samsarictraveler

11Q13, Don't fret yet... remember that a 1200 GRE can mean very different things depending on the distribution of the scores. Religious Studies departments (at least at the PhD level) don't care about your quantitative scores. A 1200 seems low by SAT standards but if its really a 650V/550Q or a 700V/500Q, then with an otherwise strong application, you could be an excellent candidate.

The basic trick is not to write a reflective self-analysis. No analysis is needed in your personal statement; merely write what you want to study, why you want to study it (briefly if at all), and why you are prepared to study it. That's all that grad schools care for. In other words do not include childhood experiences or work history. Don't even try a cute or interesting essay form. Write something really easy. That will probably be best.

You're gpa is higher then the average at Harvard. Depending on your GMAT and work experience, there is no reason you could not get into a top school.

A piece of advice given to me by a professor in the div school at the University of Chicago; "the only thing you want to write is who you are, what you want to study, and why you are prepared to study it." Personally, I'd start in the middle, just try to articulate exactly what you want to study, whether that's Barthe's theology, or the social context of ancient egyptian christianity, or early medieval Indian religious narrative literature. Once you've written that, I discovered, at least for myself, that everything else sort of falls into place.

MA acceptance rates arn't as scary as PhD acceptance rates. Even the best programs accept about half of their applicants (in Religious Studies!) And if you learn anything on this site, its that mere numbers are not the most important part of you package. a 3.0 GPA is quite low it seems for people who apply to top program, but if your major GPA is much higher (perhaps because you took lots of engineering courses) then you could be a strong applicant. What really matters are your recs and your Statement of Purpose (SOP). In general, getting into a top program in any field is tough, however...

I'm attending Yale for Asian Religions. My stats are GRE: 730v/790q/5a uGPA: 3.7 (with a lot of grad courses) I also have French (which is much more important than german in my field), and four years or so of Sanskrit. If I were to go through this process again, I would probably apply for outside fellowships. Its really no skin off your back to apply even if you have little chance, and if you get one, programs that are extremely expensive like Chicago's MA program suddenly become reasonable.

I'm not a physicist myself (anymore!) but I still have a lot of friends in physics. The thing to remember is that you don't have to impress anyone, you don't have to do well, all you have to do is pass. The thing to remember is that this is physics you already know. Comps are intense for everyone in every field.

To all those who got in to Yale: Congratulations! Hope to see you around! (and of course also congratulations to those who were accepted to HDS!)

One person so far seems to have heard, or at least one person has posted. Its not surprising to me its taking so long... the Hyde Park post office is extraordinarilly disfunctional!

It really depends on the school and the field. If you're in theology, it seems you really need an MA first. If you do sociology of religion (or comparative, or ancient Judaism\christianity) then it really depends on the program. Yale, Princeton, and Columbia accept people with just a BA in these fields (and Yale, at least, really does. I know three people in religious studies who came with just a BA). Chicago, for instance, does not. Check the programs' websites!

Yes... but it sounded different in my head when I wrote it... I meant it in a tragi-comic vein, sort or as if it were said with a sigh. Reading it now it makes me look like a complete asshole... I just hope no one reading this blog figures out who Wendy is! (though I fear that's too much to ask)

Hi all! Congrads on getting in to Yale. I'm going for Religious Studies. Anyone here happen to work on South Asia (in any way, shape, or form!)

I do know a person in PR at Chicago who transfered from an MA-PhD program in Sanskrit at Harvard. However, grad school transfers usually occur when a student finishes their MA. If you transfered from one PhD program to another in religion, you probably would have to start all over again! It might happen, but its probably exceedingly rare. The only reason I can see is if an advisor leaves one program for another, and takes her grad students with her.

No, but I doubt I was accepted. I work on Purana (both in Sanskrit and Tamil), and of course Jack Hawley does Moghul era northern Bhakti... I only only applied because I admire his work so much.

The GRE is basically only useful as a sorting device. Graduate get large numbers of applications from hugely unqualified individuals. It saves time and money to weed out people using a single number (ok 3 numbers).

I went to school in chicago and havn't heard of Roosevelt. Unless you're doing a professional degree, you shouldn't attend schools no one has heard of.

IMO (and I come to this process both as a sucessful aplicant and as the son of two history professors in a mid-tier history program (Maryland)) GREs matter, but not in the way many people think. It also, of course, depends on to which program you apply. In college, what matters is the total number; that's usually not the case in grad school. If you're in science, quant is important, verbal not much. Vice versa in Humanities (obviously) The GRE is very unforgiving to people whose are not native english speakers, so probably verbal is ignored (if its not too low) for International applicants (unless, of course, you apply in English Lit!) Most schools use flexible cut-offs. If your score is too low, they ignore you, unless for some reason they excuse your score (I had a friend who was accepted at Harvard PhD in religion (admits about 10 with 200 or so applicants) with a verbal below 700-the catch, it was a small program, the professors knew who he was, and he had great recs and a fantastic writing sample). The bigger the program, obviously, the less flexible they will be. There is a corralary of GRE being a cutoff. It means that high GRE scores probably won't offset low GPA (remember grad school is not college!) After the cut off, GREs matter very little. Some schools may use GRE for funding (its certainly a rumor going around!) I find that unlikely in all but the biggest programs. The GRE is a very weak predicter of grad school sucess. Grades, recs, etc. are much more accurate. Schools would have much better results if they assigned funding based entirely on GPA instead of GRE! At Maryland funding was assigned mostly by faculty argument. The faculty who won the argument (ie the powerful faculy!) got money for their students. I suspect this is the way it is normally done (at least at the elite level!) Faculty like having students; it is in the interest of the facutly that they use a holistic procedure to allocate awards. And even the biggest programs at elite school accept very few people (usually under 30). For large groups a formula is appropriate, but not for small ones. A propos of subject GREs. Some are useful, some are not. The now defunct History GRE, for instance, was utterly useless (it essentially only covered US history; the europeanists had extremely low scores). The physics GRE is one of the primary tools programs use to accept candadates. My thoughts are that if a program requires the the test, take it and put a lot of effort into it. Otherwise, absolutely do not take it. It could never you, no matter how well you do.

I'm headed to Yale in Asian religion, and while I do south asia, I know the faculty. The religion deparment's east asia person is Koichi Shinohara, who is quite good (he primarily works on religious biography and other types of religious narrative in both China and Japan). Phyllis Granoff the south asia person also would be usefull to talk to since she knows east asia very well (and has even written a bit on east asian art!) At Princeton, as you probably know, the name in East Asian Buddhism is Stephen Teiser... he would certainly be a wonderful person to work with. In terms of who has a better program in EA, certainly Princeton. But you should mainly focus on which is the better art history program for you; both departments will easily be able to give you in religious studies.

I don't know much about grad school in communications management, but I would suggest a few things: a) Your GPA could be a little low, depending on how prestigious a school you want to attend. However, in many fields it's not the GPA per se that matters, but rather how you did in the field (and english program would not care at all about a C in orgo for instance). Also, programs care not just about grades, but about which courses are on the transcript. In other words, do you have the pre-requisite skills for graduate school. Generally, all of the UC schools are considered excellent. That doesn't mean that schools will cut you slack for low grades. c) Probably Verbal is more important than Quant (but don't let you Quant get too low!) GREs in most fields are not given much weight. Usually they are only used as a sorting device; get above a cut-off and they don't matter anymore. d) Vocab is hard to tackle in two months. The common approach is simply to make flashcards and memorize words. Any good test-prep book will have vocab lists of commonly seen GRE words. (Try Princeton Review or Kaplan--the books aren't great and the practice tests are worthless, but the word lists will be usefull). e) most liberal arts grad schools won't care at all about community service, but a management program might (a little). You're work experience is more relevent. Be sure to discuss it in your personal statement. Hope this was helpful

It probably didn't sabotage your application, but it really couldn't have helped. A writing sample is not primarilly a test to see how you write (that the SOP!). Rather, it shows professors how you think and do scholarship in their field. That's why the sample is so important; it's their best indication of your potential to do graduate work and become a scholar.

Cavedan- Congrads on getting in Yale Religion! I'm most likely heading there myself in Asian Religion.