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actually laughing out loud at #4, haha It's a bit paradoxical that 'safety' schools might not be so safe, but I guess that some smaller schools don't feel that they can support certain research proposals - and as a result they reject someone who otherwise was a stellar applicant at such a school. Let's just hope this 'fit' theory carries over to this cycle

I'm game, haha.

oh, and on a side note, I forgot to mention it Halifax: Italian and French, assuming you remember at least a little bit of your training in Spanish, should be quite easy - at least just to acquire a decent reading knowledge/ability. Both Italian and French grammar will look a lot like what you've already learned in Spanish, if not the same (ie. the same verbs that were irregular in Spanish are irregular in French and Italian, that's how closely related they all are). What is different, especially in the case of French, is pronunciation - which if your just trying to get a reading knowledge shouldn't be that big of an issue anyway. If you want to try and get a conversational knowledge to start, the Pimsleur (though there are definitely some other goods ones like Michel Thomas, etc.) series is great (just the beginner cds, they tend to not be that overpriced). It at least gets you started with the listening/speaking aspect, which will definitely help your ability to then read it - even though French is hardly a phonetic language, unfortunately, haha.

Hey, at least your fluent in the one that is arguably the most necessary for your discipline! I remember looking back I guess a year or two at the requirements and every single Art History site said, German no matter the case, and then either French or Italian, depending on the area of specialty, and then if your specialty requires another language (such as in my case with Spanish), then that is just an extra that you just need to know. If you are applying to mostly PhD programs, and that is your goal no matter what, I would definitely get a start on either French or Italian (I'm assuming you'd go with Italian because of your research interests), asap. Although since you already have German, you'd probably be able to delay the other one (ie take the German test first) for a bit so that you'd have time to take an Italian for Grad learners course or something - which a lot of people have to do. I personally pick up languages like a sponge. I had four years of Spanish in high school, and then went and double majored in it for my BA (which will be done May 2008), and decided, since I knew that grad school was on the horizons for me, that I would minor in French to be one up on admissions. I actually am a bilingual babysitter for a French family at the moment and will be travelling to France au pair with them in the summer before first semester of Grad school so that is certainly keeping me on top of my French. Because I'm also interested in Medieval Spain, I've taken Arabic also (though I can't say I know more than an elementary level), so I have that at least under my belt so I can easily at least get into another more intensive class since I'm already familiar with basic grammar and the alphabet (which is really half the battle). I also know conversational German (my dad's family is also German, haha wunderbar!) and Italian, so that when I need to know those for the Medieval Studies PhD (whenever I end up getting that), I'll just need to take a reading course or something. Latin is sort of my main worry right now, because I just haven't had the opportunity to study it yet and I know that it will be a major req for some future PhD programs that I'm looking into (this all assuming that I don't go to Penn for that PhD, I'm that convinced I won't get in this cycle, haha). How's everyone else with that req?

I think Penn and NYU's applications were the most hassle-free to fill out, just because they allowed for uploading a lot of documents that other schools required me to send in separate packages, and of course be put to the test of the USPS. I do know that (and I'm not sure if I read this or was told my the graduate coordinator) once it gets to a certain point with Penn's application process, they might not even update the login/status page with recently received app materials - so that could explain the transcript thing - although in my case I'm still quite positive that the foreign transcript I gave them isn't enough until an official one from the foreign university arrives - and unfortunately I'm at the merciful (and incredibly slow) hands of the Spanish bureaucratic system, so the transcript could very well arrive in October - haha. As for Spanish Art, lxs, that was what my advisor suggested to me - there aren't many hispanists in the field and that just might work to my advantage - though still, with a program that has annually over 100 applicants and a 16% (or lower) acceptance rate between PhD and MA applicants, I think I'll need any advantages I can get! Let's hope the admissiosn committee thinks like you!

'Accepted' is a decent comedy for undergrad life - I didn't like it when I first saw it but it grew on me afterwards, it's stupid haha but in a funny way 'Legally Blonde' - haha chick flic but a classic, law school at Harvard 'L'Auberge Espagnole' (The Spanish Apartment) - Erasmus (European University Exchange Program) Students all sharing an apt in Barcelona, honestly this is one of my favorite movies of all time - really good laugh, it's in French, Spanish, and English - each student comes from a different country so it's really entertaining what with all of the cultural differences all taking part in university (grad school) life 'The Dreamers' - American student abroad in Paris during the 60's, university life in Paris, pretty intense movie, really good

What field are you currently studying/teaching? (apologies if you've mentioned it I just don't recall if you had said anything other than the social sciences)

I currently have the same exact problem at Penn though with a foreign transcript(Romance Languages Dept.), and they reacted the same way. Everything will fall into place I guess as the dept secretary is sure that what I've given her is correct and that everything is in line to be reviewed by the admissions committee - whenever that ends up happening, I know that Penn's semester starts next week (wednsday I believe) so perhaps we'll be hearing sooner rather than later? Very nerve-wracking though!

Haha yea actually I know that purists might not like my particular spin on the humanities in the context of Art History. I have a professor who actually was going for a PhD in Art History and after she finished the MA, she realized that she wanted to know more: why artists painted what they did, what the historical significance of it all was, aka she didn't want to have to be interested or limited by talking about 'x' brushstroke and 'x' medium, etc. which is what a lot of her professors were emphasizing on top of her other interests. Yes Art History is all of it together, but she was less interested in the technical aspect and realized that she could study Art History through other fields in a much more interdisciplinary manner, so she ended up with a PhD in Medieval Studies - my ultimate goal. Herakles (I like the greek-ness of your name!) - What area of ancient art? One of my recommenders is Susan McCarter (Hopkins, York College)- a very well respected professor in Prehistoric and Near Eastern Art; her and her husband teach at Hopkins, wasn't sure if you've heard of her since she might be in the same field within the discipline as you -'ancient art' can include quite a bit!

Yea for some reason (I'm on Christmas break from undergrad still), I keep wanting to check the mail, even though I know that I won't see anything until Feb at the earliest, and almost half of my decisions will be sent via e-mail anyway, not usps...haha damn this process And where you are ending it, Minnesotan, I am just beginning, haha.

It seems that your strong background in the Classics will definitely help with the field you are looking to specialize in, and all of those programs are really strong ones -I wouldn't be surprised with your classical background though that Penn might favor you (they have a really strong classical focus in the art history dept, as I'm sure you know) I will definitely apply again next year if I don't get in to any of my top choices, delaying a year wouldn't be the end of the world for me - and yourself?

Equal preparation in the backgrounds of Romance Languages and Art History (intertwined quite well especially during my 4 months studying Spanish and Art History at the University of Seville, in Spain) has prepped me for graduate work in a variety of closely related fields. If you're trying to make it sound like I wouldn't be prepared if I were to go into Art History, then you are extremely mistaken - and a few of my publications would make you think otherwise... If you are just trying to make a joke through sarcasm -which is extremely difficult to interpret when it's written down, and not spoken- then touch

Ah ok I don't recall Chicago but I'll have to look into that. During the summer I was looking into a lot of the different programs and I think that the ones I definitely will look further into in the future are Yale (some pretty major names in Medieval Iberia, one being Maria Rosa Menocal who wrote an excellent book called Ornament of the World), as well as Hopkins, and Toronto, assuming that Meyerson (sp?) will still be there - Toronto has an amazing Medieval department although unfortunately the focus is mostly on English/other northern literatures and cultures, with somewhat of an 'undercurrent' (as one of my professors put it), of medieval French - and then of course Latin which is huge there. I love the interdisciplinary nature of Medieval/Renaissance studies, so I will definitely look into what Chicago has to offer.

If I go with Art History, I'd love to work in a museum (I live in Philly so the Philadelphia Art Museum would be like the dream job, haha), dealing with Renaissance/Baroque painting, etc. etc. They actually do a yearly internship for grad students so I might look into that if I go that route. Delaware's program is pretty helpful in that respect because while getting the MA (or PhD) in Art History you can also work towards a certificate in Museum Studies which seems like it would be a great first step into curatorial work. I also applied to Romance Language Depts (almost all MAs, one PhD at Penn). Most are in Spanish, although the one I really want to attend is a Dual MA at UDelaware in Spanish & French. I'd like to do some work in translating before I go back to school for a PhD in History/Medieval-Renaissance Studies. Either way I would love to do work as a professor, while also working in the museum world. I was an intern the archives at the Penn Museum and even though it was just the archives I loved it - very cool experience. I love the interdisciplinary nature of the humanities because in reality I think it would be hard for me to pick just one aspect of Romance/European culture to study for the rest of my life - I love the art, culture, history, language, etc. Either way I think the MA in languages or art history would be one step in the right direction in terms of what I ultimately want to do. What specific area of 19th century German art are you interested in? I'm not familiar at all with that period so I'm sure whatever it is must be quite interesting.

Ah very cool. I actually interned at Penn's Museum this past summer which first interested me in their graduate programs. If I do go with Art History, I want to study the Renaissance and Baroque in Spain. I'm mostly interested in the role of patronage in Spanish Art (Mendoza), as well as the role that Italy has played in the artistic formations of Spain's greatest masters in those periods (El Greco, Ribera, Vel

Oh yea, any type of site like Petersen's can't be 100% accurate (it also doesn't differentiate btwn like full-time, part-time, PhD and MA's in most cases, etc.), I've just been using it as a general 'idea' of what to expect in terms of competition. And thanks for the words of advice/support! The more I think about it the more I'd rather go into the MA right away anyway - especially since I still am interested in later pursuing doctoral studies in more of a History/Medieval Studies field, which would give me more freedom to study the other topics I am also interested in like art, language, culture, etc., whereas if I were to go straightaway into a PhD in Romance Languages, I'd be pretty limited to language and literature.

I'm applying to the MA at the University of Delaware as sort of a backup if I end last minute wanting to go into Art History instead of Romance Languages (the other programs I applied to). The percentage of acceptance to the program, though, is quite small so I don't know how much of a 'backup' it really is..haha What about you?/What area of specialization?

Well, a few reasons actually. The first reason is that I don't want to go right back to school for the PhD (I want to get a couple years of working in, pay off some undergrad loans, etc.), and since I absolutely loved my undergraduate experience with Spanish and French, both at home and abroad, I really want to continue my study of the languages in grad school. Because I want to work for a little while, I figure I'll do some freelance translation work -for which I've already made some business contacts- possibly some adjunct teaching, and get more familiar with the languages on a professional level. Now normally you'd think, right but how is that a precursor to a PhD in history? Well my main historical interest is Medieval/Early Modern Europe, and so the majority of the source material I will need to work with (from first hand experience) will be in French, Spanish, German and Italian (the latter two I have not studied, although Italian is made simple enough because of my experience with French and Spanish). But anyway I want to approach Medieval/Renaissance France and Spain with something of a literary angle, and so the two degrees would ultimately complement each other. It is something of a round-about way to go about my studies but I've talked to a few professors who have made similar choices (for example MA in Art History, PhD in Medieval Studies/any combination of humanities with History/Medieval Studies) and in the end it really just makes them more marketable to universities also - I would be able to teach both history, and language courses whenever I do go into teaching (plus given the difficulty of getting a job right away in teaching the humanities, I feel like my plan could be pretty beneficial financially speaking). I made sure that the MA degrees to which I applied all offered some kind of funding, so that I won't be spending a million dollars on a decent MA program either.

Minnesotan, question about Minnesota What is your current degree program? Before I decided to go the Romance Language route before I go into a Medieval/History PhD, I was originally going to be applying to schools for history programs (also ones that came up are Toronto, Hopkins, UCSD, UKentucky, UGA, Princeton, few others). My advisor gave me a whole list of schools that have specialists in Medieval/Early Modern Spain (of which there aren't many in the US, and many are nearing retirement age), and Minnesota was one of them with William Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips. Do you know of those two? Just curious because after I get my MA (I'm thinking that even if by some crazy miracle I get into Penn I probably wouldn't take it), I am still planning to eventually go back to my original discipline and get my PhD in some form of Medieval/Renaissance History, because in reality that's what I ultimately want to teach. Anyway back to the topic you were discussing, My last recommendation letter, ironically, was from my current advisor, and I had to, in a very subtle way, let her know what the deadlines were more than once because I was worried she wasn't going to get them in on time. Great and extremely intelligent lady, just obviously very busy!

Ah great thanks! I guess it sort of doesn't apply with me because the only PhD that I'm applying to is at Penn and based on the criteria I put its in the top half but not 10 or 25. Although being Ivy League it's quite obvious that there will be pretty heavy competition, regardless of where that site ranks it.

This is explicitly listed on Delaware's Foreign Language & Literature Program website: "1. B.A. or equivalent in the target language/literature, or in another appropriate discipline. 2. Undergraduate Grade Point Average of 2.9 overall, and 3.25 in the proposed M.A. major subject, shown on your official transcript. 3. GRE General Test for all students. A minimum score of 1050 on the verbal/quantitative or verbal/analytical parts of the GRE is normally required. Applicants should also take the GRE writing test. GRE scores should normally be submitted at the beginning of the application process. Low GRE scores may, however, be balanced by high grades and strong letters of recommendation. 4. TOEFL for international students (paper-based: minimum of 550 for admission, 600 for teaching assistantship; computer-based: minimum of 213 for admission, 250 for teaching assistantship; internet-based iBT: minimum of 79 for admission, 100 for teaching assistantship..." While your statement might be true for the Ivy League, I think that you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss my applying as a waste of time. I do appreciate all the feedback though!

Yea good call I figure at least I make the minimum GRE at Delaware, because as far as me and my recommenders (and the professors that I've talked to there), the rest of my app is stellar - aka at least they won't discard it based solely on GRE, which will probably happen at NYU and Penn (also the reason why I didn't even bother applying to Hopkins [aside from the fact that they have only a mediocre Spanish dept. - a professor who wrote some of my letters and also teaches there said unless I ace the GRE they won't even look at the rest of my app - unfortunate but oh well], I felt I should at least try at Penn given my connection with the internship) PS does anyone know where these 'top-10/20/25, etc.' lists can be seen? I've seen USNews lists but there are no lists that deal with top foreign language programs, thanks! (on that note the only place I've really seen foreign languages being dealt with is on Petersen's which has given me some useful stats in terms of applicants, % accepted, enrolled, etc.

I actually live 15 minutes from West Chester! hence its convenience! haha I actually took some French classes there last summer.

It seems that we are a minority among other disciplines. Is anyone else applying to programs in any foreign language, if so which ones? research interests, etc.? I'm mostly interested in Spanish Hagiographic manuscripts (particularly the Codex Calixtinus/Liber Sancti Jacobi) and Mystic Literature (Santa Teresa, San Juan de la Cruz), as well as influences from other Romance languages (French and Italian), Arabic, and English on Iberian and Latin American Literary production.

Oh and also to make the distinction, the head of that internship wasn't just a nobody at Penn. He's the Senior Archivist in the Archives (where the internship was), and he's been there for 20 years, sorry I didn't specify that earlier. Penn being a PhD program sort of made me realize that it might be better to apply to after I have a masters, but I figured I might as well try. Also the MA programs I applied to all offer funding (whether in the form of assistantships, scholarships, etc.) so funding, no matter which program I get into, is guaranteed