xypathos

If you want to KNOW the language, or at least get started down that path, Middlebury would be a wonderful experience - I did it for French and Arabic. If you're working in contemporary studies and merely need reading proficiency to work with texts and ultimately pass your language exam, it's overkill - there are far better, and cheaper, options. EDIT: By better I mean options geared toward maximizing reading proficiency in a language. A lot of universities have 1+ credit courses dedicated to obtaining reading proficiency. Princeton's summer courses come HIGHLY recommended, if you can get a spot in one, that is. Outside of housing and meals, the course is about $500 or so. They're also structured so that you could do French and German in one summer block.

What are your PhD offers? I see you have Rochester and UoI unlisted as far as degree, while the others specifically listed as a M*. So, are Rochester and UoI your PhD offers? I did most of my UG in Iowa at a small LAC and spent an insane amount of time in Iowa City. I miss the city immensely. That said, their placement results, frankly, suck. For me personally, I'd love to be teaching wherever and would prefer to teach over research/extensive writing. So, while I might be ok with their placement, you very well might not be. Rochester's placement looks to be about the same quality, perhaps less since I only recognized two schools (subjective, I know).

You don't want to live in Atlanta, no one does.

Same feelings as browncow, entirely. I was anxious and looking forward to Yale, and while their rejection stung - I have to be honest to myself and admit that part of the enthusiasm was because of the name. As I looked more into Vanderbilt and its possibilities, I came to realize that it really is the best fit for me. I'm really interested in the intersection of psychology and religion, and ethics as it pertains to suicide and how the Church has handled it, on an academic level but also practically. Perhaps even further working in advocacy on some level to develop tools to assist clergy in 'being' more compassionate and alert to those that were "left behind." This was reinforced for me when I had two separate faculty members at Vanderbilt contact me and express interest in my work after they became aware of my writing sample and the content in my recommendation letters. So - I'm anxious, enthusiastic, scared, and everything in between as I move forward with this new chapter.

Looking through the VDS website, I can't find any mention of the possibility of study abroad for div. students. Are there any current or former students on the board that may be eligible to shed some light on this? It's the weekend so I won't get a reply from the admissions team, though I can certainly contact them come Monday. In particular I'm interested in opportunities that would foster inter-religious dialogue as it pertains to Buddhism. I spent the summer of 2008 in Tibet, along with two weeks each in Nepal and Myanmar. Ideally I'd like to return to these areas and work at acquiring some familiarity with the language of choice. That said, I would consider other destinations if these parts of Asia would be out of the question.

What and/or whom do you want to study with?

Rejected at Yale C'est la vie

Well, there goes the idea of waking to a decision.

Good luck to everyone that has been waiting for March 15. It's finally here!

Yes. If anything like years past, you'll get an email to check your application status.

To find out about PhD placement, you'd want to contact the department's administrator (or whatever title that program assigns). Generally, unless you're contacting a professor about their specific research or if they have interest in your work - contact the administrator first. You didn't say which M* programs you're trying to decide between but these people will be good leads: Harvard - Cheryl Henderson (cherylhenderson@fas.harvard.edu) Oxford - Katherine Croft (graduate.admissions@orinst.ox.ac.uk) - Oxford has a slew of administrators attached to the Oriental Studies program but Ms. Croft deals solely with Graduate Admissions and would know who to refer you to if she can't answer your questions. Columbia - Tamara Kachanov (tk7@columbia.edu) Chicago - Melody Harter (mharter@uchicago.edu) - Chicago has a different administrator for the MA, MDiv, and Undergraduate programs but doesn't have one listed for the PhD program. That said, Ms. Harter is the Executive Assistant to the Dean of the Divinity School and should certainly be capable of helping you out.

I'll certainly keep this in mind. Vandy has offered the best package so far and it's close to home (NC). Just waiting to hear back from Yale now and consider all my options. It's highly likely that I'll be turning down Union at this point.

I reckon it would be fine for furthering yourself, on a personal level. Should you want to pursue even further work at a reputable PhD program though, I doubt little to any of the coursework would transfer but that's also generally true of students who do a brick and mortar M* before going into a PhD program. I did roughly 25% of my UG education in an online environment and that doesn't seem to have hampered me any in getting into solid quality MDiv programs. I also supplemented my coursework with additional readings and by the time I graduated this past December, had three pieces published in lesser known, though still peer reviewed, journals. I don't like online education personally since it gives too many routes for shoddy work - from the student and professor. Being in the classroom, actively engaged in conversation with your peers just can't be replaced with a classroom that has students and faculty converse through web forums and recorded lectures. I realize it's the only option for some students, as it was for me this last year, but I was sure glad that it was over and behind me.

Tibetan: Modern - Manual of Standard Tibetan (Nicolas Tournadre and Sangda Dorje) Classical - A Tibetan Verb Lexicon (Paul Hacket)

I guess the first question is, What do you want to specialize in? If it's biblical studies, theology, historical, etc....then yes, languages is a large part of it. If you want to study say ethics, psychology and religion, American religious history - languages aren't as important but say methodology is (among others). As is building up the general toolset to be competitive, as a whole. There are people who are competitive coming out of UG but nowadays this becoming less the norm. More and more programs are looking for applicants that have already started down this path and there's several schools that are willing to heavily fund this journey for you. It looks like you're headed into academic geared M* programs which will work in your favor. These programs are already designed to help prepare you for further academic studies.

I don't think your online school is the issue. I did a significant amount of my schooling at an online school. So far I've been accepted to Union and Vanderbilt with generous funding. I'll find out about Yale this Saturday. I also witnessed a suicide - my father. It's certainly possible that you didn't make Colorado's cut. Someone had to get rejected.

While I wait to hear back from Yale, I'm currently debating between Union and Vanderbilt to eliminate one. Since Vandy doesn't have on campus housing, I'm curious as to how they (or similar schools) handle housing and food budgets. Here's how it was explained to me by a current graduate student at my school: Grants, scholarships, etc are deducted from the cost of attendance. The remaining amount is then taken out in loans. The school budgets say $15k for living expenses over the year, the school cut him two checks for each semester of roughly 7,500 each. Is this more or less accurate? I'm coming from the perspective of a residential college. While Union has on-campus housing, Vandy does not so I'm trying to imagine how that process works. I have money saved up for a couple months of rent but I'd like to devote myself to my studies as fully as possible and ideally work no more than 15-20 hrs/week.

It's a common "clause" in nearly every acceptance offer. ND is well enough off financially that I feel confident you have nothing to worry about.

Accepted to Vanderbilt. 60% merit package. Little shocked at the offer given my stats but I'm going to focus on the positive - I have choices.

I feel you. Waiting on financial aid information from Union and had an amazing four days on campus the last week. Still twiddling my thumbs waiting on Vandy and of course Yale on the 15th.

Not my area of interest so I'll defer to others. That said, this same conversation came up about four months ago in this thread:

I don't understand why people hate Chu so much. He's on a game show to win money, so naturally it makes sense for him to maximize his chances. The style of working a single category at a time, top to bottom is inefficient for working toward everyone's single goal: winning.

How did you get an early result from Yale?

What field are you looking at? I know they're in the process of replacing two professors now and obviously a third in the fall. So your department might be okay, I'd have to ask. I'm also not sure what the standard offer is for PhD students. I'm not sure what is driving the financial woes other than the practical. Union really pushes social justice, a field that generally doesn't result in alumni capable of generous giving. I was told that this has hurt the school. The school came really close to shutting down in the 90s, being bailed out by Columbia. As per current faculty, the school has yet to recover from that decade.

The school in question, Union, has given me an extra week to consider their financial aid package - so two weeks total, rather than the proposed one week turnaround. That said, I really love the school and the city A LOT but Union is very strapped for finances and financial aid will be a large contributing factor for me. The Department I'm interested in is retiring their head, and while engaged in two search committees presently, doesn't intend to replace the retiring head until Fall 2015 at the earliest. That's straight from the Dean - faculty and students I've spoken with have said they'd be surprised if someone is named before 2016, probably closer to 2017 since it is an endowed chair. The Academic Dean, during our meeting, really kept making it clear that Union just doesn't have a lot of money - at all. Several of the faculty have stated during semi-private conversations that they're surprised Union is still afloat, namely attributing it to Columbia who saved Union from shutting down. It bothers me to attend a school that is so hard pushed for finances, despite Union's wonderful reputation. So, I'm hoping that I get a tuition waiver or say roughly 70%. That would make me strongly consider it, but I feel Vandy and Yale (if accepted) are financially better off and therefore likely to make a better offer if I'm accepted. Anyway, I'll find out about aid within the next week from Union. We'll go from there.