Graduate Art History Association

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October 07, 2009

PhD Workshop

PhD Workshop – Dr Helmreich and Dr. Landau – October 7, 2009

Attendees: Bethany, Rachael, Joe, Rebecca, Lourdes, Sarah, and Bailey

Dr. Helmreich – go over form that she uses when writing a letter of recommendation

Letter of Recommendation form: faculty asked to do many letters, so they want a lot in return. (At any given time, Dr H is writing 12 letters and they are all due at busy times of the year.)
•Name and the position that you apply for.
•Include the information on how they should receive/send.
•Give faculty a hard copy of the information with the institution, the job/position… Better if they can tailor the letter to the job and not have to go onto Google to figure out information
•Provide a list of due dates in chronological order
•Give professors a bullet point list of your reasons for applying and why you would be a good candidate (easier to read than to unpack the personal statement)
•List of classes (may need papers back)
•CV/Resume
•Draft Cover Letter
•Draft of all Supporting Materials
•Need to have all of the information in advance to provide to the professor.

Contact Potential Advisors
•Before information is provided to faculty for a letter
(Dr Helmreich applied to a school with a group of people she wanted to work with)
•Question should be “Are you taking new graduate students?” Rather than asking straight out if they can be your adviser. Opens the door for communication. Important conversation to have with the professor to see the situation.
•Expect to reciprocate about what you want to do. Make sure their time is well spent in talking to you.
•Find out the status of what the school/professor will be doing. (ie: professor that does Medieval and Early Modern may only take one type of student at a time)
•Have 4 main, targeted questions to ask. Do not ask general, pragmatic questions.
•See if the program has a general graduate adviser.
*Contact that person first for a general scope of the program, financial aide, etc. Then indicate that you are thinking about a particular faculty member.
•Send only short emails and set up a specific phone time to prevent trying to answer questions over a long period of time.
•Call them, don’t expect them to call you. Short conversation, 15 min or so.
•Don’t need to know scholarship of the general person, but you SHOULD know the main person you want to talk to: at least read reviews and abstracts.
• *Question should always be “what are you working on now?”
•General adviser will tell you who is a feasible person to talk to, who will respond, and may even forward an email. Some don’t respond until you’ve spoken to this person.

What do Dr Helmreich and Dr Landau look for in applicants?
•Helps to have some sort of connection – gives them an idea of someone to talk to about the student.
•Look for someone who has done their homework: Even though Dr Helmreich did some work on landscape history earlier, that is not a current field.
•Look for someone who did some sort of in depth project – know the field – could be a seminar paper (more than synthesis of general scholarship) – keep in mind that they don’t have time to read a 50 page thesis.
•Will look at research questions, conclusions, bibliography…
Teaching someone to ask good questions is the hardest thing to do, so if they already know how to do it, it helps immensely

In person visit?
Importance of talking to person:
•Some schools may discourage approach. Can find out through website or talk with the general adviser. – Depends on program

When to begin contacting potential advisers:
•Nov 30, Dec 10 – coincide with finals and Thanksgiving. Do NOT want to contact them at inopportune times. They may be out of town or super busy.

Is there such a thing as too soon to approach someone? •Yes – your interest may change and their situation may change.

Writing sample →
•show critical thinking and research skills. Might not matter as much the field that you want to study. Show that you are a superb researcher and a FLAWLESS WRITER!!!! – confident and skillful
•You have to have the writing skills to make it. (NW – quarters – 3 seminar papers per year at the same level of expectation as semester)
Can address where the paper came from in your statement. Say that it came out of a particular class and you have research interests in … area.

•If a person says that you can ask them more questions, only contact them with legitimate questions.

•Don’t think in terms of a “safety school”! Apply to the best school you can, but should have “realistic”. So, know your own limits. There is no such thing (other than Case) at the Phd Level. (it’s the Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton and everyone else and we’re in the last level)
•It is a matter of WHO you study with, more so than where you study.
Look at CAA career – there are openings, but be prepared to move. Even people published in your field may have to work through many jobs to get tenure.

Choosing someone to work with:
•Many who establish a reputation, but step back and haven’t done as much recently. Important to find someone involved right now in networking and researching.
•Good to find someone with tenure (safer, but not automatic). Less time for you if they are not tenured and less likely that they will stay (There are cases where untenured is acceptable). Larger schools may not have as much time to devote to you personally.
•Associate has tenure and Assistant does not. If they are tenured with the title of Assistant (BAD). Occasionally associate without tenure.

Number of schools – depends on the field you choose. •Do not go in with this attitude, it should be a question of who is appropriate to study with.
•Make sure that you have a good intellectual match. If they don’t have a similar methodological approach, that is what they will expect you to have.
•Some professors don’t want to take you on/talk to you a lot until you’ve been accepted. Find out the function with the department
•Have information ready – they may ask you for samples to make sure you’re worth their time before you even do the application.
Once you’ve been accepted, then take the time to come in and meet the professors and the students. Go to them when you know you’re in.
•When you meet ask for a recent syllabus. Meet with students!
•You get less hand holding the higher you go. If you like being pushed, choose a more competitive school.

Who reads applications:
•Differs in different schools. No one will accept someone without looking. (The prof you want to work with will look at the application. Good to target that person in application.)
•Aid will be awarded in various manners – differs from school to school. (Rutgers will not take someone with a GRE under 550 – Dean will refuse money to anyone without fitting that criteria, regardless of the person). If there is paperwork on that type of information needs to be done in a timely manner – make sure you know who to approach.
•Critical thinker, excellent writer, and looked into the school

Personal Statement
•Diagnose a personal statement of someone that got into NW, Stony Brook (didn’t get into Columbia). This was a CASE student.
•Think about what you wouldn’t have thought to do. Tad pretentious in the syntax, but got results. (weakness)
•Tell what you will do.
First paragraphs: interests, how they think, theoretical bent
•If you follow this model, saying that you presented a paper, even though not in my field, it is beneficial b/c… and was accepted.
General organization:
•Clear idea of their situation and what they want to do. Is it too directed? Could that be bad? Would this person come across and too much of a know it all that wouldn’t be moldable? Have to make yourself attractive to the person you are directing. Mention that you have this interest, though not yet honed in on a particular topic. •Mention scholarship that has affected your thinking. Show that you have an interesting mind. There are people who go into grad school because it is hard to get a job, looking for those that would be most intellectually stimulating to work with. You never get a second chance for first impression. May like the way this person thinks and that he has direction. Shows that he knows who he should be reading to make a new contribution. Can dance around not having an exact direction without
•Submitted his MA qualifying paper, even though not exactly what he wanted to present.
•Name drops in good way – major scholars and why he is interested in them. AND he gives the chairs of the session of CAA in which he presented. Make it clear that he has been vetted by major people in the field. Qualification of being accepted in a conference and vetted by more than your own peers.
•Highlights of qualifications based on education later in the essay, after he’s presented who he is and what he wants to do.
•They may not hold you to the letter of what you want to study, but you need to stay in the ball park of the person that you choose to work with.
•Tone down third paragraph with some of the references to some of the scholars – a little too intense and “name droppy”
•If dropping a particular name would appeal to that scholar, then do it.
•You need to distinguish yourself from everyone.
•A lot of schools will require at least 2 years of course work – so you will be attractive with coursework, but there are a lot of people, larger pool than normal.
•Will this introduction grab your attention? Tell them what you’re going to do. But not the best paragraph in the statement. Had to start off with something to get into paragraph two.
•Letter tends to be a little long. If you are limited to one page, what to cut out: paragraph one could be one sentence. Take out some of the names. While Derrida and Deleuze were important to him, but that would be apparent in hi paper. Don’t have to list as many names.
French and American and a less popular artist are contextualized personally.
•Professional aims are in the last paragraph. Future curatorial involvement – show he wants a museum career.
•He stresses a particular museum that impacted him rather than a general I love museums. Some programs are less interested in people with curatorial experience. Top school want people who are on the intellectual/academic track.
•Not a lot of people leave programs and go somewhere else. Previously if you went to NYU and you got accepted, that doesn’t mean that someone will take you on. If no one wants to take on your topic or you and that’s the end, you must move on.
•Need to find out the set of pressures – competitive culture – before you apply and certainly before you go!
•This is not a perfect essay, but he got into 3 of the 5 and got MAJOR offers. ($20,000 with 5 year guarantee)
•Remember that this is merely a PART of the larger application.
•Be sure to indicate WHO you are intellectually. Need to find out about this person’s mind and interests. (He didn’t stay at Case b/c Landau didn’t want to work on this topic). He mentioned the professors that impacted him here, that is a really helpful and gives a sense of the person. (DO NOT CUT THAT OUT)
•CV should be targeted to academic
•Is undergraduate obsolete? Could write BA thesis under that, but don’t go into. Much more interested in Case
•Could leave out the “humble undergraduate” – that could just go unsaid. He wanted to include that because he felt it was important. Landau thinks that everything showed that he outstripped that background.
•Just trying to set apart from the average. You want someone to be interested in your mind.
•Scholarly field and you have to evidence scholarly interests. PhD makes you an expert, so show you have promise of future expertise. Establish a general field and who and what in that field you want to explore.
•(Try to avoid Panofsky or someone that is too old in the field) but mention some specific scholarship – recent – that interest you in the field.
•If you ask the same people for letters of recommendation, there is no question that they will compare the letters with your classmates. It will frankly hurt if you all apply to the same school that will hurt. •They will not take too many people from the same school (Case)
•Make sure that you have some applications to school where you don’t have competition from classmates.
•Think carefully about who can write you the best recommendation! •Have a letter from a curator…. Use someone that can comment on your scholarship, someone that you’ve written for.
•Personal reasons in scholarly and field-specific manner. Personal as it relations to what you want to study. Target to your specific qualifications.
•If you talk about a paper, should it be the one you submit? If you go on about it and don’t include it, they’ll be left wanting. You can mention, but know why you submit the paper that you chose to submit. •Explain in more than one sentence, explain why you chose the writing sample that you did. How it shows what you’ve done and its impact on your newer and different interests.
•Schools are looking for people who will finish.
•This letter is selling yourself!
•If you get accepted to multiple schools, your interview will be them trying to sell themselves to you.
•If accepted to more than one program, absolutely go to them.
•5 or 6 is a good number of applications.
•Bottom line – be HONEST

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