xypathos

It's going to vary depending on master's or PhD, subfield, etc.
That said, "near-publishable quality" shouldn't be taken to literally mean that you tried to get it published. Rather, the paper should be research oriented, addressing a substantial philosophical argument or a paper that shows your ability to entice out nuances in extremely difficult material. Faculty don't want to read your book report or your glorified timeline of 20th C. French existentialism. The former works are quality that editors love to put in their journal. The latter faculty make themselves read after their fifth whisky.
I think Brown's guidelines for prospective philosophy applicants is the best there is.

It's going to vary depending on master's or PhD, subfield, etc.
That said, "near-publishable quality" shouldn't be taken to literally mean that you tried to get it published. Rather, the paper should be research oriented, addressing a substantial philosophical argument or a paper that shows your ability to entice out nuances in extremely difficult material. Faculty don't want to read your book report or your glorified timeline of 20th C. French existentialism. The former works are quality that editors love to put in their journal. The latter faculty make themselves read after their fifth whisky.
I think Brown's guidelines for prospective philosophy applicants is the best there is.

MDiv or MTS? I presume MTS given the more academic nature of interests but this is important to know. Knowing which degree you want, if helpful, would also help us craft your PS and topics to stay away from or ones not to spend too much time on.
It's probably too late but double check that the schools you're applying to actually want the GRE. The vast majority of M* programs don't require it and some specifically ask you not to send them. That said, a 160V is a good score for master's programs. The reality is that you *might* need to retake it to get in the 163+ range but cross that bridge later. Outside of university "topping off" scholarships, no one cares about Q scores and these rarely go to people in the Humanities anyway.
If you're wanting to really get into monasticism-proper and what's driving these pockets of resurgance I'd take a second look at this list. I haven't looked at Harvard's faculty in a hot minute but I know there are plenty of opportunities to engage Buddhist and Hindu monasticism, but other than the occasional Jesuit faculty member, I don't know what else HDS has to offer. That said, maybe there's someone over in CSR doing something. For me, as an episcopal priest, having access to SSJE in Cambridge would be great and BTI as a whole.
My gut with Yale is more or less the same. I know Stephen Davis works in this area sometimes, and I know people over in the History department that do as well. My concern, probably minor, is that monasticism at either Yale or Harvard, if that is what you want to do, will be piecemeal.
Why BU?
BC would be great here too. Again, it also gives you access to BTI.
CUA makes sense.
I'd look at Notre Dame too.
Unless you have an interest in material culture, I would mention it in passing - a sentence or two. It's unique and speaks to you but that's about it.
My advice might change depending on what type of degree you want and a more refined research statement/interests. But, I'm not sure I'd spend real estate in my SOP on it. A quasi-economic study about the resurgence of contemporary monasticism could be interesting but nothing you've said says you're interested in economic research/history. Put it in your resume until something bigger comes along.
I'd probably fancy this up and spin it into you talking about interests in digital humanities, archival work, etc. I don't know that I'd necessarily tie digitizing baptismal records to rose-tinted goggles of Catholicism.
I would significantly narrow down your info on language experience ONLY to those languages pertinent to your interests (and those that you're willing to study further should your advisor and/or committee want it) and don't mention any of the others. Obviously speak to Latin, but very succinctly, speak to the various ways that you were involved.
Under no circumstance should you write about where you attended high school. The only way this story comes across is you throwing shade and insulting Harvard, "You only exist because of my high school!" which is akin to "ergo, we're technically better than you!" It's made even more problematic due to the fact that you didn't attend Harvard or one of their rivals.
 
HDS being a top choice is fine but it needs more justification than "You have this one course, you're willing to hire Catholics, and you're not too conservative." Regarding the course you want to take, I think Dr. Fiorenza teaches that to undergrads. I'm not sure on HDS' policy on students being allowed to take undergrad courses. Sometimes you can if you do extra work and sometimes it's an automatic no.

Duke tends to take about six weeks to respond so I'd say expect something by mid-December. Princeton, I don't recall, the results listing seems to signify a lot of responses coming out in February but I don't know when they all applied.
Duke's financial aid is either really good or really bad. I don't hear of there being much middle ground with them. Princeton funds PCUSA members at 100% and everyone else generally at 80%.

That'll come but for the time being a number of former consulting colleagues have said some of the top private universities are looking hard at Disaggregated Faculty Models of operation. In these systems you have a faculty member responsible for teaching and then a different person who is responsible for evaluation of student's work. The obvious downside to this - not much need for a TA. While grading is often a TA's responsibility, this system generally relies on someone only doing grading and not needing mentoring, training, etc along the way. There's a lot more downside too but that's a longer post.
A major university in the northeast has this system rolled out to their part-time/non-traditional students already but they've taken it a step further. The instruction is done via prerecorded lectures and then grading done via, at a minimum, master's level educated examiners. Faculty are paid a royalty per student so some have really focused on quality while others have opted for quantity. Its been at work now for two years and slated to be rolled out to the wider undergraduate body for online courses by 2025.
I know of another 10-12 universities that have working groups working on various models of this system, most of them actively talking about phasing out a number of PhD slots as a result. Simply, it's cheaper to pay someone at a laptop to grade than to train up another faculty member.

Even if you rate yourself a workaholic, I'd never encourage someone to take more than three courses their first semester. The work expected of you is going to be higher than as a M* student. On top of that, and this is school dependent, but you're going to be encouraged to take on administrative responsibilities too - sitting on a committee (mostly), and probably other small things. All of this is in addition to balancing social and personal responsibilities.
Start at three and see how you feel in the spring. Keep in mind though that as you get settled into the program they tend to ask more of you.

I noticed even before replying but it's something that comes up every year, so I think it's useful to have it closer to the top. That's to say that your advice is useful so don't feel bad!

Rivera didn't go to HDS directly from Drew though, which is important to note. The prestige of your school (more so your specific faculty) is helpful in getting your first appointment but the more you're removed from that, it's on you.
The fact is though the vast majority of Drew graduates languish on the job market at lower end schools, cobbling together adjunct work until, hopefully, they land a TT-eligible position some number of years down the road. This isn't a problem specific to Drew though, it's everyone - even schools like Yale and Harvard have graduates going onto second and third rate schools b/c that's all that is available with the market the way it is. With RS/theology degrees at a large number of schools taking 7+ years to do, departments downsizing, etc it will only get worse.
Anyway, ranking schools in such a diverse and interdisciplinary field like Religious Studies (inc. of theology) is just plain stupid. That said, I have contemplated a consolidated directory of programs and an easy enough sorting list based on broad faculty expertise that could be updated within seconds. I know from my own application time that there were schools I missed with solid 1-2 faculty simply because I didn't know the school had a graduate program in RS or related field.

Rivera didn't go to HDS directly from Drew though, which is important to note. The prestige of your school (more so your specific faculty) is helpful in getting your first appointment but the more you're removed from that, it's on you.
The fact is though the vast majority of Drew graduates languish on the job market at lower end schools, cobbling together adjunct work until, hopefully, they land a TT-eligible position some number of years down the road. This isn't a problem specific to Drew though, it's everyone - even schools like Yale and Harvard have graduates going onto second and third rate schools b/c that's all that is available with the market the way it is. With RS/theology degrees at a large number of schools taking 7+ years to do, departments downsizing, etc it will only get worse.
Anyway, ranking schools in such a diverse and interdisciplinary field like Religious Studies (inc. of theology) is just plain stupid. That said, I have contemplated a consolidated directory of programs and an easy enough sorting list based on broad faculty expertise that could be updated within seconds. I know from my own application time that there were schools I missed with solid 1-2 faculty simply because I didn't know the school had a graduate program in RS or related field.

Even if you rate yourself a workaholic, I'd never encourage someone to take more than three courses their first semester. The work expected of you is going to be higher than as a M* student. On top of that, and this is school dependent, but you're going to be encouraged to take on administrative responsibilities too - sitting on a committee (mostly), and probably other small things. All of this is in addition to balancing social and personal responsibilities.
Start at three and see how you feel in the spring. Keep in mind though that as you get settled into the program they tend to ask more of you.

Even if you rate yourself a workaholic, I'd never encourage someone to take more than three courses their first semester. The work expected of you is going to be higher than as a M* student. On top of that, and this is school dependent, but you're going to be encouraged to take on administrative responsibilities too - sitting on a committee (mostly), and probably other small things. All of this is in addition to balancing social and personal responsibilities.
Start at three and see how you feel in the spring. Keep in mind though that as you get settled into the program they tend to ask more of you.

You should still be fine. In your PS (Personal Statement) I'd include no more than 2-3 sentences explaining what happened and move on. I wouldn't bother with redoing the course unless that is important to you.

I'm ABD from a university in the southeast and currently working as an instructor in Texas as I finish up my dissertation. My field is contemporary theology in the US: how evangelicals discuss theodicy and its implications on the environment and marginalized populations, part. people with disabilities.
Time management has always been a struggle of mine - I'm still shitty about keeping my eye on assignments due and prioritizing them. So, I went old school about two years ago and got one of those large paper monthly calendars you use to see on people's desks. It's now mounted on the wall in front of my desk so that I always see it while working. It lets me write in meetings, assignments, "Read 15 pages of X on the 15th, 10 on the 16th," etc. My close friend actually secured a whiteboard on wheels that they use instead, which I like as a probably more longterm solution but I live in a studio so space is precious.
I teach full-time now at a small college in Texas while I finish my dissertation. My actual teaching workload is probably 15 hours a week, with another 10-15 on preparation. The rest is advising some students and minor administrative duties that average less than 5 hours a week.
I've tried multiple word processors from Word, Google Docs, Open Office, etc but I always come back to Word for the same reasons that @sacklunch noted - it syncs well with OneDrive and Dropbox. I'll take this time to stress that you need a subscription to OneDrive, Dropbox, or some type of secure place. Computers fail and you don't want to lose your work. My wife kept her dissertation on her laptop, not backed up anywhere else, and sure enough her laptop crashed one evening and we could not get it to work again. We took it to a tech who advised us that the laptop was garbage now but he was able to salvage large parts of her dissertation and other documents so she could rebuild it. Lesson learned but it was an intense two weeks that seriously caused her to contemplate dropping out.
I reserve one full day a week for non-school time, usually Sunday (I also work as a supply priest so it's convenient) and then a half-day somewhere else in the week. If I have to give up on something it's the half-day but that hasn't happened in quite a while.
I use Zotero for references and cataloging my research. It was a mandatory workshop for my M* so I've just kept using it and don't have any experience with other software.
When I was pre-comp I dedicated myself to reading an article or chapter a week from my school's reading list in preparation for comps. Sometimes I could get two done in a week if it was short or more directly relevant to my research. My process was to quick skim the text to understand framework, let that simmer for a day or so, reconstruct from memory, and then using the text as a guide I filled in the holes and did a more thorough analysis.
I still don't like taking notes on PDFs so I print things out and write in the margins. If it's a lengthy file I'll use the Notes feature on Mac because I don't want to print out 100 pages for something that might have 15 pages that are relevant. Otherwise my notes are categorized somehow: pre-comp they were sorted to their relevant exam/class/etc., now its done by chapter in my dissertation.
I admittedly haven't really touched languages since passing my reading exams given the contemporary nature of my field and a focus on North America (spec. USA), I don't see that changing. I did exams in French and German, and one in Latin though I studied it in high school and college and have kept up with it some, but it's not relevant to my work.

I'd pick Notre Dame, I think. At the very least you'll graduate with much lower debt. Yale's offer only covers tuition so everything else you need to decide.
If you do want to seriously consider teaching in Catholic schools, ND's name carries far more weight. Doesn't ND also have a M* in religious education for students that want to teach? I imagine having the ability to get a course or two under your belt in pedagogy or something would be beneficial.
I can't speak to ND directly, but presumably their curriculum would permit you to take courses in political theory or in a number of departments?
 

As you've noted, I've also had a fair number of Buddhist friends go to HDS and Chicago and speak well of the programs. My concern for UTSNYC is that it's a 72 hour program that lets you do 27 hours in Buddhism. So if you're wanting to do a deep dive into Mahayana Buddhism, Union isn't the first place I would consider, otherwise you're doing a traditionally Christian M.Div and doing a minor along the way. 
GTU's IBU is well respected and it'd put you in a place where you can explore spiritual care from other traditions rather easily. As with all GTU programs, financial aid is the issue that you're going to run into. Union will also be a financial aid hurdle to jump through but access to Columbia and the wider NYC area doing your work could prove interesting.
Not talked about much here but a place I visit often when visiting family in Colorado is Naropa University in Boulder. You would be able to do a M.Div there catered specifically to ind-Tibetan Buddhism. I love the campus, the students that have dedicated themselves to languages have been known to go onto Harvard, Chicago, Oxford, etc.; and spiritual care is a strong driving force of the school. Again though, financial aid would likely be a concern.
There's University of the West too but I know very little about them, though I know they're not directly Tibetan. They have a M.Div in Buddhist Chaplaincy and it has regional accreditation.

Very common to have no published papers and in many ways, desirable. The work you produced as a M* student, hopefully, should be second rate to what you've done as a doc student, just as faculty work should trump student work.
As my advisor put it: Your focus as a M* student should entirely be focused on consuming knowledge. We don't want students that as M* students felt like they knew it so well that they needed to go educating others, because ultimately you known jack shit.
I think it's beneficial to have some kind of presentation(s) under your belt though, only because it helps you talk about your research interests. There are regional meetings and graduate student conferences that are run for this very reason, a space for budding and new scholars to bounce ideas off of other young people.

CUA is offering their Semitic courses online this summer: Syriac, Coptic. Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic (focus on Christian Arabic literature).
Princeton will continue to offer German, French, and Latin for reading exam purposes - online. At $525/course it's rather affordable.

CUA is offering their Semitic courses online this summer: Syriac, Coptic. Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic (focus on Christian Arabic literature).
Princeton will continue to offer German, French, and Latin for reading exam purposes - online. At $525/course it's rather affordable.

CUA is offering their Semitic courses online this summer: Syriac, Coptic. Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic (focus on Christian Arabic literature).
Princeton will continue to offer German, French, and Latin for reading exam purposes - online. At $525/course it's rather affordable.

As you've noted, I've also had a fair number of Buddhist friends go to HDS and Chicago and speak well of the programs. My concern for UTSNYC is that it's a 72 hour program that lets you do 27 hours in Buddhism. So if you're wanting to do a deep dive into Mahayana Buddhism, Union isn't the first place I would consider, otherwise you're doing a traditionally Christian M.Div and doing a minor along the way. 
GTU's IBU is well respected and it'd put you in a place where you can explore spiritual care from other traditions rather easily. As with all GTU programs, financial aid is the issue that you're going to run into. Union will also be a financial aid hurdle to jump through but access to Columbia and the wider NYC area doing your work could prove interesting.
Not talked about much here but a place I visit often when visiting family in Colorado is Naropa University in Boulder. You would be able to do a M.Div there catered specifically to ind-Tibetan Buddhism. I love the campus, the students that have dedicated themselves to languages have been known to go onto Harvard, Chicago, Oxford, etc.; and spiritual care is a strong driving force of the school. Again though, financial aid would likely be a concern.
There's University of the West too but I know very little about them, though I know they're not directly Tibetan. They have a M.Div in Buddhist Chaplaincy and it has regional accreditation.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I also received a few very helpful PMs.
I've decided to stay at the University of Washington. Ultimately, it came down to the flexibility of the program, faculty interests, and geographical preferences. Time will tell if I made the right decision - if in two years, I'm back here panicking because I was rejected from all my PhD apps, I will know I made the wrong call
Here's to the next two years!

Grad students are here. As per taking courses outside the Div. School the policy can be found here. In short, such courses must be directly relevant to your goals and if you take a fourth course in the same department it'll trigger a PSC review which is more of a formality and gives a more structured chance to decide how the the two departments (Div School and Medieval) might work together to support you, while also making sure that you're on track with everything.

@Fiat I'd take a look at Yale's associated faculty for their Medieval Studies program, if you haven't already, and see if there are faculty there you could envision taking a course with.
They always post semester courses here but Fall 2020 hasn't been posted yet and it looks like course search hasn't been updated for Fall yet either.
There's not a lot of Religious Studies peeps on their faculty list but there are some. The Christian medievalists that I know, few in number, have not come from Yale but that doesn't mean you can't be very successful there!
Under their People heading is a listing of current grad students with contact information. The few I looked at all had bios too, so I'd find someone that you connect with and try to get their honest opinion. My limited experience has told me that you're more likely to get a frank assessment over the phone than by email, FYI.

In almost all cases, assuming you're looking for a program here in the States - they (speaking to RS programs) aren't really going to care about German beyond reading level. By reading level, I mean your ability to understand the basics and being capable of translating a passage with use of a dictionary (usually permitted). I honestly don't think anyone is going to test oral skills to see if you can carry on a conversation in a technical manner. This might vary if you apply to political theory programs, I can't speak personally to that.
If you have solid command of a language, I think you can get reading level up to a safe enough level for a reading exam fairly easily. Mileage will vary, naturally but most of my classmates have done it too since our stipends and tuition don't cover language courses if they're not vital to our proposed area of study.
It'll depend on program but a lot of them prefer, some state it outright, an applicant to have one research language already done. So on that premise I'd advise to start in on French. If you're attending a MDiv program that has access to a PhD - HYCPD-etc., see about taking the reading exam, even if it's unofficial. At the very least it'll give you a gauge of your skills and if they're willing to make it official and put something on your transcript, that'll be a box you can already have checked off.

Sure! I'm heading into class now but I'll send you a PM with my thoughts - just wanted you to know that I've seen this!