mew27

congrats, dan!! i guess i'll see you there

thanks so much, hack!! i still can't believe it i actually got two emails from them, the first from the dept. chair congratulating me on the acceptance and the second from a coordinator detailing the itinerary for the visit. like i said before, i'm not sure if they sent them all out today or are doing them one-by-one. hopefully there will be more to come

yes, i did visit the campus over the summer... i've been there several times, actually. it definitely is surrounded by some rough neighborhoods, but as long as you stay within a certain area i've heard you're fine. i would like for it to be in a better location, but i know several of the schools i applied to aren't in the greatest locations. actually, my undergrad too has horrible town/gown relations, and a grad student was also shot here this semester (in addition to a number of armed robberies, rapes, etc.). i don't know what it is about good schools and bad cities... my brother is at yale and has the same problem. as to the "chilliness" of the people there, i agree to an extent. i found that some (a lot) of the people were quite socially awkward, but once you got to talking they were fine. i was, and still am, not sure how i'd fit in there, personality-wise. that said, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in the field. i guess we'll see how the rest of the decisions pan out good luck to everyone!

halifax: thanks! i'm *so* thrilled. chicago was definitely one of my top two choices. i feel like a little kid, i'm so jittery... it seems so late for them just to be telling you that your app is complete! i think that's a good sign, though; if they weren't considering you, they probably would have already sent out the rejection letter, right? *fingers crossed for you* is cornell your top choice?

yeah! i just got accepted it was an e-mail, although it said a faculty member would be calling me later. i'm not sure if they're sending them all out at once...?

thanks!! i was VERY surprised to hear from someone this early...and thrilled, needless to say. i just hope everything works out in the end (for all of us)! i think that interviews are pretty common at the private schools - they often bring prospective students to campus and try to woo them. that being said, i don't know how many of them feel obligated to do it. i guess berkeley doesn't bring students out because it's a state school and has less money to throw around...

thanks! the professor was extremely friendly and it wasn't a formal interview at all... she spent a lot of the time telling me about things i would like at berkeley! i hope that, if i get more interviews, they're all as chill as this one was...

just in case anyone else applied to berkeley: they're starting to make their decisions now! i just had a phone interview with a professor there this afternoon, and she said they'd be making their final decisions within the next week or two...

well, anything's a step up from my current city

princeton itself is quite nice, no? i really liked the little town

let's just leave it at this: it's a professor at top-ten school that's not on your list i think, though, that this guy is more interested in modern/contemporary buddhist art, although i've never taken a class from him myself..

lxs: yeah, i'm glad i called too! the wait is already excruciating, and not knowing about the possible interview made it worse. anyway, i'll definitely let you know if i hear anything! dan: what an interesting field you're in! the girl i know is only applying to MA programs, i think. what other schools are you applying to (just wondering, because my school has a pretty well-known chinese scholar... i'm curious to see if he's on the list

so, i'm a total nerd and called the department later this afternoon, and girl i spoke to told me that it is indeed a lecture for invited students. no word on when they're sending out invites, though...

i just looked on the events calendar and saw that too.....very suspicious. i think you might be right!

lxs: no, i haven't heard anything about a prospective students visit. i read somewhere that nobody will find out anything until the decisions are mailed the first week of march, but i don't know if that's true. my brother got accepted to the phd program at chicago (albeit in a different field) and didn't hear anything until the middle of march. i think most of the other schools had emailed, called, or sent some sort of indication he was getting in...but not chicago! and to chicken dan: i know someone who's applying for Chinese art history programs. where are you considering?

i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news! it really isn't stated clearly anywhere on the website (as far as i know anyway), although you'd think they'd want to advertise it so they can compete more with some of the other schools. i was told that this is a recent development...pretty sure they only decided to do it sometime last year. but yeah, chicago is definitely one of my top choices... i absolutely *love* the city, except for the winters and hyde park! i know what you mean about applying to so many schools. there were really only 4 or 5 that i liked a lot, and i couldn't decide whether to apply to those schools only or have a few more to spread out my chances. in many ways, i feel that if i don't like the school or the city, then i'm definitely not going to want to waste 7-8 years there...and there's no sense in wasting the time and money involved in applying. but i went ahead and applied to a few more, just in case - although i'm not sure i'd actually go there if those were the only schools i got into. i might prefer to take a year off and reapply then. i do know a few people, though, who only applied to 3 or 4 schools. i'm already freaking out, so i can't even imagine being in their shoes!

actually... chicago gives full funding to all their students in art history now! :\ i spoke with a professor there last fall and he assured me that all students get full fellowships for 5 years

what a fascinating background! having german under your belt will definitely help you - it seems like everyone, no matter what they study, needs to have it. i doubt you'll have any trouble picking up french and italian, especially since you've got some latin experience. thankfully we only need to be able to read these languages... my french pronunciation is horrible! so, i take it you're interested in working with professor cole at penn? did you ever consider uchicago/zorach?

i just realized i never answered your question about the penn transcripts. no, i haven't had any problems, as far as i know. i submitted the application right before the deadline (i'm a slacker like that , and it said everything was complete on the 21st... i actually haven't done the MA yet; i'll be coming straight out of undergrad (needless to say, puts me at a bit of a disadvantage). i thought very seriously about taking a year off, mostly because a lot of grad students here have told me that i should. all the professors i spoke to, however, told me they thought i was perfectly equipped to handle the work - and i guess it's really emotional maturity that the schools are worried about. i probably would've considered taking time off more seriously if i weren't trying to land somewhere with my boyfriend...but it would be infinitely more difficult if i were trying to apply to schools AFTER he's already decided where he's going. too many variables! anyway, if i don't get in, i'm going to try not to take it too personally, and just reapply next year. there are a few good programs in the netherlands where i can get a MA within a year, which sounds great. plus i need to start learning dutch! speaking of languages, i've about had it with them! haha. i've taken several years of german and latin, four years of spanish in HS, and am completing my first year of french now. i'm planning to take an intensive reading course this summer to prepare me a little more. although i definitely need to improve my french (and i've gotten a bit rusty on the german by now), i can see the light at the end of the tunnel...that is, if dutch is in fact the last one i need to learn! what sort of language preparation have you gone through so far? another small anecdote about UT. there's a fourth-year grad student in our program here who came from UT undergrad (she may have also done her MA there too, although i'm not sure). she said that prof. smith single-handedly is the reason she's studying art history today, and that she's never seen a professor - or department - care so much about the students. this girl has some health problems which our department *totally* doesn't take into account, so i've heard her talk about how motherly everyone in the department was towards her. sounds cheesy, i know, but she said they really made her feel special. and they certainly prepared her well...she's one of our top candidates in her field. anyway, sorry to keep rambling...but if you're interested in going there, these are things you might like to know!

yes, i had a similar experience with prof. smith! my advisor is a good friend of his, and told me to write to him asking for some advice for my thesis. he responded right away, gave me a huge list of books with little notes for each one (even checked to see if a few were in the libraries at my school!), and told me to contact him any time i had further questions. i can't imagine too many professors taking that much time with a student they've never met, right? is your husband also applying for grad programs, or will he be able to move wherever you go? i can't begin to imagine how difficult it'd be to be apart for so long!

to answer the other half of your question, yes...i'm absolutely freaking out! i have a backup plan if things don't pan out, but i'm hoping it doesn't come to that...

haha, that's great! he certainly seems like a nice guy. i spoke to one of the grad students there and she said he was fantastic to work with, and it seems like the environment is pretty friendly. unfortunately for me, though, he seems to focus more on germany than the netherlands... and i'd probably prefer it the other way around. i wanted to apply to UT austin, but i didn't like the idea of only being guaranteed entrance to the MA program. not to mention funding isn't great for out-of-staters jeff chipps smith seems awesome

yeah, it's been keeping me busy i already know for sure that i want to do a doctorate, so i only applied to phd programs. i applied to eight schools (uchicago, upenn, harvard, berkeley, yale, princeton, nyu, northwestern), none of which are safeties... hopefully that doesn't bite me in the ass come march. my advisor basically refused to write recs for anything he thought i'd be "settling" for, so i'll blame it on him if i get rejected everywhere

my current work deals with protestant (specifically lutheran) art in germany and the netherlands, so i'm hoping to wind up somewhere i can continue studying both areas.

hey guys... so glad i finally found a forum for art history applicants! has anyone else applied for programs with a focus in northern ren?