History of Art MA/PhD 2008

[mew27]

yes, i did visit the campus over the summer... i've been there several times, actually. it definitely is surrounded by some rough neighborhoods, but as long as you stay within a certain area i've heard you're fine. i would like for it to be in a better location, but i know several of the schools i applied to aren't in the greatest locations. actually, my undergrad too has horrible town/gown relations, and a grad student was also shot here this semester (in addition to a number of armed robberies, rapes, etc.). i don't know what it is about good schools and bad cities... my brother is at yale and has the same problem.

as to the "chilliness" of the people there, i agree to an extent. i found that some (a lot) of the people were quite socially awkward, but once you got to talking they were fine. i was, and still am, not sure how i'd fit in there, personality-wise. that said, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in the field.

i guess we'll see how the rest of the decisions pan out good luck to everyone!

[hack]

First of all, congrats on the Chicago acceptance! You must be seriously psyched.

I was wondering if you could say more about the email invite -- was it from an administrator of some sort or a personal email from someone you'd be working with in the program? I'm holding out some hope that there may be more email invitations forthcoming (specific to other advisors/areas of specialization). What area of study are you specializing in?

Chicago is a great program and you should be very pleased with this acceptance. I know they reduced the number of admitees this year due to the funding shift, so this process was all the more competitive. Congratulations again!!

[mew27]

thanks so much, hack!! i still can't believe it

i actually got two emails from them, the first from the dept. chair congratulating me on the acceptance and the second from a coordinator detailing the itinerary for the visit. like i said before, i'm not sure if they sent them all out today or are doing them one-by-one. hopefully there will be more to come

[halifax]

Haha. I got the same letter and thought it was a rejection because it was so skinny. Although they said they hadn't received my GRE scores, which were sent by ETS in December!

What were their intentions? To send us into cardiac arrest in order to thin the herd a bit? Well, the person who signed the letter had actually reassured me months ago via email that everything was there, which is why I was in total shock when the envelope came today. I thought, "This must be it...." and then tore into it like it was manna from the heavens. I wonder if they'll do interviews?

I bet your GRE scores will show soon. Gahhhhhhhh....the waiting is slowly driving me insane.

On another note, should we be filling out FAFSAs yet (before we are even accepted)? And do we need to fill them out in order to receive fellowships/scholarships from schools?

[NO8DO]

congrats!! that's exciting that you've been accepted somewhere already!

halifax, for my programs I didn't need to fill it out because they didn't request it (any aid was merit-based not like need-based, which I interpreted as you get money based on your app package, but either way none of my programs requested it)

funding is guaranteed on acceptance anyway to the majority of my programs so I think the whole thing is mostly centered on your application - I'd double check just to be sure but unless it states that as part of the application process/requirements, etc. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Chicken Dan]

Just wanted to share that I also got into U Chicago. It's my first response and I'm happy as a clam!

[mew27]

congrats, dan!! i guess i'll see you there

[herakles1]

someone say something! it's cold in here.

[mew27]

i agree! those history people are showing us up...

not that anyone cares, but i withdrew my berkeley application today. i didn't want to hog a spot i know i wouldn't take, so i emailed the professor who had given me the interview and explained the situation to her. she sent me such a nice email - kinda heartbreaking.

[NO8DO]

Mew, that is unfortunate! Good luck with your other applications, I'm sure you'll do great if the Berkeley interview was any indication of how the rest will go!

I'm really getting impatient, haha, one of my favorite professors talked to me after class and was like, so, any word? And when I said no, she said you must be anxious as anything right now! It's funny when the profs talk to you about it because you know that they went through the same (or at least a similar) process at some point.

[herakles1]

i'm sure plenty of berkley potentials care very much about your decision. you must be ripping the web apart for logistics on everything from popular chicago restaurants to places your dog can poop. it must be nice to have some semblance of where you'll end up!

[mew27]

lol, yes, i'll admit i've been trolling the internet for information about hyde park. it's not certain i'll end up there, i guess, but i think there's a good chance. in any case, i knew i wouldn't pick berkeley over chicago...it was a hard email to write, but i'm glad i did it. the professor told me she was going in this afternoon to ask for the top fellowship for me () and said she'd really been looking forward to working with me. ouch.

[halifax]

someone say something! it's cold in here.

It does seem as though people have abandoned the board for the last few days....hardly any posts at all. This is not good considering I check it every five minutes. I suppose we are getting into no-man's-land right about now. The earliest any of my schools notified last year was at the end of February, so I'm in for a bit of a wait......

How's everyone else holding up? Mew27, I think you did a very nice thing by emailing the prof at Berkeley...someone else will be very grateful!

So I guess you and Chicken Dan will meet in person at some point You've already got a built-in network if you choose U of C. :mrgreen:

[mew27]

yeah, i guess so! that is, if dan can manage to fly around the world for a few days...

[lxs]

mew, if you need any chicago suggestions at any point, just let me know!

[mew27]

thanks, lxs! actually, i'd like to know what you think about the living situation in hyde park. do you think it's worth trying to stay there in graduate housing, or living downtown and then commuting? my SO would be living downtown for NU med school, so there would be some commuting anyway, but i'm not sure i want to do it every day.

[lxs]

mew - You're smart to think of near downtown. I'm not sure if Northwestern's med school is in their downtown campus or Evanston campus, but your bf would have a nightmarish commute from HP if the latter is the case - easily a few hours. If he is in Evanston, you would probably be best off finding somewhere in the south loop. He would need to be pretty close to the loop to catch the purple line, which is the only train that goes to Evanston. He would also have the option of taking the red line until it ends at Howard (to the north) and then transferring to the purple line there. If you lived somewhere just south of the loop, you could catch a bus to HP that lets you off pretty close to the art history dept. and he could catch the train to Evanston. Of course if he's at the downtown campus, the commute from HP would be not great, but also not as impossible. I do know people who have found affordable places downtown, although I've always thought of it as being out of my price range. My bf works downtown, so I had planned on checking out apts in the south loop if I ended up at U of C. I just wouldn't go any further south than that, aside from, of course, Hyde Park.

[mew27]

the med school is downtown, right off michigan ave (*totally* jealous of the location!). do you have any idea how expensive it would be to live downtown? graduate housing at chicago looks quite reasonable, although i'm still not convinced that i want to live in hyde park. it would suck to feel like i couldn't ever leave my apartment after sundown... then again, i don't want to spend absolutely all of my stipend on an apartment downtown.

i guess i should put it this way: is it more dangerous to live in hyde park or to commute there every day? lol

[lxs]

oh yeah, the downtown northwestern location is awesome! it's a really beautiful campus. make sure you go to the evanston one at some pt too...they have their own beach! i don't know that either living or commuting to hyde park is dangerous per se.. just be smart and don't walk around alone late, etc. for me, it would be more of a matter of convenience and whether the one or two buses that go between hyde park and downtown run at night. the cta sucks, and, for example, the bus on my street - which is a major street - stops running at something like 10pm. if your bus stopped running early and you were in HP you would have no way safe to get home!

maybe you could play around with hopstop.com or chicagotransit.com to get an idea of what your commute would be. i just glanced at craigslist and saw that there are reasonably priced 1brs and 2brs to be had in the south loop - i saw 1300 for a 2br which is not outrageous as far as chicago apts go, so you might want to check there. if you look in that area, though, i would not look any further south than the harrison red line stop. people will try to tell you chinatown is safe but i wouldn't live there for anything. also, when you are looking at apartments, be very wary of rental agencies. they are great about helping you find places but are notorious for preying on people without much familiarity of neighborhood boundaries - i ended up in a pretty dangerous neighborhood my first year in chicago that way.

you also may want to consider your courseload vs. your bf's. i know my first year of grad school i only had to go to campus three times a week for class (unless something else was going on) and so having a far commute wasn't a huge deal for me then. if you have class two days a week and your boyfriend has it five, it may make more sense to live closer to where he's at. i'm sure, also, that the neighborhood orientation will become much clearer once you actually visit and see the way the area works.

[lxs]

do you have any idea how expensive it would be to live downtown?

also, a surprising number of people i went to grad school with lived downtown (river north, gold coast, the loop, lake shore drive). i don't know how they did it, but they did it on their stipend, so it must be doable!

[mew27]

lxs: thanks so much for the information! you certainly know your way around the city. i didn't realize that the public transportation would stop running so early, so that's definitely something to check on. i just assumed, i guess, that people would constantly be on the go and that it wouldn't be a problem...

my guess is that i'll wind up getting something in HP (it looks like the single apartments are reasonable) and just staying downtown with him whenever i can. just out of curiosity, how feasible is it to have a car, either downtown or in HP?

also: did you apply to northwestern? it seems like you really like chicago!

[lxs]

i do love chicago! i'll be bummed to have to move. as far as having a car, it's feasible in some places. i'm not sure about HP. i wouldn't have one in or around the loop unless parking is included in your rent. i used to live on the nw side of town and there was tons of parking. now i'm on the north side and it seems a lot more problematic. i haven't had a car since undergrad, though, so i can't say for certain. i do often wish i would have brought mine, however. it was a long six months until my lease was up at my last apartment after the only grocery store within a mile radius went out of business, and i went through serious target withdrawal. i think you'd be fine either way, really. i've made it three years on just public transportation. and, yeah, if you can get a good deal in grad housing in HP, i'd go for it...the cheaper the better when you're in grad school!

i didn't apply to northwestern...really wanted to and even talked to the person i hoped to work with there, but our research interests didn't match up well enough. c'est la vie!

[mew27]

that's unfortunate! what is it you're interested in, again... late 19th/early 20th century? i thought they were pretty strong in that area, although i guess it's hard to find someone whose interests match with yours perfectly. and you don't want to be stuck with an advisor who will only approve of projects that help his/her own research...! what's your top choice, then?

thanks for the info re: cars. i guess i'm just not used to having to take public transportation on a daily basis. it seems like such a hassle! i'm more interested, though, because i'm involved in an extracurricular sport that involves my going outside the city..

[lxs]

yep, late 19th/early 20th c. art, which they do have strong faculty in - but primarily french art, not the rest of europe. my top choice is definitely columbia but i'm not holding my breath as i saw somewhere that they get something ridiculous like 300 applicants for about 20 positions. my boyfriend works in a field where he needs to be in a major city to find work and nyc is obviously ideal for that. plus, it's the best fit for my research interests. fingers crossed!

[Chicken Dan]

Wow, that's a pretty competitive pool for Columbia! It's one of my top choices for sure, but I (also) am not counting on getting in. My guess is that only one or two slots will be allocated to Asian studies...