possibleapplicant

You are an angel. Thank you for these.

Hi there--was encouraged by a faculty member in religion to consider applying to history departments as well since a couple of my top scholars are considered affiliated with their university's religion departments, but primarily located in their history departments. But as someone with a nontraditional background, I thought I'd ask some early questions: I have an MDiv from a top-tier school and an MFA from a reputable university, but as far as I'm aware, MFA rankings aren't a thing in the way academic programs are. Will the MFA prove a hindrance, and should I focus on recommenders from the MDiv program even though the MFA is more recent? I took some literature classes for it, but had the profs only once or twice, though one offered his recommendation. My most-taken medieval prof was a literature prof with whom I was close in undergrad, but that was a long time ago, so I'm not sure that would be wise either since it's my oldest degree. My main interest area is in late medieval religious culture in England and Scotland. What language prereqs do history departments typically have for this? My previous programs didn't offer a lot of support here, but I was able to take a couple. I was browsing a couple programs' pages, and while they said there would be examinations during the course of the program, they didn't list prereqs. Forums like this I've stumbled across online, however, say someone needs to be extremely fluent and formally trained in French and German and Latin prior to admission. I see a lot of discussion about undergraduate GPAs, but not master's. What's a competitive master's level GPA for a university like Northwestern, and what's the "don't even bother" cutoff? Would it be wise to mention graduate assistantships for which I taught students how to write research papers and supervised students writing theses and dissertations in my SoP? Are there rny resources you'd recommend for programs in this area outside the U.S.? My gratitude for your thoughts on any or all of these. I'm in the very inchoate planning part of this, just kind of surveying the land and seeing what the typical expectations are before I consider throwing my hat in.

Hi there--I know things are pretty tenuous in higher ed right now, and as such I'm deeply considering my ability to pivot into a career outside the academy if academic posts aren't forthcoming upon the completion of a PhD, especially positions that might allow me to adjunct in order to keep my CV current. I have been pulled in three different research areas, all of which I have great interest and investment, and am wondering if you have any thoughts on which are more translateable to "real world" jobs, not to mention what kind of jobs those would be: pastoral care and theology pros: past ministry experience, previous pastoral care classes, one master's thesis was very much in this area cons: compassion fatigue--which I'm already feeling--and struggles with faith late medieval religious culture and history pros: passion area I've been nerdy about since childhood, have research interests in areas where more work is needed, found some faculty whose interests closely align with mine cons: seems least practical outside of academia, previous schools didn't offer much in this specific area, not sure about language requirements ?: interdisciplnary CV might make me stand out... not sure yet if it would be in a good or bad way religion and literature pros: interdisciplinary CV covers these two areas, strong writing sample in mind from class with recommender cons: fear it would ruin my love of fiction, not yet sure about a specific research question except that I'm looking at twentieth century British literature Thanks so much for your thoughts. I know every humanities PhD seems to have their own horror story of job hunting, but I also know that such struggles seem to produce a fair amount of wisdom, and I'm grateful for yours on the matter.