yale art history phd acceptance rate

Yale Daily News

Yale History of Art Department suspends admissions for 2021 application cycle

Contributing Reporter

Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery

In an unprecedented decision, the University’s History of Art Department has decided not to accept any graduate students during the 2021 admissions cycle.

Carol Armstrong, a full professor of 19th century European art and history of photography and the department’s director of graduate studies, recently posted a message to the doctorate program’s admissions page. Armstrong cited a desire to reserve resources for the current cohort of students as the reason for turning applicants away.

Armstrong said that “[we] owed it to the students who were already here to support them, but in order to do that, we had to pay for it.”

The department debated two different courses of action — either closing admissions for one year or suffering reduced admissions for the foreseeable future — and voted unanimously to suspend the application process. 

“If we got the pain over within one year, the chances that there would be no further ramifications after the COVID-19 crisis was over [would be] much better,” Armstrong said.

Instead, enrolled graduate students will be granted one extra year of study in order to make up for any research they lost due to the pandemic. Yale libraries, archives, galleries and international travel opportunities have been suspended since March.

Twenty-two students and professors affiliated with the department declined or did not respond to requests for comment on the decision. One faculty member, modern and contemporary art professor Pamela Lee, wrote to the News in an email that they “support this decision and believe there was strong consensus among the faculty.”

A first-year graduate student, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, said that they “feel bad for the next batch, but at the same time, it’s kind of good knowing that the department is there for you.” 

But while the decision is largely beneficial for those within the department, the student raised concerns about what a year without admissions means for the future of the program.

“If you suspend the cycle, then the next cycle is going to be extra, extra competitive,” the anonymous graduate student said. They said that next year, the department may “get a lot of brilliant people who have had a year to really think about their application.”

In this way, the burden may fall less on Yale admissions and more on applicants to the program, who might have to face notably lower acceptance rates come next year. Last admission cycle, the department received around 240 submissions and offered admission to 15 applicants, making up a 7.5 percent acceptance rate.

The discussion over the History of Art Department’s decision to suspend admissions reflects anxieties over the larger trajectories of navigating college and graduate school acceptances during a pandemic as students across the country wonder whether the already slim chances of getting into an Ivy League university have shrunk even further. Applicants who had originally questioned applying to graduate schools may even decide to forgo the process altogether.

“Oh my god, I think I would have cried the whole year,” the anonymous graduate student said, in reference to what they would have done if graduate schools suspended admissions the year they applied. “I mean, I would have not applied … grad school would not be an option anymore.”

Unlike Yale, art history programs at Princeton, Columbia and Williams are accepting applicants in the 2021 admissions cycle. Armstrong hopes the damage done to Yale’s program by not accepting students this cycle — putting it at a disadvantage to its peer institutions, she said — will not last longer than a year. The Yale program’s decision would mitigate the long-term reduced admissions a 2021 cycle could produce, Armstrong said.

In a year where doctoral candidates are swapping the halls of the The Met for the confines of their living rooms, the Yale History of Art Department is pursuing what Armstrong calls “the best of several not-very-good options” to protect the program’s future and provide its current students with a quality education — without in-person classes and museum visits.

“We’re not happy with it,” Armstrong said. “We’re just doing the best that we can.”

The Department of the History of Art is located at 190 York St.

Ellie Burke | [email protected]

Art History PhD acceptance rates

<p>Here’s a list of U.S. colleges showing the acceptance rates for students applying for a PhD program in Art History. In some cases the program is slightly different (ex. Visual Studies at Irvine) but they’re all pretty closely matched. I included Williams even though they don’t offer a PhD because their MA program is very highly regarded.</p>

<p>Source: [Graduate</a> Schools - Best Graduate School Search at Petersons.com ](<a href=“ http://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools.aspx]Graduate ”> Graduate School Search | Grad School & Grad Program Finder )</p>

<p>This list is in no particular order. The purpose of this list is to give students a sense of what their odds might be if they were to apply to one of these universities.</p>

<p>Acceptance rates have almost zero correlation to the quality of instruction in this category of AH PhD. A good example is Columbia which has one of the very best programs in the country but also a fairly high acceptance rate. Low does not mean better in this major.</p>

<p>Columbia University Average age 35. 329 applicants, 33% accepted.</p>

<p>UCLA (Go Bruins!) Average age 31. 117 applicants, 9% accepted, 4 enrolled.</p>

<p>Yale 148 applicants, 11% accepted, 10 enrolled.</p>

<p>Harvard 175 applicants, 9% accepted.</p>

<p>NYU (art history) Average age 32. 394 applicants, 27% accepted, 57 enrolled.</p>

<p>NYU (museum studies) Average age 26. 200 applicants, 50% accepted, 38 enrolled.</p>

<p>USC 40 applicants, 10% accepted, 4 enrolled.</p>

<p>UC Berkeley Average age 32. 146 applicants, 8 enrolled.</p>

<p>UC Santa Barbara Average age 32. 93 applicants, 11% accepted, 8 enrolled.</p>

<p>Stanford Average age 32. 153 applicants, 12% accepted.</p>

<p>U of Penn 209 applicants, 7% accepted, 7 enrolled.</p>

<p>U of Texas Average age 28. 146 applicants, 19% accepted.</p>

<p>Boston U Average age 32. 227 applicants, 32% accepted, 14 enrolled.</p>

<p>Cornell Average age 31. 71 applicants, 7% accepted, 5 enrolled.</p>

<p>Florida State Average age 32. 54 applicants, 54% accepted, 16 enrolled.</p>

<p>U of Arizona Average age 33. 32 applicants, 59% accepted, 11 enrolled.</p>

<p>U of Washington Average age 36. 74 applicants, 16% accepted, 3 enrolled.</p>

<p>Duke 78 applicants, 13% accepted, 4 enrolled.</p>

<p>Williams College (MA – no PhD offered) Average age 26. 85 applicants, 22% accepted, 12 enrolled.</p>

<p>U of Michigan Average age 26. 92 applicants, 12% accepted, 6 enrolled.</p>

<p>U of Chicago 144 applicants, 12% accepted, 9 enrolled.</p>

<p>This seems easier to get in compare to MFA! Thanks for sharing!</p>

<p>Thank you very much. This valuable information as is the information on MFA acceptance rates. Are you considering doing one for Masters of architecture programs?</p>

<p>I wasn’t planning on doing an M.Arch list but I’ll try if I get time. I’m working on a MFA Film list right now and the results are very surprising. I’ll post that one soon. </p>

<p>Hope the info is helpful for those thinking about these majors. </p>

<p>Best, Wheaty</p>

<p>(from my phone CC app)</p>

<p>Loveblue,</p>

<p>Yes the acceptance rates are encouraging for this major. I think this data is useful for planning a successful application season. As mentioned in another thread, this is a 7 to 9 year track so the student really needs to connect with everything about the program (location, professor, living, funding, etc.). A PhD in Art History is a difficult and long commitment and to succeed the student has to love it.</p>

<p>AH PhD’s go into teaching (50%), museum work (25%), galleries (10%), auction houses (10%) and 5% ‘other’.</p>

<p>Students are required to know at least 3 languages to be considered for acceptance into most (all?) of these programs. English seems to be a must, plus two of these: French, Italian, Spanish or German, plus a language if you plan on specializing in an area not covered yet (example might be Mandarin to allow for concentrated work in a Chinese modern art).</p>

<p>So you would enter with fluency in 2.5 to 3 languages and maybe add 1 more while in your PhD program.</p>

<p>So yes, our daughters would have better odds of acceptance here versus an MFA in Fine Art but once in this major is a lot more work. MFA is 2 years and this is 7+.</p>

<p>Anyway it’s nice to look at all of the options and hopefully they will make informed decisions going forward. </p>

<p>Wheaty:</p>

<p>Thanks for so many useful information you posted!</p>

<p>From the input of honied_dreams, I am thinking It maybe not practical for BFA to Ph.D option, and BFA to MFA is more practical. Many art school didn’t provide enough language class. Like my D is so into German but Cooper didn’t offer it. She is think to enroll through a community college called New School I think next semester. But for sure don’t have that many foreign language to even qualify. Thanks!</p>

<p>Or your daughter could get an MA in Art History. Two years and I’m pretty sure the language requirement is less for the terminal masters programs. Or maybe back to the Visual Studies programs that blend in more studio artist stuff? Or yeah, maybe MFA. All good options!</p>

<ul> <li>Wheaty</li> </ul>

<p>thanks Wheaty! I am looking around just in case she ask my input. College kids are more independent which is good. I am hoping she end up in Graphic Design or any other commercial art thing to make a living and in the same time if possible to work on her art. I just don’t like the low pay waitress job option, feel it is too hard. From you old poster, I know your daughter get in USC film summer program. Did she like it? That is a practical art major than fine art.</p>

<p>Hi Wheaty, Thanks for all the great info on graduate programs!</p>

<p>Hi Loveblue, I see your D also has an interest in languages. Isn’t it odd that the art schools don’t offer these programs? It seems a natural option for art students!</p>

<p>colcon: which language your D loves? my D loves German and she even win some competition in HS. She may can start to learn it next semester. She can listen and speak Chinese really good. We even can watch Chinese opera together but no read/write.</p>

<p>Sorry Wheaty, I borrowed your thread to talk about this nonsense things :—)</p>

<p>Hi loveblue, My D loves Mandarin and would like to continue studying the language. The culture fascinates her, too! She also likes French but isn’t fluent in either one. Given a choice she would prefer to master Mandarin.</p>

<p>Tell you a funny story. my D graduate from high school half year early and we send her to a China art school to learn Chinese art painting. Her roommate is a German girl learning Mandarin in China, she is good at read, but slow to get the meaning of the sound. when they go out together, the German girl read the Chinese sign and my D translate the sound. So two people work together nicely. Only half year studying, she learned a lot. bring home a lot her Chinese drawing, another nice thing is she can tell most of the Chinese painting like which dynasty that come from … One of her favorite artist is (八大山人):</p>

<p>[八大山&#20154</a>; - Google Search](<a href=“ http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&q=八大山人&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1376&bih=647]八大山人 ”> http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&q=八大山人&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1376&bih=647 )</p>

<p>@ Loveblue, Ha, that’s okay, feel free to highjack this thread. Oh and I missed your post about film school. Yes she had a good time at summer film school and I will write about that in a separate thread.</p>

<p>You wrote “I am looking around just in case she ask my input.” I’m pretty sure that comment sums up my life right now. You would laugh at the number of subjects I’ve studied recently just in case one of my daughters has an interest.</p>

<p>@ Colcon, I agree and I would also like to see art schools offer at least one other language as an option for kids that might want to go the art history route. French or Italian would be really useful to some. You’re welcome for the grad stats.</p>

<p>Hi Wheaty, Yes, exactly! Also, most colleges offer study abroad, so to me it is ironic that languages aren’t part of the curriculum (as an elective).</p>

<p>You guys are such great parents for researching these things for your daughters! </p>

<p>I’m surprised to hear art schools don’t offer foreign language. I went to a liberal arts school where I double majored in art and art history, and we were required to have at least two years of foreign language. I studied two and they were some of my favorite classes!</p>

<p>honied_dreams: Thanks for the comment:“you guys are such great parents”. I am afraid my daughter didn’t think that way. She think she is mature and can make it by herself, ask me to stop to treat her as a baby. I am learning all the options just in case she ask me for an opinion. I know you did great and you must work very hard to fulfill your dream. I think your double major in art and art history will help you in a long run. Jump in a art college for BFA have the weakness of losing the chance to gain deep and broad humanity education. Thanks for all your sharing again!</p>

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Department of the History of Art

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Nana Adusei-Poku

African diasporic art histories and curatorial studies.

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Carol Armstrong

19th-century european art; history of photography; feminist art history; history of art criticism.

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British art, 1700 to present; victorian visual culture; art of the british empire; american art of the nineteenth-century; post-colonial studies; gender studies.

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Northern european art, 1400-1700.

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Modern and contemporary architecture.

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Ancient and colonial latin american art; mesoamerica; art theory and aesthetics; materiality; art and language.

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American decorative arts and material culture; global craft.

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European and american modernism.

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Cécile Fromont

African and south atlantic art.

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Greek art and archaeology; greek visual culture.

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Medieval european art and architecture.

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Art of pre-modern to contemporary china; chinese painting.

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American art; history of photography.

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Islamic art and architecture.

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European art and art theory 1600-1800.

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Japanese art; buddhist art and iconography.

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