<p>I'm planning to apply this fall for my PhD in art history. I'm aware of what the big name schools are.... but am having some trouble discerning the methodological orientation of them. I've tried looking at faculty but since all schools have 1-2 people for each field, it's still been difficult to construe any general idea about the school's orientation. I am planning to focus on contemporary art and theory, and mostly interested in painting, photography, and film. For schools, I have in mind Yale, Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and UCLA (But I'm of course, open to info on some other schools - Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford, etc.). Does anyone have insight into this?</p>
<p>You need to discern the methodological orientations of the faculty with whom you will be working -- in other words, your advisor, and folks likely to be on your committee. There's usually no way to identify the methodological orientation of an entire department, since it is highly unlikely the faculty will all be "on the same page," so to speak. There are sometimes methodological factions, sometimes not. Just make sure there are enough faculty who do your sort of thing to comprise your committee.</p>
<p>TSN, I'm doing the exact same thing as you. I am looking to study Contemporary Art with theory and criticism. I too have noticed the same thing in regards to seeing 1 or 2 staff members listed for each specialty. </p>
<p>I'm applying this fall as well. So far I've narrowed it down to Stanford, Northwestern, maybe Harvard, and University of Chicago. I really don't know if I will get into the excellent schools but it's worth a try.</p>
<p>If you don't think you'll mind living in New York for the next 7 years (if you're going for Ph.D.) I would definitely look at Columbia and CUNY...both excellent schools for Art History.</p>
<p>Me, I'm concerned about the living expenses and conditions if I live in New York. I'm a very small girl and fear a lack of safety.</p>
<p>with any given major, u have to narrow your scope further, i see. for art history, like history, u narrow it by region and era. so, does this mean they will be examining your application in consideration of the field you chose? For example, if you chose ancient art, will they take to liking if u took greek or latin? i ask this because i'm thinking of applying under art history myself for graduate study. but, i'm also thinking about classics or philology.</p>