WHAT DOES GRADUATE STUDY INVOLVE?

Most Ph.D. programs in art history require 2-3 years of course work, which often includes one course in non-western art, and one in methods (where you learn the theoretical debates of the field.) Classes will be surveys and seminars. Depending on your program, usually during the first year or two you will not serve as a Teachers Assistant (TA).

Your reading load will be intense, ca. 500-1000 pages a week. And you will have class presentations, research and writing, in which you will learn the basic methods of art historical research. You should also think of seminar papers as potential publications, since they will involve some original research. Prepare the best of your work for a presentation at a conference or a publication in a scholarly journal. Conferences also present great opportunities for networking with people in your field.

There will not be a lot of hand holding in graduate school, so be ready to be aggressive and pro-active. You will also have to deal with the realities of departmental politics - better be on the good side of influential faculty or you may experience difficulty with funding and other matters.

After coursework, most students will either take orals or write a Masters thesis and take written exams. While preparing for these, you may be teaching as a TA and finishing up coursework. This period is intensely demanding. You will also have to pass language proficiency exams, most typically in German and French - depending on your area of specialty. (You may have to master another language in addition to these if it is needed for your research.)

During the final period of your graduate career you will define your areas of interest and be examined in these chosen fields. Next you will proceed to the capstone of the entire graduate process: to develop, propose and defend a dissertation topic. The dissertation usually takes from two to several years to research and write. It is often defended at its conclusion in front of a dissertation committee, composed of scholars in the field.

While in graduate school, it is important that, in addition to writing your thesis and all your other activities, you get significant, autonomous, teaching experience, especially if you want to go on in academia. These opportunities may come up in the school where you are studying, or at local colleges where part time instructors are often needed. Take advantage of them, because the more teaching you have, the more attractive you will be to a search committee.

Finally, during the Ph.D. process, time management skills are essential. Discipline and goal-orientation are also important, along with a certain degree of equanimity. In addition you will need social support and to find ways of relaxing and dealing with stress. Your passion for your work should help you get through the rough times.

HOW DO I PREPARE FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL AS AN UNDERGRADUATE?

Take a lot of art history courses in a variety of areas so that you develop a good general background in the field. Familiarize yourself with important scholarly debates in your areas of interest. Learn some art historical theory because you will be doing a lot more of it in graduate school. If possible, WRITE AN HONORS THESIS - an experience that will give you idea about the type of work you will do in graduate school and will make you a more attractive candidate. You should also have a GPA of 3.4-4.0, the higher the better for the top schools.

Cultivate relationships with faculty, get their advice and rely on their expertise. Ask them about graduate schools, good people to work with, careers in art history. Faculty will also write you letters of recommendation and these will be better if they know you and your work well. Get to know TAs and pump them for information about their experiences in graduate school. They also will be able to tell you about different departments and programs and the reputation of scholars because they will have recently gone through the process. Find out as much as you can because the stakes are too high if you don't.

In addition, begin to learn French and German as early as you can in your undergraduate years so that you achieve fluency in reading. You won't have time in graduate school to learn them well. You may also want to begin studying any other language that would be needed for your field of interest (such as Chinese, or Japanese etc.)

Take your GRE before you graduate or shortly thereafter, while you are still in student mode. The scores are good for up to five years. The GRE is available on computer all year around - booklets are in the reception area of our office. PREPARE for your GRE with a review book (Kaplan, Princeton Review etc.), practice under simulated conditions. Although the test is not more difficult than the SAT, you must take this exam seriously since funding for graduate school is often tied to how well you do on ALL THREE AREAS (verbal, mathematical and analytical) of the exam. You should shoot to get the highest scores possible (700s + for the most competitive schools.)

Finally, we recommend strongly that you take some time to work and earn a living before going on with your graduate studies. It is important to have the experience of earning a living, and possibly even saving some money. Career Services provides numerous job listings in a variety of fields, including the arts and cultural organizations. You will do your search for these positions mostly in the spring of your senior year and should work with a career counselor in your college.

RESEARCHING PROGRAMS

It is important to research programs in art history very thoroughly before you apply. Also, given the difficulties with the job market today, it is probably best to shoot for programs with the strongest national reputations in a given area of interest. Departments have different methodological orientations and you should know them for the schools where you are applying. For instance, NYU and Yale tend to be object oriented, whereas Northwestern and Stanford are strong in critical theory, and UC-Santa Barbara excels in gender studies.

In addition to their methodological orientations, schools are outstanding in different areas - Yale and Stanford are known for American Art, for instance. The Real Guide to Grad School Robert E. Clark and John Palattella, eds. (New York: Lingua Franca Books, 1997) gives an excellent and up-to-date overview of the strengths and orientations of different programs in art history. You should also discuss these questions with faculty in the art history department at Penn.

After you have created a list of perhaps 5-10 programs, look them all up on the web and get a sense of how they are organized, course offerings, faculty, etc. Since you will be working as an apprentice to a scholar when you enter a department, you must also consider the specific professor you would be studying with - and find out from faculty advisors here and perhaps graduate students, what that person would be like as an advisor.

Another important matter to explore is financial aid. You do not want to pay for tuition, or incur substantial debt. Inform yourself about how departments fund their students. Are you admitted only if you can be guaranteed full tuition for a certain number of years? Will you have to work as a TA? Is funding reconsidered every year? Is it dependent on GRE scores? What are the criteria of funding? Do students compete against each other each year? (Can create a poisonous atmosphere) Indeed, how many students entering the department are fully funded?

Finally, you will want to figure out what the atmosphere of a program you are interested in is like. Are students collegial and cooperative, creating a community of scholars, or are they cutthroat and competitive - everyone for him/herself? Ask if graduate students share bibliographies for exams and cooperate on projects? This you can only uncover from a visit.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

Your statement of purpose is a crucial component of your application to graduate school. It must be well thought-out, carefully crafted and articulated. You should NOT be overly personal, nor should you rhapsodize about the field ("always loved art history because it is so fascinating"). Rather you want to explain what kind of work you want to do, why you want to do it in that particular department, and how you will mesh with faculty there (show that you have done your homework on the program), and use its resources. In other words, why you are good for each other.

In the process of achieving this, you may want to explain your interest in art history and whether you think you will pursue an academic or museum career. Describe one or two undergraduate research projects (in seminar papers or honors thesis) and illustrate how you have considered important questions in the discipline.

Tailor your essay to the work of specific faculty in the department to which you are applying, and to the facilities in the region (e.g. if you were applying to Penn you could refer to the PAFA, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Athenaeum, or Penn's Architectural Archives). Be careful, however. Although you want to note your general areas of interest don't identify a specific research focus that you intend to pursue. You simply don't know enough about the field to be able to determine that at this point.

Letters of recommendation are also extremely important. Make sure that the professors you choose to write your letters are art historians or in a related field, as distinguished and senior as possible, and familiar with your academic accomplishments. (If you have to pick between someone eminent but who does not know you well, and someone up-and-coming who can write about you in detail, choose the latter.) If you can ask someone to write you a letter who has contacts with the program to which you are applying, that is a plus.

MA. OR PH.D.?

One final word on strategies for applying to doctoral programs. If, as a B.A., you apply directly to Ph.D. programs that indicates that you are serious about a career in the field. On the other hand, getting into the top schools is extremely difficult. If you do not get into a prestigious program first time around, another option is to apply for a Masters at a second tier program. Do some good research that you either present at a conference or publish, find a mentor who can promote you, and begin to network in the field. You can then apply to top-rated Ph.D. programs and will be a more attractive candidate because you have proven you can write, and you can TA immediately.

One caveat with this approach is that terminal Masters are usually not funded. And if you graduate with a Masters with the intention of pursuing a career in the field your job options will be limited. (There are still some folks in museum education who hire at the MA level.)

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