Meeting this Thursday

Hi everyone, there is a meeting this Thursday, April 23 in the HUB (Commons). Stop by any time from 3:30PM to 5:00PM. We are looking for officers so if you are interested please stop by!

Oh and there's gonna be FREE PIZZA!

The Art of Hitler

In an auction last week in London, several of Adolf Hitler's artworks from the early twentieth century sold for a total of $120,000, with one painting selling for $15,000.

You can get a feel for his art by looking at some of the paintings:









Looking at Hitler's art is interesting, if somewhat strange.

More info can be found at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/23/hitler.auction/index.html?iref=hpmostpop#cnnSTCText

Meeting this Thursday

Hi everyone, there is a meeting this Thursday, April 23 in the HUB (Commons). We are looking for officers so if you are interested please stop by!

The Getty's YouTube Channel

The Getty now has a YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/gettymuseum).

Those who took AHS 171 last quarter will find The Getty's video on Spanish polychrome sculpture interesting (and it's in HD!):



And here's a neat one on medieval manuscripts:

New Portrait of Shakespeare

Very interesting...a painting that hung unnoticed in a private collection is now believed to be the only portrait of Shakespeare painted during his lifetime!

New Portrait of Leonardo

Read about it here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5785697.ece

Excavating Egypt Exhibit , Robert Fullerton Museum, CSUSB

Tia, Jane, Loreley, Hannah and Susan at the opening reception for the Excavating Egypt exhibit at the Robert Fullerton Museum at CSUSB.

Trip to the Getty (Bernini Exhibit)

Trip to the Getty for the Bernini exhibit: Natsuki, Jane, Loreley and Ryan

Trip to the Getty Villa

Graduate School Information

(under construction)

The following articles contain information about graduate school and tips and tricks about getting in. Be well aware: the information contained in them has been accumulated by a few students and is biased because it is largely based on our own personal experiences and personal observations. We have nonetheless gotten much of the information from UCR professors and graduate schools around the country through e-mails and informal conversations.

NONE of the following articles express the actual opinion of the University of California, Riverside nor of any of its staff or faculty. The information contained in the following articles is not guaranteed to be accurate and you therefore use it at your own discretion.

What is Graduate School?

How Do I Get Into Graduate School?

Tally of the Universities Where UCR Professors Got Their PhDs

How do I get strong Letters of Recommendation from Professors?

What is Graduate School?

(under construction)

How do I get strong Letters of Recommendation from Professors?

(under construction)

The dreaded Letters of Recommendation.

How Do I Get Into Graduate School?

or: What do I need to do to get into Graduate School?

(under construction, this is still an early early draft)

This is a controversial question. If you ask ten professors the question "how do I get into graduate school?", you will get ten different answers. There are many factors that graduate schools look at when determining who to accept. The first thing you should know is that it is difficult to get into graduate school. You have to work really hard as an undergrad and impress your professors to have a chance of getting in. For Art History, most programs have an acceptance rate of 5-15% (f.y.i. UCLA admitted 14% of its Art History grad school applicants for the 2008-2009 school year but normally this number is much lower for them).

So although everyone will tell you something different, after e-mailing many graduate programs we have come up with a basic list of things you should know about if going to graduate school for Art History (or for any subject really) is your goal.

1. GPA and GRE scores

In many ways, this is the base of your application: the foundation. A strong GPA with a high GRE score is necessary to get into top schools. In fact, many grad schools specifically said that the "GRE score was extremely important" in determining who gets in and who gets rejected.

Most schools recommend a minimum GPA of 3.0, but it seems as if one needs a minimum GPA of at least 3.5 to be competitive. A high GPA does not simply mean that you are "smart," it also shows that you are committed to school and that you put real time and effort into your work.

2. Languages

This will vary from program to program and from university to university, but the general consensus for Art History is that if you really want to be competitive you should have a reading knowledge of either French or German and a reading knowledge of whatever languages your intended field of study requires. For example, if you want to go to graduate school and specialize in Latin American art, then you should have a reading knowledge of Spanish and a reading knowledge of either French or German.

However, it should be emphasized that in general, the best prepared students (and therefore the ones most likely to actually get in) will have a reading knowledge of both French AND German in addition to whatever languages they require for their intended field of study. So the best prepared student who wishes to specialize in Latin American art will have a reading knowledge of French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

If this intimidates you, then you should know that you don't actually have to know how to speak these languages, but rather how to read them and have the ability to incorporate books and articles written in these languages into your work. So for French and German, many professors recommend taking French 009A, French 009B, German 001R, and German 002R.*


3. Letters of Recommendation

Most graduate schools require three letters of recommendation, and if you are serious about getting into a good school, then they should all be from professors (preferably professors from your field).

This is somewhat controversial to say, but it is believed that letters of recommendation have the ability to make or break your application. Letters of recommendation can hurt you, and in general you are not allowed to see them. Professors must be extremely honest when they write letters of recommendation, and they will list your strengths and weaknesses. So just because a professor gave you an A in a class does not mean that he or she will write you a strong letter of recommendation. It is therefore best to ask a professor beforehand, "are you able to write me a strong letter of recommendation or should I ask someone else?" Also, don't ever be afraid to ask for letters of recommendation: it is part of a professor's job to do so.

For more information about Letters of Recommendation, see "How do I get strong Letters of Recommendation from Professors."

4. Undergraduate Research

This is very key

5. Undergraduate Coursework

6. Know the faculty of the programs you apply to (and make sure they know you)

This is an extremely important and often overlooked aspect about applying to graduate school. To get in, you

_________________

* French 009A. French for Reading Knowledge (4 units), offered in the Winter
French 009B. French for Reading Knowledge (4 units), offered in the Spring
German 001R. German for Reading Knowledge (4 units), offered in the Winter
German 002R. German for Reading Knowledge (4 units), offered in the Spring

Universities Where UCR Professors Got Their PhDs

One of the most important things to know about pursuing a career in academia is that in most cases it matters where you get your PhD. Virtually every department of every university tends to higher graduates from the more elite, famous, and highly ranked universities (although this varies from department to department, as you can see even from this list). Another thing to keep in mind is that individual programs at universities are ranked. So for instance, a university might be highly ranked overall but might not have a highly ranked Art History program.

The following is a list of some departments at UCR. Underneath the name of each department is a list of the universities where the professors got their PhD. This will give you a more concrete idea of what types of universities you should look into if becoming a professor at a research university is your goal.

Note: Only current professors listed in each department's website are listed.

Anthropology

Arizona State University
Boston University
New School for Social Research
Oxford (United Kingdom)
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UC Riverside
University of Chicago
University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
University of Washington
Yale

Art History Department

Columbia
Columbia
Princeton
Princeton
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UCLA
University of Bonn (Germany)
University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
University of Trier (Germany)
Yale

English Department

Brown University
Columbia
Columbia
Duke University
Duke University
Indiana University
John Hopkins Univesity
New York University
Pennsylvania State University
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UCLA
UCLA
UCLA
UC Santa Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
University of Illinois
University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
University of Washington

History Department

Bryn Mawr College
Cornell
Columbia
Harvard
Harvard
Johns Hopkins University
New York University
Oklahoma State University
Princeton
UCLA
UCLA
UCLA
UCLA
UCLA
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
University of London (United Kingdom)
University of London (United Kingdom)
University of Michigan
University of Michigan
University of Virginia
University of Washington
Washington University
Yale
Yale

Mathematics Department

Bombay University (India)
Louisiana State University
Oxford (United Kingdom)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton
Purdue
Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (Italy)
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
University of Maryland
University of Minnesota
University of Notre Dame
Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (France)
University of Texas at Austin
University of Washington
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (Germany)
Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)

Philosophy Department

Boston University
City University of New York
Columbia
Cornell
Cornell
Georgetown
Harvard
Harvard
Harvard
Indiana University
Princeton
Princeton
Princeton
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCLA
University of Chicago
University of Chicago

Religious Studies Department

Birmingham University
Duke University
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
Temple University
University of Arizona
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Michigan

Sociology Department

Arizona State University
Cornell
Duke University
Harvard
Harvard
Indiana University
Stanford
Stanford
UC Irvine
UC Irvine
UC Irvine
UCLA
UCLA
University of Hawai'i
University of Minnesota
University of Pennsylvania
University of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin
Yale