History of Art MA/PhD 2008

[dontknowwheretogo]

Thanks 17thsceam for your insight on Columbia.

[smellie]

To the person who got into McGill. I went there for a year and transferred after being frustrated with the library holdings and the general lack of faculty. Think long and hard about it; visit and ask tough questions. I heard that last year their department collapsed and they cancelled all undergraduate art history classes. They have been losing so many people over the past few years too.

Actually I did my undergrad at McGill as well, so yes, I know about the situation and well, suffered from it. Last year was particularly tough because half the faculty was on sabbatical while one left permanently. So it was tough, but we also got three new profs (not lecturers) settling in. And by the look of it, I think the department is going to be less stormy. Although you were absolutely right on the library holding issue. I think that I've been at McGill long enough to know too many weak&strong points of the department to make neither happy or sad about this acceptance.

Either way, I just cannot afford to spend $60K and plus to do 2yr MA in the States. I'm gonna give it another try for Ph.D later on. Any advice on getting myself ready from a Canadian school?

Who was your advisor anyways?

[dontknowwheretogo]

h

[smellie]

Oh, I took one class with Wilson and it was one of the best. She's in UBC now, eh?

I did apply to some Ph.D programs along with MA programs but without any luck. I think I needed more time and experience overrall. And by the look of it, majority of the acceptees do go in with an MA/year-off. So I'll just try to make some good out of McGill next year thanks for the tips and congrats on your acceptances!!

[Ana20]

I hope this doesn't seem creepy, but I've heard about one of you from Wilson (I'm at her current school and I think she's amazing). My ideal program is in London, so I'm hoping that a certain national scholarship comes through. It was kind of disappointing to get into NYU w/o funding, though. Btw, my area is modern/contemporary.

[Chicken Dan]

While I'm on a posting spree here, Does anyone know where chicken Dan ended up? I have heard some wonderful things about Chicago for contemporary Chinese recently and I was wondering if he will end up there.

I'm still trying to reach a decision, hack. The final tally: Yale, NYU (5 years funding), and Chicago. I'm visiting later this month. I've heard good and bad things about Chicago, as I have for NYU and Yale. Hopefully my visits will allow me to get a grasp on PhD studies at these three schools.

[dontknowwheretogo]

I hope this doesn't seem creepy, but I've heard about one of you from Wilson (I'm at her current school and I think she's amazing).

Really? Who?

[Ana20]

I was asking her about Canadian students applying to American schools (and whether it was best to contact faculty, etc.), and she just said that one of her students got into two great American schools--so I'm assuming it's you. Anyway, congratulations! Good to know that Canadians have a chance.

[arthistorian]

I'm still trying to reach a decision, hack. The final tally: Yale, NYU (5 years funding), and Chicago. I'm visiting later this month. I've heard good and bad things about Chicago, as I have for NYU and Yale. Hopefully my visits will allow me to get a grasp on PhD studies at these three schools.

chicken dan, good and bad things about NYU..? do share. i'm deciding as well. thanks!

[smellie]

by the way, do a lot of people get into Ph.D straight from BA? Or is it more normal for people to get in after their MA?

I'm just a little confused whether I should take a year off then reapply, or if it'd be better to go with MA then retry.

Obviously my application wasn't strong so I'm not sure how much it can improve during that year off - my application went blank when it came to publication/conference/awards. Especially by not having any institutional association, I won't be able to attend neither undergrad/grad conference, publish etc. I see so many great applicants here who didn't get into the programs they wanted to, so I'm getting a bit paranoid

[mew27]

smellie: i struggled with the same question! it seemed that almost everyone i talked to had decided to take some time off, but i couldn't really think of anything i wanted to do before grad school (except maybe some language prep). the professors i spoke to (at my school and others) didn't say the same thing at all, though. they told me it's all about preparation and emotional maturity, and i guess all that comes through in your SOP and LORs. anyway, my plan was to apply this year and then reapply next year if i didn't have any luck. but i've gotten into some really great programs (berkeley, chicago, harvard, princeton) straight out of undergrad...and there were other people like me at all the schools i visited.

[Renaissance08]

Has anyone called IFA recently to ask about when decisions will be sent? (obviously for the remainder of us who haven't heard yet)

[smellie]

smellie: i struggled with the same question! it seemed that almost everyone i talked to had decided to take some time off, but i couldn't really think of anything i wanted to do before grad school (except maybe some language prep). the professors i spoke to (at my school and others) didn't say the same thing at all, though. they told me it's all about preparation and emotional maturity, and i guess all that comes through in your SOP and LORs. anyway, my plan was to apply this year and then reapply next year if i didn't have any luck. but i've gotten into some really great programs (berkeley, chicago, harvard, princeton) straight out of undergrad...and there were other people like me at all the schools i visited.

that's some great list of schools you got there!

My problem is that I didn't choose to go down the path of academia until well into my 3rd year (I was more into arts administration/policy), so I didn't quite bother with getting awards or fellowships, nor developing a serious paper to attend conferences/publish. Even my GPA is mediocre at best, I think. So this is why I'm hesitant in taking year-off. I do think though, that the fact that I practically put together my entire application in the span of 5 months (considering/choosing schools/asking LORs/writing thesis/SOP/GRE etc.) may mean that this year's rejections are not a good indicator of whether I'd a good candidate or not in the future. I already saw a good degree of improvement in my SOP between ones I submitted in Dec.15 and onces in Feb. 5.

Then again, I'm not sure what other ways to improve my application than writing better SOP and writing sample, or perhaps doing an internship. Would a better SOP and writing alone change the outcome of the admission decisions? not sure.. not sure.

* oh, and would it be weird to apply again this December while I'm in the program? I'm beginning to come up thousand ways of applying

Mind if I ask what sorts of experience you have or approach you took to grad schools?

[mew27]

if i were to reapply, i would definitely think twice about doing everything during the school year. i spent last semester taking the GRE, writing my sr. thesis, and doing applications, and just about lost my sanity in the process. it's definitely a personal choice and depends on hwo many things you've got going on, but i definitely envied those people who took a year off!

i'm not sure that there's any rhyme or reason to how the admissions committees pick people, but i do know that *all* the professors i spoke to mentioned my writing sample. the WS and the LORs seem to be the most important things, at least from what i've heard. i actually sent in a pretty unorthodox WS that made me quite nervous, but my advisor assured me that it would work. guess he was right. anyway, if i were doing this whole thing again, i would spend a lot of time working on that... make sure you put a fair share of your sources in another language!

as to buffing up the resume...hmmm. not really sure what i can say here. i've never presented at a conference and don't have much in the way of publications (just some entries in my university's art museum catalogue), but i've done several internships (helping with exhibitions, writing labels, researching for curators, etc.) and work at the museum on campus. i'm not sure how much that helped me anyway, since many professors tend to be snotty about museum work. i do think, though, that the professors take your age into consideration and see what you've done with the opportunities you've had... i mean, they can't honestly expect undergrads to have presented at CAA! almost all conferences are for grad students. i also got some fellowships through my university to go abroad and do research for my honors thesis, not that they're very impressive. as far as awards go, i don't have any that pertain especially to art history... just things like phi beta kappa, academic scholarship to my school, etc.

sorry i'm not more of a help!

[smellie]

mew: this is a great tip! I haven known that SOP and WS counts a lot, and they were not particauly strong in my case. But amazing resumes that people post in this forum has somewhat discouraged me. Not that yours is not, but I'm just saying that for some time it looked like only people from good ivy schools with amazing numbers and resumes would get into Ph.Ds.

I'm still weighing between MA and year-off. MA gives more opportunities to know the profs, work on my research, and get me into other scholarly events. At the same time, the expectation rises with that, so does the debt. Year-off would give me a chance to go over my application, but getting LORs again after not taking classes for awhile is a hassel, and I'd really appreciate some academic advising at this point. And of course, the chances of actually getting into Ph.D afterwards still remains questionable.

maybe I SHOULD have gone to management when I had the chance 4 yrs ago. Who knew studying would involve so much more than reading books??

[Renaissance08]

Ok, this may demystify some things for those still waiting on NYU... I just called and they said it's taking a lot longer than expected (yeah, we noticed), and that different fields are operating at different decision-making speeds, so that they only have about half of the decisions made so far. He said we can expect decisions in the next week to ten days.

So, good luck to everyone still waiting :-)

And, to those of you who were already accepted--what fields are you pursuing?

I have a bad feeling this is giving me false hope...

[smellie]

Ok, this may demystify some things for those still waiting on NYU... I just called and they said it's taking a lot longer than expected (yeah, we noticed), and that different fields are operating at different decision-making speeds, so that they only have about half of the decisions made so far. He said we can expect decisions in the next week to ten days.

So, good luck to everyone still waiting :-)

And, to those of you who were already accepted--what fields are you pursuing?

I have a bad feeling this is giving me false hope...

Are you applying to Ph.D or MA? What field are you in?

I hope 18-19C hasn't made their decisions yet ..

[Renaissance08]

I applied for the PhD; Italian Renaissance...

[smellie]

Renaissance: I should've guessed from your id!

Hm.. I wonder if that means the decisions would come even later for the MA applications for NYU :S Gosh just accept/reject/waitlist me already!

[Renaissance08]

I know, this is pretty agonizing

[mew27]

smellie: i'm glad that was somewhat helpful! let me know if i can offer any more advice. i wouldn't get discouraged with everything, though! it's definitely worth doing something you love. and i think they accept people based on what potential they see (whether right or wrong) as much as anything else.

another interesting note: there are two other students from my university who applied for phd programs. one's currently a senior, and the other graduated a couple of years ago. neither one of them has been accepted yet, as far as i've heard... they're both stellar applicants (at least one is phi beta kappa, and they both have high GREs), and we come from a top-10 school. it's a total crapshoot, and nothing about it seems very fair..

[smellie]

another interesting note: there are two other students from my university who applied for phd programs. one's currently a senior, and the other graduated a couple of years ago. neither one of them has been accepted yet, as far as i've heard... they're both stellar applicants (at least one is phi beta kappa, and they both have high GREs), and we come from a top-10 school. it's a total crapshoot, and nothing about it seems very fair..

mew: that's why I sometimes think that adcom just throws down the applications down the stairs, and pick the ones that travelled the farthest. (/wo discrediting anyone accepted)

Does anyone know if there's some sort of forum/site where they post accepted SOP/WSs? There were a lot for engineerings and biology for some reason, but none for art history. Sure I can't copy off of anyone, but at least it'd give me some idea at what level the schools want you to be.

by the way - I didn't know there could something more addictive than facebook. I'm on this forum almost 24/7!

[lxs]

i guess this is essentially a rhetorical question, as no one here is on an admissions committee, but i'll throw it out here in case anyone has thoughts - one of my advisers spoke with the person I applied to work with at the school i'm still waiting to hear from and found out that she's on sabbatical this year and not on the admissions committee. i met with her and the dept. chair back in december and both encouraged me to apply...no mention was made of her taking or not taking students. is this going to knock me out of the running for this school too? it's pretty much my last hope of going to grad school next year. i am so ready to give up!

[dontknowwheretogo]

h

[halifax]

i guess this is essentially a rhetorical question, as no one here is on an admissions committee, but i'll throw it out here in case anyone has thoughts - one of my advisers spoke with the person I applied to work with at the school i'm still waiting to hear from and found out that she's on sabbatical this year and not on the admissions committee. i met with her and the dept. chair back in december and both encouraged me to apply...no mention was made of her taking or not taking students. is this going to knock me out of the running for this school too? it's pretty much my last hope of going to grad school next year. i am so ready to give up!

Maybe you could shoot her an email with your SOP, writing sample and other things you think she ought to know and say something like, "I know you're on sabbatical this year, but I thought you might want to see what the ad com will see when they look at my application." That might help her to get involved if she isn't already.You know, put in a good word for you.