Rejected from every school I applied to...

[space-cat]

That's awesome advice! I don't think I did enough of that in my SoP this time - talk about how I would produce knowledge. I have an entire notebook at home full of article, book, dissertation, etc. ideas for my field and I write papers in my spare time... I'm pretty much obsessed with finding ways to re-examine art and artists' lives. I have a lot more that I maybe should have said to "sell" myself as a promising scholar. I did talk about my research interests and talked about my experience researching and coming up with ideas about artists that I want to focus on. And now that I've been rejected from all these schools, I know specifically why I want to go to them. Something about being rejected made me scour their websites... sadistic, I guess. "Hmm, why would I have loved this school to death?"

Thanks so much!!!

You sound like you're in a great position to reapply and kick ass, don't sell yourself short!

A friend of mine has a great theory on this: you know how, when you're making pancakes, you inevitably screw up the first one and have to feed it to the dog, but then the rest turn out perfectly? We're not bad cooks (grad students), we just needed a "first pancake" application season to get things right

Edited March 9, 2011 by space-cat

[ZeeMore21]

Well everything is subjective. I don't think I've ever seen Vanderbilt in the top 20 for any of the humanities. They have a great education program and a decent law school. I have friends at Vanderbilt and a lot of people in Virginia (who don't go to UVa or The College of William & Mary) flock to the southern charm of Vanderbilt or the international flair of Georgetown. With that said, for you, I would still choose any of the schools I mentioned in my previous post (UC Berkeley, UVa, Stanford, uChicago, most Ivies) over Vanderbilt for English. I don't know enough about other American universities, but of course UCL, Oxford and Cambridge have superior international reputations for English. Even a PhD-preparatory master's program at Georgetown, uChicago, UVa, or Columbia would be great; of these, Georgetown is probably the most generous with funding with 1/3 of their master's students receiving full tuition remission and some type of work-study aid.

I don't think anything US News says is subjective, so I would appreciate if you would be a bit more respectful...and not rip schools to shreds that people work hard to get into. What I meant was that Vanderbilt is ranked high in the field of African-American Lit. I was using this as an example to say that for people applying next year, it would be wise to keep in mind the rank of the sub-field as well in making a decision about which schools to apply to.

Edited March 10, 2011 by ZeeMore21

[leopolds]

Don't worry if this round wasn't as successful as you had hoped. A few things to keep in mind for the next time around:

1) Start researching NOW. Look into Art History PhD programs AND Master's programs, too. Often times, it can give you an edge to have a master's and a thesis under your belt when you reapply for your PhD. But really start researching many schools, programs, and possible advisers. You need to have your sights set on a particular person that you want to work with within each department. Make sure you have a good mix of schools in there, some Ivys, some top-tier public research universities, and some top-tier private universities. It's good to have safeties but in my opinion I think it's better to opt for a master's program at a very strong school as your safety rather than a so-so PhD program at a lower-ranked university. As much as it sucks, that's how this system works. The name on your CV will mean a lot when you end up trying to apply for jobs. Not to say you can't get a good job from another school but being part of a high ranking network with an adviser that has connections to other schools could possibly get you some more job security, or at the least some more job options.

2) Contact that person in the late summer/early fall. Express your deep interest, explain your research background, and ask if it's a relationship that could prosper if you gained admission. If they give you a good response, you may want to ask if you can meet with them in person to talk them more about the department. Also contact the director of the graduate program so that your name is familiar by the time your application lands on the committee's desk. Also, make sure that your person-of-interest/potential adviser in each committee will be on the graduate admissions committee that year. If they end up being on sabbatical or just not on the committee then all your effort becomes a bit fruitless.

3) Put a lot of time and effort into each statement of purpose. And have multiple people read over the statement of purpose. On some rare occasions, the person that you want to work with at a given school may offer to read your statement of purpose for you. But I wouldn't ask them to do it. And be sure to read the SoP out loud too so you can catch any mistakes you may have made.

4) In your gap year, work on getting published. Even something like starting a blog can help a lot because you can list it on your CV and they can use it as a reference point to see how well you write and what ideas you may be having. If possible, pick up a project and do enough research to present some of it at a conference related to your field.

5) Keep those people that wrote your recs in the loop about your new successes and be sure to give them a revised CV and copies of anything you've published so that they can rewrite their letters to reflect your work.

6) Kind of going back to the earlier point, if it's possible, visit the schools that you're most interested in. Often times you can arrange with the director of the program to meet, maybe have a lunch, sit in on a course. Any way that you can express your interest without being a burden can ultimately help your application.

Best of luck on the next round!!

[eco_env]

Well everything is subjective. I don't think I've ever seen Vanderbilt in the top 20 for any of the humanities. They have a great education program and a decent law school. I have friends at Vanderbilt and a lot of people in Virginia (who don't go to UVa or The College of William & Mary) flock to the southern charm of Vanderbilt or the international flair of Georgetown. With that said, for you, I would still choose any of the schools I mentioned in my previous post (UC Berkeley, UVa, Stanford, uChicago, most Ivies) over Vanderbilt for English. I don't know enough about other American universities, but of course UCL, Oxford and Cambridge have superior international reputations for English. Even a PhD-preparatory master's program at Georgetown, uChicago, UVa, or Columbia would be great; of these, Georgetown is probably the most generous with funding with 1/3 of their master's students receiving full tuition remission and some type of work-study aid.

I looked up that stats out of curiousity. The top 5 programs in terms of placement of graduates in academia include Auburn University, UC Santa Barbara, and UConn. (also UVA and Brown)

[MadameNon]

I swear the consumer/producer of knowledge thing used to be on Columbia's art history webpage. But it is a very good point and there has been a lot of good advice in this thread. Certainly people from top 20 art history programs get jobs and can be successful, so widen your consideration and then focus again when the time comes to apply, not on Ivy names but on good fits for you.