crossroadsph

Closing my time in applying by saying that I’m heading to Europe after Drew Theological School finally gave my application a boot.
best wishes to everyone in their academic journey.

Closing my time in applying by saying that I’m heading to Europe after Drew Theological School finally gave my application a boot.
best wishes to everyone in their academic journey.

So sorry to read this.

While I haven't heard from Drew where I am on the waiting list, I am now seriously considering KU Leuven in Belgium. This is because the university nominated me as one of 20 incoming students for the Flemish regional government Master Mind scholarship. I hope to get the scholarship, so I am currently working on uploading my documents for the scholarship program. Who knew that getting an Acrobat license would help me assemble a transcript portfolio? (Not an ad.)
I think that devoting my energies to applying for this scholarship is better than anxiously waiting for the Drew outcome at the moment, though after I finish my application, there will be a wait to hear about the outcome--late May or early June is when it happens. 

While I haven't heard from Drew where I am on the waiting list, I am now seriously considering KU Leuven in Belgium. This is because the university nominated me as one of 20 incoming students for the Flemish regional government Master Mind scholarship. I hope to get the scholarship, so I am currently working on uploading my documents for the scholarship program. Who knew that getting an Acrobat license would help me assemble a transcript portfolio? (Not an ad.)
I think that devoting my energies to applying for this scholarship is better than anxiously waiting for the Drew outcome at the moment, though after I finish my application, there will be a wait to hear about the outcome--late May or early June is when it happens. 

Got in at UCLA! I had received 7 rejections and then heard that UCLA had already had an admitted students day, so I was already looking at outside jobs. Completely surprising but really exciting!
Thanks for all the support this application season! Best of luck to all of you going forward!

It's terrible. I even heard advice from a member of my country's legislature saying that I might be better off getting my shot abroad rather than here. I think, in Belgium, any resident can get a shot after June/July, and by "resident," any registered international student could get it. The only concern I do have is whether people will be required to get a shot even before leaving. Ah well...

Got an unofficial waitlist notification from UCLA this week. They said they should know if they’ll have a spot for me on Monday.
I had made my peace with my lack of acceptances, so now I’m excited again, but if it comes back as another no, that won’t be fun. But still. I have more reason to be optimistic now than I have in over a month, so that’s good!

I appreciate the encouragement and information provided by everybody here. To follow-up, I’ve decided to accept Yale’s offer and begin their MARc this fall. Best wishes to all still making their decisions and/or waiting for results!

The one reason keeping me from returning to the US for a doctoral program (assuming I get into the last waitlisted one) is probably the degree to which anti-AAPI hate crimes have increased over the last year, especially since the pandemic began. I was in the US at the beginning of the pandemic and did not personally experience anything, but I was in Berkeley, which is mostly tolerant. However, I did get to hear an unfortunate racist slur from a homeless man shortly before I left. All this is to say that the risk of being attacked for being Asian and Pacific Islander is there, but with what one sees on social media and the news, one cannot see exactly how big the risk is. Nevertheless, people living there have expressed their concerns to me.
I agree with @Joey_Jawad that if you do have Asian friends or colleagues, please check in on them. Please educate yourselves too on the history of America's involvement in Asia and with Asians. I come from a former American colony, and what I became aware of about this colonial history gave me a mixed picture of a country and culture I otherwise admire. For me, that history explains a lot.

The one reason keeping me from returning to the US for a doctoral program (assuming I get into the last waitlisted one) is probably the degree to which anti-AAPI hate crimes have increased over the last year, especially since the pandemic began. I was in the US at the beginning of the pandemic and did not personally experience anything, but I was in Berkeley, which is mostly tolerant. However, I did get to hear an unfortunate racist slur from a homeless man shortly before I left. All this is to say that the risk of being attacked for being Asian and Pacific Islander is there, but with what one sees on social media and the news, one cannot see exactly how big the risk is. Nevertheless, people living there have expressed their concerns to me.
I agree with @Joey_Jawad that if you do have Asian friends or colleagues, please check in on them. Please educate yourselves too on the history of America's involvement in Asia and with Asians. I come from a former American colony, and what I became aware of about this colonial history gave me a mixed picture of a country and culture I otherwise admire. For me, that history explains a lot.

The one reason keeping me from returning to the US for a doctoral program (assuming I get into the last waitlisted one) is probably the degree to which anti-AAPI hate crimes have increased over the last year, especially since the pandemic began. I was in the US at the beginning of the pandemic and did not personally experience anything, but I was in Berkeley, which is mostly tolerant. However, I did get to hear an unfortunate racist slur from a homeless man shortly before I left. All this is to say that the risk of being attacked for being Asian and Pacific Islander is there, but with what one sees on social media and the news, one cannot see exactly how big the risk is. Nevertheless, people living there have expressed their concerns to me.
I agree with @Joey_Jawad that if you do have Asian friends or colleagues, please check in on them. Please educate yourselves too on the history of America's involvement in Asia and with Asians. I come from a former American colony, and what I became aware of about this colonial history gave me a mixed picture of a country and culture I otherwise admire. For me, that history explains a lot.

The one reason keeping me from returning to the US for a doctoral program (assuming I get into the last waitlisted one) is probably the degree to which anti-AAPI hate crimes have increased over the last year, especially since the pandemic began. I was in the US at the beginning of the pandemic and did not personally experience anything, but I was in Berkeley, which is mostly tolerant. However, I did get to hear an unfortunate racist slur from a homeless man shortly before I left. All this is to say that the risk of being attacked for being Asian and Pacific Islander is there, but with what one sees on social media and the news, one cannot see exactly how big the risk is. Nevertheless, people living there have expressed their concerns to me.
I agree with @Joey_Jawad that if you do have Asian friends or colleagues, please check in on them. Please educate yourselves too on the history of America's involvement in Asia and with Asians. I come from a former American colony, and what I became aware of about this colonial history gave me a mixed picture of a country and culture I otherwise admire. For me, that history explains a lot.

The one reason keeping me from returning to the US for a doctoral program (assuming I get into the last waitlisted one) is probably the degree to which anti-AAPI hate crimes have increased over the last year, especially since the pandemic began. I was in the US at the beginning of the pandemic and did not personally experience anything, but I was in Berkeley, which is mostly tolerant. However, I did get to hear an unfortunate racist slur from a homeless man shortly before I left. All this is to say that the risk of being attacked for being Asian and Pacific Islander is there, but with what one sees on social media and the news, one cannot see exactly how big the risk is. Nevertheless, people living there have expressed their concerns to me.
I agree with @Joey_Jawad that if you do have Asian friends or colleagues, please check in on them. Please educate yourselves too on the history of America's involvement in Asia and with Asians. I come from a former American colony, and what I became aware of about this colonial history gave me a mixed picture of a country and culture I otherwise admire. For me, that history explains a lot.

The one reason keeping me from returning to the US for a doctoral program (assuming I get into the last waitlisted one) is probably the degree to which anti-AAPI hate crimes have increased over the last year, especially since the pandemic began. I was in the US at the beginning of the pandemic and did not personally experience anything, but I was in Berkeley, which is mostly tolerant. However, I did get to hear an unfortunate racist slur from a homeless man shortly before I left. All this is to say that the risk of being attacked for being Asian and Pacific Islander is there, but with what one sees on social media and the news, one cannot see exactly how big the risk is. Nevertheless, people living there have expressed their concerns to me.
I agree with @Joey_Jawad that if you do have Asian friends or colleagues, please check in on them. Please educate yourselves too on the history of America's involvement in Asia and with Asians. I come from a former American colony, and what I became aware of about this colonial history gave me a mixed picture of a country and culture I otherwise admire. For me, that history explains a lot.

Uh I know things often seem more dire from abroad, especially from the myopic lense of the internet but the recent spate of anti-asian hate crimes is horrifying. I'm torn between being afraid to move there, but also wanting to remove the bandaid as fast as possible and start living there because marinating in unquantifiable fear from abroad probably feels worse.
I know the best practice for this is contested, but if you have Asian friends or colleagues please check in on them. These are frightening times. 

Will echo @_Athena_. For people going for the MA,  do focus on the subfields before committing. Also, I should say that at the MA level, you can get away with not having a very close alignment of research interests with the faculty. The aim is to have breadth and just some depth. this is a time to refine your research interests, so remain focused but open as well, if that is not too much of a paradox. 
 
Chicago and Harvard's 2 year MAs do not have theses, which means that you'll not get to do in-depth research about a topic. That is fine. If you wish, you can do that through independent reading courses with faculty. Also, very important is that you do not freak out if there aren't relevant courses within the div school, these are massive research universities with a lot of departments, so it's always good to rigorously browse through courses being offered in other relevant departments. for instance, secularism stuff in anthro department etc. what you need from the MA is solid letters, evidence of thorough coursework (focus on something but also be diverse to an extent, the idea is to get acquainted with the field of religion as well, you will benefit from conversations outside your field), language training (if applicable) and solid writing sample. Take courses that require you to write a research (!!) paper not only essays, critical paper and the likes. When you apply for the PhD, you may want not even want to apply to these schools again because then academic fit becomes the most important factor. Without being a calculative robot all the time, it is important to internalize that the MA has two jobs: a) get into a PhD program b) actually develop as a scholar-in-training. all best. 

I am moved to reply, but I think it's best that some of what I am about to share has to be in a private message. Do check your inbox in a few minutes.

Closing the loop on this, I've accepted Notre Dame's offer and will be heading to South Bend. Best of luck to everyone and keep in touch.

Thank you!  
I'm happy even though I had to reject two other schools, so it was bittersweet. 
I have a BA in Religious Studies, minor in history, and a Master of Theological Studies. Taking the Religious Studies route for the PhD would have been the ideal trajectory but after talking to faculty and grad students I realized that adding the PhD in Chicanx Studies from UCLA would only open up job opportunities within the humanities.  
 
 

Welp, I just committed to UCLA. 
 
 
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! ?

Congratulations and best of luck! Where else were you accepted by the way? I’m definitely on a waitlist somewhere, so thanks for the best wishes!

I turned down Stanford, withdrew from Toronto, and turned down a waitlist position at Princeton's history department. Hope this helps! 

Congratulations and best of luck! Where else were you accepted by the way? I’m definitely on a waitlist somewhere, so thanks for the best wishes!

Major curveball: I’ve been talking to my POI at Emory GDR from when I applied to the PhD there. He says that pursuing the MTS will be unnecessary since I already have a 48 credit hour MA. He suggested completing a ThM and has committed to supervising my research paper. This is big because he’s a pretty big name in my subfield and a well respected scholar. A ThM supervised by him (along with a recommendation, hopefully) will go a long way in the next round of apps. Now I’m trying to leverage my MTS acceptance and funding into a ThM with funding at Candler. Hoping it all works out!
Relatedly, anybody have any insight on how schools are handling residency requirements next school year? Trying to figure out the logistics!