rheya19

Love that sketch! "Ever notice how Sally Fields played Tom Hank's love-interest in Punchline, and 5 years later was playing his mom in Forrest Gump?"

"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....

You'll never make any money no matter what. That's all you need to know about religious studies.

I don't even care if this is true or not. I LOVE <3 <3 <3 it.

Group interviews are common. You will likely be interviewed with a panel from the admissions committee rather than the profs that you specifically mentioned, but it might be a mix! I've been on the interviewing and the interviewed side of these telecon group interviews. 
Here are some tips for panel/group interviews.
1. It will most likely begin with people introducing themselves. Have a pen and paper ready as soon as you start the call so that you can write down their names. 
2. You are likely going to be projected over a speakerphone on the other side. These things are sometimes static-y, so speak slowly and clearly. Also, speak loudly because while they can turn up the volume on these speakers, when they do, it will make the static louder too. I don't know how you normally speak into the phone but if you are sitting at desk, speak as if you were talking to a person on the other side of the desk, instead of how one might talk to a friend on a phone.
3. Similarly, the group will be speaking into a mic on a table and if a person is sitting further away, they might be quieter. Don't be afraid to ask them to repeat something if you didn't hear it clearly.
4. The group might take turns asking you questions from a predetermined list but others may interject with followup questions based on your answers. When you answer a question, answer it for the whole group, not just the person who is asking.
5. Interviewers will be writing down your answers and making notes as you speak. They might be a little silent after you finish speaking as they finish their notes. Don't be alarmed! In all of my interviews, they always started with this (and when I was on the interviewing panel, we always said this too).

Also, just for the record, until they contact me, I'm choosing to believe that I still have a very good chance of getting into UT-Austin. Until I am hand-delivered a rejection letter, I'm telling myself that I can use the Secret or Scientology or something to get myself admitted.
It's going to happen!! Do you hear me, Universe?? 

Check out UChicago, too.

"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 posted this in the religion section (as I applied to religion programs,) and then realized the thread fits better over here. So here we go again.
Here's a little game to help pass the time while we wait for our acceptance or poorly-made decision letters (not "rejection...") Did you have any cringe-worthy moments while applying to your schools? Call a professor the wrong name? Mention information that hurt your chances? Forget to change the name of the university on your statement?
I have one: I emailed two professors at a certain school about my research interests in December. One got back to me and was friendly; the other did not get back to me. But from their faculty pages, they both looked like good fits. I wrote my statement for the program, outlining how both professors would be of great help to my research. I had read their stuff and made references to it. I actually felt really good about this application. I turned it in, and the next day I found out that... the silent professor had died. Over a year and a half ago.  >_<  
I emailed the other professor right away, apologizing and explaining, but he was really cool about it luckily. He said that they had been meaning to take down this other guy's faculty page, and that it wouldn't impact my chances of getting in. I still feel like an a**hole, though.

"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....

Ahhh... we have fun, don't we?

Oh John Harvard, guide my admissions, make my statement true, my research original, and my acceptance assured. Amen.

"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....

Still praying to John Harvard for hope...

Also, just for the record, until they contact me, I'm choosing to believe that I still have a very good chance of getting into UT-Austin. Until I am hand-delivered a rejection letter, I'm telling myself that I can use the Secret or Scientology or something to get myself admitted.
It's going to happen!! Do you hear me, Universe?? 

Well, I reckon we'll all just be sittin' out here waiting for Harvard this week. Anyone got a guitar?
 

Well, I reckon we'll all just be sittin' out here waiting for Harvard this week. Anyone got a guitar?
 

You'll never make any money no matter what. That's all you need to know about religious studies.

The short answer is yes, but with some qualification. I think Marcion is by and large right above that Ivy schools do have top RS programs whose graduates get jobs. But I do think two things need to be disentangled; namely, top tier school in RS and Ivy League school, especially because the impression on this thread seems to be Ivies=Best, Everything Else=Second Tier. Are the RS departments at Ivy League schools top tier? Yes, for the most part. But if we're looking strictly at departmental reputation, placement record, etc., then a lot of other schools, including non-elite universities, have top tier RS departments. For example, I would never consider FSU's RS program second tier, especially if you study American Religious History. And therein lies the rub--the strength of your program's ability to help you on the job market really does depend a lot on your subfield and who your advisor is. The bottom line, to answer your question, is you need to look at the departmental fit and not the school's overall reputation which really only matters for undergrads. Is FSU a highly ranked undergraduate institution when we're considering it on a general scale of all undergraduate institutions? No. But its RS PhD program is very good for particular subfields.
Departments are always strong in particular areas and not so strong in others. Some departments provide amazing faculty support and at others, some students find it very very difficult to get any face time with their advisor at all. Some students will find the latter a major problem and others no problem at all. Some departments provide great interview coaching and job market training. Some, Harvard for example, provide no such coaching or training (or such opportunities must be sought rigorously on a student's own initiative) and it really shows. I'm sure many of us on this board already in programs have witnessed some pretty atrocious job talks given by Ivy products. As someone has already said, Ivy names will often get an applicant a closer look and probably help toward landing an AAR interview. But the interview weekend cannot be saved by a school name. At that point it's all you and only you.
I think there are three factors you need to consider: funding, fit, faculty. One of the reasons people on the board emphasize schools with funding over those without or very little (beside avoiding debt) is because people with funding simply have more time to do better work than people who have to work an outside job to support their studies. They have more time for grant applications, to write and publish an article, etc.--things that aren't requirements for obtaining a PhD but go a long way toward job marketability and success. Two students of equal ability will likely have different success if one is in a fully funded program and the other is not. Schools that offer funding also just tend to be better resourced overall in terms of fellowship offices, internal grant competitions, etc. But again--that doesn't have anything to do with whether a school is an Ivy. There are fully funded state school programs--Indiana, UVA, UC Santa Barbara, UT-Austin, UNC, and FSU for example--whose graduates get jobs with, I would guess, a frequency competitive with that of the Ivies. Many of the private programs, e.g. Duke and UChicago, are already considered on par with the Ivies, but others, Syracuse, Stanford, Northwestern, etc. are also either historically strong or have become strong recently.
As to fit, if you're not comfortable in your program--i.e. where comfortable means studying with people, both students and faculty, and in an environment that is conducive to your growth as a scholar--you're not going to succeed. PhD programs are too emotionally draining. If an Ivy turns out not to be an environment in which you will thrive, it is not worth your emotional, mental, and physical health. People who choose Ivies over a better fit elsewhere struggle mightily (unless they're academic robots). Being in a place where you feel you belong and can be part of an active scholarly community is really vital to being successful.
With regard to faculty, there are some really great, well-respected, well known scholars who teach at non-Ivy league schools. Bob Orsi and Sylvester Johnson are at Northwestern. John Corrigan at FSU. Ann Taves at UCSB. These are people whose name literally every RS scholar working in a department would know. If you have a person like this as your advisor, no one is going to give two shits that you didn't go to an Ivy. That doesn't mean that you must have someone who is known that widely across RS as your advisor. But if your advisor is well known in your subfield and writes you stellar letters, that will get some traction on the job market.
To your specific dilemma: It's really not possible to say where UC Davis's RS program ranks at this point because it's too new--no one has graduated from it. I did meet a grad student from it, however, who presented in my department's grad student conference back in October. He seemed to be really enjoying it and felt like it was a good fit for him. The UC system is by no means the bastion of well-funded public PhD programs. That being said, it's still regarded as the flagship of public university systems, and Davis is near the top of the middle/bottom of the top of those schools overall. But if you run through those three criteria above, funding, fit, faculty, I think you'll have a better sense of whether or not it's the right choice.

Whenever I go to Starbucks, it seems like 90% of what they're selling are hot milkshakes with caffeine. Now look, if you want a raspberry mochaccino with whipped cream, go for it! Drink them to your heart's content. But don't pretend like you're drinking a coffee. You're drinking a hot milkshake with caffeine. 
Same thing with muffins. THEY'RE CUPCAKES WITH NO FROSTING, PEOPLE!!! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! 
A muffin and frappuccino for breakfast = a cupcake and milkshake for breakfast
I'm not judging; I'm just saying, call it what it is.

The librarian at the university I work for very seriously cautioned me against my PhD because I couldn't have babies then. Welcome to the Bizarroland for 21st Century Women. 

I waited until my final four semesters to fulfill my language requirement. I'm sitting in French class surrounded by 18 and 19-year old freshmen, and we're introducing ourselves in small groups using simple phrases. A first-semester freshman hears my broken "Je suis ____, J'ai vingt-neuf ans." and basically yells, "Wait.... You're 29!??!" The next thing out of her mouth (albeit quieter) "can you buy me and my friends alcohol?" 

No honey. I cannot buy you Smirnoff ice.

Pshah. I'm 35 and still get the looks from all the boys. 
Also, I met my husband at 29 in a grad program I was just starting at the time, and we got married when I was an old maid of 33. 
Come on now. Turn the voices in your head off and focus on enjoying your life. 

Even the best heels wear out. They're not really meant for walking or even standing for long. But at least you always have an excuse to go buy new ones!

As cringe-worthy as some of these are...I don't think I've seen anything worse than this: