mew27

wow, lxs....that's fantastic news!! congrats!

oneinthree: absolutely everything i've heard about berkeley has been great. i simply couldn't choose it over some other offers, both for financial and for personal reasons. that said, all my professors rave about the department, and a good percentage of our faculty graduated from there. the only problem anyone seems to have is with the funding and with the size of the school (if you're coming from a small, private university, it seems like a bit of a shock)... I think I would've loved the environment there. everyone seems very friendly, and they're totally cutting-edge when it comes to visual studies. for people who are interested in UNC-CH: i have some friends who go there (they all love it), and i know the area pretty well. it's a great college town, although if you're used to big cities you might find it boring. people in general are extremely friendly and laid-back. also, you have the added benefit of being able to take classes at duke, so that's something to consider...

smellie: i'm glad that was somewhat helpful! let me know if i can offer any more advice. i wouldn't get discouraged with everything, though! it's definitely worth doing something you love. and i think they accept people based on what potential they see (whether right or wrong) as much as anything else. another interesting note: there are two other students from my university who applied for phd programs. one's currently a senior, and the other graduated a couple of years ago. neither one of them has been accepted yet, as far as i've heard... they're both stellar applicants (at least one is phi beta kappa, and they both have high GREs), and we come from a top-10 school. it's a total crapshoot, and nothing about it seems very fair..

if i were to reapply, i would definitely think twice about doing everything during the school year. i spent last semester taking the GRE, writing my sr. thesis, and doing applications, and just about lost my sanity in the process. it's definitely a personal choice and depends on hwo many things you've got going on, but i definitely envied those people who took a year off! i'm not sure that there's any rhyme or reason to how the admissions committees pick people, but i do know that *all* the professors i spoke to mentioned my writing sample. the WS and the LORs seem to be the most important things, at least from what i've heard. i actually sent in a pretty unorthodox WS that made me quite nervous, but my advisor assured me that it would work. guess he was right. anyway, if i were doing this whole thing again, i would spend a lot of time working on that... make sure you put a fair share of your sources in another language! as to buffing up the resume...hmmm. not really sure what i can say here. i've never presented at a conference and don't have much in the way of publications (just some entries in my university's art museum catalogue), but i've done several internships (helping with exhibitions, writing labels, researching for curators, etc.) and work at the museum on campus. i'm not sure how much that helped me anyway, since many professors tend to be snotty about museum work. i do think, though, that the professors take your age into consideration and see what you've done with the opportunities you've had... i mean, they can't honestly expect undergrads to have presented at CAA! almost all conferences are for grad students. i also got some fellowships through my university to go abroad and do research for my honors thesis, not that they're very impressive. as far as awards go, i don't have any that pertain especially to art history... just things like phi beta kappa, academic scholarship to my school, etc. sorry i'm not more of a help!

smellie: i struggled with the same question! it seemed that almost everyone i talked to had decided to take some time off, but i couldn't really think of anything i wanted to do before grad school (except maybe some language prep). the professors i spoke to (at my school and others) didn't say the same thing at all, though. they told me it's all about preparation and emotional maturity, and i guess all that comes through in your SOP and LORs. anyway, my plan was to apply this year and then reapply next year if i didn't have any luck. but i've gotten into some really great programs (berkeley, chicago, harvard, princeton) straight out of undergrad...and there were other people like me at all the schools i visited.

17thscream: i'm surprised to hear that about the grads at columbia. i just got back a little while ago from a visit to princeton, and i think there were only about 3 prospectives who didn't come from ivy undergrads. i found it a little odd, but i guess not too surprising.. emus: snarky comments aside, there wasn't anything in it for my advisor - he was just proud to have one of "his" students succeed

no! i didn't get the school i preferred out of it. not that the other is a bad school at all (both ivies), but still! totally frustrating... i was telling another professor about the situation and she said that the same thing happened when she was first out on the job market 20 years ago. she said all the new england schools were making phone calls left and right to get who they wanted. she had absolutely no agency in the matter... definitely sucks more, though, when it's your career and you don't get to decide where you end up! academia blows!

just to add to what stylefaxee said... it's amazing and very aggravating how shady the whole admission process can be. there's a lot of under-the-table stuff going on that i was completely unaware of. my advisor called me in one day recently because he 'had something very important to talk about.' apparently what happened is that a professor from school X had called him over the weekend and expressed great interest in my application. he really wanted to work with me, but so did professor so-and-so at school Y. so what happens? between the 3 of them - the two professors and my advisor - they work out a "deal" as to which one i'll get into. both schools can't accept me because it lowers their chances that i'll go to either one of them, but if i only get into one, i'll probably go there (god knows we can't ruin their matriculation rates). so i ask my advisor whether i get any say in the matter/get to decide which school i want more, and he tells me no. the "deal" has already been worked out, and i'm not supposed to know anything about it. he just wanted to tell me so i wouldn't feel bad when i get rejected from school Y. i thought this was unbelievably shady - here they are treating applicants like freakin' business deals. so anyway, i shouldn't be ranting, but hopefully it makes some of you guys feel better knowing that there's a LOT of fishy crap going on here. everything is so political...

lxs, i really can't believe that you haven't had better luck! :\ you're such a great candidate. if i were you, i'd definitely write to the departments and ask for some explanation of why you weren't accepted... that's ridiculous.

halifax, it won't let me PM you back!

soooo halifax - i haven't been keeping up with all the posts on here. have you decided where to go yet?

no; i don't believe they have one. but i ended up withdrawing my application shortly after i heard from them, once i found out i'd been accepted to another program. the professor had told me she was nominating me for a particular fellowship, and (since i knew i wouldn't choose berkeley over this other school) i didn't want the department to lose the money... kind of a long story. where else are you looking?

i found out in late jan. that i'd been accepted... i assume they let most, if not all, of their candidates know around that time

berkeley notified its accepted students around the end of january..

congrats, halifax!!! i'm thrilled for you!

thanks! and welcome, art historian! i can't really say that there's anything i dislike per se about the dept., but i think there are some things to keep in mind when you're considering harvard over other schools. first (and what really bothers me) is the reputation they have for treating their grad students poorly...like having them TA more sections per semester than they would anywhere else, having them do inordinate amounts of research for their professors' projects, dealing with huge egos, etc. that said, many students (maybe even i ) are willing to do this! secondly, for me at least, the professors i'd be working with seem to be pretty stuck in their ways; they're very established, have their own ways of doing things, and want everyone they're working with to do things how they want. of course, that's not always a bad thing! if it's worked for them, there's obviously something positive about it! all the professors i've talked to have said the same thing: that harvard doesn't necessarily have the strongest dept., but harvard has the name. and (as much as everyone hates to admit it!) pedigree means something, especially when you're looking for jobs... what do you all think?

no, i've only heard from those two so far. i think that pretty much all the others come late in feb or early march...but i'm not holding my breath. i'm really happy with chicago! and yes, it was definitely one of my top choices. the only other school i'd consider choosing over it would be harvard, only because they have two people in my field. that said, there are plenty of things i don't like about the department there, not to mention it's ridiculously hard to get into

best of luck, lxs! will you have to wait until march to find out, or do they have prospective student interviews?

that's unfortunate! what is it you're interested in, again... late 19th/early 20th century? i thought they were pretty strong in that area, although i guess it's hard to find someone whose interests match with yours perfectly. and you don't want to be stuck with an advisor who will only approve of projects that help his/her own research...! what's your top choice, then? thanks for the info re: cars. i guess i'm just not used to having to take public transportation on a daily basis. it seems like such a hassle! i'm more interested, though, because i'm involved in an extracurricular sport that involves my going outside the city..

lxs: thanks so much for the information! you certainly know your way around the city. i didn't realize that the public transportation would stop running so early, so that's definitely something to check on. i just assumed, i guess, that people would constantly be on the go and that it wouldn't be a problem... my guess is that i'll wind up getting something in HP (it looks like the single apartments are reasonable) and just staying downtown with him whenever i can. just out of curiosity, how feasible is it to have a car, either downtown or in HP? also: did you apply to northwestern? it seems like you really like chicago!

the med school is downtown, right off michigan ave (*totally* jealous of the location!). do you have any idea how expensive it would be to live downtown? graduate housing at chicago looks quite reasonable, although i'm still not convinced that i want to live in hyde park. it would suck to feel like i couldn't ever leave my apartment after sundown... then again, i don't want to spend absolutely all of my stipend on an apartment downtown. i guess i should put it this way: is it more dangerous to live in hyde park or to commute there every day? lol

thanks, lxs! actually, i'd like to know what you think about the living situation in hyde park. do you think it's worth trying to stay there in graduate housing, or living downtown and then commuting? my SO would be living downtown for NU med school, so there would be some commuting anyway, but i'm not sure i want to do it every day.

yeah, i guess so! that is, if dan can manage to fly around the world for a few days...

lol, yes, i'll admit i've been trolling the internet for information about hyde park. it's not certain i'll end up there, i guess, but i think there's a good chance. in any case, i knew i wouldn't pick berkeley over chicago...it was a hard email to write, but i'm glad i did it. the professor told me she was going in this afternoon to ask for the top fellowship for me () and said she'd really been looking forward to working with me. ouch.

i agree! those history people are showing us up... not that anyone cares, but i withdrew my berkeley application today. i didn't want to hog a spot i know i wouldn't take, so i emailed the professor who had given me the interview and explained the situation to her. she sent me such a nice email - kinda heartbreaking.