coffeekid

I know of another person, not active on grad cafe, who was accepted to Yale American Religious History earlier this week. I applied to philosophy of religion and emailed the department on Tuesday, and haven't received a reply. I'd be shocked with anything other than a rejection at this point. But suffice it to say that there have been others accepted.

Ha! I didn't know you could track the votes! Well, you caught me! I voiced this before, but I have had a very different experience with Vanderbilt and their funding than one or two people here have made out. There's no harm in asking for more money. But, again, my experience is they make pretty generous offers. I got my best financial offer from them of 12 schools when I applied to for masters level work. Maybe it was fit, who knows.

Do yourself and your writing a favor: make a selection of serious primary sources and stay close to them in your analysis. Yes, you will be able to follow the endnote rabbit hole forever. Most people agree that at the masters level, this is not an expectation for a thesis. It is somewhat depressing to think of it this way, but for me it was helpful to envision my thesis as a large term paper, as opposed to a short dissertation, which is unfortunately how most people conceive of it. Doing this makes for much more realistic expectations for yourself, your analysis, and your readers. An important caveat to this, of course, is your department's particular expectations.

Thanks for the inside scoop, DivSkool. Painful news, but good to know it nonetheless. I've done quite a bit of work on Marion, so it would have been nice to study with him. Tell your friend to make good use of that spot!

With all the uChicago Divinity drama, has anyone heard anything from their philosophy of religions section? It's unclear to me from what's on the forums about differing timelines for subfields.

To be clear, I've applied to Yale Religion, for "philosophy of religion." I've heard a number of people get acceptances in their religion department, and I haven't heard anything yet. Sorry for the scares here. I promise I'm not trying to mess with anyone. Maybe I need to tone down my negative attitude on the forum/signature.

This was what I gathered about uChicago philosophy as well. I'll admit that I may tend to jump to the worst conclusions regarding admissions somewhat quickly, and I understand that there are always crazy outside chances of everyone who was accepted and all the people on the wait list dying in a bus crash together (I don't know, maybe they're all friends and get together to make fun of me or something), and me getting accepted, but I'm taking an attitude of not holding out for anything like that (or even less dramatic). So uChicago does look pretty definitive on rejections, considering there is no wait list (see their website). Vandy is slightly more gray, but still not worth the mental energy of holding out for. Stay emotionally healthy, my friends!

Not sure if you're referring to my posting of February 7th, which was the first "rejection" I see. As said in the description, I emailed to ask about my status. More specifically, I was told that 7 offers were made, and 7 "or so" people placed on a waiting list. And yeah, that I wasn't on either of these. So yeah, I called that a rejection even though it was packaged neatly. In other news, Boston College has its first acceptance posted. Anyone want to claim that? And does anyone have additional details there?

Has anyone heard anything from Columbia (Teachers College) Clinical Psych? Last year it looks like they sent out interview invites around January 26, yet I haven't seen anything on the results or forums this year.

Would anyone like to claim the Vanderbilt Philosophy acceptance on the results page? This would make sense on timing, but I haven't heard from anyone else talking about this.

So in recent years, Vanderbilt philosophy has pretty consistently sent out their acceptances right about now (Feb 2 - 6). Feeling especially nervous about this one. Has anyone been in contact with the philosophy department there regarding decisions this year?

No, I started the MTS three years ago and finished last year. But yes, they did fly me in from Pennsylvania, house me, and wine and dine me for a few days. I'd say there were around 12-15 people there, and I believe they invited others too. It was a mix of MTSers and MDivers. Probably 2/3 MDiv, 1/3 MTS.

Religioustiger: No, I wouldn't say that. I haven't been follow the Mdiv/MTS drama this year for Vandy, but the PhD process is on a different time schedule for sure. I heard back from VDS on February 15th three years ago about the MTS, and I got one of the nice scholarships from them. So, hang in there!

I do believe that Vanderbilt has sent out invitations to all its departments in religion for the February 11th & 12th interview. I say this mostly because a friend interviewed last year for the Theology and Practice fellowship, and claims that during that visit, all departments were interviewing. Again, this was last year, but I don't have any reason to believe they will be doing things differently this year. That said, I also know someone currently in the PhD who received no invite for the interview, but in late March received a phone call from their POI at Vanderbilt expressing interest in them. By early April, they were accepted with full funding. I'm not exactly clear on the circumstances for this, though.

My last application round I received a phone call from a program on a Saturday afternoon for an interview. I'd say it's rare, but it definitely can happen. Then again, I'm sure there's more than one person on the results page that posts on the weekend and fails to date it during the week. So, don't rule out the possibility, but don't kill yourself with anxiety over the weekend. I've been doing my best to "let it go" on Saturdays and Sundays, to recuperate from the self-inflicted stress of the past week.

And today we forfeit the best excuse of why we haven't heard from our programs yet: that it was still January. Joy.

To echo SumEsseFuiFuturus: My hand is mostly in philosophy, but I can say that translation is not simply a matter "changing the words into English." No random bilinguist on the street can translate a difficult piece of literature across their languages, even if they are fluent. There is a reason that translators of difficult texts are almost always active scholars of what they are translating: because meaning and translatability is elusive with texts, and requires a certain mastery of the material to do it well. Logistically, translating is a mixed bag. I've known people who have regretted the effort they put into a translation, but I also know of some major thinkers in philosophy who made their name through important translations. Gayatri Spivak made her name translating Derrida; Alphonso Lingis made his name translating Levinas. Probably the best outcome of a translation like the one you're talking about would be to not merely translate it and let it be consumed, but rather to translate it with a meaningful introduction (to sell its significance) and to also devote the next few years of your career publishing articles or books of your own to foster an interest in this author you've translated. If people begin to take notice of this figure (because you subsequently write on him/her), then they will suddenly look to your translation, your introduction, and begin to think you're a genius for having translated the work so soon. Or, to read cynically into this, you effectively switch the cause and effect of this author's significance to the English speaking world. All that to say: If you're going to do it, do it with the right context for your trajectory as a scholar. Otherwise, you'll waste your time and just end up frustrated that no one else sees the brilliance you see.

I'm in the same boat. Not saying the UVA acceptance can't be true, but it would be the earliest acceptance posting for UVA in the archive of gradcafe's results (7+ years) by about a week. Anyone want to claim it?

Wow, this was a really astute prediction. I just got an email (on the 25th, as guessed) for an interview to the Vanderbilt Theology and Practice program. And close, interviews are February 11th and 12th, it said. "We plan to interview finalists on campus February 11-12. Finalists need to arrive by Monday, February 11, at 3:00 p.m. and may depart on Wednesday morning. I will send a complete schedule of events in the next few days."

Wow, thought this thread was a goner! Yes, over the past three years (i.e. - my time here), each year VDS has offered at least five (I think a bit more, actually) $10,000 stipends in the form of Carpenter and Turner scholarships. Some students in the Turner program have to be involved in a church ministry during their time to "earn" their scholarship; I'm not sure if this is all of them. I don't believe that the Carpenter program requires any additional effort from students, beyond basic GPA requirements. It should be clarified, though, that the funding opportunities for the MDiv are a bit better than the MTS. My application year (2010), for example, only one student got an offer of $5,000 stipend for the MTS, while 5 or more MDiv students got $10,000 stipends. A good deal of MTS students (5-10, I would guess) also got full-tuition offers, but only the one got the stipend. I can't speak to whether or not the MTS stipend is a regular occurrence. I kind of laugh now, because somehow VDS has developed this reputation (at least on gradcafe) of having poor funding opportunities, when my experience both as a prospective and an insider is that it has among the most generous funding opportunities for any divinity school in the US. To supplement Balatro's link, also see... Turner Scholarship: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/tccl/scholarship.php Carpenter Program: http://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/programs/carpenter/carpenter.php

I was recently solicited by a editor friend to do a book review on a recent publication by a (still) living author. This will be my first book review, and it is in a reputable review journal in my field. My question: Is it appropriate or helpful to contact the author whom one is reviewing before submitting the final review? Perhaps, "Here's what I'm planning on submitting as a review for your book. Please let me know if you have any helpful feedback before I finalize it." Of course, I understand that this might make it difficult to offer serious critique if it were warranted. I'm confident that what I'm writing is intelligent, and especially this being a first book review (and the fact that I'm a younger student) I will be pretty moderate in any critiques. I simply was wondering if people who have written book reviews have done this or found it helpful to get feedback or their perspective on what they're offering. Any thoughts from people with experience in doing book reviews would be appreciated.

Dang, thought for sure I could resign myself to not checking my email obsessively today because of MLK day. There goes that.

I heard the same thing regarding some restructuring in HACTOR, but nothing definitive. I'm friends with the last HACTOR student they accepted, two years and a half years ago (2010) I believe. I emailed him just now to see if he has any news about his departments. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

Not to build any false hope, but I have a friend (I promise s/he exists) who didn't get an interview at Emory, but was still placed on a waitlist, and was eventually accepted in April with full funding. I know this is rare, but this was just last year.

I'm seeing two posts now for Emory Religion, but I'm also wondering about how many people continue to be involved here. Are we behind the times here on gradcafe?