DivSchoolHopeful1942

Are faculty reading applications usually understanding if a recommender is late with their letter due to a personal emergency? My advisor—who is also one of my recommenders—is taking a last-minute leave of absence and will be mostly unavailable. This individual is a pretty big name in academic religious studies so I'm not sure whether, because most of the faculty probably know this individual personally, they'd be understanding about potential lateness in their letter of recommendation for me. Or should I just find a new recommender? Sorry for the vague question. Just trying not to give too much info away.

Hi all, quick question. Beginning to apply to Ph.D. programs in religion for this coming application cycle, and a professor gave me a choice of doing a Zoom meeting with her about the program this summer or visiting a bunch of the faculty and students in-person in the fall. I think it's an either/or kind of deal. I'm leaning toward the latter, and going in-person; is that a mistake for chances of admission, i.e., should I try and meet with the professor as early as possible in the summer? Or does it not really matter at this point in the cycle? I'd much rather meet people in person and explore the campus that way.

Congrats all!! Re: this comment, I’m from Boston and… yeah. Housing prices are brutal. Part of why HDS’s aid package being iffy is leading me not to accept the offer. Got waitlisted at YDS, though, so I think it’s looking like UChicago for me. Hyde Park housing prices are high but nowhere near Cambridge…

Back in mid-Feb!

Eeeeek. Got in but HDS only offered ~$24k/30k of the tuition. The rest of the $8,000 was a loan. They gave a crazy high number for other non-tuition living expenses but I live in the area and would have other insurance I’d be on. So overall non-tuition expenses would be 8-10k. I have a job and would definitely be working a lot to pay that off if I were to go. But I’m really, truly, not sure what to do. It’s like, Harvard… is it worth it? I know I could probably swing it without taking out loans (savings and work) but is it worth scraping by for two years for a Harvard M* program? Anyone else have expertise/experience asking HDS for more aid? UChicago ended up giving full ride and living expenses and I’m in love with that school. But being close to family in Boston is really important to me due to medical stuff. Though I’m also keeping in mind that announcement HDS made about offering a lot more aid next year. stuck.

Sooo what’s the consensus?

UChicago decisions out!

I genuinely think you're fine!

Sorry, I meant "counts as an admissions interview."

I emailed them a couple months ago asking this and they said that if you did any kind of information session or one-on-one meeting with one of the admissions reps that counts. Otherwise it seemed it wasn't really something they did in the traditional sense.

Would it be too unprofessional to ask y’all what amount of tuition your VDS merit awards cover? I’m trying to gauge what an “automatic no” from me should be (though I know that obviously varies by situation); 80% is great but I’ve been told not to take out loans for grad school…

Ohh sorry, nope, just the one. (Also out of it, not enough coffee today... lol.)

Honestly, I just checked the portal this morning because I was feeling anxious-and-bored and saw the notification. Didn't get an email for either of them but I imagine they will both be sent out today...?

Yeah that's why I'm confused -- the tuition cost seems to be less than what I was offered in aid. I've found sometimes (though maybe I'm just misremembering) schools mean "tuition + housing" for "tuition"... but I dunno. We'll see. Might email.

Any idea whether the scholarship covers housing? The Vanderbilt "tuition and fees" page is kind of confusing to me -- it seems the merit covers about $30k a year, tuition seems to be about $20k/yr, so like... am I adding this up wrong, or does that just leave $10,000 for housing for the year?

Nope, I was MTS! Though I’m sure if you contact them asking more about the aid process they could help…? I’m confused too. This whole process is quite enigmatic…

Congrats on getting in! And it told me that in the body of the letter; specifically that I was awarded a Divinity Merit Tuition Scholarship that covers 80% of tuition. But it's unclear what that actually covers.

Vanderbilt posted decisions, it seems. Got in with a nice scholarship which is exciting! Though I can't tell whether it covers housing as both the letter and website page on tuition costs are vague.

Thank you! Yep, just got the letter an hour or so ago. The aid isn't great, lol... but that's what I've gathered from these forum posts in the past so... yeah. Options, though! And it's a cool school.

Got into Union today, but the acceptance letter didn't mention anything about financial or merit aid. Do y'all know if that comes separately or if I'm just out of luck?

Ahh yes. I feel this. Waiting on this and BU merit aid decision. Maybe tomorrow? Also, did you interview for VU?

Hi all, quick question. I'm a spring semester senior philosophy major hoping to (maybe) apply to law school this upcoming cycle. GPA is 3.75 and LSAT is 171. My college has a policy that you can choose to take (I think up to four) courses pass/fail if it's likely you're not going to do well in it, or if you had some kind of extenuating circumstance. I'm trying figure out how negatively -- if at all -- having two of these on my transcript would affect my applications. At the very beginning of my freshman year I elected to take an intro geology class pass/fail (for some reason was the absolute hardest class I've ever taken), and this term I'm considering taking my Intro Spanish class pass/fail as I'm kind of recovering from a series of medical issues from late last year. I'm just worried about this as a variety of other (now-resolved) medical issues impacted my GPA and some of my coursework throughout my undergrad career. (I.e., under-loading credits, streak of bad grades my freshman year, and others.) Though my grades have been all A's since these issues became intense my freshman year, I'm hoping to explain this in my addendum; but I'm not sure how understanding law schools can be, both about that and the pass/fail thing. Thanks for any and all advice.

I applied for the MDiv program at HDS this winter. I received an email this morning informing me that “select candidates” will be invited to interview the next six weeks or so. Does anybody know whether *not* receiving such an invitation means that one will be denied admission? I have gathered that for undergrad admissions at Harvard interviews are random. But now I’m stressing about receiving the interview invitation email. Not sure what to think or hope for.

Hi all, I'm a current college student applying to MTS programs and am feeling unsure/could use some insight. I'm a senior at a pretty well known/prestigious liberal arts college; I am a philosophy major with extensive humanities coursework and a decent GPA (3.75), but I'm worried that admission to Divinity School might be unrealistic. I grew up very religious, altar serving, attending mass and Sunday School every week, but after coming out as trans (and receiving backlash) I backed away from my faith and the Church. I have recently regained interest in the academic study of religion (after being exposed to philosophy of religion), but I have -- for the above reasons -- unfortunately never taken an actual religion class. And I haven't been involved in any religious extracurriculars because of this distance from my faith. However, I've been super involved in both LGBTQ/trans and disability studies during my undergraduate career, as well as serving on behalf of such communities in my free time for the past five or six years. My whole "pitch" to divinity schools is that I hope to tie my recent return to faith and religion in with my existing engagement with transness and disability through academic religious studies. This is an honest (and I think pretty good) angle to approach my personal statement from, but I'm worried that A) My experience may not be traditionally "Div School" enough for Div Schools, and B.) This focus on transness and disability might be too "boo-hoo," i.e. not conventional enough, for these programs. I've chosen these schools all for their openness to studying these topics in their MTS programs, but I am concerned my purpose in pursuing Div School might just be too focus on these topics instead of the proper, traditional academic study of religion -- which I still definitely am. (This is mainly related to Reason A, and the fact that I haven't had decent, recent exposure to religion for the reasons explained above.) At an admissions information session last week, I recall one of the Divinity School admissions reps saying something along the lines of "We've all been discriminated against, had trauma, don't give us a sob story in your personal statement." This was kind of off-putting to me, but I think this academic interest of mine comes from an honest and legitimate place, and not solely (or really at all) from "trauma" or an "anger" from being discriminated against. It is simply an interest of mine and a way to engage with my spiritual growth and the wellbeing of fellow trans folk around me. (Yet another abiding concern I've had when drafting my essays.) I'm applying to BU, HDS, Union TS, UChicago, Vanderbilt, and Yale. Might I have a chance at these programs given all this...? I know nobody can give a definitive answer, but I wonder whether anybody familiar with admissions processes might be able to offer any advice. Sorry for the long post. I'm mostly done with applications but am feeling a level of stress and apprehension I hadn't before. Thanks in advance for any insight -- any and all is appreciated. Have a nice Saturday! Peace.