MarsUpial

My boyfriend got an email, but from a different prof, one in his area of interest. He also got funding--did you two? Maybe it has something to do with that? It's hard to imagine that the professors would personally go through all the admits...

So after the HDS rejection, my boyfriend got a full ride from Chicago--what a mysterious, unpredictable process... What are admit and financial aid rates at these places right now?? More importantly, does anyone know where to find PhD/job placement rates for people coming out of these programs? (I.e. Chicago/Yale/Harvard MA/MTS-type programs...)

Yeah, it's pretty mysterious, not to say incomprehensible. When he visited and talked to current students about his background and situation, the most common question he got was "why didn't you get in, and why did I??" We've always heard that the MTS was not terribly hard to get into in the first place--although he's certainly been hearing that it got significantly more competitive last year when they started requiring the GRE at the same time that the economy tanked.

We feel your pain. My boyfriend just got rejected from HDS for the SECOND time, with: -a 3.78 undergrad from the University of Chicago (phi beta kappa) -1340 GRE (his 1500 expired) -two glowing recommendations from tenured professors and one from a former HDS fellow -time spent studying sanskrit in India (he wants to do Indian religions) - work experience as an international religion reporter He doesn't have academic credentials in religious studies, but that's what a masters is for, isn't it?? He spent the year since his last application visiting HDS faculty and reading their books to try to get a clear starting point. What do these people want???