-vive2ladifference

Oh wow! Well, congrats!

Oh okay. Yeah, I re-read the e-mail they sent and they said financial aid will come by the end of the day. I'm an international student too actually. Just curious, what fellowship? I was unaware MTS students had fellowships available. Will you be TA'ing?

It's up for me too! Admitted! How did you find out you got the stipend? There is no mention of financial aid on mine..

Just based on your comments in this thread, may I ask why you want to *study* the Middle East (i.e. as an academic) rather than just go into the foreign service/work at an IO? If you really think being gay is going to be a huge obstacle to language learning, field work etc. (I, by the way, don't), you may want to consider trying to make an impact from the outside.

I hope you're right! But why would YDS' date of release matter for HDS? Do they coordinate these kinds of things?

That's more than I got! They just told me "in March".

Islamic studies, anyone? My main interests are in the Indo-Persian tradition, Shi'ism, mysticism and the intersections between the three in history.

I was wondering, has anyone waiting for Harvard Divinity asked admissions about whether they have a specific date and time they'll be releasing admissions decisions?

I fear it may even be later. Boston was hit with a snow storm which closed down Harvard and that may have caused admissions decisions to stall.

Same here! Congrats! Are you thinking of attending?

Thank you for this response. I was, in particular, concerned about class size since some of the courses listed state there is no cap, but even 15-20 would be totally fine. Not entirely sure if that rather scathing remark was directed specifically toward me, but to be clear, just because I was inquiring about a bias doesn't necessarily mean I hold it myself. HDS, for example, doesn't have a thesis requirement, and I think it's reasonable to be concerned about class sizes (HDS has a yearly class size of 80 students, compared to most RS departments which aim for a class size of 10-20). And I certainly wasn't intimating that going to a Divinity school some how precludes the possibility of an academic career. No one is denying that one *can* have a very successful career in academia after going to a Divinity school, my question was whether or not there are any specific advantages an RS department would have over a Divinity school. No need for such vitriol. Edit: I'd also like to add that I wrote in such blunt terms to really pull out the contrast. I do apologize if I unintentionally insulted anyone.

As someone who has applied to HDS and (assuming I'm accepted) going to have a tough decision between HDS and a RS Master's at a similarly-ranked university, could you elaborate upon this? Do you mean to say that HDS, while not as bad as other Divinity schools, should still nonetheless be stayed clear of for students interested in academic pursuits? Or rather, do you mean that HDS is comparable and actually holds weight relative to other RS programs? HDS only has one required course and seems very flexible in terms of coursework and languages. I'm not sure how large class sizes are though.

Anybody applying to Chicago's CMES (Centre for Middle East Studies) aware of when we'll be hearing back? I'm awfully anxious..

To add to the list you already have, since you're interested in Islamic law, consider Harvard (Baber Johansen) and the University of Toronto (Khaled Abou El-Fadl). You can take courses with Johansen through the Divinity School, which I know is pretty liberal when it comes to funding. Toronto might be a bit more expensive if you're an international student.

Really? Do you have stats for that?

How are applications going for everyone? Deadline's looming soon..

I'm going to have to disagree. Tasfir (Qur'anic exegesis) was literally, the first field of Islamic Studies. The corpus of literature on the Qur'an is voluminous and perhaps only second to fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). Tafsir is also not a field one can just enter - advanced knowledge of classical Arabic, the Torah as well as the hadith corpus is also necessary. This field is also very popular among Islamic Studies students coming from the Middle East, who have had a lot of prior exposure to these topics, thus making it more competitive. However, if you want to do original exegesis of the Qur'an, hermeneutical approaches using Queer and Feminist theory are hugely under developed areas where there is a lot of interest but not enough serious scholars. Of course, that area is also very contentious so you would really have to be committed to that approach and unphased by extreme criticism (e.g. just look at what Amina Wudud has gone through).

Asking "big questions" is certainly both appealing and very daunting. A great piece of advice given to me by a professor was to research something very specific, which can speak to broader questions. That is to say, you don't necessarily have to directly answer the big question, but approach it through a different lens, a unique perspective or through the idiosyncracies of a particular historical event or individual. Read the general literature and let your interests and own reflections direct you. Precising your exact method or course of study is something that will be developed during your doctorate.