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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.

I was just notified of my acceptance to Georgetown via email.

Have you checked the online application portal? That is where I was notified. Wishing the best for you.

When considering whether or not to apply to grad school at all it can provide information about stipends which are not provided on websites. Furthermore if one is wait-listed they can get a rough idea of what funding is like to compare other offers they may have received. To be honest a lot of this info can be found on a particular program's website, so the idea of being bummed out/boastful about it doesn't really hold water. Just in general it is good to be as well-equipped as one can when considering going down this road. To each their own I guess, but during my application cycles I was always curious as to what sitpends were like. Also I think it is just interesting to know the different stipends across different fields and at different universities.

Also, I forgot to mention: I urge those of you who were given offers of admission to input the stipend information, if any, at http://www.phdstipends.com/ for knowledge is power. And, of course, congrats to those who were accepted, it is tremendous accomplishment. Those who may have been rejected fear not, it took me three years of applying until I was accepted. Never give up, never surrender.

I can't speak to the specifics of your situation, but I had two interviews this application cycle (my third time applying to PhD programs, mind you). The first interview was with Emory, and it went extremely well lasted the whole 30 minutes they had scheduled, and then an extra 5 before they had to let me go to interview the next candidate. The next week I had an interview with UPenn, and it went sooo poorly and lasted only 11 minutes (!!). I could barely hear what they were saying as there was a sound issue and I had to do the interview on my iPhone because my PC was broken. At the end they said thank you and that was all of their questions and then it lagged and I said "Thanks good bye I appreciate the opportunity, etc etc." Then after hanging up I realized they never asked me if I had any questions. It was at that moment that it dawned on me that when my connection lagged and my interview said "thank you we have no more questions" they *had* to have asked me if I had any, but I missed it all. I frantically emailed them back with questions, but I for sure thought it was over. The next week Emory notified me I was rejected and three days later UPenn emailed me with my acceptance. So while my situation is most definitely different than yours, the moral of the story is don't read too much in the interview. Although I had a miserable interview last year where the first question was "What would you do if your potential advisor were to die the year you arrived? What would you do if he succumbed to the mortal coil?" I was floored and did not expect anything like that, and unsurprisingly I was rejected two weeks later. Interviews...never know what to expect.

I urge those of you who were given offers of admission to input the stipend information, if any, at http://www.phdstipends.com/ . Knowledge is power, and congrats to those who were accepted.

I urge those of you who were given offers of admission to input the stipend information, if any, at http://www.phdstipends.com/ . Knowledge is power, and congrats to those who were accepted.

I urge those of you who were given offers of admission to input the stipend information, if any, at http://www.phdstipends.com/ . Knowledge is power, and congrats to those who were accepted.

I urge those of you who were given offers of admission to input the stipend information, if any, at http://www.phdstipends.com/ . Knowledge is power, and congrats to those who were accepted.

After 5 rejections in a row I decided to join my friends on a last minute trip to Muscat, Oman (I am currently studying in Jordan for the quarter). The night of our flight I received an additional rejection. I then pretty much gave up hope as all of the schools I thought I had a good chance of being accepted to rejected me. I then spent the next three days driving around the country, swimming into caves, snorkeling off the coast, and driving and spending the night in the desert. I had no internet connection the whole time until the last night when we had rented rooms through an AirBnB. I refreshed my email and up popped about 50 new emails, as I scrolled through I noticed an email from PoI with the subject line "Congratulations." I should say this is my third year applying so I started shaking with excitement. I almost cried about 10 times on my flight back to Jordan the next day.