Jump to content

The Pierre Menard

Members
  • Posts

    29
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    New Haven, CT
  • Application Season
    Already Attending
  • Program
    Ph.D. in Religious Studies (NT)

Recent Profile Visitors

2,443 profile views

The Pierre Menard's Achievements

Decaf

Decaf (2/10)

7

Reputation

  1. I just moved a family of four across the country for a PhD program. Feel free to PM me, if you have specific questions.
  2. Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences requires all departments to interview an applicant before offering admission to the doctoral program.
  3. http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/financial/stipend.html Yale offers their religious studies doctoral students $27,300 per year for at least five years with that amount potentially going up incrementally year over year (last year it went up around $800, if I remember correctly). If you have a family, they offer full health coverage (no monthly payments, no co-pays, nothing) for every member of your family at no cost to the student. Yale expects you to teach, because they want to train you to become a professor, but you don't get a stipend in exchange for teaching.
  4. Very well said, AbrasaxEos. I might also add one additional caveat. some confuse their SofP with a prose version of their CV. They are not the same thing. Let your SofP tell who you are as a scholar; let your CV enumerate your academic credentials and awards. Remember: schools are seeking to create a reading culture and your best bet is, in my humble opinion, to be yourself in your SofP and narrate who you are as a scholar, how you arrived at that place, what you take to be the marks of good scholarship, and why ____ school is an ideal fit.
  5. Sleep a lot. Eat lots of organic, healthy food. Exercise, but not overly so. Try to relax. Enjoy the moment as much as you can.
  6. At Chicago, Margaret Mitchell made it clear to me that the Divinity School is the religious studies program of the University. However, this is not the case at other schools. In general, the divinity school (or school of theology) is the professional school of a university, which is focused on training of people for various careers (not least ecclesiastical). These universities will often have their own religious studies programs that are housed in the graduate school and/or the undergraduate program, which are focused on formal academic training and preparation. As I understand it, the difference between a seminary and a divinity school is that a seminary is not formally connected to a university (a la Princeton Theological Seminary, which is a separate entity from Princeton University) and a divinity school is a professional school of a university (a la Yale)—not that different that, say, a law school or something. Again, Chicago is the exception here. If you want to be a clergyperson, attending a divinity or seminary would be ideal; if an academic, a religious studies program would be best. These are not strict rules by any means, but if you don't follow them, I imagine you will have to give an answer to the question, "if you want to be a pastor/professor, why did you choose to study at a religious studies program/divinity school?" many times.
  7. I would not retake it, nor would I bring attention to it, provided your writing sample is strong and/or you have something published. I got a 4.5 and I got into my top choice. The essays are graded in 2-3 minutes by a grad student. I think adcoms understand that. Moreover, 72nd percentile is not bad; it's just not what you wanted perhaps. No sane person wants to take the GRE more than once. Let it go.
  8. Most broadly, anything related to Christian origins and development through the 4th century C.E. whets my appetite. More specifically, I would list the Gospel of Mark, rhetorical criticism, origins of early Christian ritual (especially eucharistic origins and development), early Christian hermeneutics, literary theory, and Jewish/Christian relations and identity as my primary interests.
  9. Congratulations, katholou! We will miss you in New Haven in the Fall, but I am glad indecision's burden has been lifted off your shoulders. Warm wishes to all, especially those on waitlists. As a point of potential clarification, I understand Yale's waitlist to be global to religious studies, not area specific. So katholou turning down Yale's offer might free up a New Testament spot—or Asian Religions, Religious Ethics, etc. At least that is how I understand Yale's waitlist to work.
  10. I have accepted an offer to do doctoral work at Yale and my family (wife + two kids) will be moving to New Haven at the end of this summer. There is a dearth of information on this discussion board about life with a family in New Haven. Most seems to be about single living. I would love to acquire any information from the collected wisdom of others about life in New Haven with kids: where to live, pre-schools, elementary schools, parks, etc.
  11. I would encourage you to check it, 11Q13. Though I received a call from Dale Martin on Friday informing me of Yale's decision, I also received the same email directing me to the website to see an acceptance letter.
  12. Here is my opinion, if you care: It sounds like you might be over-thinking it. You cannot plan the details of your future that far out. No one is that good of a prognosticator, because the world has too many variables. No school will gurantee admission to a PhD program; no one will preclude you either. The name of the school matters, but the quality of your work and your person matters more. Work really hard at what you love—I mean really hard, because the most important thing is your work. Also, your language about becoming a clergy in the SDA as a sort of "just in case", fall back plan sounds suspect. I predict those on this forum who are religious and those who are not would likely agree that one thing the world does not need is another clergy who became such because they failed at something else and this was there "just in case" plan. At bottom, go to school at the place where you really want to go to school and study what fascinates you.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use