nickxk

...by the way, does anyone know the general frequency of interviews of MES/NELC/NES PhD programs? I was under the impression that interviews are almost universal for short-listed applicants as they tend to be more qualitative on most humanities AdComs but I guess that was just an assumption of mine.

@Atlas Obscura, were you the Hebrew Studies guy who wrote their results a couple days back? Congratulations! I think we hear back for the MAs from Texas sometime in the next week or so. As for Michigan's department, my impression from my studies there is that it is very close knit and rather small compared to most departments at Michigan, but there are a lot of experts in their field from Knysh being a well-renowned scholar on Sufism to Bonner and his studies on jihad. Both are well-received in their field and in my opinion, great professors. If you are looking at Jewish/Hebrew or Christian studies, my knowledge on that side of the department is much more limited, but I happily recommend Michigan as an institution. If I had to guess, you'll know if you're a good fit or not very quickly. The department was in the Thayer building when I was there, and the offices seem nice enough. Only downside is that Ann Arbor can be prohibitively expensive so I recommend looking for housing almost immediately after you make your decision should you decide to go there. Benefits seem pretty soundly decent. Should I be accepted, I also worry about funding from Michigan and Texas, though that's because I'm applying for an MA with them...we'll see if FLAS funding comes through, the international institute at Michigan has a good amount of aid so I'm told.

Hello y'all! I'm also applying to Middle Eastern Studies PhD and Masters Programs. Overall I applied to five PhDs and two Masters. I feel much better about my chances for the MA as I have established good rapport with the professors at Texas and have had courses under most of the faculty at Michigan MES (last year was NES) as I graduated with my BA from there last spring, which is where I applied for both an MA and PhD (though in retrospect applying to my alma mater for a PhD may have been ill-advised...). @Atlas Obscura, I might be able to give you some info on the feel and faculty in the department if you'd like it. As for me I have not heard back from anywhere and perhaps I was a bit too ambitious in my applications (Columbia GSAS, Princeton NES, Harvard CMES, and Arizona CMES were my other choices, graduated 3.85 GPA, GRE 166V/154Q/5.5 AWA), but I'm under the impression that most NELC/MES programs don't usually send out interviews or decisions until at least February as most places I applied had deadlines December 15th or later. At this rate though, my utmost desire is probably to get right started on a PhD as I know what I want to study (Historical discourse on leftist and Islamic movements in the Levant to keep it short), but I'd be happy to go for an MA to better hone my research credentials; I had about two years experience but it was more linguistics and sociology with a middle eastern bent more than anything. I really don't like this waiting process as it makes me nauseous but I'm glad to find others applying as it seems like a small field and so any information is welcome.