FALL 2013 APPLICANTS!

[kokoschka]

Just heard back from the grad admissions coordinator/admin at Stanford regarding my 'Incomplete' status on applyweb - they are still sorting through and matching applications. Given their relatively early deadline, I'm guessing this means they got more than a handful of applicants... 

 

But it will feel so good to be admitted knowing we were one applicant out of hundreds! At least that's what I tell myself. Staying positive!

[mrb1145]

Since the art history forums are so quiet, shall we assume that the five or so of us are the only applicants and that we'll have our pick of programs?!?!!!

 

I'm dying over here too, so make that 6.

[runaway]

I say we just sort it out among ourselves and decide who goes where

[Bearcat1]

I say we just sort it out among ourselves and decide who goes where

I second this. With 6 of us we'll have plenty of options.

[juliette22]

make it 7. trying to not eat my nails... best solution: being busy! working, yoga etc, anything is good to keep my mind out of it!

 

Good luck to you all!

Edited January 8, 2013 by juliette22

[pastiglia]

Since we're so open here, I hope this is the appropriate place to discuss a concern I have relating to my application to Williams MA program that I submitted about three weeks ago. Due to my excitement, I decided to check over my application again, and realized that I spelled a word, albeit a German word, incorrectly in my personal statement! I feel so stupid, and I swear I must have read my letter of intent at least a dozen times before submitting it, and even prior to that I had my three referees read the document, but the word (Deutsches) completely went under all our radars! I wrote Deutsches as "Deutches," and so I'm wondering if I should even point out this mistake in an email to the graduate director?  Or should I just not say anything, cross my fingers and hope the spelling of the word goes unnoticed? I honestly invested so much time and revision in my statement, and I don't want to come across as lazy or disorganized because I incorrectly wrote a non-English word. What should I do? Or not do? 

[Guest lefilsdhomme]

Since we're so open here, I hope this is the appropriate place to discuss a concern I have relating to my application to Williams MA program that I submitted about three weeks ago. Due to my excitement, I decided to check over my application again, and realized that I spelled a word, albeit a German word, incorrectly in my personal statement! I feel so stupid, and I swear I must have read my letter of intent at least a dozen times before submitting it, and even prior to that I had my three referees read the document, but the word (Deutsches) completely went under all our radars! I wrote Deutsches as "Deutches," and so I'm wondering if I should even point out this mistake in an email to the graduate director?  Or should I just not say anything, cross my fingers and hope the spelling of the word goes unnoticed? I honestly invested so much time and revision in my statement, and I don't want to come across as lazy or disorganized because I incorrectly wrote a non-English word. What should I do? Or not do? 

 

I personally wouldn't say a thing. While I preface with the fact that I am in the same state of uncertainty about this whole process, it seems to me that such a minor error would be excused or perhaps not noted as an error worth mentioning at all.

 

However, if we read into this minutia to the n-th degree, it could hypothetically raise an eyebrow in terms of language preparedness. By this I mean that implicit in your inclusion of a foreign language is the assertion that you have a degree of fluency/mastery of that language and a misspelled word in said language could speak against your proficiency. I raise this issue because in my SOP I also included a sentence in French for rhetorical effect and with the intention of demonstrating my knowledge in the aforementioned sense. That being said, I want to reiterate that I personally do not think you should point out such a minor error to the director. Assuming the rest of your statement is as strong as it could be, you should let your strengths speak for themselves and let sleeping German-grammar-errors lie. Viel Glück!

[pastiglia]

Thank you for alleviating my concerns Lefilsdhomme! I was thinking the same thing, but it is always of some consolation to have a second opinion on such matters!

Edited January 9, 2013 by pastiglia

[kokoschka]

I agree with lefilsdhomme - don't mention it. If it's noticed, it will read as a typo, nothing more.

 

Anecdotally, a good friend of mine realized too late that she had dropped the 'e' at the end of Shakespeare in every single version of her SOP, also a typo. She got into over half the grad lit programs she applied to, including Ivies. And I remember another anecdote on grad cafe about an applicant using the wrong program name in his/her SOP, and being admitted all the same. Not sure if I saw that in Art History or elsewhere (site-wide lurker!) but it stuck with me, because, well, damn.

 

I am very curious about this how you included a French sentence for rhetorical effect, lefilsdhomme! Can you spill more details?? 

[Bearcat1]

I agree that you shouldn't call attention to it. And although lefilsdhomme is correct that we are expected to have a certain degree of language mastery, most programs only require us to pass a translation exam, of which spelling is not a part. Also, many, many people are rotten spellers in their native languages, so I don't think it's nearly as problematic as it seems. I assume you are a perfectionist (as am I so I feel your pain) but adcoms know we're not perfect (unfortunately) and it shouldn't be held against you.

[auvers-sur-oise]

A potentially comforting thought: CAA is relatively early this year (Feb. 13-16), so decisions should roll in earlier, too, in keeping with the recent CAA bump from mid/late February to early, and the corresponding nudge in admissions results!

[Bearcat1]

A potentially comforting thought: CAA is relatively early this year (Feb. 13-16), so decisions should roll in earlier, too, in keeping with the recent CAA bump from mid/late February to early, and the corresponding nudge in admissions results!

Is that how they do it? I was worried that earlier CAA would bump results. Earlier would be so much better!!!

[auvers-sur-oise]

What I've heard from adcomm members at my program, and at a few others (although none that I've applied to) is that decisions are made before profs go out of town for CAA. Whether they inform before or after CAA seems to be random... or is it? Let's look at the numbers!

 

Culled from the GC results, I looked at earliest acceptance date to PhD programs. If the acceptance came a month or more after rejections, I noted WL for likely wait list admit. Those wait list admits as n/a when I looked at how many schools notify before CAA vs. after. I picked the 10 schools at the top of the "rankings" posted in the thread below as a sample group.

 

2007 - CAA Feb. 14-17th.

 

Berkeley: 3/5

Chicago: n/a

Columbia: 2/9

Yale: n/a

Princeton: 4/4 WL

NYU: 3/12

Harvard: 2/27

UCLA: 2/16

Northwestern: 4/4 WL

UNC: n/a

 

Notify before CAA: 1

Notify during CAA: 1

Notify after CAA: 3 

 

 

2008 - CAA Feb. 20-23rd.

 

Berkeley: 4/6 WL

Chicago: 1/30

Columbia: 3/6

Yale: 2/28

Princeton: 3/4

NYU: 3/1

Harvard: 3/4

UCLA: n/a

Northwestern: 3/3

UNC: 3/10

 

Notify before CAA: 1

Notify during CAA: 0

Notify after CAA: 7

 

2009 - CAA Feb. 25-28th.

 

Berkeley: 2/11

Chicago: 3/3

Columbia: 2/14

Yale: 2/23

Princeton: 2/18

NYU: 3/12

Harvard: 3/2

UCLA: n/a

Northwestern: 2/18

UNC: 3/17

 

Notify before CAA: 5

Notify during CAA: 0

Notify after CAA: 4

 

2010 - CAA Feb. 10-13th.

 

Berkeley: n/a

Chicago: 1/31

Columbia: 2/14

Yale: 2/23

Princeton: 3/2

NYU: 4/10 WL

Harvard: 3/8

UCLA: n/a

Northwestern: 2/18

UNC: 3/3

 

Notify before CAA: 1

Notify during CAA: 0

Notify after CAA: 6 (2 within a week)

 

2011 - CAA Feb. 9-12th.

 

Berkeley: 2/23

Chicago: 3/23 WL

Columbia: 3/4

Yale: 2/15

Princeton: 3/4

NYU: n/a

Harvard: n/a

UCLA: 2/18

Northwestern: 2/16

UNC: 3/1

 

Notify before CAA: 0

Notify during CAA: 0

Notify after CAA: 7 (3 within a week)

 

2012 - CAA Feb. 22-25th.

 

Berkeley: 2/14

Chicago: 2/4

Columbia: 2/24

Yale: 2/20

Princeton: 2/2 (unofficially by call from POI - 2/8 was the more common acceptance)

NYU: 3/9

Harvard: 3/2

UCLA: 2/9

Northwestern: n/a

UNC: 3/14

 

Notify before CAA: 5

Notify during CAA: 1

Notify after CAA: 3  

 

Range of first notification:  

 

Berkeley: Feb. 11th - March 5th; mid Feb. most common.

 

Chicago: Jan. 30th - March 3rd; late Jan./early Feb. most common.

 

Columbia: Feb. 9th - March 6th; mid Feb. most common

 

Yale: Feb. 15th - Feb. 28th; mid - late Feb. most common.

 

Princeton: Feb. 8th - March 4th; early March most common.

 

NYU: March 1st - March 12th; early March most common.

 

Harvard: Feb. 27th - March 8th; early March most common.

 

UCLA: Feb. 9th - Feb. 18th; mid Feb. most common.

 

Northwestern: Feb. 16th - March 3rd; mid Feb. most common.

 

UNC: March 1st - March 17th; early - mid March most common.

 

Conclusions:

 

This was not a useful exercise. Programs tend to notify within a established date range <1 month, regardless of CAA. The years closest to 2013 regarding CAA timing are 2007 and 2011, and for both, decisions tended to come after the conference. 

 

Other conclusions:

 

This was a welcome distraction. The most popular notification date was February 14th. Admissions committees are so romantic.

Edited January 9, 2013 by auvers-sur-oise

[Bearcat1]

Conclusions:

 

This was not a useful exercise. Programs tend to notify within a established date range <1 month, regardless of CAA. The years closest to 2013 regarding CAA timing are 2007 and 2011, and for both, decisions tended to come after the conference. 

 

Other conclusions:

 

This was a welcome distraction. The most popular notification date was February 14th. Admissions committees are so romantic.

 

Damn! I really thought you had something with this whole CAA timing deal. The good news: if we get rejected on Valentine's Day, there will be plenty of chocolate available with which to drown our sorrows. If we get accepted, we will now have fond memories of Valentine's Day, regardless of past history of broken hearts/promises, loneliness, jerks SOs, etc. So...win-win? Ish?

Edited January 9, 2013 by Bearcat1

[pastiglia]

Thank you Kokoschka and  Bearcat1 I also read on another forum (not gradcafe) that using "big words" is not encouraged, and though my personal statements certainly aren't filled with those, I used a couple sparingly, and in the correct context, so I was wondering if that turn off admissions committees? Also, I realized that I wrote "honor's thesis" instead of "honors thesis".... stupid me. 

 

Sorry for being a pain, it's just that I'm a self-conscious writer, or so I thought until I developed application anxiety and reread my personal statements only to find mistakes, albeit little ones. 

Edited January 9, 2013 by pastiglia

[runaway]

I have a huge paper due Feb 15th-- this might be the push I need to get it in early. Can't imagine getting bad news the day before and then sitting down to finish it!

[Bearcat1]

I have a huge paper due Feb 15th-- this might be the push I need to get it in early. Can't imagine getting bad news the day before and then sitting down to finish it!

 

At first, I was so jealous that you have assignments to distract you from the craziness. And then I imagined what it would be like to write this paper after bad news. I agree, you must finish it early. It's the only way. 

[condivi]

Thank you Kokoschka and  Bearcat1 I also read on another forum (not gradcafe) that using "big words" is not encouraged, and though my personal statements certainly aren't latent with those, I used a couple sparingly, and in the correct context, so I was wondering if that turn off admissions committees? Also, I realized that I wrote "honor's thesis" instead of "honors thesis".... stupid me.    Sorry for being a pain, it's just that I'm a self-conscious writer, or so I thought until I developed application anxiety and reread my personal statements only to find mistakes, albeit little ones. 

Big words are fine, as long as you don't misuse them. (N.B. "latent" means "present but not visible" or "existing in the unconscious but potentially able to be expressed," not "full of")

[runaway]

At first, I was so jealous that you have assignments to distract you from the craziness. And then I imagined what it would be like to write this paper after bad news. I agree, you must finish it early. It's the only way. 

Yeah. It's also worth, like, a huge chunk of my entire degree. Oh well, at least I have plenty of time to plan ahead! And lots of time I'll need to keep busy...

 

As I was procrastinatorally (is that a word? it is now) checking Grad Cafe, I got an email from one of my programs saying they haven't received my transcripts. I mailed them over a week ago! Should I be worried? Mail again?

[pastiglia]

Oh goodness! I just edited my statement before I saw your comment, but yes, thank you for pointing it out to me condivi! I'm slightly embarrassed!

Edited January 9, 2013 by pastiglia

[Bearcat1]

Yeah. It's also worth, like, a huge chunk of my entire degree. Oh well, at least I have plenty of time to plan ahead! And lots of time I'll need to keep busy...

 

As I was procrastinatorally (is that a word? it is now) checking Grad Cafe, I got an email from one of my programs saying they haven't received my transcripts. I mailed them over a week ago! Should I be worried? Mail again?

 

You are overseas and there's bound to be a backup due to the New Year holiday. Don't panic! Maybe give it until Friday and call them again? (If you are able to call.)

 

Oh goodness! I just edited my statement before I saw your comment, but yes, thank you for pointing it out to me condivi! I'm slightly embarrassed!

 

Don't be. At all. I think all of our brains are fried from the application process. And I'm hoping it's not just me, but the more foreign languages I learn, the worse my English vocabulary and spelling get. And sometimes I turn into a foreign person who can't think of the word in English, but only in their native language. Except it's not cute when I do it, because English is my native language and it doesn't make sense at all. That is all to say, none of us are perfect and we are here to help each other! Embarrassment not allowed.    (Also, I have never heard anything about avoiding fancy GRE words in Statements. I think you're okay, as long as it sounds natural, and not forced.)

[runaway]

Thanks, Bearcat. I actually mailed them while i was home in the US for the holidays, but I suppose I'm extra jumpy about everything right now.

 

New topic! Tips for focusing on work when all you can do is worry?

[kunstgeschichtedude]

Big words are fine, as long as you don't misuse them. (N.B. "latent" means "present but not visible" or "existing in the unconscious but potentially able to be expressed," not "full of")

What a coincidence! I actually had a question regarding the usage of this tricky word. I have a personal statement in which I wrote, "Professor X's scholarship pertaining to the relationship between psychoanalysis and art corresponds to my ardent desire to extrapolate meaning from the archetypical signs and illustrations latent throughout So and so's Manuscript as a possible dissertation topic." Here I use "latent" in the sense that the archetypical or archetypal (I've heard both used) signs and illustrations are present throughout, even though they are not immediately obvious; I mean while illustrations are clearly located throughout said manuscript, those containing "archetypes" are not noticeable at first . When I wrote "latent", there was not a doubt in my mind that I was using it correctly, but now I'm starting to question myself...

[Bearcat1]

Thanks, Bearcat. I actually mailed them while i was home in the US for the holidays, but I suppose I'm extra jumpy about everything right now.

 

New topic! Tips for focusing on work when all you can do is worry?

Maybe there's a backlog at the universities because of the holidays? Or maybe resend them all. 

 

I read an article that regular exercise helps to clear the mind and allows for better focus. (I'm certainly not using this technique, but I thought I'd share anyway.)

 

What a coincidence! I actually had a question regarding the usage of this tricky word. I have a personal statement in which I wrote, "Professor X's scholarship pertaining to the relationship between psychoanalysis and art corresponds to my ardent desire to extrapolate meaning from the archetypical signs and illustrations latent throughout So and so's Manuscript as a possible dissertation topic." Here I use "latent" in the sense that the archetypical or archetypal (I've heard both used) signs and illustrations are present throughout, even though they are not immediately obvious; I mean while illustrations are clearly located throughout said manuscript, those containing "archetypes" are not noticeable at first . When I wrote "latent", there was not a doubt in my mind that I was using it correctly, but now I'm starting to question myself...

 

My vote is yes, correct usage. And I read this as an example sentence in a spelling bee. 

[kunstgeschichtedude]

Maybe there's a backlog at the universities because of the holidays? Or maybe resend them all. 

 

I read an article that regular exercise helps to clear the mind and allows for better focus. (I'm certainly not using this technique, but I thought I'd share anyway.)

 

 

My vote is yes, correct usage. And I read this as an example sentence in a spelling bee. 

 

Bearcat1, you're awesome! I don't know how old you are, but you're like the maternal figure everyone needs on this forum!