Trin

I am also not affiliated with a particularly tradition, especially academically. I'm used to telling students who ask that within the academic study of religion, we usually bracket our own beliefs, blah blah blah. Just last week, I was sitting in on a class that was studying Quakers, and I made some comments about a doctrinal issue and worship practices. As *soon* as class ended, three different students announced to me, "You're a Quaker, aren't you? We can tell!" I was like, noooo, I'm a religious studies scholar -- it's my job to know these things. :-) When I get asked outside of academic contexts, I usually explain that I'm culturally Episcopalian and have a liminal relationship with paganism, but I self define simply as a theist. Technically speaking, I"m a monist with strong panentheistic leanings, whose beliefs are more informed by a Jamesian Mystical Experience than any other influence. Practically speaking, I'm an orthodox Santaist with reconstructionist leanings -- I believe in the literal truth of Santa Claus, but reject some of the later teachings that have passed into orthodoxy (particularly on the issue of Rudoplh.)

Yeah, I'm getting through this week by focusing on knowing Friday or maybe Thursday. If they make us wait out the weekend until next Monday or Tuesday, I may go crazy! I want to go to sleep and wake up and have it be done, like Christmas morning. :-)

Loooove Nella Larson, especially Passing. I'm reading The Yacoubian Building,(Alaa Al Aswany), The Persian Letters (Montesquieu), and Sex at Dawn.

I am trying to get your message here, but some of your word choice is obscuring what I think may be your intent. So perhaps another approach -- it's so important in online communities to be careful using language that has strong connotative meanings. Your posts about this have made use of several words and turns of phrase -- gross, lefty, wet dreams, what lefty loves -- that are highly charged and frequently used in adversarial/conflicted socio-cultural spaces. While you may be making positive, supportive statements, your word choice is undermining your intent and making you sound dismissive. Does that make sense?

Well, the AAR has a New Religions section or consultation -- why not look at the call for papers and past programs? They'll give you a sense of who is doing scholarship in the field and where they are.

Wow. Can I ask that you not refer to another scholar's work as "gross"? Yes, I am presenting a paper this spring on embodied transgender inclusion in ritual. I also have a lovely scholarly foundation in theology. I expect that I'll end up being focused on translation and interpretation of Cairo Genizah texts. AND I'm an HDS applicant, because, as you point out, it's a great fit for me. That said, I think it's possible to comment on another's interests without making insulting value judgements. If it's not possible for *you* to make such a polite comment, can I suggest you refrain from using my academic work as some example of "gross" work?

And that's why you have to buy the liquor in advance, that's all I'm saying. I am considering optimistically carrying a mini-split of champagne in my bag next Thurs/Friday, to use in case of acceptance. Perhaps I should have a mini bottle of something stronger in there too, for rejection. :-)

Oo, I have a plan for this: 1. Finish the performance. (It's about 75 percent likely I'll find out just before I go on stage for one of three performances of the Vagina Monologues.) 2. Text or call my SO the results. (BTW, he has that cute Rejected! brochure someone made in his bag so he's ready for the moment.) 3. Have a margarita on the rocks with salt, because margaritas are for elections, fatalities, and grad school rejections. 4. Go home with SO, watch some TV, cry some. 5. Post an update to Twitter, FB, and LJ. Things I will try not to do: 1. Cry in public. 2. Have more than one margarita. 3. Binge on carbs so that I puff up and feel crappy later. 4. Sabotage my graduation plans by not finishing papers and stuff because I am sulky and depressed. 5. Call my children and cry on the phone to them, because damn, that's not what you want to hear when you're a college student either, your mother on the phone sobbing about not getting into grad school and probably being a terrible parent, too, especially when mid-terms are coming up and she talks for *hours* if you let her, especially when she's all weepy about life stuff, and you can't blow her off because WTF, your mother. is. crying.

I'm "expecting" HDS decision by the 15th, but I'm also making sure I have planned the Thursday and Friday before that, because the HDS decisions have come out the Thursday/Friday before the 15th in several recent years. By planned, I mean, I know where I'm gonna be and I'll have support people like my sweetie available, for commiseration or celebration. :-)

I'll be 45 later this year, and at least 50 by the time I get my PhD. I initially thought it was unlikely I'd be able to become a professor this late in life, but as one of my profs said, "Oh, you'll have 20 good years left to teach!" :-) I'm going to school because I had to give up my academic career to care for my children; now that they're in college, I want to continue where I left off. I think that the program I'm applying to would consider me a stronger candidate because I'm older, in part because they try to maximize diversity in their program.

There's another option you didn't include in your poll. "By April 15" carries with it the implication that it may be *close* to April 15. So I wouldn't say "could happen any time, starting now", I'd say, "will arrive on or before April 15, but probably close to that date." Does that make sense? Honestly, I tend to look at when whatever school has notified in the past, and use that as a gauge of about when they will notify this year. It's also possible that the school has rolling admissions, so they notify when they've made a decision, but no later than April 15.

What he said, re: liberal. It's not a good fit for me. I'm an interfaith scholar, and my recent work is on transgender embodiment in pagan ritual. I am SO not a good fit for Duke. As for Princeton, if I were applying, it would be for the ANE program at Princeton, which is where Genizah scholars go. :-)

Got my email message from HDS saying I'd cleared verification. Now it's just a waiting game. Thank goodness I have time-consuming hobbies to obsess over!

Well, this year will be less fun than last year. Last year I brought down the house performing one of the most memorable comic pieces of the show. This year, I'm doing a part I don't care for as much, because they couldn't find anyone else for it. Whatever I'm performing, I appreciate being involved in the event; it's an important fundraiser for some local women's charities.

I got an email this morning saying I was in the second verification stage, verifying my GPAs and GREs. Yay!

Yup, and I have marked that on my calendar as the tentative notification date, as well as the "official" date. I'm going to be in the middle of performances on that Thursday and Friday, so that should be interesting. At the very least, all that week I'll be much more focused on preparing for the performances (Vagina Monologues) than on my application results. :-)

I love "Their loss!" as a response, because it's flattering, but not gushy. *grin* I hate "It's all for the best" and I particularly hate any version of "I/noone/your friends didn't expect you to get in/thought it was a long shot/thought you were being unrealistic."

I'm in the same situation, though we don't own homes. My SO is not only established in his career (in an industry centered here) but has an 80 year old mother living an hour away, who will probably need him to live closer as this decade goes on. I didn't limit my search to schools local to me; my hope is to attend a master's program on the other side of the country, then return here for my PhD. We're planning to just have a long distance/commuter relationship during that time. I *hope* it works, but I wouldn't give up my education to stay with him.

I'm still in the verification process for the MTS -- everything is official except my recs, which were all online. They show as recieved, but not "official". At least watching the progress helps me pass the time....

Because I'm a west coast person, I have professors who are also west coast, and attended Claremont and GTU. Many of them have the same pattern I am planning -- MTS or MDiv back east, followed by PhD out west. There's also UC Santa Barbara, which is respected for Religion out there. As far as your specific study interest, I can't speak to that, unfortunately. I'm a multi-religious/interfaith scholar, and my professors are in non-Christian scholarly traditions. What I can say is that GTU in particular has strong associations with what I'd call "progressive scholarship" -- it's a consortium of divinity schools, including the west coast Episcopal div school and the UU one, Starr King. They've just funded a new interfaith initiative. I'm not sure how well that fits in with your goals, though.

Ya'll are just doing it once a day? I have that email forwarded to my cell phone, so it will find me no matter where I am. :-)

Hmm, I haven't see a similar email, but I didn't submit until after your email date stamp. All my supporting documents *should* be there already; they were sent for the original Jan 11 deadline.

The list is also different for multi-religious programs. I'd put Harvard and Chicago at the top of the list, then Union, and Graduate Theological out here in California. Yale wants to be on the list, but they're not there yet.

Thanks for the poll. Let's go MTS Comparative Religion folks! :-) Especially the Cairo Genizah / Pagan Studies scholars. Oh, wait, I guess that's just me.

I agree with the previous poster that you should consider an MA or similar degree. I know that Harvard Divinity has some folks who are Humanist/Atheist identified doing work in that area. After all religious pluralism includes atheists. :-) I also think of UChicago as a bastion of sociological approaches, though that may be outdated. For an MA program, I would think that your statement of purpose is going to be a big factor in explaining where you've come from, what background you have, and what you plan to do within the field. The MA (or MAR, or MTS) would then give you the firepower to be admitted to a PhD program.