Duna

Wooohooo! Congrats! Have some sparkling stuff and be proud of yourself. For real.

congrats and good luck!

Actually someone on this forum once said that it's never good to weigh more than two choices against each other because it gets hard to control for certain criteria. This person's advice (which I thought was pretty good) was to always make a decision between two schools as the acceptances come in. If you decide in favor of school B between A & B, why would you suddenly prefer A over school C that just sent an acceptance? It's always good to make the decision as "easy" as possible to that you a) don't get completely overwhelmed and feel shitty and make a good decision you will then be happy with in the long run.

Yeah, I can believe that. To return to the topic: I guess it depends on whether you have to work and also, uhm, whether you can pay for the classes I guess? If it is a funded program, they usually only fund a certain amount of units. In addition, if it is about the learning experience, I think I'd rather go with less classes and put much effort into a deeper understanding than going completely crazy on the course load. This is not undergrad anymore, it is okay to read some extra books, write a conference paper in a class or participate in research projects at your school.

Perfectly okay to ask them, I think. Although at my school, for example, they don't really do ranked wait lists but have a replacement for every student they admit... But call them and ask nicely (in this case I think calling is better because it adds a personal note to it and you can also reassure them that you're interested)

Wait, 1000-1500 pages? That is per week? With stuff I have to read for my 3 classes and papers I want to write for those and stuff I might want to do for my own research it adds up to about 1000 pages per week (and yes, I think that is too much and no, I don't particularly enjoy it. I always try to tell people that I'm not that kind of academic.)

As far as I know, no. I also sent you a private message which you, apparently, don't seem to notice

Well I'm sorry that you think your life is over with 28. I believe there are many grad students out there who will think: "WTF, only 28? Where's the problem?" I am truly sorry about the rejection, though. However, even the best scores, grades and whatever don't spare you those because you simply cannot fit in perfectly everywhere. And if you would have tailored your SOP perfectly to all schools you might not get happy in these programs since it isn't what you really want to be. Yay! Optimism!

Which programs are you interested in?

The thing about Austin is not the acceptance but the funding... They don't provide funding to all of the accepted students and these decisions won't be made for another month or so. And yes, it depends on which track you applied to. I completely freaked last year but in the email I then got it said that the 'org and comm tech track made their final decisions'. Hang in there!

125 is not that much... I think Stanford usually has like 200-300 and last year they accepted 4 students. I guess, it is always a tight race at these schools Good luck to you guys!

Depending on where you're from, happy might not mean being able to pursue a path of self-realization but simply living a safe life with education for your kids... So what are two or three years if you later on might have the chance to stay in the US?

I am not sure whether this is something you want to simply do for fun or personal pleasure but if money is the main criterion for making your decision when weighing two or more great programs against each other, then I think it is reasonable to mention so and see how the school reacts.

Hey there, since I have no clue about theology in general, I just googled around a little really quick and I suppose most theological doctorates are still Dr. theol. and do basically work like fuzzylogician described: You figure out which area your interested in, look at research professors do, contact them and suggest topics, then hopefully find someone who will work with you and then you enroll... However, I am pretty sure you will need some sort of proof that you have sufficient knowledge of Latin, Greek (old Greek, I would guess) and Hebrew. But that's just what I got from skimming through really quick

Wait, I don't think you can make statements this general about anything concerning admissions... 1) Many state schools have no GRE cut off and their GPA requirement is 3.0 (at least when I researched programs last year). Therefore, I do not think that you can just generalize chances for admission based on these numbers (which you can't do anyways). 2) I do not understand why the OP is supposed to look for a master's program. As far as I know, many PhD programs are less interested in numbers and more interested in research experience (internship? e.g.) than some master's programs. 3) I tend to believe that PhD admission committees do look for applicants that show how they can develop over time because the blessing & curse of PhD programs is that they are pretty long. I am not saying it will be easy getting into a funded program with the grades but I do think that your personal situation seems rather special and your development impressive. Killer GRE scores would underline your intention to get this done now and show you are prepared, ready to work hard and not struggling anymore. And don't forget writing sample and SOP... It's been said 1000 times on this board: GRE scores and GPA are clearly not all that matters so don't get to obsessed about it and forget what a PhD is really about: Doing original research.

@ Waparys: Berlin <3 back to topic: We have a lot of international students in my humanities / social sciences program at USC and I thoroughly enjoy being in such a vibrant and diverse community...

Good job! Hang in there and all the best of luck for your applications!

Wow, what a helpful response. @ OP: If you haven't done so already, you might want to post this into the Physics forum. Some additional information (such as research interests, career plans etc.) could help, too.

If you are trying to plan YOUR finances you might want to consider asking YOUR desired programs about their funding structure

I can't really say too much about doctoral programs in Germany and I got my master's from an arts school, which is obviously not the normal Uni. However, I did study at a "normal" German university for 4 years before that. In my opinion, the main difference is the faculty's and staff's attitude towards students. At my school here in the US everyone is super nice, helpful and happy to have us here (or at least good enough at pretending). In Germany I always felt like an intruder who disturbs everyone, asks stupid questions and is merely tolerated but not really welcome. I believe LMU is a great school. I do know a few people who went there / are still there. I do think that it will be a bit of a cultural shock though Not German culture but German university culture. You need to be very proactive and persistent. People will be rude and professors busy. Other than that and especially if you don't mind working independent, you'll be fine. In addition, Bavarians are very warm compared to other folks in Germany...

Most schools did not ask me for converted scores. They figure out themselves based on experience or whatever rules (maybe refer to WES, too).

No, but I think they will also get a bunch of emails with the same lame "I am really interested in your work on xxxy" which applicants got from the webpage. If you can come up with: "I am really interested in work xxy, especially the method you used to do xyy and I am intrigued by studying this by combining it with work from yyx on the same topic employing a slightly different methodological approach" then this might appear just a tiny bit more like a motivated and well prepared candiate.

This might be true for certain departments / schools but some schools have ad-coms that decide and your POI, if not coincidentally on the committee this year, might not have a say. It depends whether it's department policy to have students work closely with one faculty or whether they admit promising candidates into the program and advisors are chosen / assigned after the admission process. If it's the case that you're basically chosen by your POI, then I think you should at least read the abstracts of some recent publications. I think you would not want to appear as if you'd merely skimmed through some webpages.

That's a pretty weird question to ask since you are basically the only person to answer it... What are you interested in? What areas will you most likely be doing research in? Where are you going to apply and which professors will you want to work with? (please do not list areas and schools here now for I have "no idea" about other schools and areas, ask yourself these questions). If you have a piece (thesis chapter, paper) that is revised and reflects your research interests well, just go with it, you do not have to come up with a whole new writing sample. Not that I think that the topic of your writing sample is most important (I think that you can actually write is most important here) but I believe it is a nice way to also show off a little more about where your interests are and what you could contribute.

I'd vote no for using it in the SoP but I vote yes for being memorable. However, that's probably due to my personal proclivity for gentlemen who prefer their drinks ... no need to finish that.