TylerJarvis

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!

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 emailed them about a week ago and they said they were still finalizing and that they’d send out results by the end of March. So I’ll just assume that’s a no. And then if something changes, it’ll be a pleasant surprise.

Oh that’s a bummer for me then haha. Congratulations to you though!

Nobody mind me. I’m just sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting to hear from UCLA.

I have a friend who interviewed there a couple weeks ago. That’s all I know though.

My whole week consists of checking my email, trying to focus on something else for five minutes, checking the time to realize it’s only been two minutes, and then checking my email again.

Hebrew Bible! maybe we’ll both get good news and be colleagues! A friend of mine was accepted last year and she knew by this point. But when I texted her she said she didn’t think they’d sent anything out to anyone yet. So who knows? But I’m definitely getting antsy. Especially with rejections from other places coming in.

Thanks! Yeah it’s tough to just not know anything. What sub field did you apply to.

Anybody here applied to the NELC program at UCLA? I have no idea when to expect anything.

Congrats on getting in somewhere! Especially after 4 years! And especially this cycle! That’s a big deal! Where’d you get in? Or are you keeping that close to the vest?

How many rejections do you have to get before you can add it as a special skill on your CV? Asking for a friend.

I worked in a church for ten years before starting this degree, and I would be plenty happy to go back to church work if academia doesn’t work out. My wife and I made a deal when I started my second masters degree that if I got into a PhD, we’d go there, but if not, we’d move somewhere and stay for several years. She doesn’t want to move again this summer and then move yet again next summer. Which is totally fair. Especially since we have two kids also. So this is kinda my shot. Turned out to be the worst possible year to be taking my shot but, such is life. I’ve been really happy with this particular degree, so even if this is as far as it goes, I’m really glad I did it.

Thanks! That’s exactly what I applied to as well, so for now I’ll take it as bad news for me. But congratulations to you! That’s exciting!

What’s your area of specialization at BC? I haven’t heard anything from BC yet and I dunno if that’s bad news or not haha

Nice! I applied for Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill too, but in my subfield (Hebrew Bible), I know they've interviewed some people already and I wasn't one of them, so I'm not expecting anything there. Otherwise I applied in the Middle Eastern Studies dept at UT Austin (As mentioned above, I had an interview with three professors in the dept. this week. All people I'd be thrilled to work with. They said we'd hear back in the next few weeks), the NELC program at UCLA, both the Religious Studies and the Divinity School at Duke, the Committee for the Study of Religion at Harvard, and the Theology department at Boston College. So far I've only directly heard back from UT Austin. Hoping to hear more over the next few weeks. I feel like my "stats" are fairly mixed. I think I'll be helped by my letters of recommendation, but it took me until a couple of years into my undergrad to figure out that I actually liked school, so that GPA is lower than I'd like. My first masters was better and my second masters doesn't have a GPA, but the grades themselves are high. So who knows? All-in-all, I'm cautiously optimistic. But if it doesn't happen, at least I can say that I tried. The waiting is the worst though, huh?

I'm applying for Hebrew Bible programs. Had an interview with UT Austin today that I *think* went well enough. Haven't heard back from any of my other programs yet, but that's not a surprise. It's still early.

How strict are the word limits on SoPs? UCLA's PhD program asks for a Statement of Purpose that is "up to 500 words in length (approximately 1-page, single spaced, using 1-inch margins and 12-point font)." Currently I have 543 words (single-spaced, all on one page) and I'm not totally sure what to cut without having to do a rewrite. Do you think it's important that I cut those 43 words, or is it close enough not to hurt me in the process?