any kind of decision. If I get anything in the mail in February, however, I may take a shot before opening anything up...

I think if I got rejected from everywhere, I'd first cry for a week, and then begin figuring out what got me rejected from each school (email the programs and ask specifically, as people on this forum have suggested before). Then I'd start doing things to strengthen my application for the following year. I can't see myself doing anything else, and even if I could - I wouldn't really want to. I think I'd apply to year-long internships at museums, or save up to do a summer abroad in the country of the language I'd want to work on (Germany for German, in my case)...but anything really to improve my application. I know how it is to check the decision links obsessively, by the way. I do the same...every day. It's pretty bad. I've been daring myself to not check for 24 hours, but it's completely impossible. I mean, it's my future being decided on! Pretty difficult to stay away..

Just finished applying to all my programs, most of which are PhD programs (hoping to take the MA-PhD sequential route, at wherever I end up), though a few are terminal MA programs. How are we supposed to hold out for another month (at least!)???