Sleepless in skellefteå

Thank you all for your help. I will work on trying to highlight the relevance of my field of interest in our time. I will also try to build a relationship strong enough for a LOR during the last quarter. We do not have any concept such as office-hours or undergrad-research at my institution, so I have found it hard earlier (I really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with professors more closely in the U.S), but I will be writing my senior thesis this quarter so hopefully it will work.

Yes, I do not mean to spam but earlier I have only written shorter questions so I figured that I should write a real introductory post . My main goal is to go into academia and contribute to the larger knowledge-base about the period of migration I mentioned. In regards to why I am applying for MA's instead of a PhD, I do not have such a clear-cut answer. I guess that I want methodological training to feel prepared enough.

I am blessed in so many ways in regards to what effects the corona-crisis has had on my life, but I still can't help but feel sad about having to apply to grad school this cycle with the increased competition.

Hi everybody. I will be applying to History MA and American Religion MTS -programs as an international student (I am from Sweden) this cycle. I am fully aware of the fierce competition that likely will be a result of the corona-crisis, but figured that I should still give it a try. Just reading these threads has been really helpful, as the application system in Sweden is very different which makes the process a little daunting. Basically, your undergrad-application here consists solely of your high school-grades, and most MA's only ask for you undergrad-GPA and a short letter, so I am un-experienced in creating a narrative about myself and my goals. Basic facts -Bachelor-degree in Religious Studies from an Swedish university that is typically ranked top-100 in the world. However, I am not sure if this will mean anything for my application since I doubt that many American scholars recognize the name of it. -Currently finishing a 1 year exchange at an American R1-University. Most of the things mentioned below are things I did during this exchange. -GPA from home-university (as I understood the typical way to convert it): 3.8. GPA during my exchange year: 3.9. -I did an internship at a museum in the U.S during which I helped organize a finding aide for a collection of uncatalogued material. -I did a quarter of research which I presented at our undergraduate symposium. -This is still in the process of happening, but one of my professors wrote me a very kind e-mail in which he praised one of my essays and asked me if I would be interested in publishing it as a part of an online-project he has where he is mapping out the history of his specific subfield. -I have been holding a scholarship at my home-university for two years. However, I do not think I can frame it as any kind of personal success, at it is basically granted on the basis of need and belonging to a certain student-society, not on grades or any other form of merit. -Swedish is my mother-tounge. Like most people from my country, I also understand Danish and Norwegian. The last few months, I been working as a proof-reader for a translator who works with traditional Swedish literature. Worries -I had a really amazing exchange year, and I felt that the university-culture in the U.S offered so many more opportunities in regards to building relationships with professors and extra-curriculars. Right now, most of the things I plan to mention in my application is stuff I did during my exchange. In regards to recommendation letters, I have two professors from the U.S who have offered to write one for me, and I could possible get a third one. I am a little concerned that the application commitees will view it as weird that I have so little to show from my home-university other than my GPA. I still have one quarter left in Sweden where I will write a mandatory honors-thesis, and I could perhaps build up a relationship strong enough to ask for a recommendation letter during this time. -My main interest is the religious experiences of the European immigrant communities of the late 19th-early 20th century. The American University where i studied is in a city with a lot of Scandinavian history, and most of the achievements I have listed are centered around Scandinavian-American history in some way (like the undergraduate research). I am not sure if this will be perceived as me having to much of an narrow focus on the history of people from my own country. To me, it mostly was a result of the fact that I had access to a lot of primary sources in Swedish that my professors encouraged me to explore, but I am not sure how I should frame this to show that I am flexible in regards to interests. I am still trying to figure out how important it is to define your area of interest and goals when applying for an MA or MTS. I know you are supposed to basically have it figured out when applying for a PhD, is is basically the same for an MA? This ended up a lot longer than I originally planned. Good luck to everyone!

I just wanted to thank everyone who has written in this thread so far. I am not yet sure if I will apply to study religious history at a divinity school or try to get into a regular history program but these answers has helped me think about my direction in academia and what kind of narrative I want to craft about myself in general. Does anyone have any thoughts about how the Covid-crisis will affect admission rates for MA-programs? It seems to be clear that funding for PhD's will be harder to come across. However, I am from a Scandinavian country where you can get very favorable loans for living expenses while studying abroad and where there is a specific scholarship that covers half of your tuition costs if you get accepted to a reputable American university, so I feel that it would make sense to consider unfunded MA-offers if I would qualify for them.

Thank you! I'll probably go more for the historic side then the theological. I've just begun trying to navigate and get informed about which universities might be a good fit for my area of interest. Answers like these are really helpful. If I would take take a historians approach towards researching the lutheran church as an institution in the Swedish migrant community, would it be resonable to categorize it as ''American religious history''?

Thank you, very helpful answer!

Hi! I'm a religious studies undergraduate student from the University of Uppsala in Sweden who is currently doing an exchange year in the US and is researching the possibility of also applying to grad school here. The process varies quite a bit from the Swedish one, so excuse me if I ask questions with obvious answers. 1. I've narrowed down my academic interest to the swedish-american community of the early 20th century. I would either want to research the lutheran churchs role as a gathering force in the early community or how the immigrants choice of denomination impacted their understanding of their own national and ethnic identity. My home university would classify that topic as religious history, a field that falls under the faculty of theology and that is separate from regular history. However, the Divinity schools I've looked up at American universities seems to have a more strict focus on the philosophical study of religion. I'm also probably going to be doing an undergraduate study on the subject with the department of Scandinavian studies at my exchange university. If I applied to a grad school with this project in mind, would it most likely be classified as history, theology or Scandinavian studies? 2. Would I be able to find professors that would take me on as a graduate student? Or is it such a niche subject that the options would be limited/non-existent? Would I need to work with a professor with knowledge in Swedish or would it be enough if the person had expertise in religious developments in 20th century USA? Would greatly appreciate if someone wanted to take the time to help me understand the system!