rheya19

"Hail, John Harvard, full of scholasticism! Blessed art thou amongst Anglicans, and blessed is the fruit of thy loins, Harvard University. Pray for us now and at the hour of our funding. Amen."
My husband's going to wonder why there are lipstick kisses on the monitor....

I am laughing because the 2 responses I got did not answer the question I asked.... Who are the people in my field of interest? 
But I do appreciate the honesty about how terrible my prospects are.  Lol.  
Yes, the language requirements are ridiculously daunting, but what I want to write on is in Syriac, so I am hoping to get away with just Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac at the time of application. Adding Coptic is a truly terrifying proposition, not to mention Latin, but I imagine they would be necessary at some point. I do not intend to apply straight from the MTS-- I was going to do additional coursework and language work for a year or two or three after the MTS.
As for age discrimination, yes, I am sure that is something I will face, also. My appeal might be that if in fact Jesus was a real person, his ministry was only 3 years or so....maybe then, number of years in the field does not equal the potential magnitude of the scholarship. 
But I do appreciate the heads up about my challenges. And I will have open eyes 
 

I'd be happy to share mine, though not sure how much use it would be. I work in later antiquity as well. Shoot me a PM if you want and ill email you.
 

One of my professors gave me an awesome little precis template to fill out for each title I do for exams. It consists of:
Title, author, publishing info:
Topic:
Main argument:
Subarguments:
-
-
-
Sources and methodologies:
Contributions:
2-3 quotes:
 
She encouraged us to try to keep the precis to just one page (Word document) or two max if the work is particularly long or complex. You can keep them all in a file and print them out to play with (review, group together in different ways, think through) to help you prepare to discuss them in the broad survey--ish kind of way you will need to on your exams.
 
I hope this helps!!

Are there other ways you could find beauty on your campus? Is there a performing arts center where you could go see live theater or concerts? Are there art displays or venues around that have live music? Maybe you could even try to make some of your own beauty by auditing a visual arts course; I myself am a historian auditing a course in ancient to Medieval calligraphy this semester, and it's a no pressure creative time for me. 
Good luck! Keep us posted!

Congrats on getting it done! I wouldn't sweat it, you'll have it on your CV for applications and it was good practice. I wish I could redo my first conference presentation over, but instead, I just used it as a learning opportunity. Sometimes that's all you can do!

I did it. It went okay (I believe), I had only a little data to show them, not much... 
At the panel, I got zero questions at the end of my presentation

It sounds like you are not prior-service military. I don't recommend adding this kind of commitment to your life right now. The recruiter's version of what the Reserves are is probably very different from the real situation. While there is relatively little utilization of Reserve units now, that was not the case 10 years ago. I knew reservists that were getting called up for deployments (3-6 mo training + 12 months+ overseas) every other year. Also do not expect to easily transition from a deployment back into the PhD world. 
I did 4 yr AD and have worked as a mental health professional serving veterans and AD for a dozen years. The military can be a fulfilling experience - my service most certainly was - but I don't recommend adding this to your plate while you are in a PhD program. It adds too much stress and uncertainty to an already busy life.

I did a public speaking workshop yesterday and it went really well, I made the crowd laugh a couple of times.

Really proud of you for being able to get up on a pannel in front of around two hundred people and expose yourself on such a vulnerable topic! ❤️ Sometimes, people can be so moved or hear something that resonates with them so well, that there is no more need for further discussion. That could be a possibility. Even if that isn't the case, even if for some reason this group did not relate to you, remember that your experiences, thoughts, and feelings are still valid, and you are never alone in your experiences and beliefs. 

Oops! I forgot a couple of things in my precis template. Let me try that again:
Publication info
Purpose
Argument
Sub arguments
Key words (with definitions in your own words)
Sources
Methods/Strategies
Contributions/Evaluation
Quotes
 

One of my professors gave me an awesome little precis template to fill out for each title I do for exams. It consists of:
Title, author, publishing info:
Topic:
Main argument:
Subarguments:
-
-
-
Sources and methodologies:
Contributions:
2-3 quotes:
 
She encouraged us to try to keep the precis to just one page (Word document) or two max if the work is particularly long or complex. You can keep them all in a file and print them out to play with (review, group together in different ways, think through) to help you prepare to discuss them in the broad survey--ish kind of way you will need to on your exams.
 
I hope this helps!!

One of my professors gave me an awesome little precis template to fill out for each title I do for exams. It consists of:
Title, author, publishing info:
Topic:
Main argument:
Subarguments:
-
-
-
Sources and methodologies:
Contributions:
2-3 quotes:
 
She encouraged us to try to keep the precis to just one page (Word document) or two max if the work is particularly long or complex. You can keep them all in a file and print them out to play with (review, group together in different ways, think through) to help you prepare to discuss them in the broad survey--ish kind of way you will need to on your exams.
 
I hope this helps!!

It's possible that the people who were drawn to this panel were people who were in the process of dealing with the kinds of issues the other panelists were talking about still struggling with. As a person who deals with mental health issues too, I feel like our society sends us messages that those who seem positive and optimistic have "successfully" dealt with their problems, which always feels like a moral judgment to me. The audience might have been low-key intimidated by someone who (In their minds) has "pulled themselves up by their boot straps" while they're still struggling to cope.
I'm not saying that you in any way projected any of that. I just think that those of us with mental illness are made to feel like we're doing something wrong if we take too long to "succeed" in coping (as if coping is a finite process. LMFAO)
I'm just conjecturing based on my own years of self-judgment, so take my ideas with a grain of salt.  
I'm sure you did a great job, and you don't know that you didn't impact people in the audience who didn't say anything. Keep reaching out. 

This has happened to me before, but on a more intimate scale. I guess what I tried to keep in mind when it happened is that while I know a good deal of people who would have held high interest and asked me more, but somewhere between the audience, my spot in the lineup, and the success of the other presenters just happened to outweigh what I could bring to the table. "I am enough, I have enough, I do enough".
 
My father was once on a panel discussing drugs and alcohol to the parents of an incoming high school class. The members were a lawyer, a former alcoholic/drug addict, and him (a psychologist working largely with middle and high school aged students). When it came time for questions, every single person was questioning the lawyer on "But what if a kid gets drunk and injured on MY property if I wasn't home and he started drinking at another house and he had his parents permission on a tuesday when mercury is in retrograde???". Not a single person asked him a question, and it became extremely apparent that almost no one in the crowd understood the point of the presentation. Even in a group of 250+ people, there can be a single fixation I guess.

I just saw the e-mail that I was accepted into Villanova for the MA program! I withdrew my UGA application so that I could get started on all of the things I need to prepare for Villanova. I didn't manage to secure the funding for it since there were so many applicants, but the head of the department sent me a list of other funding opportunities through the school that I could apply to; a lot of them are due tomorrow, so I guess I know what I'm doing tonight! I'm super excited now and feel like a lot of weight has been lifted! I hope more people hear from schools they're waiting for soon! 

I think xypathos is exactly right. A lot of folks have this vision of Ph.D work that they're going to have a really close working relationship with their advisor who is an expert in their field. Having a person who is field-adjacent is actually going to help you better develop as a scholar. The reason is that they can really push you to write more clearly and precisely than someone who is already mired in your field because they need that higher level of clarity to understand your argument. I've found this extremely helpful as I have a terrible habit of always implying my argument through examples rather than coming out and saying it clearly and succinctly.
I work on 19th/20th century German theology, philosophy of history, and social theory (and their intersection). My dissertation is on a relatively little known theologian (little known in the US). I have two co-advisors, one in religious studies and one in philosophy. The RS advisor is a Catholic social ethicist and the philosophy advisor is a Hegel scholar. Both have, at the very least, a passing familiarity with my figure, the philosophy advisor more so than the RS advisor. As I've had some friends and colleagues read over dissertation chapters, people who are intimately familiar with my figure have often missed the places in my dissertation where I'm doing what I describe above. My advisors have not.
Of course, I have had to recruit an expert on my figure to my committee to make sure that my argument makes sense and is contributing meaningfully to the literature (someone from outside my institution). It's also going to be important for her to write me letters for jobs next application season. So having an expert on your committee is definitely a necessity. But that person does not have to be your advisor, and I think it's better if they are not your advisor.

This is sage advice. You cannot become a clone of your advisor and expect to do well. Moreover, if your advisor likes your dissertation too much, the much needed criticism that you need to develop your argument may not be there. You can write a good dissertation that is readily publishable with an advisor who isn't familiar with your methodology. I would say that broad interest ability as well as a reputation for being a good advisor is more important that being very closely aligned with what you want to do. 

In my opinion, your advisor shouldn't work exactly within your interests. They're going to be biased about how the work should be done and what kind of scholar you should be. I've seen this myself and had faculty tell me as well, professors who tend to take on a mentee within their exact subfield tend to produce shoddy scholars b/c that student is a mini-them, rather than fostering their own curiosity.
Program A is a bit of a unicorn. Usually the best fit for your interests is either 1) aloof and/or 2) an asshole. Also, there's a bit of a risk in placing your development in the hands of one person. If they leave, turn out to suck in some way, die, etc - you're up a proverbial creek. Increasingly universities don't hire someone with the same sub/field as the recently departed and hires are taking an increasingly longer time.
Program B and C are probably the best/ideal fit, IMO.
Program D could be awesome, depending on the university. Religious Studies is already a very diverse field and some schools are better about fostering this. The big negative is that if you dive too deep or too broad in your ancillary departments, your eventually employer may come to say that you can't really do any of the fields that well. This depends heavily on the school, the department(s) in question, and eventual employer. I've seen solid applicants, as a student on a Search Committee, rejected because the committee found them 1) too specialized, 2) not specialized enough, and/or 3) lacking a foundation that would allow them to teach introductory courses that senior faculty no longer want to do.

I was notified of acceptance off the NT waitlist at Baylor today!

One of my professors gave me an awesome little precis template to fill out for each title I do for exams. It consists of:
Title, author, publishing info:
Topic:
Main argument:
Subarguments:
-
-
-
Sources and methodologies:
Contributions:
2-3 quotes:
 
She encouraged us to try to keep the precis to just one page (Word document) or two max if the work is particularly long or complex. You can keep them all in a file and print them out to play with (review, group together in different ways, think through) to help you prepare to discuss them in the broad survey--ish kind of way you will need to on your exams.
 
I hope this helps!!

One of my professors gave me an awesome little precis template to fill out for each title I do for exams. It consists of:
Title, author, publishing info:
Topic:
Main argument:
Subarguments:
-
-
-
Sources and methodologies:
Contributions:
2-3 quotes:
 
She encouraged us to try to keep the precis to just one page (Word document) or two max if the work is particularly long or complex. You can keep them all in a file and print them out to play with (review, group together in different ways, think through) to help you prepare to discuss them in the broad survey--ish kind of way you will need to on your exams.
 
I hope this helps!!

One of my professors gave me an awesome little precis template to fill out for each title I do for exams. It consists of:
Title, author, publishing info:
Topic:
Main argument:
Subarguments:
-
-
-
Sources and methodologies:
Contributions:
2-3 quotes:
 
She encouraged us to try to keep the precis to just one page (Word document) or two max if the work is particularly long or complex. You can keep them all in a file and print them out to play with (review, group together in different ways, think through) to help you prepare to discuss them in the broad survey--ish kind of way you will need to on your exams.
 
I hope this helps!!

Document it, speak to your chair or department head, see if other students/classes have document these same issues. Do not give out the answers. You are not the instructor of record.MIT is not worth your job or career.
That aside I am uncomfortable with faculty who have vague and subjective grading systems. Look for rubrics, anything your department might have for the course.

I personally take my notes with OneNote, it's free and you can create notebook, sub sections and sub sub sections. I have a notebook for each year and one for research. Its super practical because there is a research function that will look through all your noteboks's content. Its super easy to look back at notes you wrote a million years ago when you don't remeber when or how you wrote them. 
Plus side of one note : it syncs accross all your devices and saves everything online. You can also record your lectures through the software and then when you read over your notes, you can playback the part of the lecture recorded as you typed that sentence/paragraph... 
 
For OP, a good way to not get distracted when using a laptop online is to either deactivate wifi during the lecture. or use a website blocker for particular websites