LateAntique

The feeling I get from this is one of efficiency, not hostility. The fact that they're still available to meet means they aren't mad.

If I were reading this at home and not in the middle of a crowded library, I would probably let loose a string of very awful swear words. I hate you, ETS.

I was considering applying to UNC's Religion program straight out of undergrad. I was told that although in theory they accept people straight from their BA, in practice they never do. In fact, they had only done so once in the last ten years (kind of weird that you mention this time frame as well) and that he ended up dropping out. Thanks, guy. Thus, I was told the only way I could be competitive with only a BA was to go to Harvard, triple major, have a 4.0, perfect GRE, and speak 4 languages fluently.

Sure, lets do this: Applying: 6 Feeling Pretty Confident: 3 Feeling Less Confident: 2 Long shot: 1 Funding is a given for the 3 Ph.D programs to which I'm applying, and there are various levels of funding for the MA programs.

Glad to hear it - my recommender ended up mailing them off a few days after the deadline. Granted, this is not his first rodeo, so he knew that deadlines are really more for applicants than they are letter writers.

If it's not a confessional institution (i.e. you have to sign some sort of statement of faith to be a student/faculty there) it shouldn't be a big deal. A lot of schools have historical ties to religious institutions, but a lot of the time the ties are in name only.

You went to Duke for Classics? I sat in on a Medieval Latin class and the seniors in there put me to shame. That program seems to put out really top-notch undergrads.

I'm not advocating lying, by the way.

My feeling is that they would never find out. When I was having issues with getting some transcripts from my previous school, I was told by some of the contacts at the schools to which I'm applying that I should just delete it from my application and they wouldn't care. I don't think they're going to spend any time doing investigations.

I'm not sure how they would.

If you didn't mention it anywhere, how would they know?

Do you have to list your experience in law school? You didn't do any relevant coursework for your Ph.D, I imagine. If there's no reason to mention it in terms of trying to get credit for your Ph.D, I say write it off as a life lesson and let that be the end of it.

I can understand the idea behind wanting to mold people in a particular way. I taught guitar at a place that wouldn't accept students from another school because they taught them so many bad habits (in our minds) that we had to correct. It just became nonsensical to accept them. Likewise, I can see that paying for a humanities MA makes little sense if one can get into a Ph.D program. I'm basically of the mind that no one should go into debt pursuing an MA in the humanities.

Is it silly to hope that during a recession people will stop applying to humanities programs and go for an MBA or something more practical? I wonder if there's any research on application trends correlated with economic trends.

I know one of the programs to which I'm applying isn't even sure if they can accept any students and won't know until January, however another program I'm applying to has admitted fewer students than normal over the last few years and has had a lot of drop-outs, so they've got money to spare. Private schools have fared far better in this economy than public ones. I suppose we'll know soon enough.

Curious - can you give me the short version of the rationale as to why it's better to come in with only a BA?

There's one school to which I sent 4 LoRs. It worked out that I needed this core of 3 people to write me letters, but another one of my professors (one of my favorites, actually) is an alum of this program - so he said he'd write me a letter too, just in case that might help.

Most of the programs to which I'm applying have everyone on the same playing field. There were a couple of programs in which I was interested but because of the amount of MA's I would be competing with, I was told not to even try. I asked one professor what I could do to compete and he said, "Go to Harvard, triple major, and come out with a 4.0 - then you can compete with the MA's."

Lame! Fortunately, the program to which I'm applying at Duke has less people than normal.

My advisor basically told me to sit down and try to assess the situation whenever I got stressed. He basically said to ask myself what the absolute worst outcome is and then try to determine how likely that outcome is. For one, the outcome is not so bad (I will still be a college graduate even if I get in nowhere) and the likelihood of not getting in anywhere at all seems pretty slim. I imagine the case is the same for you.

I listed it on my CV.

I'm really proud of myself. I put aside school work and graduate applications so that I could be the number one poster. Quick question: do I contact the DGS or the Grad school Admissions department to have them update my CV with this?

This does not seem so bad to me. You went there for a semester, did well, and realized it wasn't for you. I don't think this is going to raise any red flags. I left my last school in my senior year because it was a southern baptist school and I converted to Catholicism. That is a little difficult to explain without just coming out and saying it. It took several incarnations of my SoP to get that one just right.

My 'big name' is at the 11th hour for two schools that are both due tomorrow. He has written many a letter in his day, so I know he knows what he's donig. Still, it's a little unnerving to think of something going wrong.

I don't think being accepted to this program at CUA is contingent upon GRE scores (alone, at least). Rather, the funding that they require (which comes from the grad school) is contingent (or so it seems) upon a certain GRE score. Seems kind of a round-about way to keep people out via the GRE, but c'est la vie.