Sparky

Get it right away! You'll need a solid foundation in grammar first--at least through the imperfect, which I think was maybe halfway through German II for me, maybe a little earlier, and a regular dictionary as well. Webster's New World paperback Ger/Eng-Eng/Ger is my favorite (it's orange and white)--it lays flat when you open it, which is golden. BUT the reason to get MTG right away is the Bible excerpts. Read the German version with the English open next to it, or just read the passages you already know. The excerpts chosen are familiar ones. It really helps get the hang of things, even though you will be translating something different for your proficiency test. My only complaint with MTG is that somehow it feels the word "philosophisch" has to be glossed. Frequently. WHY?! You just wait, it is WAY cool to be able to be all, "Und der Geist Gottes schwebte auf dem Wasser." (See? You don't have to know every word, or understand why it's 'auf dem' and not 'auf den', to understand completely what's going on. That's why it's so great to have the Bible as a guide. And I recommend MTG rather than the Internet b/c of the next-to-text gloss). I mean, any old dude can quote the *Vulgate*, right? Only cool people can quote the Bible in German.

But then wouldn't everyone get a coyabean? (Not that that would be bad, of course. )

Get Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary. It's available on Amazon and probably Alibris. It doesn't have a grammar section, but the dictionary has terms useful for us that aren't in Webster's and such (e.g. "Wolkensaeule"--the cloud pillar in Exodus. You're not gonna find that in most places). The first part of the book contains excerpts from various theological works and the Bible, with questions after each section so you can check your reading comprehension. It's great. And paperback.

I had the late transcript situation when I applied to MA problems 2 years ago, although it was due to a miscommunication at the school in question. Unfortunately, they did not let me know about this until the day AFTER the registrar had closed for winter break. I immediately called the schools to which I was applying and told them was was going on. Most of them said it wouldn't matter if it was just one semester's worth of grades, and they were printed on my main transcript. I had 2 programs say they wouldn't consider my application if any part of it was late, though. Although, these were both the type of program that look for reasons to reject rather than accept people ("minor typo in the SOP? out..." "don't like the font choice in the writing sample? out..."). Fortunately, I hadn't submitted either of these apps yet and was able to save the fee money...still disappointing. Oh, I got into all three of the MA schools to which I *did* end up applying. Call the schools and ask.

How about just:

Hell.

Sweet. It's not anywhere on my academic radar, but reading about so-called 'neurotheology' is a hobby of mine. I study/want to keep studying, please, medieval Christianity, which is at the intersection of religion/theology, history, philosophy and literature. Like yusername's case, the departments I'm applying to are all across the board, so you can imagine how much fun writing five almost completely different SOPs has been. Oh, and my undergrad degree is in African politics, of all things. I am convinced I only got into a religion MA program b/c the adcom was like OMGAFRICA!!11!

tenorcervantes, do you follow slacktivist's Left Behind commentary series?

There is some info on a few schools on the 2009 threads, or at least, the religion one. You could try going through the 08/09 history ones. I'm assuming this year the timetable will be the same or similar.

Thank you, everyone! I appreciate the sanity check more than you know. As it turns out, one of the profs had filled out the form but hit 'cancel' instead of 'send', and all 3 of them are resubmitting this morning. So there are still nerves remaining--I'm worried that these are "we look for reasons to reject people" programs (i.e. <10% acceptance rate), but then again, I really do think that these are "tears of laughter rolling down their faces" schools. So, my plan is to be HAPPY it's those three. Again, thank you.

What the thread title says. For three of my 5 schools, the status of one LOR changed from "submitted" to "pending." The deadline for one of them was almost a month ago. I don't know when it changed. It is a different professor at all three schools. I am just sick with fear right now.

Now? Not obsessively checking the status of my applications every day to see whether all my profs had completed the online LORs yet. All 3 of my schools with online recs have had one LOR go from "submitted" to "notified." I don't know when this happened. And it's a different prof at each school. Now I am terrified that my top choice, whose deadline is long past, won't consider my app at all. (I mean, they'll probably laugh so hard they'll cry at it, but still).

ANYTHING on the planet besides teach middle/high school. I would rather scrub out Johnny-on-the-Spots than force myself to deal with teenage social drama w/o hurting someone. Seriously, though, I would like to teach at a lower-ranked university or CC in a fairly major city--defined as, one important enough that its main airport has DIRECT flights to most other cities in the U.S.

Oh absolutely. I have great love for Perceval especially (...predictably). And influential to the extent that "Le morte d'Arthur" is actually in...English. (It was, right? That is one of my favorite Irrelevant Facts of all time, and I will be sad if it is not true). I meant overall, not any specific areas; sorry for the clarity fail. My mentor from undergrad focuses on Christine de Pizan.

Excuse me while I weep for you. Society discriminates against wealthy people by lowering their self-esteem. Do you understand the arrogance in that statement? Nah, coyabean is right. Y'all are too conditioned by society to Get It. I'm out, too. I highly, highly encourage you to read the article I linked in my previous post.

Oh, sweet. Medievalists! My field is actually religious history, not lit, and I hope you don't mind that I'm thread-crashing, but given that it's the MA religion is all over a lot of the literature. I do high/late medieval continental. Let me be clear, I do NOT study Thomas Aquinas. I am all about depictions of hell (lit and art) and the evolution of the Holy Grail legend compared to lay piety and subversive writing and some pretty out-there stuff. I fully understand. Although if your medieval interest is in medieval reception of classical lit, wouldn't you have to get into that anyway? There's quite a bit of scholarship on Arthurian works. On the other hand, France does not seem to be the most popular country to study, except with respect to heresy and Paris. At least, this is true in medieval religion studies and in early modern French lit studies, so I'm kind of assuming an intersection here.

Oh, domine dulcis, what did I start?! /groan YES. I hope I did not imply this. EVERYONE. Please read this article. It's written by a white male; don't feel threatened.

Oh, gah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like I was equating race and poverty. And I totally did. How about something like, the 'the biases in the GRE work in favor of white culture and middle/upper class circumstances [not the right word]"? But, um, I'm working from personal experience TAing a summer program at one of the worst school districts in the country, and the SAT. First of all, some of us in the humanities COMPLETELY FORGOT 80% of the math. ;o) More to the point, I know several people who worked a full time job, a part time job or had heavy family responsibilities, and went to college full time. Studying for the GRE=not so much an option. Also, it's mostly about the reading comprehension sections, from what little I've read about this. They didn't have standardized testing in the Middle Ages.

Given the GRE's well-known bias toward white, middle/upper class American students, I wonder if any schools take cultural factors into account in initial filtering...

My LORs will be "good." And no superstar profs. Meanwhile, my dream school says LORs are the most important part of the application. Most of my apps are for a subject in which I do not have a degree. There is only one semester of Latin actually on my transcript. No publications. The real confidence-killer: Most of these programs accept one person per subfield. I could see myself being in the top 3 or 4. But not number one. Basically, I am the ideal waitlist-then-reject applicant.

Oooh. Allow me to rant for a moment. YES I hate this. With a bloody burning passion. I do not want to hear, "You're smart; of course you'll get in!" I want to hear, I need to hear, "Even if you don't get in anywhere, you're not stupid. You're not a bad person." I have been telling people OUTRIGHT that this is what I need to hear. Their response? Invariably, "But you're smart! Of course you'll get in!" (Hehe, wow, I was totally pounding the keyboard with that. This apparently upsets me more than I previously thought).

Oh, I'm sure it's coming. The undergrad admissions process has become a big deal recently. I fully expect that we will see something similar with respect to grad admissions when those journalists' kids* start looking for grad schools. Unfortunately, that won't help most of us. * The writers who have focused on college admissions in depth all seem to have kids applying to college either recently or right now. Which makes it absolutely hilarious when their articles include the advice to parents "don't make the process about you" and "don't let it consume your life."

<3 for Neal Stephenson; awesome. I hope you are enjoying TDA! As for me, I don't have an overload of free time--I'm working on an M.A.--but in what little time I have my hobbies/what keeps me sane are basically running and, um, Netflix. I think Netflix InstantWatch has done more to kill my social life than grad school has. I also do Celtic art. Same type of release that jennyb mentioned re: cedar weaving.

I am posting this in the History forum b/c a lot of people from the other humanities boards seem to hang out here, too. All my love to, especially, the religion people in addition. Also, a warning of a 100% sap factor. Dear everyone, So all of us are insecure, most of us are going nuts on at least some level (or maybe all of them), some of us are openly terrified. I know a lot of us are applying to the same programs. That makes sense; I think GradCafe draws people at or near the top of the applicant pool, and let's face it, there are only fifteen top 15 programs. That, of course, means we are competing with each other, especially those of us in the same subfield or people applying to programs that don't have a quota per field. I've only got a couple of overlaps with people here, but even that is scary. But you know what? I truly, sincerely wish all of you, even my competitors, the absolute best of luck. Not only have you been extremely helpful with respect to application questions, but the amount of respect and emotional support that is *consistently* shown here absolutely blows me away. For that alone, even if it weren't the case that we are an amazingly intelligent group of people (b/c we are; this is observable fact, not arrogance), you have my sincerest best wishes. I'm sure it will be little comfort, but at least I will know that the people who were admitted truly deserve it. I would consider it an honor to attend school with just about any one of you.

All, you know, seven days of it? Not that I disagree, by the way.