Sparky

YAY to thisistheyear on Drew and phd_aspirant on Notre Dame (!!!) !

I look forward to not having to obsess over my grades. I'm sure I still will, of course; but I won't have to.

Mad congratulations to JMR0408 and tenorcervantes! And on the MA front, to johndiligent as well! My fingers are crossed for everyone still waiting. Continued good luck...

Yup. And make no mistake, I think I am one of the few absolutely ecstatic ones here, but I am still a member of the "All you need is one" club (1 funded acceptance out of 4, and one app withdrawn). More importantly, I also managed to find what may be the only humanities program in the U.S. that did not see both/either an astronomical increase in the number of applicants and/or a forced decrease in cohort size. Although I think it's the latter that hurts more than the former--as one of my profs put it, when advising me against applying to Harvard Div, "I could see you as one of the top 2 out of fifty. I doubt you would be the number one candidate out of twenty-five." (Meaning, spots per subfield. He saved me $120; I think I can afford to buy him a beer now, yes?) Hopefully colleges can get their economic feet back under them before next year, or else PhD admissions could be really brutal. Think of all the people who started MA programs this year after being rejected from PhD ones, who will now be applying again, with better qualifications. Ugh.

Well, are you awesome and fun and with a good sense of humor? Especially if you might be dropping in on a medieval class from time to time? 'Cause if you're actually really boring in person, definitely go with UNC. But then again, I'm understandably (and shamelessly) biased. South Bend is, indeed, North Nowhere. A visit is probably a good idea. Keep in mind that it is graduate school, and so you will probably be spending most of your time in the library/wherever the history grad student cubicles are...but be sure you can put up with the Real Midwest for 5-6 years. (On the plus side, Chicago is 1.5 hrs away. On the downside, lots and lots of Nothing is much closer). What are the course offerings like (in terms of connection with your interests) at the two schools? Classwork is going to be the major part of your life for the first couple of years, so if there are not courses offered in which you are interested, you will be much less engaged and less happy.

@ woolfie and anyone else interested, I cannot recommend highly enough Mark Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Noll looks at how fundamentalist Christianity in America became so heavily anti-intellectual, and, more importantly (and more fun), he expands from that to explore the effects of that entrenchment on broader American culture. (That book description completely leaves out that second part, I know, but Alibris often has better deals than Amazon). During the 2004 and 08 elections, when "elite" and "intellectual" were being tossed around like they are some huge insults, I felt like quoting entire passages of that book to various acquaintances of mine. @ gracieb, I think you will have to wear this shirt to all your family reunions.

Hehe, I just found it, too. Not necessarily. I've only got one...although I guess it's possible they miscounted! Also--and yes, I know the website doesn't reflect this, but there are quite a few changes that the website doesn't reflect, such as, oh, A @#(&*$ MULTIDAY INTERVIEW*--now apparently if you plan to focus on Byzantine or Islamic topics you can substitute classical Arabic or Greek for Latin. * Not that I should be complaining or anything at this point, but really, advance warning would have been nice. This was the first year the MI has interviewed finalists, apparently, and it was...a little awkward at times. I guess it will be interesting to witness it from the other side next year.

One more thing to think about: It will make you a better scholar, yes. However, an area studies MA will likely not have the same admissions advantage that a history MA would have. I know you say "directly related," but look: I am getting my MA in historical theology, from a program that send a fair number of its PhD grads to jobs in full-blown history departments. I was assured, when I contacted several history departments originally, that an HT degree was just fine and they liked diverse background and diverse methods etc. In contacting programs to find out why I was rejected, however, as it turns out lack of history background was an important factor. Important enough, in fact, that one school didn't even mention that I had sent the wrong SOP. (Additionally, at several other schools a prof--not the DGS or dept chair--was kind enough to tell me flat-out that it would not be 'close enough'--even though there was an alum of my program working in the dept! Sheesh). So, reeeally think about what you are doing. What is the PhD acceptance rate for grads coming out of this program? What programs do they get accepted to?

Okay, but all of this about jobs assumes you will get into a top 10 school if you apply in two years with a Harvard MA. Looking at the track record of that program's graduates, how will it help your application? Do the area studies MA grads go on to "higher-ranked" PhD programs than the two where you currently have full funding? What will the MA do to enhance your application? Or to put it another way, do you know why you were rejected from your top choices? Was it because your application is lacking an essential component that you could fill in via an MA (language, exposure to various methodologies, etc)? Or was it simply a matter of "Wow, these five people are all really fabulous and we can only accept one. Let's roll dice"? If it's simply a numbers game, how confident are you that you will be able to win it next time? (Who are "many people"? Are they on adcomms at any top 10 schools?) Also, you are aware that UNC is just barely out of the "top 10", right? (I'm sure you are, but still. Seriously.)

I'm in the language camp, too. Many religion/theo PhD programs don't even require an M* in religion, they just look for something related--I know that at my school, last year a good chunk of the entering PhD cohort had MAs in philosophy and undergrad degrees in philo, Eng, even math. Also, having talked with a couple of ND theology profs at the medieval studies interview, I am now aware that ND's dept, in particular, is even more suspicious than most departments of the "language auto-didact" Wunderkind. So, get that formal coursework! Other options would include taking the Sat II Latin exam, although I you'll have a little troubling finding one for Syriac , or having an LOR writer attest to your knowledge of it. And of course your writing sample should cite primary sources in the original language (with translations, whether standard published ones or your own). But I'm with the others in that taking an actual class is still the best way to go about it. And if ND is your goal, I agree with lovethequestions that you should consider taking a class there this summer. 2 out of the 10 of us prospective medievalists had taken the summer intro Latin course there. I don't know if either of them ultimately got in, but obviously it was considered enough Latin to get them to the finalist pool in a program where the second question on the admissions FAQ is "What about Latin." And good luck on the ND waitlist to LateAntique & Noble. It would rock to see you around the library this fall.

Programs should be explicit about where to send GRE scores, with the webpage providing the appropriate university code and the department code. If a department knows that it will not be considering applications for a specific subfield, it should announce that when it knows, not after the application deadline. If a department's application procedure has radically changed between last year and this year, the website should be updated to reflect this. (For example, if the dept has decided to interview finalists this year, for the first time ever. Weekly updates might be a bit much, but I'm all for having programs send a note after the deadline saying whether or not all materials have been received. (Note: this should be the "Grad Applicants' BoR," not just PhD )

Careful, though--GRE scores are typically only good for five calendar years. You will want to check with the schools you're applying to in order to make sure, but if it's been more than five years from the time the school looks at your application (so, spring 2011), your scores will probably not be considered valid.

USC is not a UC school.

Ooh! Congratulations. Fingers crossed for everyone waiting on Drew and ND! I think that when I applied to Marquette for the MA 2 years ago, I heard back in mid-March (acceptance). But, that was then. Good luck to you all as well.

Well, but it is Darwinist and random. At least, once you get to a certain point. Putting all my cards on the proverbial table, I have a fully-funded offer from my absolute dream school, which is tops in the field. The profs I've talked to there have all assumed I must have eighty zillion really fantastic offers, but I have squat else. In a recent e-mail, the DGS actually asked me flat out if I had been 'evading' when, at the interview, I didn't write down which other schools had already accepted me (I fully believed her that it would not have affected my chances of admission...but I didn't/don't have any other real offers!). So, random? Yes, definitely. You can be a stellar applicant in all ways, and be an outstanding fit with the school, and tailor your SOP to each individual program very carefully, and it still might come down to whether the adcomm member who reads your writing sample has a headache. That's the part that we, as applicants, don't control, and that's one part that largely sucks. The 'Darwinist' (for want of a better term, I guess) aspect also sucks, but at least you have control over this part. This is the element where the process weeds out the people who aren't serious. Look around TGC, especially the history and literature fora. There are tons of people there with stories of having applied last year, or a couple of years ago, with absolutely no success. But they were committed, and applied again, and things worked out. Some of them changed their applications radically; others did little or nothing. The only difference between them and the other people who got all rejections last year (or whatever) is that they didn't give up. No, you don't get bonus points with an admissions committee for "persistence" or "dedication" if you're on your second round. But this is one way of determining who has the guts to go through with it. You don't get to choose what happens to you, but you do get to choose how you respond.

Hmm, Walgreens labels its generic drugs things like Wal-itin, Wal-phed, and Wal-dryl. I guess we should start looking forward to "walcohol."

Also, what kind of shape are your Greek and Hebrew in? A solid grounding in both is typically necessary to be competitive for NT programs. If you think you might come up short, it might be worth spending a year of intensive language training after completing the ThM/STM before applying for Ph.Ds.

Mr. Coffee

I heard from Notre Dame yesterday morning, and I am still positively floating. Not aided by any chemicals, either. I sort of have this sensation that when I am receiving my Ph.D diploma, I am going to turn to my parents and whisper, "Dude, I still can't believe I got into ND." Congratulations, Encomendero! And good luck to everyone waiting on Georgetown and Indiana!

Cherry blossom

Eh, how many kids does a person really need, anyway... Joking aside, though, you have an MA, right? My mom got her BA-MA-PhD while I was in elementary school and junior high. She taught part-time at an elementary school while working on her MA, then once she had the MA, worked as an adjunct at a community college while doing PhD coursework and writing her dissertation. It wasn't quite as much as her previous salary had been, but it was enough to make it possible. Maybe you could check into options along those lines? Also, teaching GRE (or even SAT...) prep classes is a boring but useful way to make some money.

Nobody was ever executed by being hung, drawn and semestered. Advantage: quarter.

Wow, nice going, M* applicants! And good luck to the people waiting on ND.

Thanks, everyone--I am still pretty stunned and, well, delirious. And yup, medieval studies, not theology. They said they would notify us Monday, and indeed they did (or, at least, me ). I was actually sort of hoping that we would get to meet the prospective theology students at the interview last week, but alas. One of the theology profs whom we did meet mentioned that they were bringing in 5 candidates for History of Christianity and planning either to accept two or hoping to yield two (so maybe accept three...he waffled a little), and I vaguely recall something about 4 spaces available for biblical studies, but I don't know anything about systematics or moral. I wish the absolute best of luck to you and the other ND applicants here! I think the post-interview wait was the worst...ugh, I could barely breathe. Oh, dang, GOOD LUCK to everyone. I have withdrawn my last app, so whatever good luck I had for that one I am hereby distributing to all of you. For what it's worth.