Ph.D in Visual Studies - opinions?

[nongfuspring1]

I'm planning on applying to the Visual Studies programs at Brown, University of Rochester and SUNY Buffalo and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience within any of these programs or any general opinions about them. I'm also applying to the PhD program in Communications at EGS which sounds amazing but will probably be very inconvenient for me.

I have an MFA and BFA from a New Zealand university. My grades were decent and while I can't say I've been a staggering success since graduating I've done pretty well for the time that I've been out in the world thus so far. It was a good time, except now I'm much more interested in a theory only course.

Cheers!

[Swagato]

Brown has a Visual Studies program? Do you mean Modern Culture and Media?

Rochester's program is notorious for being one of the most difficult to get into, and consistently produces star faculty. David Rodowick, who was at Rochester for many years, now heads up the Visual and Environmental Studies department at Harvard.

I don't know how strong SUNY Buffalo is -today- although they used to be very well-reputed in the past. Brown is very textual in approach, and emphasises a lot of contemporary media research. Wendy Chun has produced terrific work in network theory, network culture, and digital media in general. Brown has also been losing faculty (retirement, or departure--most recently that of Mary Ann Doane to Berkeley). They have been hiring from within. They recently tried to lure away Tom Gunning from Chicago, but it didn't work out. Although Brown has long been a phenomenal department, I am reserving opinion as to their immediate future.

[cui cui]

I was wondering about the importance of GRE score and also the "Writing Sample". What are the vital requirements for getting into a PhD program in Visual Studies?

[miyamoto81]

I know Jonathan Katz heads the Ph.D. program at SUNY Buffalo. He's generally fabulous. He also used to head a department at Yale, so he's got the chops to back it up. Just a fyi.