History of Art Graduate Program

Yale has a number of interdisciplinary graduate programs in which the art history department plays an important role; among them are African and African-American, American, East Asian, Film, Medieval and Renaissance Studies. When the History of Art admissions committee has finished its work, applications not included in the accepted group may be reviewed by appropriate faculty members and transferred to the application pool of one of the above programs. If the admissions committee in that program agrees, the student is then asked whether he or she would like such a transfer to take place. As a result, a number of students in recent years have been pleased to accept offers of admission to these Yale programs. Some of these programs are for the MA only, and their graduates may then apply to continue to the Ph.D. in art history; others are for the doctorate itself.

Yale has a number of interdisciplinary graduate programs in which the art history department plays an important role; among them are African and African-American, American, East Asian, Film, Medieval and Renaissance Studies. When the History of Art admissions committee has finished its work, applications not included in the accepted group may be reviewed by appropriate faculty members and transferred to the application pool of one of the above programs. If the admissions committee in that program agrees, the student is then asked whether he or she would like such a transfer to take place. As a result, a number of students in recent years have been pleased to accept offers of admission to these Yale programs. Some of these programs are for the MA only, and their graduates may then apply to continue to the Ph.D. in art history; others are for the doctorate itself.

Applicants are required to submit a term paper or other writing sample. The committee weighs the application materials with various points in mind. The GRE scores are significant because they can compensate for any divergency in the meaning of the same grade in different colleges. In the transcript, attention is given mainly to the art history courses, noting their quantity, variety, and grades. If these are favorable, it is not always important whether the student was formally an art history major. The student’s one page statement of purpose is also read carefully.

The Graduate School corrently offers full tuition and an annual stipend for the first four years of study to all admitted students. The annual stipend is corrently $26,000. Additional honorary fellowships of $2500 may be awarded to the highest ranking applicants.