LateAntique

I'm by no means an expert on education (though with as many years as I've been in undergrad one would think I am), I think one reason this is overwhelming for me is that it's entirely new. This is not writing another paper or studying for another test: taking the GRE, writing up a CV, writing up a statement of purpose (the most dreadful genre and obviously Satanic in origin), etc, is all new. Particularly with the SoP, I feel as if I'm writing poetry. I scrutinize the aspect of every verb, make sure I use certain words only once (and find synonymns ifI need to speak about something twice), and try to place my prepositions in the perfect spots. It's all ridiculous. I've never in my life had a headache from writing until this. That said: taking things one at a time is pretty crucial. I study for the GRE a certain amount of time every day, I work on my SoP little by little, etc. I suppose the thing to keep in mind is that every fall thousands of people are in the exact same position - 99.9% of the people who applied to the same program you're applying to did so with crossed fingers ( and toes and whatever else), even the ones who got in.

I've had really good responses when contacting professors. One of the schools I'm applying to is only about 2 hours away, so I have driven there to meet with various professors. At another school I was looking at, one professor gave me the inside scoop and said, "Your research interests are totally in line with ours. Unfortunately, we've only got 2 fellowships for next year and they're guaranteed to go to people with X research interests." It was nice of him to save me some money!

I've been told "Adcoms like cool stories." If this isn't a cool story, I don't know what is. Congrats on the success and all the best to you on applying.

As far as organizing things, I do not feel overwhelmed. My semester is quite busy (Latin and Greek, an Independent study, writing a senior thesis), but the most overwhelming, daunting aspect of this whole process is writing the SoP. I have good grades, I suspect I'll do reasonably well on the GRE (end of October), and my recommenders all think very highly of me. I even helped my girlfriend write her SoP last year and it was easy - the great advice came from my lips as if I had written a million statements of purpose (she got into Duke, so I guess some things worked). Now I'm writing my own and in one week I've scrapped 4 drafts. I'm almost convinced I'll never get a Ph.D because I cannot write an SoP.

As it is right now, Duke is my top choice. The grad schools at Duke and UNC have an understanding that allows their students to take courses from each school, so I would still get to take classes with people like James Rives, Zlatko Plese, and perhaps even Ehrman, but after speaking with some people there, I realize UNC is not a good fit for me.

Kemet - Duke is one of my top choices for a variety of reasons. They have a great library of papyri, professors doing what I want to do (both in the Classics dept and in the Religion dept), and their connection with UNC (James Rives does Greek and Roman Religion, Plese teaches Coptic, etc).

I'm certainly not only interested in early Christianity - in fact, I think that's a methodological flaw. I want to better understand the world of the Late Antique for its own sake, but also to shed light on this particular interest of mine. I'm interested in all forms of Religion in the Late Antique, but Christianity just happens to be the one that mosts interests me (due to its rising popularity in antiquity). The last I heard, Peter Brown is retiring/not accepting new students. His books have been very influential, however. Thanks for the response.

Here's the rundown: I'm in my senior year at a lesser-known public school, double majoring in Religious Studies and Classics (our Classics faculty is actually very good). My interests are in Early Christianity, but I'm thinking about doing graduate work in a Classics department. I don't see why early Christianity isn't studied within the context of the Late Antique. So - my question is - am I rowing against the current here? Do I have any chances of doing this in a Classics department or should I look only in Religion programs?