MattDest

I suppose it depends on your interests. Why did you choose to do an MA in Church History?

Why do you feel like a phone call is an invasion of privacy?

FWIW, this is my own experience in the discipline and what advisors of mine have relayed to me seems to confirm it as well.

I'm applying from an MA institution, and I'll - hopefully - have my MA this spring.

If credits are equivalent between the US and the UK, then a 20 or 30 credit module in the UK is roughly equivalent to a two year MA in the United States. I'm in my 4th semester, and by the time I finish that I'll have taken 36 units (which is essentially 3 courses a semester). I don't exactly know what a "module" is (a course?), but in graduate seminars many typically are assessed by a seminar paper, in addition to participation and/or smaller response papers. Logic courses are a different kind of beast entirely. As for whether or not classes in the UK cover more material than those in the US, I'd say it probably depends on the quality of the program rather than where the program is located.

I honestly have no idea, like Table I've been really focused on applying that I hadn't given it much thought. I suspect it will likely depend on if I get in somewhere, and where I end up going. I may sit in on a summer course here, or I applied for a long-shot summer seminar in philosophy of religion.

The deadline is usually April 15th to accept or decline funded offers, but if it is unfunded I imagine you could really accept it at any point before classes start? I don't see why not, at least.

You might have seen this at baby showers, when everybody picks a day they think the baby will be born. Let's pick what day we think the first results will drop. I'm going to guess Jan 24th. (EDIT: I just realized bsg had already posted an acceptance. So, when the next news will drop.)

UC-Riverside and Duke seem to notify people fairly early. I don't really care which school notifies me first, as long as it's an acceptance. Then I can breathe easy for the rest of the season.

I don't have any solid information on this, but I'm with Loric on this one (the sky is falling! pigs are flying! Hell has frozen over! ). I think it might look bad if you are e-mailing them while the application process is going on. Ideally, this is something you should have done *before* you applied if you were going to do it at all. That said, I can't imagine that doing so would be a huge detriment to your chances either. I wouldn't fret about it either way.

The work that people can get done when application anxiety sets in is phenomenal.

Is your Santa Claus section where you will be attending? Haha, I can't figure it out.

Do you have data for these claims, or are these just your personal observations? It seems really odd to say something about programs universally preferring GPA to GRE - how could we possibly know this? Also, while I don't think one should despair over a poor Quant section, this idea that "nobody cares unless it is below the 60th percentile" seems weird. The only program I know offhand that releases specific GRE info is UCSD, and the averages of their quant score are in the 72% range. I imagine other top programs have higher averages. (ETA: My own Q score is near this, and I'm not really losing sleep over it. But, I just don't think people should write off the Q section either.) I have a really hard time believing that some programs will hold your major GPA above the WS. Source?

It feels so close!

Great stats! Philosophy of Religion and Wittgenstein seem like an interesting pairing. May I ask what you are interested in specifically in Philosophy of Religion? My own interests in philosophy started there, especially with divine hiddenness and the problem of evil.

Wow, great advice. I'll add some of the things that worked for me. Spreadsheet: I also created a spreadsheet for my applications on Google Docs. I had the same sort of information, plus a little more (when their earliest acceptances were posted). When I finished working on an application, I changed the row color from white to yellow, indicating that my part was done and I was waiting on letter writers. Once I got notified that they had all been submitted, I changed it to blue. Now, as the acceptances/waitlists/rejections roll in, I'll change the row colors accordingly. It makes it really easy to get a "big picture" type of progress update. Nitty-Gritty Application: I would get all of your materials collected in one area, and then complete all of the applications in one time period. This makes it easier on your letter-writers (who don't have to wait for each individual school that you apply to), and on yourself (you don't have to remember which applications are still incomplete). Transcripts: Order transcripts all at once. Do not order them when you are applying to each school. Instead, make sure you have your schools narrowed down early and print off a copy of each school's address to have them send it to each school that requires it. I just sent my transcripts to every school that I applied, because I didn't want to have to deal with the process over again. But if your school charges a lot or you'd rather not go through the hassle, just look at the guidelines for each school. Letter-Writers: Ask them as early as you can. In an ideal situation, they can give you advice about where to apply. Once you have narrowed down the list of schools (preferably with their help), send them a list of schools with the application deadlines. Don't pester them endlessly, they have done this before and they know how important it is.

Metaphysics of Furniture, esp. the special composition question relating to desk chairs.

That's good to know! I imagine that most adcoms are also understanding when it comes to typos and such. Even though a half-completed sentence might feel like a huge mistake, I don't think it would torpedo your chances necessarily.

It's difficult to really discuss either of these without major spoilers, but as an aesthetic realist, I think you're mistaken. People should definitely still watch those series, by the way, I was just expressing my frustration with how each one was ended. The best series finale of all time is definitely the Sopranos, though.

DON'T WATCH LOST! If you are like most people, you will become heavily invested in the amazing series and will want answers to all of your burning questions. Then, in the series finale, the writers will crush your dreams and make you wish you hadn't wasted all of that time. Another series like that is Battlestar Gallactica (Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.). Amazing series, piss-poor ending.

That's fantastic. Are you comfortable with disclosing what your main AOI is? If not, I totally understand, I'm just really hoping it's not the same as mine.

Wow, congrats! By publication, are you referring to an UG journal or?

If you haven't seen either The Wire or the Sopranos, you should watch those. They are old at this point, but still amazing and you can binge-watch to your heart's desire.

This is a great thread - will help us to keep positive during these anxious times. I think that the strongest part of my application is either my letters, or having done well in my MA coursework. I didn't get to see my letters (lucky son of a gun), but I did get the outstanding student award for my graduate program this year and know that my letter writers think I am capable of doing quality philosophical work. It also helps that they are all very active scholars, and I know that their reputation will carry some weight when admission committees look over my application. How about you, hopephily?

It's pretty common for MA programs that aren't offering funding packages to their students. Last year, I got conditional acceptances from SFSU and CSULA.