Samahito

I, too, finally received my rejection letter from Harvard's CSR PhD (Buddhist Studies; South Asian Religions; & Religion, Gender and Culture subfields) via an email to check the application website. Though, happily, about 20 minutes later I was notified I had a paper accepted to a conference this summer in the UK. Academia, you crazy!

Echoing @Laodiceans' advice above, I would steer clear of Liberty if you wish to pursue graduate education at a top-tier program. Surely there are better-regarded online undergraduate programs in religious studies/theology? Also, as you identified in your original post, Liberty's "conservative" politics are going to be quite a bit different than the "liberalism" of top theology programs in the US. Unless you can turn that into a compelling narrative, I would think that you'd be doing yourself a disservice by pursuing undergraduate training that will almost certainly be at ideological odds with the kind you aspire to undergo in graduate study. What makes you want to want to attend Liberty, specifically, in the first place? I would strongly suggest looking at a wider variety of online programs. ASU, for instance, has an online-only Religious Studies BA program (http://asuonline.asu.edu/online-degree-programs/undergraduate/bachelor-arts-religious-studies). My .02

Also waiting on Harvard's CSR PhD (not ThD) program. I've heard back from everywhere else I applied to. Re. Harvard, I applied to the Buddhist Studies, South Asian Religions, and Religion, Gender, and Culture subfields. I didn't receive a request to interview, though I met with several of the faculty members I'm interested in working with last November at the Atlanta AAR. Fingers crossed!

@hswg, I can't speak to the specifics of Princeton but this is a standard part of the process. Individual admissions committees recommend candidates for admission, and the process gets finalized a few days or weeks later when the graduate school makes the final determination. Except in unusual circumstances, a graduate school will almost always accept the decision of the admissions committee, provided you meet the minimum requirements (GPA, etc) set by the school. Congratulations, it sounds like you got in!

Update: Not sure if anybody on here applied this year, but I heard from my POI at Cornell that we should know something about the Asian Literature, Religion, and Culture PhD program soon (I applied for South and Southeast Asia concentrations). Fingers, toes, and just about everything else crossed...

Thanks, @raleighheth. Good luck with your interviews! I hope good news comes your way.

Somebody posted a rejection from Harvard's PhD in the Study of Religion on the 4th. Anybody want to claim it? Any insights into whether or not decisions are going around? Thanks!

Has anybody who applied to UVa's HR (History of Religions) program received a decision? My application still says "submitted." Thanks!

Boulder is a very prestigious school. I was just at the Pacific APA last week and saw Pasnau and Norcross, both phenomenal. I'll be there in the fall, but doing a Religious Studies M.A.

CU Boulder

I'm writing this on the MBA I got around the time I accepted admission to my program for the Fall (current endergrad senior). It was like a graduation / Whoo hoo, I'm going to Grad School gift to myself. Pragmatically speaking, my old HP would intermittently shut down when the CPU overheats (which was happening more and more often) plus shitty battery life. I'm in the humanities, so its unlikely I'll be running any serious statistical analysis or video editing or anything like that. I do use LaTeX and Mendeley and a few other academic-specific programs which all run beautifully, as do Photoshop and Illustrator -- that and the 6-7 hour battery life, I say go for it. I have the 13 in, 128MB. I have a 1TB external so the smaller HD isn't too bothersome.

Accepted admission for M.A. in Religious Studies. I'm flying out there from Sacramento for a visit next month to check out the program, meet my advisor, and attend a conference that the dept. is co-sponsoring. I happen to fly in the day that CU Speakers Series is hosting a talk by Salman Rushdie. Super stoked! I've been looking at housing and checking out Ralphie's List. A grad student in my program said that many grad students live in Longmont, which is about 12 miles north (with frequent bus service - which the CU ID card pays for). I've also been looking at the Goss-Grove neighborhood as I'll be taking classes at Naropa as well. I found a pretty cheap hotel within walking distance of the S.E. side of campus that has pretty good reviews, I'll let everybody know what I think when I come back. The dept. is contributing some toward my airfare, for which I'm very grateful -- but since I'm not visiting as part of a planned visit weekend or anything (no such event exists in my dept) I'm covering most of my expenses. Go Buffs

As a graduating undergrad senior in an analytic-heavy philosophy program, I din't have much interaction with my religious studies profs (I'm a RELS minor) when it came time to get letters. I chose professors whose classes I did really well in irrespective of the subject matter. For instance, one of my strongest letters for my religious studies M.A. applications came from a professor with whom I took Inductive Logic and Philosophical Naturalism. Find professors who can speak to your capacity to write well, your maturity, and the depth of thought and insight you bring to discussions. The subject matter of the courses (in my own anecdotal experience) matters somewhat less. As far as 'level' of faculty, I selected three tenured profs (from philosophy, religious studies, and history) and one lecturer who's strengths most closely match my own, and who's course in Indian Philosophy I did very well in. Again, I think it really comes down to well you grow and perform in courses, and not the status or discipline of the professor.

I just heard back from the graduate coordinator, not admitted. I'm not surprised. It was a fairly pleasant email. I'm definitely going to CU Boulder!

Thought I'd bring this to the top and ask if anybody has heard back from IUB this year. Nothing on the results page for 2013 yet. The department secretary confirmed that decisions would be made by March 1st.

Both of my acceptances came from a personal email from the dept. The application page didn't show that I was admitted for several days to a week after that.

Religiousstudiesscholar, Dr. Berkwitz was definitely one of the professors I was excited to work with, but alas I decided to accept admission at CU Boulder to work with with Dr. Gayley. It was a really really tough call.

Perhaps you could also look into dual JD/MA or JD/PhD programs.

I got an unofficial acceptance email from my POI, and so emailed her back within a few hours to let her know of my excitement and gratitude. After emailing back and forth for a few weeks, I'm glad I did because it'll transfer into priority consideration for assistanceships.

Admitted to CU Boulder Religious Studies MA, one of my top choices! Waiting to hear about funding, vague hint in email that some is coming though.

Accepted to Colorado University, Boulder for the Religious Studies M.A. (Buddhist Studies) First acceptance from one of my top choices. I'm humbled and thrilled!

I'm interested in monastic/vinaya practices in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar. Also want to do Pali and Singhalese, and the history of early Buddhism and Buddhist Phil (esp the phenomonology of canonical meditation practices), and the recent controversy over Bhikkhuni ordination in Theravada. Applied to IU Bloomington, CU Boulder, UNM, Long Beach, and now, Cornell! Still waiting to hear back from all of them.

Hey everyone. I'm applying to M..A. religious studies programs at IU Bloomington, CU Boulder, and CSU Long Beach, and M.A. in Philosophy at UNM Albuquerque. I'm primarily interested in Theradada Buddhism, Pali, Singhalese, and cross-cultural analysis of monastic practices and lineages in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar, as well as the phenomenology of meditation practices in those countries. I'm finishing my UG at Cal State Sacramento in Philosophy and Religious Studies. 3.6 GPA, GRE: 160, 148, 4 (v,q,a). I did something crazy and emailed a potential POI at Cornell, and she sent me back a very positive response, encouraging me to apply to their Asian Studies program, concentrating in Asian Religion. I've spent some time in Sri Lanka, and even ordained as a novice monk for a short time, I've learned some Pali, and have a good grasp of French. Despite the fact that the deadline was Jan 15th, do you guys think I have a shot, should I go for it? I'm fairly freaking out

PhD at either of these: Indiana U Religious Studies , HDS with Eck, Berkeley or UCLA Buddhist Studies, U Chicago with Doniger and Collins, or Cornell South Asian Studies with Blackburn (top choice). I'm waiting out M.A. decisions ATM, so I plan to apply to all of these when I finish the M.A. (if/when I get accepted). Dream job: FT TT at a community college. I came up through an amazing CC and it changed my life.

Cheers, thanks to both of you. I'll be sure to reach out if I decide to go there.