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Guest Amon-Ra
Posted

Princeton is cutting back on the number of students they are taking in this year, certain sub-specialities are killed...big sigh...

Princeton, really? Don't bait us, lalala! Share whatcha know?

Posted

I have heard they are cutting back numbers on incoming students. I do not know the details.

Lala, you are Chinese contemporary/diaspora? I hear you... I have a region specific field, too. I emailed my POI at Columbia yesterday. He said that they were very strict about taking students this year, ensuring that the ones they took had a direct relation to a current professor's field. While I can see the many ways your subfield can be viewed from differed POVs and paradigms, it looks like they don't. I feel your pain! I hope they schools that do have profs in your subfield accept you! Did you apply to work with Wu Hung at UChicago?

Guest Amon-Ra
Posted

I have heard they are cutting back numbers on incoming students. I do not know the details.

Ah, thanks. Good luck, fellow art historian!

Posted

I hope we get some real news this week, instead of all this horrible guessing and speculation! I wonder, though, if adcoms are cruel enough to send rejections on Valentine's Day...

My birthday is also this week (Wednesday), so I am going to be especially unhappy with any rejections received this week (not that the adcoms have any reason to actually care about my birthday...). I did get accepted by UPittsburgh, though, with a pretty nice funding package, so hopefully that will soften the blow of rejections.

However, if any further acceptances (not that I'm expecting any...but one can hope, right?) come this week, it would be THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER!

Posted

A major caveat to volunteer work: if it's a choice between taking a class and volunteering at a museum, TAKE THE CLASS. The type of clerical work you will be allowed to do will most likely not result in a useful recommendation letter. A letter from a volunteer supervisor at a museum is completely meaningless for grad school applications (except, possibly, as further corroboration of two stellar letters from faculty). Volunteering will also not produce a faculty-vetted writing sample.

With a good writing sample, a great statement of purpose, at least one current letter of recommendation, and funds to pay tuition (which it sounds like you have) you should be able to get into a good MA program and thence, if you do really well, into funded PhD work.

financetoart - it's certainly not impossible, I have friends who have been in similar situations with far fewer credits than you who are now Art History PhD candidates. Dreams do come true. But I would say your writing sample is hugely important - have a ton of sources/ images and make sure they are cited immaculately. And volunteer at a museum if you can! showing more interest never hurt anybody.

Posted

yale acceptances already... sigh.

to the harvard "Other via email - rejected." on the results board, did you receive an unsolicited email from harvard, or did you reach out to them for the decision? sorry to be nosey, definitely going a little crazy here.

Posted

Congrats to the Yale acceptances. I was especially intrigued by the applicant who didn't have any successful contact with the department - apparently, it's not always a bad thing not to hear back!

Posted

Congrats to the Yale acceptances. I was especially intrigued by the applicant who didn't have any successful contact with the department - apparently, it's not always a bad thing not to hear back!

I spoke with a professor, who said that when you don't hear back but get in, it might be an indication that your POI is a bit stand-offish and not very hands on. After that the decision you make is based upon whether you're an independent self-motivated individual, or someone who wants steady guidance to navigate your degree and the field.

Posted

I am currently working in the finance field in NYC and have been out of college for about 2 years. I've found that I really don't like what I'm doing and really wish I could have a re-do of my undergrad years - go with my heart instead of my head. I've always been a huge art/art history fanatic and the more I work in finance, the more I know it's not for me.

I'm seriously considering going back to school for Art History to focus on my passions. Ideally, I would love to be able to go directly into a art history ph.d program but seeing as I have very little background in art history, that would be close to impossible. So my next option is to start with a masters in art history and eventually progress to a ph.d.

My background: I went to a state school with a degree from the business school with a minor in Art History. My GPA is not the best - I don't want to be too specific, but it's < 3.5. I was never that enthusiastic about my actual major so I didn't really try as hard as I should have in classes. My art history minor gpa was almost a 4.0 though...although I highly doubt schools will actually look too much into a minor gpa. I haven't taken the GRE yet, but I think I will do fairly well on it (I'm decent at standardized testing - my SAT score was 1500 back when it was out of 1600).

My question is - how difficult will it be to get into a good art history MA program with my background? Since I haven't taken that many art history classes, I don't have close connections with the art history professors and I also don't have any lengthy writing samples. I know these 2 elements are a major deciding factor for graduate school acceptance.

Do I even have a chance of making it into a good MA program? Is there anything I could do in the meantime to help increase my chances? The area I'm most interested in is Italian Renaissance art.

Any help is appreciated! Sorry for the lengthy read and thanks if you were able to get through all of it.

Was going to post here, but turned out to be too long. PMed you instead. Best of luck.

Posted

Congratulations to all the recent admits!

I know there hasn't been anything on the results pages but has anyone heard any news or had any contact with Stanford? It looks like they traditionally send out acceptances early in February and rejections late in the month but so far I haven't seen anything.

Posted

Hello all. I am new to the forum, though I appreciate all the commentary. I know people have been wondering about the Columbia interview weekend. Any news/updates? Is it fair to say that all the invites have gone out? @manetdejeuner: what did the department say when you inquired about your visit?

Also, any news about Yale acceptances?

Many thanks. Good luck to all.

Apparently for Yale the DGS has already emailed out acceptances.

Also, just because you didn't get invited to the Columbia open house doesn't mean that you're not on the short list. There's still some hope!

Posted

Apparently for Yale the DGS has already emailed out acceptances.

Also, just because you didn't get invited to the Columbia open house doesn't mean that you're not on the short list. There's still some hope!

How do you know Yale has emailed out all of its acceptances? Did you call/email? I've been too chicken to do that myself!

Posted (edited)

How do you know Yale has emailed out all of its acceptances? Did you call/email? I've been too chicken to do that myself!

Through the grape vine - I've only heard about acceptances. Maybe it might take a bit longer for waitlisted applicants to be notified.

Edited by opemi
Posted

If not hearing from a school when others have heard means you weren't accepted, then how do wait lists come about? Not all schools do them, I assume. Is there a way to find out if a school does? Is there a way to find out your place on that waitlist? Basically, is there any hope if you haven't heard from your dream school? I don't know what the protocol is.

Posted

If not hearing from a school when others have heard means you weren't accepted, then how do wait lists come about? Not all schools do them, I assume. Is there a way to find out if a school does? Is there a way to find out your place on that waitlist? Basically, is there any hope if you haven't heard from your dream school? I don't know what the protocol is.

The uncertainly is definitely agonizing, but I think that it's best to be hopeful. Case in point: although we already saw a few results from Penn go up on the board, I found out just this week that Penn is not done making decisions. So, no news was good news (or not necessarily bad news).

If you're getting so anxious that you can't focus, you could always contact the department secretary or your POI to ask about the decision timeline, but I have a feeling that waitlists and shortlists are still falling in to place.

Posted

Congrats to all the UT Austin admits!!

I am super jealous/obsessively checking my email....I fear this is a bad sign re: my application, but am trying to think positive.

Did you get an email to check the website?? I have checked my application status about a billion times since I got home from work 20 minutes ago, but nothing. Aahhhh!!!

Posted

Congrats to all the UT Austin admits!!

I am super jealous/obsessively checking my email....I fear this is a bad sign re: my application, but am trying to think positive.

Did you get an email to check the website?? I have checked my application status about a billion times since I got home from work 20 minutes ago, but nothing. Aahhhh!!!

I am one of the UT Austin admits, and I did not receive any sort of email directing me to the website. I've been checking obsessively for weeks now, and (thankfully) today there was good news!

Best of luck. What area were you hoping to work in?

Posted

I was also just accepted to UT Austin! yay.

Has anyone found out about funding yet?

If I remember correctly, you're ancient art, yes? If so, me too! Have you heard from anywhere else?

Posted

I was also accepted to UT Austin yesterday. The e-mail directing applicants to the website came today (Feb 22), so hopefully those who haven't been notified will be now. Good luck! Are there any other Pre-Columbian/Latin American UT admits?

Also, I was accepted at University of Colorado, Boulder yesterday as well. I was offered full tuition remission, a TAship worth ~10,000 annually, and health insurance. I've never done this before, so I'm wondering if this is as good an offer as Masters students can expect or if I should hold out for further responses.

I was accepted at UT Austin and UCB, rejected at UCLA, and am still waiting for Tulane and UNM. Thanks for any help you can offer!

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