OmniscienceQuest

Saw this on Reddit this morning -- "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -- Captain Picard "

(OmniscienceQuest, to himself): "Gosh I haven't been over to the 2020 History applicant thread on GradCafe in a few days, wonder what's going on..." (He enters the thread) . . . (He exits the thread)

I agree -- I've heard bad news from 3 of the 8 PhD programs I applied to and I anticipate all 5 of the other responses by Friday next week, based on reported results from past years. I also expect it will be like this week, where it was dead silent until the very end of the week. But my friends keep reminding me I don't know the future, so who knows. I hope you get good news next week.

I applied almost exclusively to PhD programs in History this year but also applied to Princeton's PhD in Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity in the Dept of Religion. Based on past years it looks like the results for that will come out at the end of next week (i.e. around Friday 2/21). I graduated recently with an MDiv from HDS -- as I recall, when I was accepted their notification went out on March 15th and I believe they release all masters-level results -- good news or bad news -- around that date every year. The waiting has been agonizing for me this year -- I only started to feel better this morning when I decided that I'll try again in the fall if I strike out again (I applied to two programs last year which were way too far outside of my field of training, PoliSci, and thought I'd be safer this year with 8 programs closer to home, but I didn't get any interviews or waitlist notifications and fear for the worst while continuing to hope for the best).

Hi everyone - I've been staying quiet and avoiding Grad Cafe as much as I could stand it. I was among the recent round of Yale rejects earlier this week, but other than that it's been radio silence and I've been struggling not to interpret that as a bad sign. If anyone is looking for something to keep you distracted, there was a wonderful podcast episode on NPR recently that was about the psychology of comparing yourself against other people: Counting Other People's Blessings. I don't know if it will help but I'm making the intention that every time I start getting anxious I'll remind myself of some event in my life from the past ten years or so that was a blessing. Going through old photos helps a lot to remind me of all the good things that have happened. Best of luck to you all.

I'm interested in the Modern Thought and Literature program at Stanford and am wondering if there are other, similar interdisciplinary programs at other universities? With a strong Literature focus but lots of room to branch into cognitive science, history, law, or any other direction on a highly individualized basis.

Hi friend -- I am in a somewhat similar position, coming from MDiv to PhD in Humanities. You should be focusing on individual professors whose research interests are a good fit with your own. I'm personally looking at faculty in many different departments -- Comp Lit, History, Religion, Jewish Studies, interdisciplinary programs. TBH an MDiv and MFA might not look like advantages to everyone on the admissions committee -- you'll need to demonstrate a serious commitment to RESEARCH on your application, and also in any exploratory emails you might send out. With only four or five months left until applications are due, I think you should be way past questions like "should I get a PhD in Literature or Religion?" If you look through the forums you'll see that it's very common for people to apply to programs, get rejected across the board, and come back the next year much better prepared and have fantastic outcomes from their applications. Given your background, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to get into a great PhD program. You can even do it this year, if you can get from where you are to where you need to be with your proposal quickly. A lot of it also depends on where you'll be applying. "I figured I'd ask you all first if I should be considering applying through religion departments instead" I say, you should consider applying to all departments, and then apply to the ones where you think your project fits very well with the program and the faculty. "related areas of interest include portrayals of clergy in literature, medieval lit, 20th-21st century British lit and religions/theologies in science fiction and fantasy literature." This is fine but at this point in the process your elevator pitch should look like this: "I am interested in studying contrasting portrayals of Jesuit and Dominican clergy in 17th century British travel narratives, and their relationship with contemporaneous political debates about the role of Papal authority in Europe." I mean, laser focused. My suggestion is that over the next two or three weeks you should first develop a NARROWLY focused and SPECIFIC research question or project, and then intensively study potential faculty advisors whose research and interests are a good match, and at the very end of that process start reaching out to them by email. There are lots and lots and lots of threads on this forum about how to write those emails (just search for "POI" and "email" or "how to email professor"). This is a brutal process and it's important to have a plan in place for what you're going to do for the next year if you find yourself in the same position as me and many many people here, striking out the first round and having to come back next year bruised but better prepared for the kind of competition you're facing.

For masters-level programs I wouldn't stress out too much about GPA. Apply everywhere you would seriously want to go and focus on where you want to go next in your studies. That being said, as someone with a Classics background I would urge you to reconsider trying to make a career in Classics. There are jobs teaching Latin in high schools but that is IT. It's a fantastic transition into any other field in the Humanities, if you're looking at a PhD, but I would strongly discourage you from considering Classics for anything more than a two year masters, including work.

Hi JonCL - I'm a recent masters-level graduate from a NELC program. My impression is that your Hebrew language training is fine for ANE, and your Greek is adequate background as one of the languages you'll do a reading proficiency test in but it's not enough to propose a research project involving Greek/NT. One of my deans from a previous institution told me that they accept students into their Arabic PhD with as little as two years of Arabic. (Small pet peeve -- when you say "3 years equivalency" it makes it sound to me like you're including intensives but trying to "hide" the fact for some reason. Just say exactly what you did. Also, your grades will matter a lot because of the intensives.) You should remember that you'll be competing with native Hebrew speakers and Jewish students who grew up reading Hebrew as children, so your application is going to have to speak powerfully to your strengths and to what makes you the very best candidate out of a pool of extremely well-qualified candidates. The fact that my previous T10 accepts PhD students with 2 years of language training underscores the fact that this is not the most important aspect of the application, adequate language prep is only the basic prerequisite to apply. What exactly are you wanting to study? I'm a bit puzzled by the Assyriology Dept inclusion, since you don't mention any previous studies in that area. Based on your stats I would suggest that your best chance at admission is to focus on some aspect of ancient Jewish history.

I’m a fan of r/forbiddenSnacks r/kidsarefuckingstupid r/creepyasterisks hbu?

Well, I’m moving over to Reddit (even though most of the content is generated by bots these days). You should check out Poli Sci Rumors website next

I only applied to two programs because I didn’t want to be in the position of potentially spending the rest of my life with regrets, wondering if I could have done better. It looks like I’m going to strike out but I think that’s better for me long-term than making a bad decision on something so important.

My personal opinion is that if this is how you’re feeling after visiting the schools, you should seriously consider the CIR program at Chicago and hold off on starting a PhD until you’re in a better position to get into a program you’re going to be more enthusiastic about.

I emailed them last week and they said I should know within the next two weeks (I.e. by March 15). I assume that applies to everyone

I am praying some of you who have no acceptances and are feeling desperate will receive a surprise last-minute fully funded offer. Jah bless...