Abdelazar

For HDS, the concern would be who they will have teaching OT/HB. I would guess that Prof. Levenson may be near retirement in the next few years, if not sooner. I don't know whether Prof. Teeter got tenure or not in this past year; it might be worth emailing him about your interest in the department. The archaeology of Israel chair (formerly occupied by Larry Stager) has still yet to be filled as far as I know. I don't think they can just get rid of the department entirely, but just know that it is somewhat in flux right now. If someone has more recent news, I'm happy to be corrected--I haven't been in contact with any Harvard people in about a year.

Congratulations! Which subfield?

I was emailed back and told that for Hebrew Bible, 3 offers were made and one student accepted. The others have not responded yet. If you have been accepted (or wait listed), I would appreciate it if you let them know of your decision as soon as you are able, since I need to make travel & moving arrangements for whichever program I end up at.

Waitlisted for Hebrew Bible. I emailed the dept. to ask my current app status this morning.

Rejection notification from UCLA NELC (Hebrew Bible) this morning. Best wishes if you got accepted; it's a great program!

I was told that I am on the waitlist at Emory for Hebrew Bible last month but haven't heard back yet still. I just emailed the dept. today to ask about my app status.

Not sure when rejections will go out but some people have received an email saying they are on the wait list for Hebrew Bible. Btw, in the past, I never got an email from Harvard saying my app status was changed, it was always just changed on the website with no email notification.

same for me and same school (ND - CJA)! it's okay, we're all in this together. lots of good applicants and so many factors that I don't take things too personally anymore.

I was on the waist list for Harvard NELC (Hebrew Bible) 2 years ago and I was notified that I was on the wait list around the beginning or middle March, I think. Last year I got an outright rejection from Harvard and the notification on the website was posted in the last week of February. Harvard NELC does not conduct interviews. Just a friendly reminder that, as multiple professors from these programs have told me, "it's a craps shoot." And another told me that sometimes even professors aren't full aware of or in control of how admissions committees make decisions. Neither of these things are fun to hear, but at least it helps me to not take rejections so personally.

I heard back from Harvard NELC around the end of February last year. But if you are waitlisted, sometimes you may not hear that you are on the wait list until March.

Re: TEDS, as others have said, aside from a few scholarships, I believe most PhD students there are not funded. You may also want to ask about job placement. Evangelical seminaries/liberal arts universities are generally happy to hire TEDS grads, but it will be harder to engage in the wider world of academia (e.g. SBL and other conferences, publishing).

Two year ago, I was told by one Harvard NELC professor that it could be worth applying to both and I was told by another professor in the same department that it wouldn't increase my chances to apply to both NELC and Study of Religion. But this was regarding Hebrew Bible. I think you are right that there would be two different committees who may make different decisions though. I would guess that committees begin looking over materials sometime in January and meet more than once until around March. Others here may have inside knowledge about the mysterious process of how admissions committees work!

For Hebrew Bible programs, I applied to Harvard (NELC), UCLA, Emory, Duke, and ND (CJA). Best wishes to you all!

The Quant score shouldn't matter for most religious studies/theology/biblical studies programs. I got a very low quant score and still got several interviews and wait listings. For all the applications I've submitted, you can submit the whole application while your recommendation letters remain to be submitted by your recommenders. So all the app material you're responsible for would be sent in while the program is just waiting for your rec letters to be received.

On the wait list for Emory (Hebrew Bible). 1 person denied, 2 offers are still outstanding.

Harvard NELC decisions statuses should be updated on the website. No email.

Are you referring to NELC or CSR or another department/program?

What program did you apply to? I'm not sure about other departments or programs, but it seems that the NELC department has generally sent out acceptance/wait list notifications around mid-March. If I remember, the Committee for the Study of Religion program sent out notifications around the first two weeks of March. I may have been the one who mentioned that Harvard does not do interviews, so I should be more clear--I'm not sure about other departments/programs, but as far as I know, I don't think that the Hebrew Bible program generally interviews. I don't think that CSR does either, but I'm not 100% sure about that. Sorry that I can't give you more info!

For anyone interested, as far as I know Harvard NELC does not conduct interviews either. Perytion, do you happen to know if the NELC department will be announcing decisions next week as well or at another time?

Some people have received rejection letter emails from Emory for HB, but I haven't and I know of at least one other person who hasn't yet. Possibly they are waiting to see if first round acceptances accept their offers?

Are you asking about emailing someone from a school from which you were turned down and asking them for advice on improving your application or are you asking about emailing a POI at a school from which you haven't heard back from yet?

Just wanted to note that Vanderbilt GDR invited 2 students per department to interview last year (one open spot each). I believe this was true for most if not all of the programs. I don't have any information on whether that would be different this year though.

Catholic University of America also sent out interview invites this past week. My sense is that many schools which conduct interviews generally interview sometime in February, but different places have different dates. Mid to late March seems to be the time that many schools notify of acceptance, waitlist, and rejection, although again, it will vary. You can check the results search to get a sense of when programs have sent out notifications in past years and how they notify (snail mail, email, website).

Emory sent out emails giving Hebrew Bible PhD applicants the opportunity to send in a 3 minute video summary of their sample paper. I'm not sure if this was sent out to all applicants or only to those who survived the first round of application sorting. I'm guessing that they will still interview candidates on campus in February. And I don't know if the video presentations are something other subfields in the GDR are requesting as well.

What others have said on here is that the GRE seems to often be used to determine whether the admissions committee should look closely over an application or not. Applicants with very low GRE scores (below about 90th percentile on the Verbal) may be put aside as not requiring close attention to the rest of the application. There are some schools, though, where the GRE score may be used to determine the level of funding. Check other posts for more details, or someone else may have more to say about this here. I also received a full point lower score on the analytical writing section the second time I took it. It's frustrating, but didn't seem to hurt my chances.