Pierre de Olivi

Of the two options Chicago is definitely better if you want to pursue a traditional career on the US job market. Aside from its greater "brand recognition," I suspect the different lengths of the programs is in part because there are no comprehensive exams in the Austrian program; unfortunately, many TT jobs in the US presuppose one's having completed such exams for hiring/teaching and look askance at European programs that do not include comps. With that said, if you're fully committed to transitioning to the European academy (especially ERC-type projects), both are viable and the Austrian program may be slightly stronger for networking reasons. This is also an important point to consider. As you do more research on Chicago you may want to reach out to some of those who are staying there longer than the funding package you are initially offered to see whether/how they obtained funding for additional years (do not take admins or even TT professors at their word on this point, ask students or get it in the contract). Staying late at a PhD program can be acceptable or even beneficial, but it should not come with economic precarity and especially not debt.

As others have said your relative lack of coursework, and especially coursework in the relevant languages for the study of NT/EC/Patristics, is a much bigger drawback than any benefit you may have from your unique background. However, if your science background included significant quantitative or coding work, it may provide a slight benefit if you apply to programs that favor digital humanistic approaches. You would still probably want to do a second master's, a post-bacc, or at least some language coursework, but if you can find a way to bring together your interests in a cohesive project proposal it could help out in the long run. Feel free to reply or DM me if you want more info on where to look if you're interested in DH.

Sorry for necroing but could you share the title of this book? I'm trying to do more methodological research on DH/quantitative methods in pre-modern stuff and this could be helpful, even if as a cautionary tale to some extent. I can read German if that matters.

Sacklunch's advice is right on the money. I'll also add that, depending on your field and actual competencies, it's sometimes helpful to separate languages you speak and languages you read, or modern and ancient languages. For instance, on my app I put "Languages spoken: English (native), German (B2 and strong academic reading skills), Modern Standard Arabic (elementary)." But under "languages read" I put "French, classical Arabic, Syriac," even though the first is a modern language and the second is theoretically the same language as MSA. I'm not sure if this helped but it let me maximize information and be transparent. In your case, you may want to specify if you can read modern and medieval/early modern versions of the same language either using this technique or by specifiying the periods in parentheses. There are courses you can take to specialize in the early modern forms of a language (at least, I know of some for Latin, German, and Dutch), so if you take any of those or read books specifically about the EM versions you won't be being deceitful. Finally, I know at least some programs are now asking for elaborations of language skills outside of the CV and boilerplate application now. NYU, for instance, asked me to submit a list of all languages spoken or read with details on how I learned them and sample texts I read in each. If any school you apply to does something similar, that is a very good time to shine.

I turned down Stanford, withdrew from Toronto, and turned down a waitlist position at Princeton's history department. Hope this helps!

Just committed to Harvard's CSR PhD program! Good luck to all on waitlists and making a decision; hopefully this can cause some waitlist movement at other programs.

Thank you for sharing this harrowing report. I'll be honest and say I'm not entirely convinced that most of the decline has little to do with covid, but I'd need to see more on their data collection method and raw data to be sure (I actually have a background in stats, so I'm not BS'ing here). With that said, there's no denying that this is a big drop and we're unlikely to see a bounce back for at best several years (if ever). I'll reiterate the advice I gave on the PhD applications thread that people considering applying or matriculating to religious studies PhDs in the near future should do research on how supportive their school and advisor will be should they choose to pursue an alt-ac or outright non-academic job. Likewise, I would advise everybody going in to try to find 1-2 fields they may be interested in working in besides academia and to try to keep opportunities open in them during the PhD.

Rejected from Chicago! Honestly, after two "virtual visit weekends" and having some great conversations with faculty and students at Harvard, I'm almost relieved!

I interviewed there as well. However, the interviews may be determined by subfield/POI and it may be possible to be admitted without an interview -- the results for past years are unclear. I'll reiterate that on one level, no news is good news. What subfield or POI did you apply to work with?

Thank you! It's definitely up there but I'm waiting to hear back from Chicago and will probably make my final decision based on how conversations with grad students feel. But I looooove the academics and faculty at Harvard and Cambridge is a very convenient location for me!

Thank you! I've heard 4 thrown around but am not sure how accurate it is. A faculty member told me I was the only applicant selected in my area of focus.

I got accepted to Harvard!!!!! The news came last night; sorry I didn't update the thread sooner.

If you're thinking about getting an academic job don't be afraid to ask them about the placement rates of their advisees in particular (as opposed to the department generally). Conversely, you can ask them point-blank whether and how they would advise you differently should you choose to seek an alt- or non-academic job. Questions about their attitude towards publication are always wise, but you may have already asked them earlier in the process. Even with the COVID vaccine out, asking what steps they are taking/have taken to accommodate current students in light of the crisis can be revealing.

Sure, most of my research focuses on Late Antique Eastern Med. I applied to do an interdisciplinary track adjacent to the History of Christianity track with additional faculty from Islamic studies. I don't know if they interviewed me as an interdisciplinary applicant or moved me into a more conventional track. I hope this helps! ETA: you can DM me for more information about my application/interview if that's helpful, but I don't want to share too many details publicly.

I had an interview there last week, and I'm under the impression I was one of the later people to get interviews. Judging by past years they've let people know in late February or early March (=2-3 weeks after interviews finish), so it may still be a week or two out.