Esei_John

I can confirm some of these. I've (very thankfully) received invites to Emory, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Duke ThD, and UT Austin. I also know of people who have received invitations from PTS and Yale. I cannot say, however, that every school has sent out *all* their invitations. Best of luck to everyone! Hey, I'm an insider of Yale. I highly doubt that Yale has sent out invitations. You said you 'know of people who have received invitations from Yale,' Can you specify their sub-field or how do you know them (applicant(s))? I'm asking this because I had a dinner with my adviser few hours ago and S/he (of course S/he is the faculty at Yale's religious studies dept.) said that my dept. hasn't officially sent out invitations yet. There is a chance that some of our faculty sent their invitations to their tops choices personally, but I wish you can clarify the subfield to prevent any confusion.

Forgive me, but frankly, I see no reason to choose Wheaton over Marquette. More than anything, you know the logic with graduate programs - *You should never go into debt*. But as we can see, that is just a logic and many of us are going into debt in the process. And a number of (sometimes significant) financial problems occur when you are pursuing masters degree (and keep in mind that you may pursue a second masters in the future). Yes, I can see Wheaton's cost is relatively cheap, but that 1/3 cost that you should pay (I assume $3500/year) is not a small amount of money considering you have to pay it WHILE you're studying (for 2 years). Believe me, you will want to confront with these financial difficulties and stresses as late as possible. Because you already secured a resource (or award you've earned) that could lessen the direct financial burden on your graduate study, I don't know why you even hesitate. Secondly, Marquette's church history program is solid and they have pretty impressive faculty members. In particular, if you want to focus on early church history, Marquette's place is definitely notable. Marquette's "HISTORICAL THEOLOGY" subfield has a strong background in early church history. I did my first master in the subfield of church history. I presented some research papers in that subfield and participated in several conferences. I was impressed that Marquette's professors are very active in this area and some of them could be regarded as an 'influencer' (I don't mean to disparage Wheaton's faculty. I'm just talking about Marquette's professors). So what you need to do right now is to study each school's curriculum, requirements and course details. And check their placements into 'good' PhD programs, if you cannot find it, just ask to your POI. You're an admitted student, you have every right to ask them that before making a decision. Plus, it doesn't matter when you make a decision, as long as you give notifications on or before 15 APR. But, what's most important is to make sure that you are going to the right place. But, to be honest, I don't see a single reason for you to kill Marquette's offer.

I'm talking about Claremont's other programs which usually require ridiculously short period and plenty of tuition, not Phd in religion. I meant, in general, that's not a good sign for your program too even if you may not belong to these (profit) programs. Wish you a good luck for your future plan.

you mean every acceptance notices were already delivered via email on Friday?

No more news from Harvard? (CSR) Were short notices on 23th the first and last informal acceptance notice from CSR of Harvard? I'm still waiting, but it seems no sound was to be heard since then.

Before stating what I've heard from dear friend of mine, I have to be clear that Claremont's faculty is pretty nice (as you may know) However, as was stated above, their financial situation is far worse than ever. My friend said "many candidates, including myself, are facing a crushing burden of debt" My folks (I'm also an international applicant) have repeatedly said that many candidates are competitively fighting for few T.A or R.A spots, and their fellowship/scholarship opportunities are reduced to the vanishing point. In particular if you are an international student, the chances are really against you. And one more thing, I've seen lots of profit-oriented degrees run at Claremont. I really don't want to argue about it, and I shouldn't. But definitely this is not a good sign for your degree, it can hurt your career and might depreciate years of assiduous effort and study.

Wow. did Harvard notify their informal acceptance?(there are some postings on result page). Congrats on all the acceptances. Can anyone claim it? If that "short note" from CSR chair was a generic acceptance notice, then I'd have no chance to get in.

@UChicagoDivStudent Thanks! (luckily I checked your posts few minutes ago after a sound sleep )

I was interviewed by my POI at Chicago on January 22nd. I applied for the Sociology and Anthropology of Religion track ... My POI said that I should hear by Feb 15th, however no word as yet... Wondering if I've been rejected... Wow, I didn't know they conducted interview. Your subfield is same as mine.. that's another bad news for me. But thank you for the info. Can I ask who did you interview with? Dr. Angie Heo is my POI. (no reply for the pre-contact though...) And did you hear about more interviews with any other applicants of your subfield ?

Any news for U of Chicago??? I'm really wondering has anyone been offered interview from U of Chicago..

Thanks for the heads up. And sorry for the news from Princeton.

Thanks, do you know whether U of C or Harvard requests interview session as part of an decision-making process? I didn't get one, and I really hope this is not a bad sign for me.

Wow. Congrats! May I ask how you got the news? (and subfield, if you're okay with it. ) you can PM me

why don't you post this on the topic below "Has anyone applied to the Canadian phd programs?" I remember some user had a much closer knowledge on the application status of schools from Toronto School of Theology. Good luck!

Friends, has anyone interviewed/heard back from U of Chicago, UNC(chapel hill) or Harvard? I am curious what is going on...