dr. t

Where I am, a professor giving anything less than an A- to a graduate student is a polite way of saying that he or she doesn't think that student should be in grad school.

Did you not know this going in? Why not?

2nd year MA in History: I estimate I put in somewhere between 50-70 hours a week, of which I'd guess classes and classwork consumes about 20-30 and the rest is my own research & projects.

I don't know about usual SSP applications. I was a student at Harvard Extension School and allowed to apply before graduation. I was also pretty much assured of getting in, so also a rare situation! The best advice I have is: have a plan, and make it a good one. Who are you going to work with, are they on campus, are they generous with their time. Also, the things around classes (workshops, colloquia, networking, etc.) are WAY more important - and what you're really paying for at Harvard - than classes themselves.

I wouldn't say seminars are afterthoughts, but yeah, I would have never have done it if I didn't have grants covering it. I don't even think you can really get a good LoR out of it - T1 professors are (in my experience) usually too busy for casual chats and only teaching 1 semester. Caveat emptor.

It does not - or at least, it didn't for me. At $5,000 a class, though, it's not a great deal without external means of financial support that aren't loans..

Every place I'm applying to specifies. It ranges between 500 and 2500 words, so I have to prepare a unique draft for most schools. It's probably wise to do the same.

There is no longer a ThD at HDS. All doctoral degrees are now administered through the CSR, and the CSR awards PhDs.

My experience with NT studies at HDS has been through Bazzana, who is not particularly warm towards most positivist or historical-critical approaches to either testament. My takeaway from his course on Apocalyptic literature last spring was that the historical-critical approach to the NT is pretty much nonsense. My concern is not so direct as others. I'm sure you'll be able maintain your beliefs, incorporate the aspects of your education you find useful, and discard those you do not. Nor is the problem that you will get angry pushback. Students at HDS are universally very gentle (too gentle, IMO) with others' beliefs. The problem is that you may get no pushback; being intellectually challenged is the reason why you go to graduate school. Second, I would infer from your theological stance that you are probably pretty socially conservative, and HDS just put up trans* friendly bathroom signs on single-occupancy bathrooms to be more inclusive with regard to gender identity. In other words, a liberal social agenda matters a lot - way more than any particular theological position - to most of the people here, and you may find your two years a bit lonely.

So which professors at HDS interested you specifically? Bazzana?

Agreed. I'm not sure that's precisely what sacklunch meant. There are many types of challenges, and not all of them are purely intellectual.

Today, I discovered Clairefontaine notebooks with French-ruled paper. Heaven.

Why bother with carrying (and losing) your data when cloud storage is so cheap?

I have a Lenovo 13" ultrabook which I take to school and a desktop (with two monitors) at home. The ultrabook can handle all my browsing and word-processing needs while my home rig handles the more processor-intensive things I need like GIS software. Together, they cost about $2000, which is about $500 less than a laptop which can match my desktop. Plus, it's a lot easier to upgrade a tower.

When your pens cost $40 each, you tend to keep pretty good track of them

If you have a local copy shop, they're usually much cheaper and better than Staples. If your school has a geography department, if your library maintains maps, of if there's an architecture department, they should each have a machine capable of printing a poster.

I use extra-fine Lamy Safaris. I recently switched from preloaded cartridges to bottle ink, which is cheaper. I have a distinct preference for Blueline notebooks, though anything with good paper is tolerable.

This may on the surface of it seem unfair, but there's a twisted logic to it, if it is true. It's easy to think that perfecting your written work and research is the most important part of graduate school, and most graduate programs certainly encourage that sort of thinking. However, it's really important to remember that while your CV gets you in the door, your oral presentation skills will actually get you a job. This may not have even been your professor's intent, but it's a good lesson to learn nonetheless.

Well, first off, I don't think your problem will be so much how to deal with bombing your first paper as much as it is how to deal with your professor. You seem to have some pretty basic disagreements. I've received plenty of negative feedback on my writing and speaking - how can you improve if you don't know what's wrong - and public embarrassment is, if used correctly, an effective teaching technique, but I don't know anyone who would use it as their first teaching technique. I would certainly go talk to him and see what's up. The worst that can happen is that he tells you all the things you're doing wrong. For the rest of it, I've always taken the little bit of advice from Adventure Time:

This is phrased somewhat negatively and the author isn't my favorite person, but it's sound advice: Grad school is one of the last opportunities you will have to freely admit ignorance, make mistakes, or explore new intellectual ground and get feedback on it not only from your peers, but also from your supervisors without repercussion. Failing to take advantage of this only hurts you. You should also remember that 'talent' is, more or less not a real thing. When I first started, the distance I perceived between myself and other graduate students was immense. They were so good at this. They should be - they've been doing it longer. After two and a half years, I still recognize that some of these people are significantly smarter than me, but the distance between us is less than it was.

Just fail them all. I kid, I kid. What is it about grading that terrifies you? The professor, bitchy undergraduates, all of the above?

Brepols Cross-Database Search Tool for the Christian Latin Corpus.

You! You are the person I always hated as an undergraduate! The three most terrifying words in the English language: "Everybody form groups." P.S. P.P.S. Seriously though.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯