Application Materials

Deadlines

• All applications for Fall 2022 admission (with or without fellowship consideration) must be submitted online by December 15, 2021 at 8:59pm PST. 
•  We will only accept applications for the Fall semester.
• Please note that the Department will not review your application until we have received all documents along with the $120 application fee for U.S. citizens or permanent residents, or $140 for all other applicants (payable online).

Materials

Application

• Applicants must complete the online application which will open September 15, 2021.
• If you wish to be considered for University fellowships and/or Foreign Language Area Scholarship (FLAS), you must complete the Financial Aid Statement.

Application Components

Statement of Purpose

The faculty considers the Statement of Purpose to be one of the most important parts of your application. We look for a clear, well-written essay of appropriate length (2 pages single spaced) that demonstrates a sophisticated sense of the field of art history and that indicates the scholarly direction you wish to take. Another important factor affecting the decision of the Graduate Admissions Committee is the compatibility of your research interests with those of our faculty. Please review our current faculty members and their fields of expertise on the Faculty Webpages. Please note that we also require a Personal History Statement. 

Writing Sample

All applicants are required to submit one writing sample of approximately 20 pages. The sample should be a formal, scholarly piece of writing that preferably addresses analytically a topic that is historical in nature. Post-MA applicants should submit their master’s thesis.  

Letters of Recommendation/Transcripts

You should arrange for a maximum of three letters of recommendation to be sent to the Department of History of Art, through the online application. Such letters are most helpful when they speak specifically to the applicant’s achievement and potential in the history of art, or in related fields such as history or languages and literature, with an emphasis on recent academic work. It is your responsibility to ensure that recommendation letters reach us by December 15, 2021. Your official, sealed transcript from each college or university attended must be submitted to the department only upon admission. 

GRE/TOEFL

The GRE General Exam is optional for domestic applicants who attended college in the U.S., applicants from abroad whose native language is English, and those who have studied full time for one year or more in schools or universities where English is the language of instruction. Foreign applicants from non-English speaking countries are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The passing score for the TOEFL is 90. If you chose to submit your GRE scores, the GRE institutional code is 4833 and departmental code is 2301. The TOEFL institutional code is 4833 and the departmental code is 26.