waitingtoexhale

Sbyoda, I agree with eskidd about your competitive credentials and the not worrying about publishing, but also about the unfortunate uncertainty of the doctoral admission process. With so many strong applicants and so few spots, it's just really difficult to gauge the likelihood of admission, especially at a top-tier school (which is what a lot of us are going through right now). But several professors have told me the significance of the SoP and submitting a polished writing sample, which is probably advice countless others in this forum can attest to have heard as well. In terms of where you have done masters work (and where letters of recommendation come from), I've heard applicants from more well-known programs have a slight advantage, but I was at Emory's Finalists Weekend a few weekends ago and there were applicants (I think about 40 in all) from a myriad of schools: Duke, Union Sem, BC, BU, Harvard, Yale, Princeton Sem, Emory, Columbia Sem, ND, Chicago, Vanderbilt, TCU, WUSTL, Rice, Villanova, and I didn't come close to meeting all of the folks there.

Thanks for the info on Yale, Sinope and cavedan. I am waiting to hear from both Princeton and Yale, but I'll admit that I'm less hopeful after being put on the alternate list with Duke.

And congrats to those who got into the doctoral program at Graduate Theological Union! From what I hear, it's a nice blend of university and seminary in the Bay Area. Hope you get more good news when it comes to funding.

Schools, from what I know, vary with how they do their recruitment weekends. Some schools do them in Feb. and early Mar. in concert with interviews for their finalists. Other schools do them in late Mar. and Apr. for admitted students only. Baylor, Emory, and Notre Dame invite all finalists for (very important) interviews during their recruitment weekend. In the past, I've heard Duke and Yale had interviews for finalists as well, but don't know how they are going to do it this year. Hopefully, some other folks can be of better assistance in answering your question.

Duke's GPR posts the average GRE scores for matriculating doctoral students every year. In 2007-08, it was 760V and 720Q. In 2008-09, it was 729V and 739Q. I'm sure some scores were higher and some were lower, but it provides a general (and more official) idea of what they are looking for in applications.

On Jan. 23, Emory's GDR website announced their Finalists Weekend. I think all of the finalists in their ten courses of study were contacted two weeks ago. Other than Notre Dame's Finalist Weekend (Feb. 26-28), I don't know about any other schools.