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missed this before, but my experience: it definitely matters, especially depending on the perceived quality of your undergrad. go to the best MA you can. if not funded, go to best MA with funding.

Probably. My experience with UVA last year is that they send admits and waitlists about now, also some rejections. They also seem to keep a pile of apps in reserve in case they burn through the waitlist, though for practical purposes if you haven't been notified it is likely a rejection.

wholeheartedly agree with this.

I use Mendeley- many faculty and friends I know use EndNote. I use Mendeley because its free and has most of the functionality I desire: cloud sync for access from multiple devices, ability to open doc and annotate in program, searchibility, MS Word integration. Though my University gives us a free subscription to EndNotes, I don't know where I'll be in the future and don't want to deal with the hassle of migrating libraries to a new software. Might be worth talking to folks who work in a similar area to you and see what they use. There might be some features that a certain program has that could be useful in your area/subdiscipline.

I'll second the tablet, second monitor, and Prime suggestions. I'll add that a citation manager can be a tremendous tool, if used well. I have mine synced to the cloud so that I can access articles on my tablet, annotate them, and access them later on my laptop/desktop. It's also a huge timesaver for formatting bibliographies.

The biggest thing that helped me was that I had met my potential advisors, they had seen me present work at conferences, and our interests aligned very well. The two schools I had this in place I was accepted. That said, I had good e-mail interactions with other potential advisors which got me at least thoroughly considered at a couple of other schools, though the didn't end up in acceptances for various reasons (not enough faculty to support my interests, etc.). Beside establishing contact with an advisor, the other important things (which you will read elsewhere as well): do well on the GRE (this helped get me a University wide fellowship in my current program which means more $$), make sure you apply to schools with people that can support your interests (the so-called "fit" metric), and polish the heck out of your writing sample and personal statements. If you are able, have a faculty member at the school you want to get in to read your personal statement and offer suggestions. They will know what their committee is looking for. Most of this stuff you can read more about in old threads on this forum.

From what I know, ASU has strengths geared toward anthropology of religion. Depending on your interests and potential supervisor, it certainly is a good option. Plenty of folks with MA's get shut out every year, so getting one is no guarantee of getting into a PhD. If you get a PhD offer in lieu of MA, I would strongly consider it (pending the outcomes of your other apps of course).

The only PhD worth doing is one that is completely funded. The best programs will cover all your tuition, give you health insurance, a stipend of $20-$30k, and offer some money for travel to conferences/research/etc. Some other programs will be similar, but offer less by way of the stipend (state schools tend to run lower). Depending on where you go and what your offer looks like, you may or may not be required to teach as art of your assistantship. And then there are other fellowships which you might qualify for based on GPA's, GRE's, etc.

FWIW, I filled out FAFSA but didn't use it since I didn't want loans. My assistantship covered tuition, stipend wasn't massive but I was fortunate as my partner was working and making enough to support us. I do believe several in my program did use FAFSA, mostly for money to be able to live off of.

Depending on what NRMs you're into, that could take you a few places. In terms of MA's, Western Michigan is a funded MA with a faculty member specializing in NRMs. Not my field, but I took two courses with him and both were fantastic. I know UCSB is a place people are doing work on NRMs. You might also look at UVA, as they have a couple great Americanists. I'm sure others can make suggestions too based on schools they attended or researched.

FWIW, i know of a number of Marquette PhD grads that are teaching at evangelical institutions, so that shouldn't limit you long term, if that's your goal.

My 2cents after both myself and my office-mate were shut out of religion programs this season, with an MA from a state school: the second MA may not be necessary or what helps you, but the degree from a top tier school will. Between the two of us we received interviews and waitlists, and acceptances outside of religion, but I imagine that when pitted against shiny degrees from Ivy schools and big-name LOR's, our dossiers just couldn't hold up, despite 10+ conference presentations and publications. I should add, this is already my 2nd MA. Where you go matters. Of course there are likely more things at play as well: where we applied, our particular interests, etc. But I do think an Ivy MA would have made the difference.

Congrats! Glad it worked out for you.

Finally got the official rejection from UVA. Hopefully this means they are getting closer to releasing (good!) news to those of you on the WL.

Seems to be working fine for me, though still no decision from them.