LateAntique

I just finished my 6th application. Depending upon what I hear in January, I may complete one more - but it looks like I'm pretty much done!

This is for my Classics homies. I actually like Greek and Latin and so I like translating, but towards the end of the semester I'm getting a little tired of it. I realized that if I listen to Rage against the Machine (particularly Battle for Los Angeles), Homer becomes WAY more intense. It's fun.

The fact that one can spend $1,000 on Kaplan's prep courses and do better proves that you can be coached on the GRE. It's absurd to think that one's ability to cram for a test is somehow indicative of their overall ability within grad school.

The Early Christian Studies program won't admit you unless you get a tuition waiver from the university. The doctoral scholarship seems to be the only waiver of this type and requires a 1300 GRE, so it seems I'm out of the running.

You know Prof. McAwesome too?! Sadly, he was poached by University of A away from University B. Most unfortunate, if you ask me.

Yeah - I have already submitted my stuff. I wasn't given any actual figures for cut-offs, so it may just be relative to what other scores come in.

I emailed Catholic U to ask them if my score (1120) met any of the cut-offs I would need. I was told that although my score would get me in, they were unsure if it was high enough to get the tuition waiver (upon which admission to the program is contingent). Boo.

+1. I had three schools that required snail mail submissions. I sent all of my recommenders an email that included: 1) PDF of my official transcript 2) SoP 3) Writing Sample 4) List of schools and due dates 5) Any forms they needed to fill out. A week or so after I sent them this, I dropped by their offices with 3 stamped envelopes. I see them every week anyway, so I wasn't scared they weren't going to mail them out, but it was nice to be able to check in for just that purpose without seeming rude.

Let me just say that I'm tickled pink you aren't applying to early Christian programs (or at least the ones I'm applying to). Your stats are impressive, your language prep is immense, and the fact that you already have published articles (and a book in progress) is huge. I think you have a great shot.

+1 - Badass. I think the base of the lightsaber should be a crucifix.

I'm not too worried about it. It seems like this will work. One of the schools to which I'm applying has been pretty relaxed about stuff anyway, so I don't think this is too big of a deal.

+1 - I'm interested in the Cult of Diana in Rome, Mithraism, Stoicism, etc. Christianity happens to be one of my main interests for a variety of reasons (I find it fascinating, it has helped shape Western culture more than anything else, etc). Interestingly, most of my education about that has been pretty autodidactic. Our religion program here is very small and very non-Western. If you want to take a class on gender issues in indigenous African religions, we have you covered. Want to take intro to OT? You have to take it with a professor in the Anthropology dept (who is well-qualified, though she is an archaeologist primarily). Western interests are diminishing on the whole, I think. It's one reason I'm looking into Classics programs. Competition for NT and Early Christian jobs is pretty intense right now and I think that as a Classicist I can probably bill myself in a variety of ways.

A lot of things can go wrong with this whole application process. Fortunately, most things have gone pretty smoothly for me. I haven't had any major glitches with paperwork or recommenders or anything of the sort. However, this weekend I had my credit card stolen from my car. This was not really that big of a deal (my fault, actually) and I wasn't too stressed about it....until today. I got a call this morning from a community college at which I had taken a few classes after high school concerning my payment for transcript requests. I filled out and sent in the paperwork last week, but they finally got around to processing the payment today, using the stolen credit, which naturally did not go through. This wouldn't be so bad if I did not have Dec 1 deadlines at two of the schools to which I'm applying (that's next Tuesday, by the way). So tomorrow I have to get up, go to class, then race to this city (about a 2 hour drive), go to the office at this school, pay for the transcripts, then go to the post office and send them priority to make sure they're there by Dec 1. Thank you, guy who stole my credit card.

What's your current GPA and what is "a bit"? If you have made A's throughout the years and suddenly you fail all of your courses, they're definitely going to have second thoughts. If you just hit a road bump, I don't think it will completely wreck your acceptance.

I think you're definitely well-suited to do a post-bacc. You have a pretty good background in some Classics-y stuff. There's no way you could do both Latin and Greek summer intensives at the same time, though. U Penn has a good program as does UNC. If you have any questions about Chapel Hill, I grew up near there and may have some info for you.

Please don't feel like you can't post here because people have interests other than your own. We need all the Religion talk we can get!

From what I know (and this is very little), I think they are a department in transition. They're still trying to recover from an exodus of faculty years ago and they're trying to figure out who they are.

I briefly make mention of a conversation I had with a big name (who has retired) in the field with whom I am on friendly terms. I said that at a particular conference last year (which tells them I attend those sorts of things), I asked Prof. Big Name what schools he thought I should look into considering my interests. He gave me one reply: School X. I don't know Prof. Big Name well enough to have him write me a letter, but if they read my SoP and give him a call, he will certainly remember the advice and probably speak well of me (I think...). Also, for another school, I discuss a conversation I had with a professor about hitherto untranslated Greek papyri in the university's archives. This showed that the school is right for me in terms of my own interests in paleography and also that I had taken the time to sit and chat with said professor.

You're using too many filler adjectives. They get the fact that they're great. I would say something like, "My research interests would be furthered by working with Prof. X and Y. on ________________________." Simple, to the point, and it still gets what you're trying to say across. I also agree with mudlark that saying their interests complement yours sounds a bit like their interests are subordinate to your own.

That sounds interesting! Have you looked into UVA? One of my professors did his focus on Tibetan Buddhism there, but he has mentioned Islamic scholars as well. My languages are probably the strongest thing I've got going. For whatever reason, Greek and Latin both click naturally. My interests are still in early Christianity, I'm just going about it in a different way. I think Christianity should be studied as another Roman religion within the contexts of other Roman religions. However, because of the way universities developed in the West, most people studied Christianity under "Theology" instead of "Classics" and the divide seems a little arbitrary. So, I'm trying to see how early Christianity was shaped by the rejection and reception of Classical literature and ideas. I'm also interested in how the Latin and Greek languages shaped the way theology was done in the West and the East, respectively. The very fact that Latin lacked a participial form of the verb "to be" until the Medieval era has to have helped shape the theological categories that were available to them. So...I'm still interested in Christianity, but I think I'm going about it in a pretty atypical way. Exactly!! I don't think they're satisfied until you've somehow crammed in 10 years of 3 languages in 4 years of undergraduate study. I felt pretty good about 3 of Greek, 3 of Latin, and 1 of Hebrew, and I still got pretty mediocre responses from some places.

If all the universities shut down, I'll open up my own and give everyone their Ph.Ds for free.

Are you applying to do grad work on the moon or something?

If they don't fire professors for typos and other sorts of errors in their books, I seriously doubt they will keep you out of graduate school because of one. Can you imagine the adcomm that would do that? "Did you see they left out a 'the' in this sentence?" "WHAT A MORON! DON'T LET THAT PERSON IN!"

Booooooo. Who cares about that stuff? I'm into Religion, though I'm applying to Classics programs that have close ties to Religion programs. I'm interested in Religion of the Roman empire - does that count? My senior seminar this semester has been on Socially Engaged Buddhism and I have really liked it. What are your interests?

I think I secretly want to be a Geologist. I had a Geology class as one of my science electives and the professor said, "If you switch majors, I could get you a consulting job after you graduate." That was very appealing and now as I'm stressing about getting into a graduate program and thinking I'm not exactly a practical hire, I keep thinking, "Just go be a Geologist."