Hello all,
I've been reading this forum for almost a year now and now am in the process of applying for graduate schools. Needless to say, I am FAH-REEK-ING OUT!
I'm a graduate of George Mason University, double-majored in Religious Studies and English (weird combo, no? Haha).
Graduated with a 3.82 GPA (on an A, A-, B+, B, B-... etc scale).
GRE scores are TBD - however, I'm am the worst standardized test taker in the world. So I am not expecting strong GRE scores.
Experience: I orally presented research titled "Liberating the Daughters of Eve" at the George Mason College of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Symposium in 2011. Other than that, I have barely any experience outside of the work I did in classes (I juggled one full-time and one part-time job while attending school full-time... never had time to do additional activities for my field).
Languages: I know English and Urdu fluently (Urdu might help in my Islamic Studies focus). Going to take Arabic classes beginning in January.
My letters of recommendation are also strong.
I am applying for an MA at these schools:
Duke
Harvard
NYU
Columbia
Temple
Claremont School of Religion
UNC-Chapel Hill was on my list until my former professor (who is now working at UNC) informed me that they normally do not accept MA-only students, rather their graduate students go are on track for a PhD. Halfway into the application, I'm considering revoking the entire thing.
My area of focus is definitely going to be Islamic studies - I am highly interested in inter-faith dialogue (between Islam and other traditions) and gender-equality studies.
Last, but not least, if you guys have any last-minute recommendations on schools that could offer me my focus(es), I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!
