PhD Applications Fall 2019 Season

[FrigidSky701]

Hello guys. I usually lurk at Anthropology section, but because I applied to Religious Studies programs to UC Santa Barbara and University of Chicago Divinity School, I thought I might as well join here. I believe decisions for Chicago Divinity School (at least for Ph.D) will be out sometime next week, as I studied the results section really hard. Anyone applied to UC Santa Barbara or Chicago Divinity School for Ph.D?

Edited February 9, 2019 by FrigidSky701

[CartesianDemon]

6 hours ago, FrigidSky701 said:

Hello guys. I usually lurk at Anthropology section, but because I applied to Religious Studies programs to UC Santa Barbara and University of Chicago Divinity School, I thought I might as well join here. I believe decisions for Chicago Divinity School (at least for Ph.D) will be out sometime next week, as I studied the results section really hard. Anyone applied to UC Santa Barbara or Chicago Divinity School for Ph.D?

No word from U Chicago Div on my end. Does anyone know if they do interviews?

[TUKUL.TI.A.É.ŠÁR.RA]

8 hours ago, FrigidSky701 said:

Hello guys. I usually lurk at Anthropology section, but because I applied to Religious Studies programs to UC Santa Barbara and University of Chicago Divinity School, I thought I might as well join here. I believe decisions for Chicago Divinity School (at least for Ph.D) will be out sometime next week, as I studied the results section really hard. Anyone applied to UC Santa Barbara or Chicago Divinity School for Ph.D?

Do you know if Chicago Div tends to notify candidates by email or over the phone?

Also, I thought Chicago Div sends out their acceptance decisions later in February? Or is that mostly for masters students?

[cr615]

9 hours ago, FrigidSky701 said:

Hello guys. I usually lurk at Anthropology section, but because I applied to Religious Studies programs to UC Santa Barbara and University of Chicago Divinity School, I thought I might as well join here. I believe decisions for Chicago Divinity School (at least for Ph.D) will be out sometime next week, as I studied the results section really hard. Anyone applied to UC Santa Barbara or Chicago Divinity School for Ph.D?

I also applied to UCSB! I haven’t heard anything. However, by looking st results from previous years, it seems as if they don’t send out decision until March. Have you heard anything? 

[EarlyXianity]

Does anyone around have any insights/insider knowledge about where Fordham, Catholic U, or SMU are in their processes? 

Edited February 9, 2019 by EarlyXianity

[TUKUL.TI.A.É.ŠÁR.RA]

26 minutes ago, EarlyXianity said:

Does anyone around have any insights/insider knowledge about where Fordham, Catholic U, or SMU are in their processes? 

A former colleague of mine, who is a Ph.D. student in Hebrew Bible at Fordham, said they were notified of their acceptance last year during Valentine’s Day week via phone. My guess is that Fordham will begin to send out acceptance notifications (over whatever platform) next week.

[Areopagite]

40 minutes ago, Nihilisticromantic said:

A former colleague of mine, who is a Ph.D. student in Hebrew Bible at Fordham, said they were notified of their acceptance last year during Valentine’s Day week via phone. My guess is that Fordham will begin to send out acceptance notifications (over whatever platform) next week.

This—Fordham decisions look like they will be coming this week based on what I have heard from insiders 

[ghublupe]

4 hours ago, Nihilisticromantic said:

Do you know if Chicago Div tends to notify candidates by email or over the phone?

Also, I thought Chicago Div sends out their acceptance decisions later in February? Or is that mostly for masters students?

They don't interview internal applicants and I don't believe they do for external ones, though not sure. Am an MA student here - DoS said this week they're *hoping* to have results out by the end of next week. They notify internal applicants by phone, so probably the same for external but not sure.

Edited February 9, 2019 by ghublupe

[ghublupe]

On 2/7/2019 at 4:54 PM, YogurtYoga said:

Those of you waiting to hear from UVA, I was just sent an acceptance. I applied to the Religion, Literature, and Culture section. 

Looks like a bunch of people already got accepted, so I'm assuming they sent out everyone they let in for now, but if anyone has info otherwise would be great to know!

[CartesianDemon]

2 hours ago, EarlyXianity said:

Does anyone around have any insights/insider knowledge about where Fordham, Catholic U, or SMU are in their processes? 

I spoke with SMU the other day; they said they'll be sending out initial acceptances over the next week or two.

[rejectedndejected]

I know this is a PhD forum, but did anyone here apply to Harvard or Yale's divinity schools?  Does anyone know how they typically assess applicants for their MTS/MAR programs?  How many apps do they usually get?  What GRE scores does HDS typically smile upon?  I know their MDiv degrees aren't terribly competitive, but I get the impression that the MTS programs are quite difficult to get in to....

Edited February 10, 2019 by rejectedndejected

[theofan]

Hey @rejectedndejected check out the thread started by fualmu, right below this one. They talk about the stats for those programs.

Edited February 10, 2019 by theofan

[FrigidSky701]

17 hours ago, Nihilisticromantic said:

Do you know if Chicago Div tends to notify candidates by email or over the phone?

Also, I thought Chicago Div sends out their acceptance decisions later in February? Or is that mostly for masters students?

From my research they send out Ph.D decisions around 23th of Feb, and for Masters its around March. I am only guessing it through the results page so I may not be entirely correct, but I am pretty sure that is how it works.

Edited February 10, 2019 by FrigidSky701

[FrigidSky701]

15 hours ago, cr615 said:

I also applied to UCSB! I haven’t heard anything. However, by looking st results from previous years, it seems as if they don’t send out decision until March. Have you heard anything? 

I haven't heard anything from them yet either. I was planning to sent email to the admissions office, as I see absolutely no reference on their website about approximately when the decision will come out. Thankfully I have shared some emails with them before and they  are all well-intended, so I see no harm in there. I will let you know when I get the answer from the.

[NTAC321]

This was a few years ago, but I had a Skype interview with U of Chicago. It was with faculty from my subfield, and it lasted about 20 minutes. Old emails reveal the date of contact was early February.

 

If I recall, Harvard decisions were the last to come out my year (Very late February). They didn’t do interviews, either, so the wait feels quite long.

 

One last note: hearing nothing from a school typically, though not always, is bad news. There are some institutions that keep something like an unofficial waitlist in case their first picks go elsewhere and they need bodies in the department.

[rejectedndejected]

I agree.  In my experience, whenever you're at the point where you're tempted to contact the department and solicit the disposition of your app, you're likely toast.  If you peruse the results section of Grad Cafe, it seems to confirm this.  Almost everyone who solicits, when they receive an answer, is rejected. 

I've brought it up a couple other times, but are any of you lurkers applying to Rice's religion department?  Anyone heard back?

[FrigidSky701]

1 hour ago, rejectedndejected said:

I agree.  In my experience, whenever you're at the point where you're tempted to contact the department and solicit the disposition of your app, you're likely toast.  If you peruse the results section of Grad Cafe, it seems to confirm this.  Almost everyone who solicits, when they receive an answer, is rejected. 

I've brought it up a couple other times, but are any of you lurkers applying to Rice's religion department?  Anyone heard back?

Okay. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask when the decision would be out then. Oh well, time to let go of hope and count UCSB as implied rejection now.

[rejectedndejected]

3 minutes ago, FrigidSky701 said:

Okay. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask when the decision would be out then. Oh well, time to let go of hope and count UCSB as implied rejection now.

I don't think that it hurts your chances of being admitted to solicit a decision notification.  It's just that it behooves schools to notify their top choices quickly, so that they can coax such students into attending their programs.  Hence, if you don't hear quickly, IMO chances are you weren't a top choice, and are likely not admitted. It's a correlation and not a causation. Perhaps you are the fallback, on an unofficial wait list of sorts. 

[FrigidSky701]

33 minutes ago, rejectedndejected said:

I don't think that it hurts your chances of being admitted to solicit a decision notification.  It's just that it behooves schools to notify their top choices quickly, so that they can coax such students into attending their programs.  Hence, if you don't hear quickly, IMO chances are you weren't a top choice, and are likely not admitted. It's a correlation and not a causation. Perhaps you are the fallback, on an unofficial wait list of sorts. 

Thanks for this. Well, I mean I am just tired of waiting and it would be better to find out that I am flat out rejected soon than just keep on waiting. This is my first cycle, and so I am really frustrated over the whole process. Maybe I was too naive.

[rejectedndejected]

1 hour ago, FrigidSky701 said:

Thanks for this. Well, I mean I am just tired of waiting and it would be better to find out that I am flat out rejected soon than just keep on waiting. This is my first cycle, and so I am really frustrated over the whole process. Maybe I was too naive.

I feel for you.  It's my second cycle.  When I started applying to schools, I thought there'd be this suspenseful climax where I got a decision letter in the mail and had to breathlessly open it to discover my academic fate--a fate which had been carefully adjudicated by a panel of fair-minded, wise professors who endeavored to see my promise as a student (and my heart of gold) through the superficial facade of my fastidiously-prepared application materials.  It's not like that at all.  For the most part, snooty graduate departments just fawn over the three applicants (who've been diligently grooming themselves for a career as religious scholars and studying Greek since they were still sperm) that were deemed "worthy" of an acceptance, and leave the rest of us undesirables to rot in grad-school purgatory well into April (having barely even glanced at our files because we got a b minus one time as lost undergrads six years ago and the goody-two-shoes with whom we are now competing have had straight A's since kindergarten--this is what they mean when they say they review "holistically," BTW).  Then, by mid-April, seeing the writing on the wall, we accept our fates and "reach out" to our respective departments of interest for official confirmation by a low-level staff member (who, of course, resents us for having the nerve to make an inquiry about something as trivial as y'know, our entire future because they now have to do a minimal amount of work in pulling our files up) that our applications had been quickly relegated to a vermin-infested dumpster where they belonged all along. 

Other than that, it's a bucket of fun! Who's looking forward to next year?

Edited February 11, 2019 by rejectedndejected

[FrigidSky701]

42 minutes ago, rejectedndejected said:

I feel for you.  It's my second cycle.  When I started applying to schools, I thought there'd be this suspenseful climax where I got a decision letter in the mail and had to breathlessly open it to discover my academic fate--a fate which had been carefully adjudicated by a panel of fair-minded, wise professors who endeavored to see my promise as a student (and my heart of gold) through the superficial facade of my fastidiously-prepared application materials.  It's not like that at all.  For the most part, snooty graduate departments just fawn over the three applicants (who've been diligently grooming themselves for a career as religious scholars and studying Greek since they were still sperm) that were deemed "worthy" of an acceptance, and leave the rest of us undesirables to rot in grad-school purgatory well into April (having barely even glanced at our files because we got a b minus one time as lost undergrads six years ago and the goody-two-shoes with whom we are now competing have had straight A's since kindergarten--this is what they mean when they say they review "holistically," BTW).  Then, by mid-April, seeing the writing on the wall, we accept our fates and "reach out" to our respective departments of interest for official confirmation by a low-level staff member (who, of course, resents us for having the nerve to make an inquiry about something as trivial as y'know, our entire future because they now have to do a minimal amount of work in pulling our files up) that our applications had been quickly relegated to a vermin-infested dumpster where they belonged all along. 

Other than that, it's a bucket of fun! Who's looking forward to next year?

This LITERALLY made my day  Anyway, let's cross our fingers and hope for good luck. I wish you good luck for your results this year, so you don't need to go through this vicious cycle again.

[TUKUL.TI.A.É.ŠÁR.RA]

9 hours ago, NTAC321 said:

This was a few years ago, but I had a Skype interview with U of Chicago. It was with faculty from my subfield, and it lasted about 20 minutes. Old emails reveal the date of contact was early February.

 

If I recall, Harvard decisions were the last to come out my year (Very late February). They didn’t do interviews, either, so the wait feels quite long.

 

One last note: hearing nothing from a school typically, though not always, is bad news. There are some institutions that keep something like an unofficial waitlist in case their first picks go elsewhere and they need bodies in the department.

I agree with your final note, but only if one does not hear back, at the latest, by the final weekend in February. I have plenty of colleagues (myself included) who have received offers without programs making any contact, save for the applicant notifying their POI that their application was completed. 

 

To your note about Chicago: I understand that you had an interview when you applied, but is it necessarily the case that a program conduct interviews every application cycle? Also, did you apply to the divinity school or another school in the university? Perhaps the divinity school might have a different selection procedure than other schools.

Edited February 11, 2019 by Nihilisticromantic

[TUKUL.TI.A.É.ŠÁR.RA]

1 hour ago, FrigidSky701 said:

This LITERALLY made my day  Anyway, let's cross our fingers and hope for good luck. I wish you good luck for your results this year, so you don't need to go through this vicious cycle again.

I feel for you as well. When I was in my first application cycle last year, I felt a lot of the same frustrations. However stressful this time might be for you (and the rest of us applicants), I think you would be better off focusing on your current coursework (if you’re a student) or pouring your nervous energy into other outlets that help bring you some joy. What I have learned is simple: Just let the process happen; you will be notified when you get notified, ya know? No sense losing sleep over something that is out of your control. You did the best you could, and the rest is up to the divine round table... I mean selection committee.

This is also worth mentioning: Even applicants with perfect GPA’s/GRE’s and pristine statements of purpose receive rejections. When a program looks at a file “holistically,” I don’t think they are looking for a spotless record but, instead, for a progressive trajectory in academic performance, which is corroborated by the statement of purpose and recommendation letters. Think about it: What is inspiring about a perfect GPA? Ok, cool, this person can get good grades consistently. But can they learn and improve? This is what I think a majority of programs are looking for: Does this applicant demonstrate the skills and preparation necessary to learn and develop as a scholar? Additionally, I take seriously (more than last year) when a program stresses their interest in candidates that are a “good fit” in their department. Do you ask the same questions they do? Will the methods of research and resources in the department enhance your work? Can you bring something new to a department that will likewise enhance the work being done there? With these questions considered, a department might be more interested in the good-but-imperfect GPA of a candidate who is a great fit over an applicant whose GPA is stellar but whose profile is uninspiring.

Hope this helps!

 

 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Nihilisticromantic

[FrigidSky701]

3 minutes ago, Nihilisticromantic said:

I feel for you as well. When I was in my first application cycle last year, I felt a lot of the same frustrations. However stressful this time might be for you (and the rest of us applicants), I think you would be better off focusing on your current coursework (if you’re a student) or pouring your nervous energy into other outlets that help bring you some joy. What I have learned is simple: Just let the process happen; you will be notified when you get notified, ya know? No sense losing sleep over something that is out of your control. You did the best you could, and the rest is up to the divine round table... I mean selection committee.

This is also worth mentioning: Even applicants with perfect GPA’s/GRE’s and pristine statements of purpose receive rejections. When a program looks at a file “holistically,” I don’t think they are looking for a spotless record, but, instead, for a progressive trajectory in academic performance, which is corroborated by the statement of purpose and recommendation letters. Think about it: What is inspiring about a perfect GPA? Ok, cool, this person can get good grades consistently. But can they learn and improve? This is what I think a majority of programs are looking for: Does this applicant demonstrate the skills and preparation necessary to learn and develop as a scholar? Additionally, I take seriously (more than last year) when a program stresses their interest in candidates that are a “good fit” in their department. Do you ask the same questions they do? Will the methods of research and resources in the department enhance your work? Can you bring something new to a department that will likewise enhance the work being done there? With these questions considered, a department might be more interested in the good-but-imperfect GPA of a candidate who is a great over an applicant whose GPA is stellar but profile is uninspiring.

 Hope this helps!

 

 

This definitely helps. In terms of GRE(160V-158Q-4.5W) and GPA(3.36 because I received 2 Fs during my first and second year at undergrad) I am less than an average applicant, but I really hope my dedication to studying Religious Studies my junior and senior year + some grad school work help. I will just hope that people like me

Everyone here is too great. I thank you all.

[parakletos]

To those who haven’t heard back, here’s a word of (hopefully) comforting advice. To start with an annoyingly cliché but true suggestion: try your best not to take rejection too personally or as an insult to your intelligence or capacity. Let me explain. People have repeatedly mentioned on this forum that applicants with “very good or near perfect stats” get rejected to Phd programs all the time. This is entirely true; I’m an example. When I applied to Phd programs a couple years ago, I had a 3.95 undergrad GPA, 3.9 grad GPA, and a GRE of 170V/164Q/5.0. I had a very good writing sample, a publication under my belt, and great recommendations. Naturally, I applied to 7-8 top schools. But I was rejected to ALL of them—every single one; I didn’t even receive an interview! As the weeks of waiting went by, I fell into despair. Why had I worked so hard and spent thousands of dollars? I thought about giving up on academics altogether. 

Here’s the silver lining. I was determined to find out what had gone wrong and try again. As it turns out, there were two things I had messed up. First was the statement of purpose. Without going into too much detail, the description of my academic background and interests was rambling, imprecise, and stale. There’s an art to writing statements of purpose, and I didn’t pay any attention to it. I kind of just figured “Hey, I’m a good writer, let me write about myself.” Don’t do that. Get profs to look at your statement. Second, my declared research interests were too narrow and didn’t fit very well in any of my desired programs. It’s worth repeating: FIT is everything. I had friends with much, MUCH lower stats get into amazing schools because their research interests fit hand-in-glove with the departments.

So, I’ve applied again this year, but I really did my homework this time with my SOP; I adjusted how I framed my interests; I had professors look over it. I took some more classes; I changed a bunch of other things (I also found a more relevant recommender). This time I’ve received a handful of interviews, and I reasonably expect several acceptances (fingers crossed). The moral of this story is that, yes, it’s incredibly discouraging to hear nothing and get rejected. And perhaps for some this will suggest moving on to another field. But for those who are determined to pursue doctoral studies, don’t give up. Revise your whole approach to your application and try again. This sort of story is not unique to me; I know many others who applied three times before they finally got into top-tier programs. Now they are thriving in their fields. 

Apologies for the long post; I hope this encourages some of the disheartened out there. Find out where you can improve your application. Your points of weakness may be different from mine. Work on those areas throughout a year (or two), and jump back in the ring!