11Q13

I like that idea a lot!

I'm staring the round of introductory emails to professors I'd like to work with. I feel like sending my CV along with a brief email introducing myself would be better than sending a longer email which probably wouldn't cover as much ground as looking over my CV. I'm also planning to ask, based on my CV, if I'd be a competitive applicant. So... bad etiquette to include a CV?

they wont care. as long as your essay score was 4.5+ you're golden.

I hadn't heard about the program until one of the students here got in. I asked one of the NT profs about it and they said the reputation is quite good.

applying to PhD's would be a waste of your money. You should talk to your advisor/religion professors you study with for guidance.

I'm only now beginning to research where to apply. The only places I would be excited about so for are Harvard and Notre Dame. I'll apply to UC Berkeley/GTU, Duke, and Yale as well...beyond that, not sure yet.

Methodist with a view of Jesus heavily influenced from the Third Quest ...apparently it shows 1. Orthodox Judaism (100%) 2. Sikhism (95%) 3. Islam (92%) 4. Baha'i Faith (91%) 5. Eastern Orthodox (79%) 6. Roman Catholic (79%) 7. Hinduism (76%) 8. Reform Judaism (76%) 9. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (72%) 10. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (68%) 11. Orthodox Quaker (65%) 12. Seventh Day Adventist (65%) 13. Jainism (62%) 14. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (59%) 15. Liberal Quakers (55%) 16. Jehovah's Witness (54%) 17. Neo-Pagan (52%) 18. Mahayana Buddhism (49%) 19. Unitarian Universalism (47%) 20. Scientology (42%) 21. New Thought (36%) 22. Theravada Buddhism (34%) 23. New Age (33%) 24. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (32%) 25. Nontheist (22%) 26. Secular Humanism (19%) 27. Taoism (18%) I'm pretty sure my result is because I am all over the map on social issues, including some conservative beliefs, and I have a less than orthodox understanding of Jesus.

no i will not write your research paper for you.

I knew Dr. Buth when I lived in Israel, went to a Seder at his house actually... interesting fellow. Not sure how useful his method is, haven't tried it myself. I'll be applying to PhD's in the fall, so I will be mid-way through a year of German and Aramaic. I already have 3 years biblical Greek and 2.5 years biblical and rabbinic Hebrew under my belt. My focus is Second Temple Judaism, so the program names vary from New Testament, New Testament and Early Christianity/Christian Origins, Second Temple Judaism, etc.

Well, I would say a B or B+ is still better than a pass/fail. Also, being able to say you got a B because you were having a baby would sound better than saying you took it pass/fail because you were having a baby. The former sounds like you tried your hardest and did the work, the latter sounds like you were expecting to be busy so you only did as little as you needed to pass. If you were expecting something in B- territory then I might start to say a pass/fail is better, but if you're doing a second year of Greek you will probably need to do better anyway.

I don't know why you guys are bothering with on campus housing at all. plenty of room in slummerville.

It will completely depend on the school, you would have to call them up and ask. Harvard doesn't allow the transfer of any courses, ever.

With the faculty its not a problem. With the students, who you'll have to deal with much more, it's a totally different story. As far as the students go, any tradition that's not pluralistic will have some combination of feminists and homosexuals making T-shirts in protest, etc.

not.

You copied that out of a sociology 101 textbook, that's exactly the point. The wage disparity is a fact, the reason for it's existence being "its clearly sexism" like you seem to think, is naive. It is the "wage gap" myth. I'm sure you'd rather believe that, and try to make me out to be a bigot(thanks for that) than actually read the US Department of Labor's explanation which I linked right there for you. The future of the ivy league, God help us That is the same link that I posted....

The wage gap is one of those arbitrary statistics that is regurgitated ad infiitum by feminists and the like until it enters the popular conscience as reality. 75%? where does that conveniently round figure come from? How do you imagine this wage gap would be implemented or sustained? you're right that the "wage gap" is elementary but probably not the kind of elementary you're thinking of. Any difference in pay is the result of the different choices men and women have tendencies to make with respect to their jobs, and this has been demonstrated again and again in real research. I'm surprised you didn't apply to Harvard! http://www.the-spearhead.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Gender-Wage-Gap-Final-Report.pdf

well the benefit of HDS is that it's Harvard of course, and we are encouraged to cross-register. All the courses in the philosophy department, the NELC department, classics, etc etc are all fair game. And if you can't find it here, BTI usually covers it, or independent study. A lot of these classes are cross-registered with the div school, so while the div schools offerings may be more focused on other stuff, I've agonized each semester about not being able to fit in all the amazing classes I want to take...I'm presently taking 5 + an audit.

because that is a myth.

On-campus housing is a horrible idea. You'll pay double for what you could get off campus.

I'm finishing my first year at HDS and on top of having top credentials recs and so forth you have to "fit." I would say a lot of the fits are "non-traditional", but they are still specific. For the MTS, Womens Studies in Religion and Queer Theology are the mainstays, half of our student body is gay and I'd say at least 75% would identify themselves as feminist. Are you gay? Are you a feminist? If you answer is no to both of these then your research interest are not aligned with about half of the school. Of the half that are left you have traditional biblical studies and theology and non-Bible related religion focuses. If you want to study something relating to the Bible that isn't feminist or queer you're really applying to about 1/4 of the spots. I was admitted because I've had some blow your mind experiences at the borders of Christianity Judaism and Islam in addition to having really good stats and recs. But I know I was admitted near the back of the pack because I only got partial funding. As much as it irks me, and you it seems, an unshaven lesbian from Wellesley that's never opened a Bible but has good stats and wants to study feminist theology will probably be admitted before you. Before you knock yourself too hard consider the possibility that it wasn't that you didn't meet their "fit" requirement, but that they would have not "fit" for you.

Last year I didn't hear from them a few days after some had gotten their phone calls. So I called them up and they told me. If you have the cojones give them a ring and ask them. I was accepted, but I doubt I would have been brave enough to call if I didn't know I was already accepted elsewhere.

I hope not to throw a wrench into your decision, but I know one of the Emory PhD's that was accepted 1 or 2 years ago. I know her because she dropped out after finding the level of scholarship unchallenging and came here to Harvard to do an MTS... That said, I know Emory is a top school, but I felt like it was a sentiment worth passing along. EDIT: btw, you must have some fantastic stats to be accepted to both. If you're comfortable sharing them I'd love to hear, I'll be applying in the next round.

I'm probably a little biased coming from Harvard, women are certainly not the rare breed here. There are a bunch of websites that show scholarships, however we seminarians are a breed that doesn't fit well into the categories that are available. Your best bet would be to look into scholarships for something related, like language study, gender studies, social work, etc.

I'm at Harvard Divinity and can confirm and deny a couple things, at least about the Master's level. First, unfortunately it is very true that an MDiv will have a better chance of coming away an expert in Queer or Feminist theology than knowing anything important (personal bias) like Early Christian theology. A lesbian cohort of mine who graduated from Wellesley has loved the course offerings, but was not at all embarrassed when the topic of the New Testament came up and she couldn't even name the books of the New Testament. I myself was aghast to say the least. The school is about as left as it gets and I'd say a conservative figure for the percentage of homosexual students is 50% As far as a lack of rigor, I think that is either misplaced or a misunderstanding. Because Harvard Div is pluralist it means in a New Testament class you will have Unitarian Universalists, Muslims, etc reading the New Testament for the first time, which anywhere else would be pretty unheard of at this level. For that reason, introductory classes might not have expectations as high as other top tier seminaries, but that doesn't mean the work load or rigor is any less really. Having a strong background in Bible I never felt like I was held back by others or that the professors were dumbing things down for them. The upper level stuff is as tough and rigorous as it comes, many course offerings having requirements that imply that you would need to have begun completing them prior to matriculating in order to even qualify to take them before you graduate. As far as languages go, at least for Greek and Hebrew, we do in one semester what most places do in a year, half the class usually drops out, and the work load is obscene. The other thing about Harvard is the number of departments we have. There is the Center for Women's Studies in Religion which is kind of it's own thing, The Center for the Study of World Religions which is also kind of it's own thing, the Divinity School as a whole, the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations which isn't part of Harvard Div but shares a lot of faculty, the Center for Jewish studies, the various language departments, and the separate history, politics, business, philosophy, etc. The variety of resources produces an extremely broad array of graduates, from the Queer Theologian that can't name the books of the Bible, to the Semitic Philologist that spends their free time memorizing paradigm charts of dead languages.

Well, I for one plan to capitalize on it. Given that the new format will have little relative data, it might allow me to skate by into a program that would have weeded me out otherwise.