complexprocedure Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 It is a little odd. But, I'm in a little different situation. First off, I'm old. Okay maybe 39 is OLD but it certainly is older. Also I've been teaching in college for the last five years and that is just a part of the gig. But, being on this side of it has certainly made me more appreciative of the letters I do write...no pushing it off to the last minute...I know to well how that feels as the applicant. Wellllll... at 42, you're not older than me. I remember thinking to myself when I finally went back to school that I'd be over 40 by the time I applied to grad - and lo, it has come to pass! But, as the saying goes, I realized that I was going to be 40 whether I pursued more education or not. That said, I'm completely unsure whether or not that's reflected in my application packet. I certainly didn't mention age on any of my statements, because it didn't seem relevant. After all, I hadn't engaged in serious scholarship until after I'd gone back to school, so my CV, although probably more full than the average applicant, covers the relatively brief time period from when I went back to school and began to do work and research in the field. Do adcoms even notice the age of the applicant if it's not brought up otherwise? Sure, DOB is on your application, but I have to wonder if they really look for that piece of information if one doesn't call attention to it. Based on my transcript/CV (I just graduated from school last year) alone, I would appear to be considerably younger than I actually am... Very curious. Somewhat funny and related: Most of my professors thought that I was in my mid-20s when I went back to school. It wasn't until after I was a year out from graduation that they had any idea that I have not only three children, but that at least two were at the age of majority or very nearly so. The past year I think age (and the attendant physical decline) has been catching up to me a bit, so all vanity aside, I'm enjoying the prospect of not having people go into shock when I tell them my age or life experience!
complexprocedure Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 Hahaha I laughed really hard at this exchange. But yea, detaila please! I think we all are starved for info. And an email from Hal Foster, no less! Coat me in covetousness - that's a fine, fine treat someone got for their Thursday. (Never mind the fact that I didn't have the nerve to apply to P'ton, and that I'd surely not survive being intimidated into an intellectual corner by the Fosternator!!!)
cokohlik Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 I was cracking up, too! Also having a heart attack, because oh man Yale results, but mainly laughing. It's pretty cruel that every PhD program in the world seems to be giving out results, but not art history. I need to cut myself off from the internet this weekend (not gonna happen). Maybe we should all go camping. Camping is a great idea! Unplug, disconnect, hope good results are waiting when we get back My work has a week-long conference starting next week, so my next 7-10 days will fly by. I'm pretty sure I have to work the weekend too. An acceptance with funding would make the hard work seem like I'm eating a chocolate sundae... Hint. Nudge, adcoms.
manyarecalled Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 Camping is a great idea! Unplug, disconnect, hope good results are waiting when we get back My work has a week-long conference starting next week, so my next 7-10 days will fly by. I'm pretty sure I have to work the weekend too. An acceptance with funding would make the hard work seem like I'm eating a chocolate sundae... Hint. Nudge, adcoms. Lucky! It's slow enough in my office that I've just been semi-glued to the results page. Totally unproductive. The best part is, I work at an auction house and our next auction is in mid-March, right when I'll finally have answers and will be absolutely swamped. I wish I had that distraction now!. I'm definitely going camping this weekend (thank you, California winter), although I may have to leave my iPhone at home. Good luck! PS: 11 schools? Nice job. Applying to 5 drove me nuts, so I'm impressed!
Hicks Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Gad to hear I'm not the oldest on here. I don't know if they look specifically at age or not. In my case they will have an idea that I am older because i talk about my previous graduate work and my teaching experience in my statement. As for kids, I have five and they are in a big range. 18 down to 3. My oldest is applying to college this year...it is kind of odd that we are going through similar experiences at the same time.
NaturallyAesthetic Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 For those of you unable to seek wilderness in the coming week, I invite you to distract yourselves with my new and improved art website! http://verosmithart.webs.com/
cokohlik Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Lucky! It's slow enough in my office that I've just been semi-glued to the results page. Totally unproductive. The best part is, I work at an auction house and our next auction is in mid-March, right when I'll finally have answers and will be absolutely swamped. I wish I had that distraction now!. I'm definitely going camping this weekend (thank you, California winter), although I may have to leave my iPhone at home. Good luck! PS: 11 schools? Nice job. Applying to 5 drove me nuts, so I'm impressed! Haha! It's too bad they couldn't move the auction up a week or 10 days: Maybe a decision during the work rush will make it go by quicker! Have fun camping I bet being off the grid for a few days will prove to be relaxing and rejuvenating. I live in California too and I'm going camping for my anniversary in April! It'll be my first time camping since I was a kid, so that will be an adventure. I applied to 5 schools last year. I thought that was bad. Nope! 13 is definitely worse. I could barely keep track of all the deadlines and such, so I turned everything in in October and November, uploading parts of my application at a time so that I knew all schools had the SOP uploaded, etc. I was fortunate enough to even talk to every POI I emailed. That was my favorite part!
cokohlik Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 For those of you unable to seek wilderness in the coming week, I invite you to distract yourselves with my new and improved art website! http://verosmithart.webs.com/ I'm not sure what's more impressive: your art or CV! Congratulations on being awesome and having such talent and a killer undergraduate record!
Hicks Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 (edited) Thanks for sharing. I have a couple of friends who went to Augustana. Edited February 3, 2012 by Hicks
complexprocedure Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Gad to hear I'm not the oldest on here. I don't know if they look specifically at age or not. In my case they will have an idea that I am older because i talk about my previous graduate work and my teaching experience in my statement. As for kids, I have five and they are in a big range. 18 down to 3. My oldest is applying to college this year...it is kind of odd that we are going through similar experiences at the same time. I will totally claim that oldest spot, hah! The house could get fairly quiet (read: tense) when both my oldest and I were going through finals at the same time. At least we weren't going to the same uni. I think this whole process would be considerably harder if I had kids that were younger and more dependent (3! whoah!). Kudos to you for being able to juggle, well, everything!
complexprocedure Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 For those of you unable to seek wilderness in the coming week, I invite you to distract yourselves with my new and improved art website! http://verosmithart.webs.com/ Oooooh, I want to read your thesis! I'd love to hear about what you discovered, as my City Beautiful knowledge is fairly limited to the 1893 Columbian Expo and I'm interested to see where that went post-fair. Any online access to the tome? Also interested in the "Future Relics" project; an artist friend and I spent last summer discussing the future of the big box, mainly in the context of how to use these as art projects.
NaturallyAesthetic Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 I'm not sure what's more impressive: your art or CV! Congratulations on being awesome and having such talent and a killer undergraduate record! Thanks so much! I appreciate the encouragement. : )
NaturallyAesthetic Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 Oooooh, I want to read your thesis! I'd love to hear about what you discovered, as my City Beautiful knowledge is fairly limited to the 1893 Columbian Expo and I'm interested to see where that went post-fair. Any online access to the tome? Also interested in the "Future Relics" project; an artist friend and I spent last summer discussing the future of the big box, mainly in the context of how to use these as art projects. The tome will be gifted to the Rock Island County Historical Society, and will actually only amount to about 20 pages! The more I dig in to the research, the more I realize that the park and cemetery I am studying actually predate City Beautiful and are really more an extension of the Garden and Parks movement, which is just as fun! Both movements coincide in their emphasis on the importance of urban greenspace. Because I am also something of a scientist, half of my research will be presented in poster format and will catalog the species, approximate age, and location of each tree within the park and cemetery grounds. I'll be generating a map through GIS of tree locations, coupling the map with species and age information, and compiling a photographic catalog of bark patterns. I might also throw in some soil and slope data! That portion of my research will be gifted to the Friends of Riverside Park, to distribute to visitors who want to know more about the trees at the park. In regards to big boxes, what kind of art projects did you and your friend have in mind? You might enjoy reading Big Box Reuse, by Julia Christen! It's a fast and photographically oriented adventure that also proves pretty informative and artistically interesting. Thanks for your interest!
complexprocedure Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 @ NaturallyAesthetic: One thought was to use the parking lots for large-scale installation projects. In fact, the author you mention is a friend of my artist friend... I was supposed to have dinner with them last year. Julia was in town for a lecture that my friend had helped arrange (sort of funny story: that talk almost didn't happen because of a freak southern snowstorm!), but I had other commitments at the time. Definitely something I'd like to revisit in the future. I think it's great how you're approaching your work, and your cataloging the specimen sounds very appropriate. I am, unfortunately, not much of a scientist; it's one of those "missed" callings (hoping to learn GIS basics this semester - why not?), but despite my deficiencies in that department, I'm deeply interested in scientific history and generally like an empirical approach to explaining how the world works. Always good to see someone leaping between disciplines in order to give us a better idea of the subject(s) at hand.
contiguous Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 This wait is killing me. I just want a decision so I need to know if I should start applying to jobs
complexprocedure Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 This wait is killing me. I just want a decision so I need to know if I should start applying to jobs THIS^bazillions.
LLajax Posted February 9, 2012 Author Posted February 9, 2012 This wait is killing me. I just want a decision so I need to know if I should start applying to jobs Same boat. Still haven't heard anything. Trying to see it as a good thing. Let's get some hustle in those bustles schools!
contiguous Posted February 11, 2012 Posted February 11, 2012 congrats to the UT Austin MA admits.... sadly my u.texas login still says in review
222 Posted February 11, 2012 Posted February 11, 2012 congrats to the UT Austin MA admits.... sadly my u.texas login still says in review Am I just fooling myself by thinking that other acceptances may be sent out in the coming days? My status only very recently went from "In Review" to "Your Application Has Been Forwarded to the Graduate Committee" so I'm hoping there's still a chance?
jmb04 Posted February 11, 2012 Posted February 11, 2012 Am I just fooling myself by thinking that other acceptances may be sent out in the coming days? My status only very recently went from "In Review" to "Your Application Has Been Forwarded to the Graduate Committee" so I'm hoping there's still a chance? I think UT finished reviewing the MA applications last week, but the acceptances seem to have come via personal e-mails from POIs. Perhaps your POI isn't the e-mailing kind, and the DGS hasn't finished sending out the more official notices?
LLajax Posted February 12, 2012 Author Posted February 12, 2012 The process is getting to me again... Had a nightmare last night where I was up against a demented adcom who insisted that they'd only let me in if I dipped my fingers in gold in order to "become the Baroque". I think I might need to stop watching Game of Thrones before bed. Also I probably need to relax. Eggleston and crossedfingerscrossedeyes 2
cokohlik Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 The process is getting to me again... Had a nightmare last night where I was up against a demented adcom who insisted that they'd only let me in if I dipped my fingers in gold in order to "become the Baroque". I think I might need to stop watching Game of Thrones before bed. Also I probably need to relax. Haha!! I wish that adcom would admit me. I'm Baroque through & through.
222 Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 Alright, I couldn't take it any longer and broke down and called the Graduate Coordinator at UT Austin. She said that they are in the final stages of making decisions and that "if it's an admit, you should hear by Friday. If not, you should receive a decision the following Monday at the latest." Finally, funding information will come at a later date and when I half-jokingly asked if this means that I shouldn't lose all hope just yet she said of course not. Either she is a really nice lady or we don't all need to despair... until Monday.
NaturallyAesthetic Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 My significant other sent me a valentine, but decided to package it in an official envelope from the University of Iowa. Mini heart attack.
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