LateAntique

I'm currently working with it along with my Barron's book and I feel like it's a pretty good refresher for us non-math types.

I'm double majoring in Religious Studies and Classics and I have two professors from Classics and one from Religious Studies writing me letters. I think having a mix is just fine, particularly if you're doing multidisciplinary stuff.

I guess I'm just confused as to how that doesn't come across as "No matter how much I study, I fail."

I wish! I have to retake the GRE on the 18th (next Wednesday) and then wait for the scores to come in before I can submit my apps.

It's not only not Shakespeare, it's not English. You're certain of what?

My university is holding a 3 hour prep class tomorrow night (6-9pm) given by Kaplan. It's only 10 bucks (I certainly couldn't afford the 1k price of their big course) so I could totally afford it. My question is: has anyone attended something similar? Did you gain anything from it?

A lot of people get rejected from graduate studies. I was considering applying to Duke's Religion (not the Div school) program before I committed myself to being a Classicist and they have something on the order of a 3-5% acceptance rate. That's 95-97% rejection. That's a lot of people (considering hundreds apply). I think the unfortunate reality of it is: most people don't get into prestigious graduate programs. Such is life.

I see mine every week for our ind study. What's your story? Why did they drop you? Did they tell you that they couldn't write you a letter anymore or they just didn't get back to you?

This is a good case of show-and-not-tell. Your letter should come across as articulate without sounding pompous. If you write it well, it will be pretty obvious that your verbal score is not indicative of your overall ability with the English language. A.P. classes aside, if you really are bad at writing and then say "I'm great with English! I swear it!", you're going to come across as not so intelligent. Are you turning in a writing sample? If so, that could strengthen your case. Also, I'm not sure how to spin "I spent 100s of hours studying for the test and bombed it" into a positive thing. The director told you that you should mention that specifically?

One of my recommenders is a big name. He has taught at a variety of institutions and is now the chair of our program. I'm fortunate enough to be doing an independent study with him this semester after having had a seminar with him last semester. I've been told by my other professors that it's his rec that I absolutely needed to get if I could because it would mean a lot to various adcomms. I can see the logic behind 'celebrities' carrying more weight. They publish more, present more papers, serve as editors for journals, and just have more connections overall. The big name professor who is writing me a letter is a no nonsense kind of professor and really expects a lot of his students (though he gives a lot too), so a rec from him is a signal to an adcomm that I've met his standards, thus I will probably meet theirs as well.

I bought it, actually. It's great - between it and my big Barron's book, I anticipate doing at least a little better this time around.

I think if you feel your law paper is the best, you should use that one. How difficult would it be to translate the legalese?

My dog is a rescue dog who had a pretty rough go of things for about the first year of his life, then I adopted him. If I gave him up, I'm not sure he would ever be normal. He's good company, he does not complain when I want to express my frustrations about irregular Greek verbs, and he wags his tail when I talk about interesting verbs in Homer (although he wags his tail at anything said in the right tone). If I end up at CUA, I'm going to have to live in student housing for at least the first year which means no dog. He could definitely live with my girlfriend, but that would be a bummer.

Chances are they will stop reading at page 10 whether your argument is finished or not.

My advice: end it with Fin.

If you're at 3 pages single-spaced at 10-11 font and you haven't written a biography already I would be surprised. I'd stick with 12pt and stay within the page limit.

I don't know anything about your particular field, so take this with a grain of salt. I don't think your JD would be a detriment to getting into a doctoral program. I don't think anyone thinks law school is easy. I think you've got a neat story that you can work to your advantage when you're explaining why you want to do what you want to do. 'Passion' is nice, but everyone's passionate - I would try to cast the shift in positive lights. Somehow factor in some experience over the course of the year working for the non-profit that helped you to realize what it is that you want to do in their program. Where are you applying? Have you spoken with any professors there? Have you spoken with any graduate students at these institutions? This process makes just about everyone depressed and stressed, so you aren't alone. The big two things to consider are: 1) What is the worst case scenario in this whole process? 2) How likely is that scenario to play out? I don't know all the ins and the outs of your situation, but I can at least tell you that your worst case scenario involves you still having a law degree and that's not too shabby at all.

This was my feeling as well. I've never been through this process, but it seems like it could be an unwise move to divulge too much too fast.

Do you know the average GRE score for people entering into the programs to which you're applying? Have you spoken with the DGS in any of them to see if you meet any kind of cut-offs? I got a 1090 and I'm retaking it in a couple of weeks because I'm pretty sure I'm below some cut-offs.

+1 on this. I always call a professor "Professor Such-and-Such" or "Dr. Such-and-such" until they explicitly, unequivocally say something like, "I insist, please call me (first name)."

I know for Duke Divinity you need 3 letters and I think one has to be from your Church (either a pastor or a deacon or something). Other Div schools will accept just academic references (like for the MTS at Yale).

Awesome - we're applying to a lot of the same places (though not the same programs at any of them - how interesting). I'm applying to CUA's Early Christian Studies program, Duke's Classics program (which has strong ties with the Religion Program, so if we both get in I'll inevitably be in some of your seminars there), Notre Dame for the MA in Early Christian Studies, and Yale Divinity for MAR in History of Christianity. Best of luck to you and please keep me posted as to where you end up!

That's not slack at all! And I feel like Medieval Latin is to Classical Latin what Homeric Greek is to the 'standard' Classical Greek we learn. You learn all the rules of each language in your first year and then if you take either Medieval Latin or Homeric Greek the next, you basically learn to just throw out a lot of the 'rules' you learned the previous year.

To what programs are you applying now?

Honestly, if you just email Levenson, he'll get back to you within a day and he's probably better able to answer your questions. I've been speaking with him for a few months now as well as some of the grad students there and they all seem to love the program.