Temple's Art History Program?

[sofe]

I'm considering applying to Temple. I know this school has a good reputation for its Art History program, but i haven't heard much about how competitive it is. Does anyone know?

Suggestions on good but less competitive programs?

[anonymousbequest]

They were one of the surprises in the latest NRC rankings, coming in the top tier in a few categories. My advice is always to choose schools based on professors whose scholarship most interests you, and then secondarily how those professors' students have fared in the academic and museum markets over the years. The only prof. I know anything about at Temple is Alan Braddock, who is doing interesting "eco-critical" work in American art, but is relatively young.

I think it's wise to look at schools like Temple, which are outside the range of the 7-9 graduate programs everyone on gradcafe seems to be applying to (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, IFA, Chicago, Berkeley, Brown, Hopkins). I feel bad for all of these gradcafers interested in modern European art competing with each other for a very slim number of slots because they think if they don't go to the schools mentioned above they are destined to work at Barnes & Noble the rest of their lives. Other programs I might put in the "overlooked" category that have successful students in a variety of fields are CUNY, Rutgers, UNC, UCSB, UCLA, Delaware, WUSTL Maryland, Duke, Emory, Indiana, UT, and Michigan. Always remember that one of the historically poorly ranked PhD programs in art history is an Ivy, Cornell, so it's not always about the "name". This is of course an anecdotal list.

[Owl]

Temple is excellent. I'm a PhD student at another, technically more prestigious institution nearby but have never been more challenged than in the two courses I took at Temple. I think the department is aware of their rising star and are working very hard to establish their reputation. One consideration is that Temple's MA and PhD programs are entirely separate, and the PhD people I met were just as qualified and inspired as my peers in my department. Honestly, had I realized the quality of Temple's department a few years ago, I might have been tempted to attend; on the other hand, I would hesitate to relinquish my institution's name. Nevertheless, I think that prospective students would do very well to investigate Temple as well as the other institutions that anonymousbequest listed (perhaps others have stories about good experiences with them).