ibnbattuta

Yea, you should be fine. I scored 168/139/5.5 and got into several top tier programs, so the Quant shouldn't affect you (I quite literally just chose random answers on the quant), and what matters more is your writing sample than your ability to produce off the cuff an essay based on an essentially ridiculous prompt. I listed the schools, and during an interview at Emory they asked "You're applying to X, Y, Z top tier schools, why would you choose Emory over them when they are essentially ranked higher." That threw me off a bit, but basically argued that what mattered to me was faculty and job placement, not the prestige of the university. FWIW to you all, start churning out drafts of your statements of purpose and send them out for people to read, then refine, then send out, etc. I was fortunate to have a solid support system of 6 PhD students and 3 profs editing and offering comments on my statements, and I think that made a tremendous difference. First I sent it to close friends who were in the PhD then as each draft got better, I'd send them off to more prestigious people, so by the time I was sending a draft to professors, it was quite polished.

To be honest, what you are asking is what are the worst NES PhD programs, because those are the easiest to get into and often offer the least amount of funding to admitted students. Sure there are many factors and you can often find great scholars teaching at non-R1 institutions, but the fact of the matter is if you go to a shitty school then your job prospects are going to be shitty, regardless of how well you perform/how interesting your project is. That being said, not all R1 institutions are created equal and not all R1's that have NES programs are considered "top tier".

These will be of help to you: PhD programs: http://www.unc.edu/~cernst/reliprograms.htm MA Programs: http://www.unc.edu/~cernst/maprograms.html

Congrats, and I am sure you are aware that if you receive a 3.5 or higher your first year, your second year is free. In addition, they offer FLAS fellowships (18k for full year, 4k for the summer) for which you can apply.

Damn this thread died off real quick. Any good news for people?

It depends on your program, but I know UChicago has an unstated cutoff at 90th percentile on verbal. Also, I was admitted to UPenn with both writing and verbal percentiles below the 99th percentile (167 verbal, 149 quant (the math struggle is real), and 5.5 writing).

I can only offer some advice from my position as a recent admit to PhD programs. When you say work two days a week, do you mean roughly 16 hours, if so that would put you at about 22 hours a week, which is manageable from what I know from my colleagues who have TAed and been employed concomitantly. Re: funding, you should ask your PoI if there is any chance that the university would increase your funding next year, or ask if there are internal Graduate/Teaching Assistant-ships or other positions that would cover the gap in funding. The problem that may arise is that your ministry job may not be available in subsequent years, so while you may have the first year set, it is not ideal to have to worry about funding from year to year. Also, does the PhD program have TA requirements? If so, you have to consider that in subsequent years you would need to TA, and work the extra hours a week on top of your coursework, which could be extremely cumbersome especially as you are preparing for comprehensive exams. Lastly, as everyone oft repeats, never go in debt for a PhD. Hope this helps.

Princeton NELC rejections are out today

No living expenses or stipend. It is rare to find MA programs that offer any funding so even though I can still be quite expensive at UChicago compared to other MA programs in middle eastern studies it is quite good. Another alternative would be the UChicago divinity school where you can study Islam. Thy offer at the minimum 50% off tuition and thus you pay at the most 16,000 a year for tuition. That at being said there are a wide array of employment opportunities both at the school and in the surrounding neighborhood.

Congrats. I'm still waiting for UT religion (which is a presumed/expected rejection) and their NELC program.

UCSB rejections sent out today.

I graduated from the Divinity School's MA program about two years ago, but still in the area and I am very familiar with the MA program in the CMES.

Thanks for the heads up, it is rather annoying that they would admit people in mid-January but not send out rejections until mid-March.

I should mention that if you maintain a 3.5 GPA during your first year in the CMES MA program at UChicago then your second year is free. I should also mention that it is easy to get a 3.5 GPA and that no student from the past 6 years has failed to maintain a 3.5 for their first year. But best of luck in your future endeavours. If you have any questions about UChicago CMES feel free to PM me.

Anyone here heard anything about UCSB religion? Does anyone know if they interview? Thanks a bunch.