Becoming a curator after grad school

[courrier]

Hello!

 

I'm an undergrad student in Japan, hoping to go to a grad school in the US/UK to get a degree and become a curator. I study Japanese modern art history and am planning to continue my research in the field.

I've been looking through schools, mainly in the US, and have found several professors I want to work with in UPenn and Maryland and several others. I'm concerned, though, that these schools might be too difficult to get in. These schools, as far as I've seen on their websites, both offer Phd, but I don't know if I could get in to a PhD program with a BA degree in a Japanese University. It's not that Japanese art history program suck, but going into top schools for a Phd seems a little too hard to me. I've talked with a prof in Penn and heard that I don't need MA to get into Phd program. But some people will be applying with MA and I don't feel like I can compete with them. I think I will be able to get a strong SOP and Writing Samples. I've taken French for 3 yrs+ and I speak Japanese, so I'm very strong in languages. But will they be enough? (I'm working on the GRE... It is a nightmare.)

 

It's really hard to decide, do you think I need a PhD? Because I hear both: PhD is crucial/ MA is enough for a curator.

 

I'm thinking about other choices like transferring to a Junior in one of the undergrad, maybe? But I don't have that kind of money, and that would take me tooo long to get a grad degree. Whatever I do, though, I want to be a curator in the end. I want to know what choices I have to get there.

 

What do you think? Any advice/comment is very very very appreciated!! Thank you so much!

 

Naoko

[Borden]

The museum I work at will not even consider you for entry level curatorial work without a PhD at this point, or an MA with a decade of experience at an equivalent institution. You also have to be sure that when you apply for a school that they are supportive of curatorial work as a career goal.