OmniscienceQuest

I heard back from the master's program I ended up attending on March 15th exactly. I think they have a policy of releasing all results that day. Masters is very different from PhD (I'm also a bit puzzled why you posted this in Political Science?)... In any case you shouldn't expect to hear an answer until March 15th and possibly not a day before, depending on the school. Best of luck

My off-the-cuff reaction is that you should call in sick to your new job on that Monday so you can attend at least the first full day of the event. You might feel very differently about the school and the department after experiencing it firsthand, and this is a decision that will affect at least the next 7 years of your life (in contrast, you might work at this new job for 6 months before starting that 7 year project). If you still feel "off" about it after visiting, follow your gut. But don't make the decision just based off of internet research if you're accepted already and it's your only admission. My opinion.

Monday is President's Day. Idk if all universities observe or just some -- it should say on their academic calendar

Last year it looks like their acceptances went out at the end of the 3rd week of February so I expect we'll start seeing results from them around the end of this week

My focus was Judaism but a significant part of my program was comparative, because the professor I connected best with was a compararivist. Much of my energy within my area of focus was devoted to learning Hebrew. The other question is a bit harder to answer. In the first semester they had us read *Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil* by Emilie Townes and it made a deep impression on me (I got the sense that a lot of students shared that experience). In particular she challenges the academic pretense of being emotionally uninvolved in your work and argues that involvement can make our work better. When I arrived at HDS I was keeping a firm separation between my academic studies and my personal beliefs, but my encounter with Townes challenged me to begin integrating the two and to be more honest and open about what I sincerely believe to be true (i.e. that God is a real presence in human history). I think that's what really marked the shift from MTS to MDiv for me. A fair number of people switch programs in their first year, from what I saw.

You know it was so long ago I dont remember and ETS deleted the results so I couldn't even go look now. I think I must have taken the GRE for that round of applications in 2012, when it was still on a scale of 800. I think I got one question wrong on Verbal but scored in the 500s for Quant (quite low). I did my undergrad at an Ivy (as an adult in my 30s) and did very well there. I applied to HDS and to Yale's master in Second Temple Judaism and was accepted to both. I'd be happy to talk in more detail about my personal experiences by PM. One thing I can say I believe is true of all admissions is that their objective isn't to judge if you're a "good enough person" for them, but the first thing they want to look at is: would you be able to do the work if you were admitted? Both HDS and my undergraduate experience were the hardest things I've ever attempted and nothing prepared me for how hard it would be. Day One felt like running face-first into a wall and then it was sink or swim (sorry for the mixed metaphors). This isn't to frighten anyone, just to give a sense of what I mean when I say they're looking to see who can do the work. These are my personal experiences and I've never done any work in admissions so take it for what it's worth.

Did you know Cornel West is now on faculty at Harvard? ?

It was an amazing experience -- one, just to be at Harvard, and two, because I loved the Div School. I started off intending to be there for two years to get an MTS and ended up graduating four years later with an MDiv and a fellowship year abroad. I applied to PhD's in Political Science, and I only applied to two programs because when it came down to decision time there were only two I felt really passionate about. Now I just hope for a miracle.

Or perhaps they notify the applicants who are DEFINITELY yes or DEFINITELY no and then it takes more time to sort out the rest. Again, just a speculation. But I noticed that some people were accepted to top programs as late as April 15th last year, so we really don't know until we know.

I've noticed one acceptance to Georgetown and one interview at Stanford so far. I'm hoping both will start sending out notifications around the end of next week

My opinion is that you should relax and let your mind be at ease. I believe that on September 1st this year you will be on campus at one of these programs starting the next phase of your education, and all this anxiety will be finding entirely new worries to circle around. I graduated from HDS last year and MarX is right that admission is around 40-50%. I don't know anything about the others but I think you're going to be A-OK. Once you get to wherever you end up, I agree with you that it's important to take language classes, but focus on what you ultimately want to study and think of your master's education from day 1 as a sort of probationary PhD. IMO the easiest way to get into an elite PhD is to take a master's at the same school, work with (take a class every semester with) the person you want as your advisor, and be yourself (and professional) from the moment you meet them to the moment you ask them to write your reccomendation letters. The people I saw succeed in making the transition from master's to PhD were all people who didnt spent excessive time thinking about their PhD prospects but threw themselves passionately into the research and thrived at it because they loved it (and were also all very talented to begin with of course). I can't guarantee what the schools will decide, but I think you're going to be fine. If your worse nightmare were to come true and you were rejected everywhere, you could come back here and we'd help you figure out what went wrong and you could reapply next year and I'm certain you'd get in somewhere (I'm also reassuring myself here, because I'm very anxious about my two PhD applications that are out right now and I'm checking my email every 5 minutes for the rejection letters). I think results are released around March 15th so you have a month to go. Best of luck! And let us know what happens.

I looked at JTS a while back and I can't compare it to other programs but I do believe you need a high level of proficiency in Hebrew and Aramaic. I'm also unsure about their funding (meaning -- I don't know). But the program looks fantastic to me, comparable to a traditional yeshiva education

Hi - I just graduated from HDS last spring and I think you're fine. Based on what you describe here I think you have a solid chance. Best of luck!

My opinion is that it's safe to assume it means they're taking your application seriously the same way they take every complete application seriously.

I have an MDiv from HDS. It's an amazing, life-changing experience. I wanted to point out that a lot of students enter on one program and switch to the other. The one major difference IMO isn't the thesis, its Field Ed: MDiv requires two of them, and it's a big deal (you'll be spending about 20 hours a week on one, and the the other one is either a full time summer position or another year-long placement). It can be a great opportunity to get experience in something related to your field. I know people who went into a PhD from either program, although I do think MTS is the more common path. I saw a lot of my classmates continue seamlessly into a PhD at Harvard -- my personal opinion is that it's probably the best way to get into a PhD at any school, to start in masters and build a relationship with the person who will be your PhD supervisor. But like I said, MTS vs MDiv is not quite as big a decision as it seems going in because a lot of people change from one program to the other after they get there and see the difference and get a feel for the school. I also want to add -- be prepared for it to be intense (especially the language classes). It's 100% true that HDS is what you make of it (and I was honestly surprised how much I was on my own to design my program) but it's amazing how much people grow and change in a few short years.

All the programs I've seen explicitly say the sample must be single-author

All I can offer are a few quick remarks. I realized about 2 or 3 paragraphs in that I had no idea what your research question is. I don't think you ever articulate one. You devote way too much space to describing a program you went on -- that isn't really something YOU did, it's someone else's thing that made a big impact on you. It's fine to mention it, but one sentence is enough. In the end I'm not convinced you need to be in a PhD program to meet the goals you describe here -- it actually sounds like you should be employed in afterschool program work of some kind. You come across as interested in people and work, but not research. My advice is that you need to articulate a research project immediately in the first paragraph, then in the next section establish that you are the best person on the planet to do that research (including the ACADEMIC and life experiences, with an emphasis on your immersion in and engagement with the extant research), then in last section establish that the school you're applying to is the best place for you to do your research. I think you could pull it together in an afternoon if time is an issue.

An administrator at one university told me that their system automatically takes the best scores from each test date if you submit more than one.

Maybe someone else has more authority to answer this but my impression is that when they say "1000 words" they mean 2 single-spaced pages using 12 point Times New Roman or the equivalent and reasonable borders - i.e. no weird tricks to squeeze in 1500 words. So "500 words" means one page and "1000 words" means 2 pages. No one will count the words, they just want what you submit to fit on 2 pages. Other than that it's the content that matters.

I think you should move forward and apply to any schools you would want to attend. Your application will be judged by the Statement of Purpose and letters of recommendation. Every year there are many people with perfect GRE scores who are rejected but people with lower scores than them are admitted. Bottom line: if they want you, they will admit you. All you can do is be yourself and submit the best application you're capable of. The rest is entirely out of our hands.

Hi - I checked out your profile from last year and am surprised at the outcome based on your stats and background. Did you use the same reccomendation writers both years? And are you applying to (all/mostly/some/few/none of) the same schools this year you applied to previously?

Okay. I can do this!

The application asks for a 10-25 page sample. Do you think anyone seriously gets in with a 10 page sample? Maybe a published 10 page paper, methinks.

Thank you. I think the paper might be stronger if I omit that section entirely but it leaves me with 6 pages written a week before the application is due. God, maybe I really was born to be a barista.

I'm reworking a final paper as my writing sample for PhD programs in History and the first section (5 pages) works closely with the primary source under consideration but then the first section that follows, which is supposed to bring in additional info to contrast against Main Source, consists of 4 sub sections which are all sourced from articles in the Encyclopedia of American History. Is that a red flag? It's a series of summaries of slave rebellions -- would it be any different if I found one book on slave rebellions and all 4 sections were footnoted with references to that one secondary source? This is a short paper, not a thesis where each of those sections (here only a paragraph or two each) would draw on primary sources. Is there an easy way to adjust this to make it a bit more professional? Am I overly stressed out about this or is my concern fair?