<p>this is more of desperate-last-minute-depressed outburst…</p>
<p>As I’ve been going through application process for art history grad programs, it sometimes gets frustrating that there’s no hard data.
If predicting your admission to liberal arts programs was as easy as predicting admission to law schools where there are more than enough graphs, stats, match-your-score charts, well, I’d be a happy woman. </p>
<p>Everyone says it’s about your SOP and LORs and writing samples and so on… but really, I just need somebody to tell me where the heck I should aim for. I had professors recommending from small university in Canada to Princeton, to a bunch of schools in UK and France. </p>
<p>So is getting into arts grad programs really just hit-or-miss business? who are those people getting into top schools?</p>
<p>arts in general… no, not a hit-or-miss. It’s just hard to tell on paper. When I was applying for MFA programs last year, the thing that helped me know where I stood was personal contact. Visit them, phone them, go to portfolio days or whatever the art history equivilant is in your area, email professors… that’s the way you really get to know what they’re about. Because it isn’t random, it’s just that each school has their own agenda regarding what sort of student they want and what interests they have, and that agenda isn’t made clear on paper. So you could be an outstanding candidate, but if yo uapply to a bunch of schools that have an agenda that doesn’t line up with your interests you could bat zero. On the other hand a mediocre candidate can probably still find a place, if they know what schools to apply to.</p>
<p>Take a close look at what you’ve been reading in upper level AH classes, both assigned and as research. Are there any common threads to what you’ve been particularly interested in or excited by? What are you suggesting your research interests will be in your SOP?</p>
<p>Once you have an idea of your interests the places you should apply will become much more clear. It might be as simple as one our two professors whose work fascinates you, or a bit more diffuse like “classical themes in late antique Christian sculpture”. In any case if you focus on your own interests first, the programs will follow. That’s why the SOP is so important; it lets the program know that your interests have a match in what they are able to teach.</p>
<p>I’m not an art history major, but the site ApplyCorner might help you figure out who is getting into top schools. People admitted last year or earlier put up profiles on that site with their credentials and the names of schools they applied to. Then, as they were admitted/rejected, they posted that info on the site. You can look up by school or by program who was admitted/rejected, when they were notified, what their GRE scores were, etc. ApplyCorner may not have a lot of people in your major from previous years, but you also have the option of posting your profile and having other people from this year rate your odds, which might calm you down as well.</p>
<p>The url is: <a href=“http://www.graduateschool.whogotin.info/[/url]”>http://www.graduateschool.whogotin.info/</a></p>
<p>Thanks everyone, I was just getting stressed about the whole application business… I’m sure many will agree?</p>