Switching to art history. Apply for next fall?

[jldstudio]

I'll be graduating with a BFA (sculpture) in May 09. I'm thinking about an art history MA/PhD though.

I have a 3.7 GPA. No GRE scores to share yet. I've taken about 20 credits in art history with a 4.0 in those.

I've written a few papers but I don't have a lot of language experience. The professors I know best are all sculpture professors so my recommendations won't be strongest from art history professors.

Any advice would be appreciated! I don't know how competitive I'll be. Should I go ahead and apply to some programs this fall?

[rising_star]

Can you take more art history courses to try to get to know those profs better? Can you take some French/Italian/German (or whatever else might be appropriate) before you apply? Also, can you convincingly demonstrate/articulate the reasons behind your switch? Definitely apply to a mix of MA and PhD programs, you never know what might happen!

[luvalicious]

Adding on to that, another thing I would suggest is to talk to a professor - be it your advisor or an art history prof - about what you want to do and get their advice on how you can present a strong application.

[jldstudio]

Thank you both for the replies :]

It's been a while since I was here last, but I just wanted to give a little bit of an update!

I've been talking to my last art history teacher, who was a grad student. She gave me some advice and I could also meet with the director of graduate studies in art history this semester. (I happened to have the director as one of my professors too.)

My interests are more towards art administration and other work instead of research, so I think I will keep looking at different MA programs and talk to people in my own department about it too.

Also, GRE V: 680, Q: 560. Not too bad I guess.