funding questions

[future museum professional]

Hi everyone! I am planning on applying to art history masters programs and was wondering if anyone knew the answers to the following questions:

1. Does Case Western's art history masters give a full tuition remission and stipend or just the Art History + Museum Studies masters?

2. Does Hunter College give funding?

3. Does anyone know about the prestige of UNC Chapel Hill's masters program?

4. If a school has waived the GRE does it work against me to not send it in?

[RVH]

Current Hunter student here. I did not personally receive funding, but I know some do. The department doesn't really advertise funding options before or during enrollment in the program so I'm not sure how common it is. However, if you can establish NY residency during your first year (if you are coming from out of state), you can finish your degree with the in-state tuition rate (about half the price).

I also applied to the MA Art History (without museum studies) program at Case Western and they offered full tuition coverage but no stipend. I believe they offer this to almost all students they accept, based on what I heard from a current student. If you are interested in working in the museum field, it's worth considering the Art History + Museum Studies program because they place students in long-term internships with the Cleveland Museum of Art.

If you have any other questions about the Hunter MA program, faculty, etc. I'd be happy to answer what I can!

[future museum professional]

On 8/19/2020 at 3:42 PM, RVH said:

Current Hunter student here. I did not personally receive funding, but I know some do. The department doesn't really advertise funding options before or during enrollment in the program so I'm not sure how common it is. However, if you can establish NY residency during your first year (if you are coming from out of state), you can finish your degree with the in-state tuition rate (about half the price).

I also applied to the MA Art History (without museum studies) program at Case Western and they offered full tuition coverage but no stipend. I believe they offer this to almost all students they accept, based on what I heard from a current student. If you are interested in working in the museum field, it's worth considering the Art History + Museum Studies program because they place students in long-term internships with the Cleveland Museum of Art.

If you have any other questions about the Hunter MA program, faculty, etc. I'd be happy to answer what I can!

Thank you so much!! Do you get feel that the program prepares you for possible PhD admission?

[2ndbreakfast]

On 8/19/2020 at 12:08 PM, future museum professional said:

Hi everyone! I am planning on applying to art history masters programs and was wondering if anyone knew the answers to the following questions:

1. Does Case Western's art history masters give a full tuition remission and stipend or just the Art History + Museum Studies masters?

2. Does Hunter College give funding?

3. Does anyone know about the prestige of UNC Chapel Hill's masters program?

4. If a school has waived the GRE does it work against me to not send it in?

Hi there!

I also applied to Case (but for AH + museum studies), so I did receive tuition remission plus a stipend. 

I can speak a little bit about UNC Chapel Hill as well, I did a full-on prospective student visit there before covid hit. I'm not super sure about judging its overall prestige, but I think the faculty are all pretty incredible, and you have the opportunity to take courses from Duke as well. The professor I was most interested in was Dr. Tatiana String and she was incredibly kind and even seemed really excited in the prospect of getting to work with me. However, my biggest warning about UNC is that you will probably not get a dime of funding from them as an MA student. During the visit, it was stressed many times that you must be "entrepreneurial" in funding yourself. I liked the program and the location, but at the end of the day I picked a place that was giving me full funding and a nice stipend - the University of Kansas.

[future museum professional]

1 hour ago, 2ndbreakfast said:

Hi there!

I also applied to Case (but for AH + museum studies), so I did receive tuition remission plus a stipend. 

I can speak a little bit about UNC Chapel Hill as well, I did a full-on prospective student visit there before covid hit. I'm not super sure about judging its overall prestige, but I think the faculty are all pretty incredible, and you have the opportunity to take courses from Duke as well. The professor I was most interested in was Dr. Tatiana String and she was incredibly kind and even seemed really excited in the prospect of getting to work with me. However, my biggest warning about UNC is that you will probably not get a dime of funding from them as an MA student. During the visit, it was stressed many times that you must be "entrepreneurial" in funding yourself. I liked the program and the location, but at the end of the day I picked a place that was giving me full funding and a nice stipend - the University of Kansas.

Thank you so much for your response! It's really helpful to know that about UNC as money is something I am very worried about with a Masters.

[RVH]

On 8/20/2020 at 9:55 PM, future museum professional said:

Thank you so much!! Do you get feel that the program prepares you for possible PhD admission?

This doesn't quite answer your question, but I'll tell you what I can think of right now: there are a decent number of people here who plan to head to a PhD program right after getting their MAs, but it seems like more of us are geared towards an MA alone. It's definitely doable, but you'll want to make sure you and the graduate advisor lay out a plan to get those boxes checked by the time you get the MA. For example, Hunter requires us to pass a translation exam by mid-program (or pass two levels of language classes at the Graduate Center), but any additional languages after the one you use for the exam aren't a built-in program requirement.

A few of the faculty members here also teach at the doctorate level at the Graduate Center. Antonella Pelizzari is one of them and she's our graduate advisor right now; if you get in contact with her she could probably address that question better than me since she knows the stats on the Hunter graduates.

[typhoto]

On 8/19/2020 at 1:08 PM, future museum professional said:

Hi everyone! I am planning on applying to art history masters programs and was wondering if anyone knew the answers to the following questions:

1. Does Case Western's art history masters give a full tuition remission and stipend or just the Art History + Museum Studies masters?

2. Does Hunter College give funding?

3. Does anyone know about the prestige of UNC Chapel Hill's masters program?

4. If a school has waived the GRE does it work against me to not send it in?

I'll just chime in and say I'm a current first year Hunter MA student and I received enough funding to cover tuition for two years. There's lots of opportunities that they do not advertise (TAing, connections to paid internships, etc), but Hunter does not offer stipend level of funding. I also got into Tufts with half funding (I believe the max they ever offer, but I could be wrong) and that still was way to expensive to rationalize attending. I chose Hunter over a PhD program with full funding for 5 years (though not top tier program) and I do not regret my choice. Williams offers great funding if you can get in and is a major feeder into PhDs (I didn't apply and I do regret that). Very happy at Hunter so far even though it's a larger program. 

[Vagante]

Case offers merit-based tuition and stipend to both tracks for sure. They might place you on the waitlist for funding but as far as I know they don’t accept more people than they can reasonably fund.

Tufts also offers merit-based tuition remission and stipend. They often offer partial funding from what I hear, no more than half so you still have to take out loans.

Hunter often offers tuition but not stipend, I am told.

sorry, don’t know anyone who went to UNC but I terms of your GRE question, no one will hold it against you if they don’t require it!

think also about cost of living, Boston vs Cleveland vs NYC

 

[JuniusBattius]

Hi! I hope your applications go well.

Chiming in to say that UNC has not done a commendable job of caring for their current graduate students during the pandemic.

If the Art History Department does offer funding for incoming graduate students, it is usually in incomplete packages (e.g., a year of funding for a masters, three out of five years for a PhD). MANY of their current and past students have had to prolong their careers even before COVID because of a lack of financial support. There are some opportunities for additional funding, but resources there are limited and don't look to be improving. For example, some graduate students who received additional funding have had their Spring pay reduced because it is "considered COVID support" (a pay reduction that, in previous years, did not happen).

Unfortunately, there also just aren't enough faculty. Many have been lost (due to headhunting, retirement, and death) over the past few years and few have been replaced. So, the remaining faculty are overworked, and there is an increasing trend of (unpaid) labor being shifted onto graduate student shoulders. 

If there is someone there who you are dead-set on working with, reach out to them and inquire with their graduate students. Some people are happy there and feel confident in their training, and you might be, as well. Unfortunately, that experience isn't universally shared, but it is special when it happens.

[Mississippi Snow]

On 8/20/2020 at 8:55 PM, future museum professional said:

Thank you so much!! Do you get feel that the program prepares you for possible PhD admission?

Just want to reply to this with a firm “yes”

Myself, and another close friend, are both in top Ph.D. Programs now.

Other friends have moved directly into curatorial positions at museums, both in NYC and elsewhere, or have progressed in their career following their MA at Hunter. 
Probably the most unique example of this is a friend who entered the program just after me, who at the same time started an entry-level job at a well-respected museum/art space in Long Island City, and is now the (interim) director of this institution. Others are curators as part of High Line or assoc. curators at Brooklyn Museum.

It’s a pretty unique place to be in, because you are students together and quite immediately some of them start having very mature positions.





 

[artstor509]

Do not attend a PhD program unless you have multiple years of promised funding up front and are working with an established advisor who can help you navigate the funding terrain. JUST DO NOT DO IT. The minimum I would take is 4 years of guaranteed funding with at least 2 of them being fellowships. You will not have the time to take on extra jobs. You will need to not only attend to coursework, dissertation planning etc but also attend to things like publishing, applying for grants, and going to conferences. 

[ahsam]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RK4iDBMdcTm73NJV28gDE6D4_hcjXpohTCThO9lRrQE/edit#gid=0