sacklunch

I imagine doing poorly in courses with your professors of interest and/or adviser is not a great idea. Not saying they will kick you out, but it will likely show you are not serious about what you want to study. At the doctoral level you are there to study with these people. The coursework/readings should reflect your strong interests, generally. I'm not saying you have to get straight A's, with no A-'s and what not. But getting a bunch of B's is likely going to create a strange/awkward relationship with you and your mentors. This is in the humanities, of course. The papers you produce in your courses should be, in theory, training you to become a scholar. If they are not, then I suspect you have other concerns when you get on the job market?

I think it largely depends on your interests within HB. Some schools are more philological, some are not. As I said, I think my strong language background made up for my lackluster GRE. This is really a guess, though, and is purely based off my experience and reading threads on this board for the last five or so years.

I would rather not say publicly, so feel free to PM me. As I have mentioned, I'll be at Duke this fall. I assume you count that as top (4% acceptance this year I think)?

I should have made it clear that I don't know if this is true or not (thus not my opinion!), but merely was told this by several professors. There is no doubt that CUA has a fantastic number of scholars covering several departments. It's also worth mentioning that no one is really 'turning a profit.' If you get a PhD from CUA chances are you have done so through taking out loans. The cost of the school, combined with DC's cost of living, would make it pretty difficult to attend unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars saved. From their perspective, in a rough job market, I guess I can understand. The student who was funded through her/his PhD likely had the ability to focus all their time on their research, instead of trying to work on the side to make ends meet. The CUA students I met all seem to have side jobs or are doing the PhD part-time in order to make it work. Again, this is all second hand, so take it for what it's worth. My main point was that given a funded offer vs a non-funded offer, especially when the 'rankings' favor the funded offer (i.e. BC), there is little reason to choose the unfunded spot (personal reasons notwithstanding).

It's a growing problem that makes Americans having UK doctorates suspicious. It seems a lot of conservative Christians are finding that they can go abroad and maintain their conservative beliefs/the appearance thereof. Having no coursework and 'checking in' with your adviser raises less questions about how 'indoctrinated' one becomes at the American 'secular' schools.

My quant was below 50%. My verbal was below 90%. I got into several top programs. I had a lot of other things to set me apart from others, I think (e.g. language training). Had I applied in a different field I'm sure they would have hurt me. In fact they likely did at some of the top schools. Either way, I didn't have to spend six months of my life studying geometry to get into a program, thank the gods. I remember reading post after post on this board about 'you have to be 95%+' to get into a program. Meh. I can testify that that is simply not true. Be wary that those that are most willing to share their GRE scores are likely those that scored well. The same goes on the results section on this board. Again, in a different subfield, perhaps they matter more. I imagine if one is applying in a field without an easy way to weed out the competition (again, languages are the fastest and dirtiest way in mine), they begin to matter a great deal. cheers

I may have stole IU and UM from you...!! Haha! They are great programs, but I couldn't pass up Duke. Congrats again on UCLA!!

You may save yourself the wait...CUA, as far as I know, does not fund fully any students, in either Religion, Semitics, or ECS. I contacted all three departments last year and asked, and they all said no fully funded positions are available. Meeting their students last SBL confirmed this, too. BC is a fantastic school and has a great program. That and on the job market, everyone knows CUA students pay for their PhD's. That may hurt you and pit you as that person who wasn't 'good enough' to get into a funded program. I have heard this from several profs at several top schools, FWIW.

^ Yup. It's a growing trend for many subfields within religion/theology to lower the language requirements. Recent talk here is about allowing Google Translate for language exams. Related, I have several friends in doctoral programs in philosophy, and most, if not all of them, have one to two modern languages and nothing else. Many of them work with ancient and/or foreign language sources somewhat regularly (or are reading a lot of 'modern' philosophy that is heavily influenced by the Greco-Latin traditions), yet they are not required to engage with the primary texts much if at all (well they cannot, quite simply). The rise of 'theory' and its assorted friends are part of the reason, I think. One need only whisper that sacrilegious interest of 'philology' to discover how truly alone we are, my friend. Perhaps it's time to trade in our lexicons for some J. Z. Smith?! Haha. Perhaps not, I say!

Same. It is likely that she and others did not know when we inquired.

I talked to Penn. They only accepted two students, none in the Judaism/Christianity in Antiquity track! They are a very small program, so not surprised, I guess. Still kinda sucks. Oh wells.

You're quite right; it is orientalism at its finest. Though because western scholarship is essentially grounded in an orientalist POV, you gots to study those languages. Even if your goal is to overturn that traditional narrative, doing so will require engagement with those western secondary/primary sources. awells gave a great list. languages, languages, languages. If you're in any ancient/medieval/certain modern field, do it now or you will blow your chance for one of those big name doctoral programs. HDS has great summer language programs. Do those. Hell, start this summer, either there or wherever you can. If you are not married and/or with kids, go abroad. Take a community college summer German or French class. Find ways to document your language skills. Admittedly, I am a bit anal about all of this, since my interests are decidedly 'textual'; but I also had really good luck with doctoral apps this season. So I suspect I'm at least somewhat correct!! And yes, take as many classes as you can with your letter writers. I am absolutely sure my writers, having studied independently with two of them, made a huge difference in my application. If they can say a lot about your work and your personality, you may just move to the head of the pile. One last thing: be friendly, to everyone. Ours, like all academic (sub-)fields, is an incredibly incestuous and insular field. If you say something negative about a scholar to another scholar, there is a good chance they know her/him. Be friendly, open-minded, courteous, humble, and most of all, professional. No one wants to take on a student who's a jerk for five plus years. Good luck!

Strangely enough (to an outsider), having a doctorate from Emory, as an American, will set you up better than one from Oxford. It is extremely rare to get funding at Oxford, along with its relatively high acceptance rate (I have never known an American to be denied from Oxford...we are cash cows), make their degrees 'questionable', or so I've heard. Unless you're European, I've been told, stay away.

Hell no. I have many of them. The professor likely had to give out so many A-'s, and you made that list. This happens a lot, especially if there are both MA and PhD students in the class. Don't worry about it and move on. The average GPA for master's programs in most humanities is like 3.6-7. In short, you're well above the curve.

If Iliff doesn't work out then go ahead and apply to both a second BA and some of the bigger Div schools. Again, some would welcome you with open arms, others, even if they did, you would hate your life while studying there. It's also worth mentioning that most people in biblical studies/history of interpretation get two masters before starting a PhD, if they can get in at all. Considering worries about your 'questionable' past, you will no doubt need two masters to compete at 'top' religion programs. This isn't set in stone, so take it for what it is, but it is very very common in our field. I went to a decent college, studied biblical studies, classical languages, and ancient philosophy, and I still had to get two masters. I'm the rule, not the exception, perhaps. The reason I mentioned getting a second BA would be helpful, is it might allow you to just get one masters. Also, your professor is quite right about concerns of 'intellectual inbreeding.' I would say, though, that you would have no reason to get your MA at CUB after completing your second BA there. Do the second BA, then go elsewhere for your masters. This would give you the best of both worlds. You have likely heard this ad nauseam, but start your languages now. If your interests are in early/medieval, take as many classes as you can in classical Greek, classical Latin (first, and then koine/ecclesial second if possible), classical Hebrew, German, and/or French. This will make or break your application to a competitive masters such as Yale's MARc, and absolutely break a doctoral app in the field. Good luck, mate.

Something in your app likely reflected how you are speaking now. It's really not all that bad, to be honest. Many 'people,' as you no doubt discovered in your younger years living in a homeless shelter, use sexual slander as rhetorical device. Many people also know when to turn this off and on, me included, though not without years of fucking up. Just know that acting/talking like this will keep you out of the running for competitive jobs and degrees in the future. No need to feel bad about it. Shame won't work with you. Shame and hate is likely what got you through all that great schooling before. Now it's time to grow a bit. Let the hate go, mate. But, for now, you got into some good schools. Good luck. <3

Not even a fair fight: YDS, hands down. Not only do you have the Divinity School, but you also have Religious Studies and NELC. VDS has been in decline for the last couple years, and considering they are not even taking a PhD student in NT now, nor have they for the last couple years, should tell you of their prospects in the field. PTS, while good, I don't think would have the same sorts of opportunities offered at YDS.

Whelp it's all said and done for me. I'll be at Duke this fall. Maybe ill see some of you around! Good luck to you all still waiting.

Syriac: Grammars: Theodor Nöldeke's Compendious Syriac Grammar (an oldie that has been reprinted a bunch) Wheeler M. Thackston's Introduction to Syriac (this is prolly the best it gets for learning Syriac) Takamitsu Muraoka's (and S. Brock) Classical Syriac (newer and good basic reference) Lexicons: Payne's A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (by far the most well referenced grammar....and free online!!! http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/PayneSmith/ ) Sokoloff's A Syriac Lexicon (the newest English dictionary! very extensive, but also very expensive!) I have others in my library (well not Sokoloff...I head to library for that beast), but these are the standard grammars/lexicons. If you really want to start Syriac, it's much easier if you have studied classical Hebrew. Going from classical Hebrew to early Aramaic (e.g. imperial) and then to Syriac makes these grammars much more accessible!!

Haha, I prolly did! Maybe that's why I was rejected at Yale...!

Most of them will not see it that way, sadly. It is often expected to have one research language "down" - several semesters of college study. Sometimes you can slide by having taken only one semester of "German/French for reading," but I think that for historical subfields that isn't enough. I would say 2 semesters is a good minimum. Also you shouldn't look at it as "sacrificing" a course. The fact is, having those modern languages "down" or at least underway will set you apart from 70%+ of the applicants. I have said it and will say it again: language preparation is one of the biggest reasons, if not the primary reason, that people do not continue on to doctoral work. Most committees are not going to sit down and pour over your two to three transcripts, commenting "oh wow, he took a class on X!" Generally, I think, having on your CV "reading prof. in German" or the like will set you apart. Language ability is not something that one learns fast. Many programs can get you "caught up" on a particular area you are not terribly familiar with. Language study, on the other hand, takes years. Start now. If you are in a historical field, put off as many "real classes" as you can and take language courses. It's what makes or breaks your app among the other 150 apps.

If you want to have a chance at top doctoral programs, then no, those sorts of degrees would likely do you more harm than good. You would prolly have to get another masters after to show you can function at a purely academic level (this goes for all online graduate degrees, it seems). If you goal is applying to doctoral programs, I think you are better off taking classes locally, for instance language courses or doing coursework in another area you know you need to beef up.

It's all gravy. My GRE quant was also awful.

Yeah I think Duke and Harvard were around the same (7%) last year? I think it's about the same this year, eh? Yale has always been a harder cookie to crack, I think. Pretty much everyone just applies to RS. Yale won't even let you apply to both RS and NELC (and the latter does not even do HB anymore!). Harvard, on the other hand, has Div, Religion, and NELC, all overlapping substantially.

Beware that some divinity schools, while not outright saying 'non-Christians need not apply,' are not great places to study if you are not interested in studying 'this stuff' from a faith perspective. Would it make you feel weird to have the entire class pray before class begins? This is fairly common at many mainline divinity schools. Naturally, the conversations in those kinds of courses tend to swing back and forth between 'academic' and 'pastoral.' For me, this isn't so much offensive (a divinity school does have a 'mission,' eh?), but it is a sort of an annoying sidetrack when I want to be focusing on purely academic concerns in the classroom. If this seems strange for those of you studying from a faith point of view within an academic environment (the ideal sweet spot for many divinity students I suspect), imagine taking a course in a classics department, say reading Hellenistic poetry. If the professor began class with a prayer to the gods and then throughout the course the students frequently discussed x or y poem in relationship to their own 'pagan' faith, I have to think most folks would wonder if they were being 'punk'd' or perhaps somehow transported into the Twilight Zone. That said, to maintain some mental health, I would apply to the more liberal divinity schools where their curricula isn't going to prevent you from getting exactly what you need academically. Also, many theists (Christians, almost always) will ask (as I have been from day one), why then are you in a 'divinity'/'theological' school studying if you are not a Christian?!?!? The answer is fairly obvious: they have more resources than the secular programs. Not only that, but they have lower admissions standards! Don't want language requirements? Don't want to have to write a thesis? All you need to do is head on over to an Ivy divinity program and suddenly you have access to 4x the faculty, the library, and the money than almost any state/secular university. Again, because the overwhelming majority of people 'doing this' at a high level are Christians (I am speaking from subfields associated with history, biblical studies, and so on), the option of going to a state school with all the aforementioned truncated resources because increasingly unattractive. Point being, us non-Christians have to head on over to Div and study with the rest of 'em.