Pierre de Olivi

I'm applying in a Classics-adjacent field (late antique religions) and have an undergrad background in Classics; I would be happy to edit or do an SOP swap if you are still looking for help! Just DM me.

The Harvard Divinity School Summer Language Program has moved online and includes Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French and German this year, as well as several ancient and modern languages you did not mention!

I'm not in media studies, but to your first concern I was able to find the placement record of PhD graduates on the department's website. While this isn't exactly a measure of the regard of the program, placement records are definitely a sign of the ability of the program to get jobs and, by extension, how seriously universities and other hirerers take the program. I didn't have time to read the record systematically, but I am immediately noticing a few things. The formatting of this list suggests to me that it may not be showcasing all PhD alumni, but only those who got jobs or eve

I'm a current MTS student at HDS and can say I strongly suspect your approach may be able to find a home in an MTS/div school/etc. setting. I personally a more "traditional" (historical/philological) approach but I've met several people now who came here to study one or more of the topics you're studying and even 2 current PhD students (at the Committee for the Study of Religion) who graduated from HDS having done work on one or more of these topics. With that being said, you may want to look into how these types of programs are seen on the English side of things as you consider your opti

I'm not familiar with Twitter-specific research or methods but you may be interested in reading about quantitative/digital approaches to social science and techniques of web scraping. I did a project using some of these for a professor in religious studies. I had some background in code but used Reyes' Introduction to Data Science for Social and Policy Research to brush up on specific techniques. It does not talk about twitter specifically but explains the foundational methods that you can then apply to gather data from twitter. I imagine there is an API that lets you easily gather (publi

This generally accords with what I've observed anecdotally. Would you mind elaborating what you mean by "traditional approaches to intellectual history" and what kinds of approaches may be more active? (I realize this is a bit of a meaningless question, since the job market is so bad all around, but I thought I'd ask)

If you're interested in getting an M. Div (as opposed to an MA/MTS/MAR) and have completed an undergraduate degree with reasonably decent grades you may not need the diploma at all. M. Div programs, even at otherwise selective institutions, tend not to demand a rigerous background in the field. Instead, they focus more on a variety of subjective features that will be reflected in your SOP and, possibly, your discussions with faculty before or during the application process. Could you go a little more into why you want the one-year diploma, and what your undergraduate background was like?

Stepping in from an adjacent field (religious studies) with my two cents on the relationship between CS and your historical interests. In my view, vital to the question of whether you should stay in your program or try to switch soon is the issue of research interests. What area of history would you like to focus on, and what approaches or methods might you bring in? Conversely, is your CS degree mostly training you to be a "code monkey," or does it include a substantial theoretical or mathematical component? Neither of these is necessarily bad, but they will affect your set of "hard skil

Hey everyone, I hope everybody has approached a decision with which they are happy. As some of you know, I applied to a few PhD programs directly out of undergrad and did not get into my top choices, which is fine and I can honestly say I am not bitter about. Since I applied relatively young and ultimately decided to pursue an M* degree, is it worth it to contact my POIs at those schools (whom I had already spoken with before applying) just to express my interest in re-applying in 2-3 years? If so, does anybody have tips about phrasing these e-mails? Thanks!

I just turned down my PhD admissions offer from Indiana. The faculty there were great and I respect their work, but the overall offerings of the program did not make it a perfect fit, and I decided I wanted to take more time to build skills and apply to more places next time, especially now that I've gotten into a funded Master's program. I e-mailed my POI, who is also the director of graduate studies, and included in the e-mail a form formally turning down my offer. It was difficult but I hope the professors at Indiana understand, and will update this thread regarding the responses I receive.

Hey guys, I have another quick question about M* programs I could use some insight on. But first, thanks again for all your wisdom and especiall your answers to my other questions in this thread! Does it look bad to PhD programs if one attends an M* program without funding, even if one does well in the program? Leaving aside the issue of whether one can graduate without debt or not, do PhD adcoms percieve one as a flawed or less competitive applicant if one cannot secure funding when applying to M* programs? Or is one's performance in the M* program far more indicative?

Hey everyone, I don't know if it would be better to create a whole thread for this, but does anybody know how relationships between concentrated MAR students at YDS and professors in the religious studies department at Yale tend to be? That is, are there a lot of opportunities to take classes in religious studies and are faculty in that department generally willing to work with YDS students? Or is the divide relatively rigid?

The Academia Stack Exchange tends to give useful advice and has a few regulars involved with academic/graduate religious studies. But, as its title implies, it is not specifically about religious studies (much less grad school in religious studies), and it is in more of a Q&A format than a "forum" per se.

This probably doesn't fulfill your criterion for "top tier," but Rutgers' M.A. program accepts new applicants until June 1 without any loss of funding eligibility. My original plan was to apply to their program if I didn't get in anywhere else, but it seems that will be unnecessary.

I'm not who you were responding to, but do you think it would be appropriate for me to contact the financial aid office about this issue even if I don't go to the open house? I would like to go but unfortunately I do not have access to a reliable means of getting to Boston and back, although I would like to discuss competing offers with the office.