Trin

I was considering it, but when I met with their admissions rep last fall, she told me "save your $75" and not apply, because I was a strong fit for HDS. We had been talking about how I mostly work outside the Christian context and thought of YDS as largely focused that direction. She agreed with me. Even more amusing was the Candler rep, who said in his presentation that they have a wide range of denominations represented -- "the entire spectrum of Baptists and Methodists." Hee!

I'll be finally finishing my undergrad at 44 and then starting a masters -- I won't start the PhD until I'm 46!

I keep track of my Google results and take steps if I find something I don't care for. I also don't let people tag me in pictures. :-) As a result, searches on my name show that I'm active in science fiction fandom and costuming, that I wrote a well-reviewed role playing game guide on the medieval church, and that my ex-husband doesn't like me that much. :-) I also taught my children to manage their online presences from a very early age. We had a rule in our house that if I could Google them and have them show up, they were in trouble. (They have a unique last name.) As a result, all of their online stuff is mostly since they started college, and is all very tame -- pictures of art projects, that sort of thing.

I've been living my Plan B (and C) for 20 years now, so yeah, I have one. I'd like to put some effort in to Plan A, though. :-)

I was a Religion undergrade at UGA, but that was years and years ago. Back then it was all Old Testament or New Testament, with almost no diversity. I studied under Anthony Nemitz, who is gone now. *sigh* It was a very theology focused department back then, and you can see it from my transcript: Medieval Theology, Contemporary Theology, Constructive Theology.... :-) I hear it's much better now, where better is entirely subjective -- more comparative, more multifaith, with a more diverse faculty.

Agreed about write what you know! As it turned out, my position essay was on a topic closely related to a paper I had just turned in the day before! I pretty much hammered out a summary of the larger paper, and that was that. :-) I alo used the word "hermeneutically", which my friends now tease me about -- it's the "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" of GRE essay vocabulary!

I'm using the delay to relax some about my apps. I was having some issues with an error in my transcript and my recommendations not being in yet; now I don't have to worry about either of those things.

Wow, this whole thread makes me feel sort of awkward, especially the "the AW portion has nothing to do with reality" comments. I've spent much of the past twenty-five years doing various kinds of writing. I certainly do use the basic 5 paragraph essay structure with regularity in the real world; I use it for essays, for complex customer service responses, for documentation. I used the basic argument style to deal with crap at my children's schools when they were little, to provide information during a legal proceeding, and to respond effectively during a workers' comp dispute. To "prepare" for the GRE, I didn't use any prep software other than the crappy thing the GRE provided. I took the test once to see how it worked. I didn't bother to write a practice essay. I read over their scoring rubrics to get a sense of what they wanted. I took it once and got a 740V, 660Q, and 6.0 AW. The 660 is a little low for my standards, but I'm a humanities applicant, so it doesn't matter much, either. When people asked my how I did so well, I responded that I'm an adult, and I write like an adult -- I fit my writing style very precisely to what's asked of me. I didn't find the GRE AW especially tricky or arcane. There's a set of rubrics. You adhere to the rubrics, you get a good grade. Not all of my writing looks like GRE writing, but I can certainly write like that to spec. As for time limits, why yes, I've spent much of my life being expected to grind out writing in a short period of time. The big wide world is full of situations where you don't get multiple re-writes. Of course, that may not be true of grad school, but grad school isn't the entirety of life, either. :-)

Yeah, even though I have until Feb 1 for HDS, I am thinking of submitting tomorrow early, so I can get the less expensive app fee, and still have two weeks of winter break to enjoy. Oh, also, I'm presenting a paper in March and I swore I was going to write it over the break! :-)

I don't think it needs to be edited -- I'm a great writer in general. I think this is less about "my essay isn't good enough" and more about "I feel insecure." Today I got back email from someone I'd asked to look at it (a humanities professor who was my HS sweetheart!) and he thought it was a "strong statement" and well written, and that helped. I'm thinking that my fears have less to do with writing and more to do with worrying that people will read it and go "Why would you want to do THAT? What kind of goals are THOSE?"

No. I don't know anyone personally who is in the sort of program *and* has my interests. I've sent it two a couple of friends who are now professors, and a couple of professors, but I haven't heard back about it. I worry that I'm an MTS candidate who sounds like an MDiv.

I'll be 50ish by the time I get my PhD. I expressed concern to my UG profs that I would not be able to have a career in teaching because of my age; they all disagreed. One said, "Oh, you'll have 20 good years after you get done, for sure." I'm still a little queasy about that, but I'm not concerned for now.

Yes, exactly! And I feel horribly insecure about people reading it. I have never had a problem with anyone reading my writing, but for this one thing, I just can't bear having it torn into! HDS delaying their deadline is agony, because now I have weeks to think, "Oh, maybe I should re-write it..." instead of being free of it.

Hey, how do you all handle thinking about, rethinking, and re-re-editing your SOP? I keep going through a cycle where I feel great about mine, then I get doubtful, rewrite it, and then feel good about it for a couple of days. Rinse, repeat. I am not normally this stressed about my writing!

We haven't really had any inclement weather. I mean, I think it got into the 40's at night this week, but it's the usual winter other than that. As for HDS and Yale delays, my guess is that it's because of the widespread snow issues. Harvard is closed today because of weather, and Yale is in blizzard conditions. If they don't move the deadlines, they'll a lot of delayed documents because of postal delays from the weather. For HDS, not all the MA level programs were delayed, just two of them, the MTS and the theology one, I think.

Applying to HDS MTS, and maybe GTU's common MA. I'm an undergrad, but a nontraditional student. I was also considering UCSB and Princeton's NES program, but I didn't think they were good enough fits for me to be worth the expense.

I have been despairing that my most important app is due today and two recommenders haven't submitted yet. Today about 6 hours before the deadline, the school sent out an email extending the app deadline til Feb 1. Of course, it's too late, in at least one way: I evidentally irritated one of the professors by reminding her about it too many times. *sigh*

Hi, I'm a new poster but sometime lurker. Tomorrow is a big app deadline for me; I'm suddenly having second thoughts about my SOP. I worry that it's too general, too personal, or not buzzword-laden enough. Would someone who is more in that area -- humanities/religious studies -- be willing to look at it in PM? Thank you!