matthew2725

Accepted to Yale this morning!

I was accepted internally to Chicago in HJ!

Nothing from Yale yet...liquidmountains, what's your subfield?

Unfortunately, HDS doesn't negotiate funding at all. And this is coming from someone who tried to leverage two fully funded offers at UChicago and Yale against their offer...

If I'm not mistaken, YDS doesn't require the GRE as part of the application to the Masters program.

Another silly question, with apologies in advance. Should people who have just (literally a month ago) finished their undergrad and who are heading to grad school in the fall consider submitting a paper to this sort of thing, or would it be better to wait? I feel like I have a paper or two that I could get up to scratch and submit to this, but a big part of me feels like I'm not ready at this point, and if the paper were to be accepted, it would be a resume booster but not really a...good experience. Hope that makes sense. Anyone have thoughts?

This is probably a silly question, but if you've just graduated one institution and are starting at another in the Fall, which one do you put as the one you're affiliated with when submitting a proposal?

Unfortunately, I don't...according to wikipedia (which is the devil, I know, but still...), "It is ranked number one in the field of religious studies according to the National Research Council [2]'s measure of faculty quality in its survey of all doctoral granting programs in religious studies. Along with the departments of religious studies/religion at Harvard, Yale and Columbia University, it is responsible for training the majority of those appointed to tenure track positions in religious studies at American universities." So that's hopeful. I'm also an MA person rather than an MDiv, for what that's worth. The one thing that's freaking me out a bit is that UChicago gets this really odd rap for being competitive to the point of being detrimental to people's sanity. I don't know how true that is though, and I guess to a certain extent every cohort is different...any thoughts/insights?

Title says it all, I guess? I visited recently and LOVED it, I think I'm basically decided and I'm wondering whether anyone else is?

Do you mind my asking how you were able to make up the difference for your first year? Like, did you just take out...thousands of dollars in loans and supplement it with summer jobs and things like that? You totally don't have to answer if that's too personal!

Hey everyone! So I'm stuck deciding between Yale's MARc in Hebrew Bible, and Chicago's MA in Bible...My interests are medieval and early modern Jewry (and inter-religious interaction), the book of Esther, liturgical history, feminist theology and rabbinics, but I'm excited to broaden my interests through whichever Master's program I end up picking. I know YDS has Collins, and Chicago has Fishbane, so they're both great places to go with respect to faculty. I haven't visited Chicago yet, but I've visited Yale and I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about the atmosphere at the Div school. I don't know how to put my finger on it, but I feel like Chicago would just be a little more pluralistic? Does anyone have experience with either program, and/or Chicago and New Haven as places to live? I know Chicago has a really terrible reputation because of the neighborhood, but how's the actual atmosphere for students? Is it actually "where fun goes to die?"

In case anyone's curious, appealing financial aid at HDS, at least at the Master's level, is literally impossible. Oh well. Congrats to you though, seriously. I'm hoping I'll find my fit soon!

Right, of course. I guess I'm asking because if Harvard does take financial need into account when awarding scholarship money, I'm not sure whether I understand how my funding offer worked... As a person with little to no income of one's own, whose parental finances (which I definitely entered in my FAFSA, whoops!) are a lot less than they appear on paper because we pay Canadian tax rates, is the expectation on Harvard's part that I just take out the cost of 50% tuition plus living expenses out in loans if I choose to attend? Sorry for all the questions! This stuff gets a bit confusing sometimes.

That makes sense, thanks for the info! And...I know this is probably going to sound woefully uninformed, but "parental contribution" is just automatically set to zero for all Masters applicants, yeah?

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for your response! If you don't mind my asking, did you try to get Harvard to up your offer, or did you go with the better offer?

It really comes down to a question of fit. I didn't feel comfortable at all at Yale, and while I know Chicago is a great program, it's also a very long way away from where I currently live, and the move would be hard for a number of reasons. But like I said, the most pressing issue is that of fit. There are *so* many professors at Harvard that I want to work with, and the environment just seems..much more "me" than the other two, especially Yale. I hope that makes sense. Weird when feelings have to enter into all of this stuff, right?

Well hey there all, I hope everyone's heard awesome news from awesome places! Question about HDS funding...does anyone have any experience asking for more? Out of my three schools, Harvard (which is my top choice) gave me the least amount of funding, 50% tuition as compared to full tuition at UChicago and full tuition+stipend at YDS. Does anybody have any thoughts on how/when/whether it's even possible to try to ask for more at Harvard and subtly (or not so subtly?) using the offers from the other schools as...bargaining chips, I suppose? The whole thing sounds kind of unsavory, but I don't have any experience with this at the Masters level so I'm sort of flying blind here. I know that for undergrad, I was able to get my award doubled by proving that another school had offered me a full ride, but I have no idea whether that kind of thing is looked upon as really bad in this particular arena. Thanks in advance if anyone has info, and congrats to all. It's been a wild ride...

Do you mind my asking how you ended up being able to go?

They gave me 50% tuition, but that still leaves me with nearly 30k to pay up...not the greatest.

It's always disheartening to find out that your top school isn't offering you enough money...I was so elated when I heard from HDS yesterday too. Whomp. Does anyone know whether it's standard practice to ask for more when it comes to HDS, and/or to leverage other schools' offers against theirs? I feel like there are rules to this kind of thing that I just don't know, know what I mean? Hope others got better news about that whole pesky funding situation!

People should check the Harvard application website for a change in status. I didn't get an e-mail or anything, my friend just happened to tell me that she got in so I went to check for myself... Weird that they didn't e-mail or call, but I'm okay with it! Woo! Good luck to all as we wait out the next few days of this madness!

Are these e-mail notifications or post?

Chicago is starting to send out their MA acceptances! I got an e-mail saying my application status had changed at 1:30 this morning...it also included financial aid info, which is really convenient of them. Good luck to all as we continue waiting on pins and needles for the next week!

MA or PhD?

Ah cool, thanks! It hasn't changed yet...hopefully I didn't hallucinate a phone call from the admissions guys... Also yay that you're in Winnipeg, I'm originally from Quebec. Hooray Canada!