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2020 Religion Application Thread


NyarkoSan

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2 hours ago, kenshiro said:

I think any answer to that question can only be speculative.

Every hiring manager I've had in the last ten years has done some basic web searching for me, and the competition for RS PhD spots is much fiercer than for most job openings. Why take the risk? Unless the whole adcom are luddites, odds are someone's going to have a rummage.

So how do you purge your internet presence?  Delete accounts?  Or just delete any polarizing posts or anything suggestive of politics/religion?

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5 hours ago, rejectedndejected said:

So how do you purge your internet presence?  Delete accounts?  Or just delete any polarizing posts or anything suggestive of politics/religion?

Depends what sorts of accounts you have, I suppose, and how they would be identified with you. Some services (e.g. FB) allow you to change your name, others (e.g. Insta, Twitter) allow you to make your account private, with varying degrees of success. Some (e.g. Reddit) don't have tools like that but have third-party tools that allow you to scrub everything you've ever written. But I doubt anyone is going to make more than a cursory effort to find you online, so completely eradicating yourself online is probably overkill. In any case, it's a bit late for this cycle.

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Hard to imagine not getting googled applying for jobs or schools nowadays. My top Google result is a comedically bad newspaper article about me. There's not any winning with stuff like that. Unless we all could go back in time and remove our digital footprint, there's probably something out there people could find if they look hard enough. And this is a thing now, even in undergrad admissions in many places.

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This is a nit picky question: is it more likely that they check your social media before or after an interview? As in, does the social media screening process affect your ability to get an interview? Or would it come after the interview? I ask because, with such a common name, I don’t know how they would determine which social profile is mine without first seeing me in person/on skype.

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9 minutes ago, JDD said:

This is a nit picky question: is it more likely that they check your social media before or after an interview? As in, does the social media screening process affect your ability to get an interview? Or would it come after the interview? I ask because, with such a common name, I don’t know how they would determine which social profile is mine without first seeing me in person/on skype.

Why not both?

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@rejectedndejected et al,

Just a point of general strategy, but you could turn the social media liability into an asset. Go back and mark all Facebook posts 'friends only' (there's a process that'll do this en masse). Then update your profile pic, if necessary, to something professional looking. Go back through your timeline and make some select posts 'public' that authentically present you, your avocational interests, and your research interests in such a way that you would like your departments to see.

I'm unfamiliar with other platforms--such as Twitter--but if they have a similar 'turn all posts private' option I'd take the same approach with that.

This is all basically a way of getting a quasi-interview 'for free' by putting your best foot forward digitally.

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28 minutes ago, NTGal said:

to anyone who was worried about that skype interview posting for Duke GPR: an inside source has confirmed that the GPR has not sent out any interview invitations yet. 

You just made my evening.

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90% of social media content is going to be fine. If you're doing soft drugs in one, obnoxiously drunk, etc - that might rub someone the wrong way but those kind of pictures should be set to private/friends only anyway.

The stuff that is going to get you in legitimate trouble is racism, sexism, etc.

If you're someone heavily involved in social justice and advocacy, the academy tends to skew left but that's not a gamble I'd count on, esp. not in religious studies.

9/11 jokes and conspiracy theories will get you in trouble, trust me.

18 hours ago, NTGal said:

to anyone who was worried about that skype interview posting for Duke GPR: an inside source has confirmed that the GPR has not sent out any interview invitations yet. 

Trolls never get tired.

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22 hours ago, saab said:

Is anyone claiming the UChicago Div School interview?

Chicago doesn't interview. I suspect this is a troll or someone misunderstanding what the "interview" is. A faculty member can reach out if they need to clarify matters in someone's application, inorder to eliminate a candidate, but they're required to denote that it's not an interview.

As a policy the University of Chicago strongly discourages interviews. The dean of the div school is adamantly opposed to interviews. They have strict policies in place to make sure even their internal applicants are kept aloof. I know for a fact that if a faculty member were interviewing candidates against a direct order from the dean, they'd rake them through the coals.

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4 hours ago, Taorluath34 said:

Congratulations to the Yale Religious Studies poster on an interview. If you claim it, which subfield did you apply for?

'Twas me, and thank you, but I continue to hold my breath. I applied for Islamic Studies. Do not worry (too much) if you have not yet been contacted. From what I have gathered from their website, initially each subfield works independently. Wishing you all the best.

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7 minutes ago, soitgoes said:

'Twas me, and thank you, but I continue to hold my breath. I applied for Islamic Studies. Do not worry (too much) if you have not yet been contacted. From what I have gathered from their website, initially each subfield works independently. Wishing you all the best.

Way to go! I wish you all the best too!

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3 minutes ago, kenshiro said:

Is it legit this time?

hahaha great question. I assumed that it's legit because the timing is at least plausible. I imagine GPR is sending out their invitations this week and/or next. 

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20 minutes ago, foucaultsturtleneck said:

I also received an interview for Duke GPR (Religion & Modernity subfield). Does anyone know what this means? Is this an interview-interview, or more of an open house? Good luck to everyone else :)

It's tacitly understood that Duke GPR interviews are 'non-competitive' and represent a soft acceptance. In other words, don't come off as a sociopath and you're in. Congrats! Commiserations to the rest of us who will now have to hope for waitlist!

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