<p>After doing a search of this forum, it looks like a few people have asked about museum studies, but no one has asked about it recently or with specifics.</p>
<p>My girlfriend is considering applying for a grad program in museum studies, but she's pretty concerned about the costs when weighed against the benefits (since grad programs look to cost between $20K for leicester's one year program and $60K).</p>
<p>Does anyone have an accurate picture of what one might expect to make when they are finished with a relatively well-respected program, assuming you do well and make good use of the internship/networking opportunities? We live in a fairly museum-free area, so its difficult to gauge how much curators, administrators, etc might make in other places that we'd like to live (San Francisco, DC, Seattle, Portland, etc). Anyone have any experience or know someone who does that can comment on salaries?</p>
<p>Any comments on the relative quality of various programs would be appreciated too, though we're starting to be able to piece that together based on forum posts and other sources.</p>
<p>Check out the grad cafe there are a lot of people posting over there in art history/museum studies. Hopefully, they will be able to answer your question. If you go to the forum you can ask questions (there is an art section & an art history section check both out), but they also have a results page where people list where they get accepted & what they applied for (type art history in the search box that will bring up every acceptance/rejection posted & then try museum studies - I think most people are posting it as Art History/Museum Studies). It also gives you an area where you can post details. I think that I did see a couple of admittances that said they were actually getting paid for their masters.</p>
<p>I believe that there was a post from someone the other day that said Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH) was giving someone full tuition plus a generous stipend. If you were going to be going the museum studies route I would definately see who got money to do your masters because I am not sure but I don’t think anyone in that field get the big bucks. </p>
<p>If you go to phds.org (or com?) there is a section where you can look up jobs. Maybe they would be listing one with a salary. I believe there is also a web site where artists/art history people have a forum which lists jobs available.</p>
<p>My son is going to the Courtauld Institute of Art in London this fall for art history. One good thing about this (beside it being a fantastic school) is that you finish your masters in one year. Something to consider.</p>
<p>I don’t recommend that anyone think about going into the museum field if money and material possessions are high on their personal “must have” list. I retired from the field about three years ago at, for the museum field, an income level that was in the top 5-10% decile for the profession, but which would be pocket change for someone with comparable experience in the business world. When I first started working the rule of thumb was that museum positions should be comparable to various faculty and administrative positions at a college or – in the case of the mega-institutions such as the Met, the Smithsonian and the Field – a university. Over time the better analogy, except at the top tier of museums, became the public school.</p>
<p>It has been a few years since I last conducted searches for curatorial or education staff, so I’m not up to speed on salary levels in today’s recessionary America. I can tell you that six years ago, when I was last hiring, we were offering a salary range of 30-40K for curators and supervising museum educators at our medium-sized museum. These positions required at least a Master’s degree and 3 year’s professional experience. Of course, this was in Upstate NY. The cost of everything is higher in the Bay Area, so hopefully museum wages are appropriately higher to compensate.</p>
<p>You might want to check out current museum job listings in place like the Museum Employment Resource Center ([Museum</a> and Cultural Resource Job Vacancy Index](<a href=“http://www.museum-employment.com/jobindex.html]Museum”>http://www.museum-employment.com/jobindex.html)). The American Association of Museums and the American Association of State and Local History are two other sources for employment information, although they now require that you be a member to access their information.</p>
<p>If you really want to work in museums, I definitely recommend a graduate certificate in museum studies while you’re in graduate school. You can practically study anything but make sure your degree (MA/PhD) is tailored toward the employers’ needs (Art History, Archival Preservation, History, Library Science, etc.)</p>
<p>mom2ofOH: Thanks for the gradcafe suggestion. It looks like there are quite a few people there with interests in museum studies. I am pushing her toward a graduate program in England for precisely the same reason…it’s one year and you’re done. Plus, I’ll be applying to programs in England as well (for largely the same reason) and it would obviously be more convenient. The chances of both of us getting into good schools in the UK seem a bit remote, but its worth a shot. I think she’s considering applying to Leicester, but I’ll have her look at Courtauld…I’m obviously not familiar at all with the UK schools.</p>
<p>hudsonvalley: Yeah, she is definitely not “in it for the money.” She has been working for 7 years at what has become a dead-end job for $33K a year. She knows she could make more doing a lot of other things (medical technician, real estate, whatever) that would require less work, but she’s miserable where she’s at, so it makes sense to try to do something she’d like. I should be able to earn a bit more if I can get through grad school, so money is slightly less relevant for her than some people (but still relevant, of course). $30-40K is a bit disheartening to hear, but it looks like it varies a lot, so that’s alright. I just won’t share that number with her…I’m pushing all positive information here, otherwise I’ll never get her there.</p>
<p>Her other concern is that she would prefer places that don’t require the GRE…she’s NOT a good test taker (according to her, I wouldn’t know). That limits her a bit, but there seem to be several places–including some prestigious schools–that don’t require a GRE score. We’ll see how the search goes.</p>
That is the most sensible advice given on this thread. Many universities offer museum studies certificates to students working toward MA/PhDs in other fields. The University of Michigan and NYU are just two programs that comes to mind.</p>
<p>Given today’s job market, I would strongly discourage an applicant from looking at MA programs in museum studies if (s)he plans to attempt to get a job as a curator. A PhD is virtually required nowadays, and it should be in the appropriate field (e.g. art history with a concentration in ancient art for a curator of classical art).</p>
<p>Hmmm. I think a full-blown PhD program is bit more than she was wanting to bite off, unfortunately. She’s already quite a bit older than people starting out in the field, and I’m not sure she’ll be willing to spend 5-6 years getting a doctorate done. </p>
<p>Good information though. Any other thoughts?</p>
<p>^^ also former museum professional here (moved into a different field in the last year) and agree with hudsonvally51 above with one clarification – you can access the jobs bank at the AAM (American Association of Museums) website as a browser…check it out here:
[AAM:</a> JobHQ: Your Museum Job Headquarters](<a href=“http://museumcareers.aam-us.org/search/browse/]AAM:”>http://museumcareers.aam-us.org/search/browse/)</p>