Appointment as a Fellow includes financial support. Admission is selective and competitive based on the number of well-qualified applicants and the limits of available faculty and facilities. Those who meet stated minimum academic requirements are not guaranteed admission, nor are those who fail to meet those requirements necessarily precluded from admission if they offer other appropriate strengths. All admitted students receive a fellowship which provides full tuition and an annual stipend. In order to be considered, all application materials, including the GRE scores, must be received no later than January 15 of the year for which admission is desired.
Admission is by fellowship only.
The Winterthur Program takes two years of full-time study to complete, beginning in July of the year of acceptance. The degree requires at least 42 course credit hours and includes a written thesis. No special examinations or language are required. These begin in the summer of entrance with intensive training in the decorative arts with a focus on the Winterthur collection. Courses incorporate connoisseurship, research methods, and theoretical approaches to the study of American material life, spanning the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.