studyordie

The best advice I've heard from this forum, and this is from somebody who got in, was that the hardest part of the entire application process is bothering many busy people (largely profs) to read and re-read your SOP's. I'm going to do a good bit more of that this year, so wherever you start, don't go too far without getting some expert eyes on it.

Hi Febronia, have you considered Georegetown? Syriac Christianity might have some overlay w/ Islam and they require work in 2 world religions, quite marketable I would imagine. I'll be putting in at UVA and that's probably it. I might have to sit this year out but the idea of only doing one application compared to what I did last year strikes me as a why not decision. I want to write utterly dogmatic systematic theology and do other generally distasteful things. Lessons I learned from last year include: 1) What doesn't kill you only makes you more of a resentful asshole. 2) You have to be Catholic to get into ND's Systematics program. 3) Social work agencies will pay you 1,000$ more a year for an M.Div, and that's as close as you'll come to anyone outside of our world giving a shit.

After the master's virtually all PhD programs will not only require the GRE, they will be very interested in it (mostly verbal, not so much maths). UK programs and Princeton are the exceptions to this that I know of. Self disclosure- I'm an M.Div. that just got rejected by all the PhD programs I applied to, that said, I dont think in and of itself the MDiv is a bad thing for the PhD route, that would depend on the adcomm committee. Anyway, if you want to go the PhD route go to absolutely the most prestigious Masters program you can get into, with your good but not unbelievable stats and incredible experience the MDiv might actually land you in a bigger name than the MTS route. I would think that places like Vandy, Chicago, and Emory would be interested in an MDiv applicant who has hands on experience in Palestine and whose project will make use of that experience. Then again, most MA's are paying so they may not be picky if you've go the $$$. Anyway 1) at least consider the MDiV, there is no substantial future academic disadvantage in the eyes of most religious studies programs and you may find a program that you like/ likes you when you look into MDiv programs 2) Can't stress it enough, MA, MTS or Mdiv are all less important than getting into absolutely the most prestigious "name" school you can....sad but true

I think you're story definitely helps at the grad school level. Do you mention that you're going for an M.Div.? That's what you need to do. The story will count more in those applications and the GRE less. If you want more than an M.Div. you'll have to retake the GRE for the verbal section, don't be good at it, study it like your life depends on it, I've posted on that. Many places would eat up that ministry experience and for good reason. Now for the pure opinion, if you're only doing an M.Div., or are shakey on PhD aspirations, don't limit yourself to "big name" schools. In many cases, the biggest difference between them and regionally or denominationally known places is in reputation, full stop. In CA look at Fuller, don't look at Pepperdine even though you could get in without Hebrew, they'd teach you Hebrew, just don't go there. PM me if you'd like.

asteven- were you attending school full time? One think that attracts me to the msw is that there are so many part time options, especially for the foundational year(s).

I can't prove this, but my own feel for this world is that if you work your ass off at Duke and get out of there with a 3.85+ a subpar undergrad wouldn't even be a blip on the radar at most schools. Of course GRE is huge. If I were you I would try to find a bff on faculty while you're there. Connections go further than anything else. Congrats on getting in!!

Thanks for that, I gotta wait until next season because I need $$

Hello- My PhD aspirations in a different field have fallen through and I'll be working this next year with mentally ill adults. The whole MSW thing has begun to cross my mind and as I think about applications for next year I had a few questions: 1. I would be interested in a clinical path with further emphasis on psychodynamic methods. The most convenient school for me to attend would be VCU (if I could get in of course) which doesn't seem to favor the whole psychodynamic thing. My question is, does that sort of refined emphasis even matter at the level of the MSW or does all the base coursework form the vast majority of the degree? I'm asking because even the pschodynamic-friendly schools I've ID'd seem to only have one class on the books that deals with the topic. If it doesn't matter at this level that would help me plan stuff out. 2. Do tuition-free scholarships happen at the master's level in this discipline? The school websites seem ambiguous on this point. Thanks to anybody who has a moment to comment

I think Henry Nunn's Introduction to Ecclesiastical Latin is the standard text on the subject, although it is out of print. There are probably others out now but it's the one you see referenced most often.

Even though I won't be attending anywhere next year I'm going to post this here because I think it will help people interested in results vis-a-vis stats and such. I've posted my GREs and GPAs elsewhere so I'll just say that with the exception of a 3.44 undergrad from a good school, my stats are very good. My graduate institution is not famous in its own right, but two of my recommenders are big names in a field close to mine, church history. What really hurt me, as far as I can surmise, is fit. I made the best arguments I could, but the simple fact of the matter is that my interests are not well represented anywhere in the US. I think I could still succeed somewhere, there are people whose expertise is such that they could supervise my dissertation, but I will have to convince faculty that a project they are not already sold on is worthwhile, and given the number of qualified applicants each year whose interests are more precisely those of the profs, I am not holding my breath on that one. This is a result of studying theology under church historians, so there was no one there to tell me what is hot in the field and what is not while I was younger and less of an ideologue, or at least less of the ideologue I am now . At this point, however, I like what I like and that's that. I've got a job lined up where I will be helping poor people with mental illnesses and I am genuinely excited about it, which I would have never guessed was possible a few months or even weeks ago. A huge congrats to all the people who made it this year, enjoy every moment of it! I might be around next year as there are several schools in and around DC that I could see myself at if the whole "real job" thing is worse than I'm expecting.

I think you want to touch on the undergrad gpa as briefly as possible in your purpose statements, enough to explain/justify/recognize the reality of a shitty gpa but after that I don't think you're out of the game anywhere, at least not necessarily. Factor #1, given my experiences this season, is FIT. If you can convince an adcomm you fit better than all-star student number 81, many a fault can be overlooked. The school I did the best job of making a case for fit vis-a-vis their faculty interests is the school I have the only chance at getting into (UVA). One important thing will be your GRE, it is easily more important than an undergrad GPA, especially when combined with a 4.0 grad, where you got that grad degree is also important. Even so, I don't think any single stat outweighs fit, going into next season it's going to be my credo .

Any of those UVA rejections on the results page wait-list people? Seems unlikely but I figured you never know...

Notre Dame rejection in the mail yesterday, Villanova day before that, the job search has begun but my metaphorical fingers are crossed for UVA.

Huge congrats deamondeac !!! Don't forget to stop in on the boards next year and cheer on those of us who will probably still be here

I'm definitely guilty of the "I will learn French before the school year starts next fall" move on my CV so thanks for the heads up and I'll get that off. But is there a standardized test I can take if I really do learn the language myself? I've heard of the Toronto exam for Latin, do these things exist for French and German? This would save me from paying for something I could do myself, at least with French, I probably will need a classroom for German.

Congrats on Dayton thumbnail, I have heard that the person from my seminary who is there really likes it. I will probably be applying there next year if I can't get off of the UVA waitlist in the next few weeks.

UVA's top picks have definitely been notified. I do not know whether an official wait-list letter means you are "more" wait-listed than a simple lack of contact. It would seems so, but then again some arbitrary factor like the alphabetical order of your last name might determine when you get a wait-list letter, who knows...

I do that sort of thing on a semi-regular basis, one way to go about it is to explain an addition to your CV, if you can find a decent one, e.g. "I have recently been awarded the ____ award by my undergraduate institution and wanted to update you concerning this addition to my resume." This at least gives you an excuse for the contact in the first place.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm on UVA's waitlist and want in pretty badly. That said, UVA is explicit about not (intentionally) funding MA students on their website, and you never know what resentments could come back to haunt you in the job market. Plus, in the discipline I'm interested in it seems many doctoral programs are easier to get into if you come out of their MA program. So if Stanford or Columbia are where you want to be longer term that might be a better option for the MA. Honestly, if it were me I would go wherever I wanted to be for the Ph.D. Whatever you choose, congrats on having three really nice options, you must be an impressive candidate. addition- one more thing, uvastudent is on this board, maybe if you pm'd her/him you could get an inside perspective on your query w/out having to lay all your cards on the table with the faculty.

monkeefugg-I have also email Villanova philosophy, it seems there that if they want you they contact you, if you have to contact them, as we have, its usually not good news.

Good luck to you as well thumbnail72, I am oscillating between resignation and absurd bouts of hope. A few days ago it looked as though my best shot was Villanova but it was posted yesterday that they contacted an accepted student on 3 March. Anyone who has ever had to contact them has been either waitlisted or rejected, and I contacted them yesterday so am now awaiting that news. It's beginning to seem as though I should have picked a less drastic username ...

Nobody seems as concerned about UVa as I do right now, but I will add this for posterity's sake if nothing else since reading through last years posts has been such a help to me. I asked a week or so back if in-state status ever helps at UVa and the answer is yes it does. Not that it would get you in, but it can allow for more flexible (read smaller) funding packages. If nothing comes through this season I'll be in northern VA next year anyway, so this as good of news as I have right now. Anybody heard from Chicago? If they sent stuff out Friday and Monday as was posted you'd think somebody from the Friday batch would have heard something by now.

He's listed as a faculty member on the Religious Studies site. Regardless, I'd apply to schools and departments, be they sociology, religious studies or whatever, with faculty members you want to work under. I have applications in with philosophy programs and theology programs. Eventually, if we make it, most of us we will need to "choose" a discipline as defined by the structure of the contemporary academy if we want to find decent work. In the mean time, however, do what you love and try to study under people who love it too.

UVA has James Hunter.

Only thing I would add is that you can always email somebody at the program (usually secretaries will forward it to the right prof.) and ask what Ph.D. programs they have been getting people into in the last five years. This is better than asking if they get people into Ph.D. programs, because they will say yes even if it hasn't happened since the nineties. As a general rule, go as prestigious as you possibly can. Wow, I can't believe I just wrote that, even though it's true. I wish there wasn't so much BS in this field.