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Posted

Hello!

As the months of upcoming anxiety are upon us, I thought I would start a thread for all the applicants hoping to get into a program this fall!

For context, I have applied to (and yes I am ranking them):

1. Yale Divinity School

2. Duke Divinity School

3. Boston University

4. Harvard Divinity School

5. Vanderbilt Divinity School

6. CU Boulder MA in Religion

7. UCSB MA in Religion

8. Wake Forest Divinity School

Okay, yes, in retrospect, that's a lot of places. I have a lot of anxiety about the future and my recommenders were willing to help me spread my options far and wide. YDS, DDS, and BU are really what I'm hoping for. But I don't really have a backup plan for life (I mean, undergrads in Religious Studies are useless without higher education), so I'm pretty much prepared to end up wherever.

Anyone else just get their apps in and anxious about the future?

Posted (edited)

Hi! Well-employed middle-aged religious studies major returning to the field (I work for a publishing house). Your degree is not useless, and you would have an equally bright future if you didn’t go on. (But of course you will go on.) ?

Edited by coyotesnacks
Posted

Hello there! I don't really foresee getting a job that I enjoy related to Religious Studies unless it's a professor job, in which case I need to continue with school. I think I should be able to get into somewhere (3.9 GPA at a well-known midwestern college) but still, I am anxious! 

Where all have you applied to?

  • 5 weeks later...
Posted

I seriously considered applying for only MTS/MAR since I think, think being the key word, I want to go into academia. However, I did MDiv for most of my schools, but one. Does it hurt too bad if religion was only a minor and not a major? I had majors (somewhat) nonrelated to religion, political science and philosophy. Obviously there is overlap between philosophy and religion. 

 

On 1/14/2022 at 10:54 PM, aalena75 said:

Hello there! I don't really foresee getting a job that I enjoy related to Religious Studies unless it's a professor job, in which case I need to continue with school. I think I should be able to get into somewhere (3.9 GPA at a well-known midwestern college) but still, I am anxious! 

Where all have you applied to?

I think you will get in for sure with what you have posted. 

 

Posted
7 hours ago, Sleepless in skellefteå said:

Hi all! I applied for the last cycle, and I am currently a second semester MTS student at HDS. If you have any questions about the school or program, let me know!

Oh yes, actually I do have questions! How do you like the program? Did you also apply to YDS? What is your concentration? I've applied to both YDS and HDS. The location of HDS appeals to me more but everything I've read always pushes YDS as best for matriculation into a PhD program so it'd be really awesome to hear from someone who goes to HDS!

Posted
33 minutes ago, aalena75 said:

Oh yes, actually I do have questions! How do you like the program? Did you also apply to YDS? What is your concentration? I've applied to both YDS and HDS. The location of HDS appeals to me more but everything I've read always pushes YDS as best for matriculation into a PhD program so it'd be really awesome to hear from someone who goes to HDS!

I love it! Primarily because I am greatly enjoying my classes and because we get to take half of them outside of HDS, which means that you can really utilize the whole Harvard community. Also, I have really gotten a strong community experience - HDS has its own cafeteria and library and is positioned at the edge of the campus, so it becomes its own little world where you keep bumping into people after introduction week. Even though I have to spend most of my time studying, I have also really enjoyed being in Cambridge and very close to Boston.  I started of with ''Religions of the Americas'' as my concentration, but changed it to ''Religion, Politics and Ethics''. For divinity schools, I only applied to Chicago and HDS. It was a tough choice deciding between them, since I am pretty set on going into academia and I have heard the same thing you said about YDS being said about Chicago. I have also heard from professors that have been at both schools that there definitely exists a difference in culture - I don't necessarily think you are at a disadvantage if you apply for a PhD coming out of Harvard, but you will for sure interact with people with more diverse career goals compared to at a school like Chicago, where most people are planning to go the academic route. A fairly large share of my friends are aiming to work for NGOs or politically. In regards to Yale, I primarily did not apply there because I had heard that it has more of a distinctly Christian profile and I wanted to be in a multireligious environment, but I am not sure if that is actually factual. 

Posted

Ok. I have follow up questions about HDS. 

So most of your classes are outside of hds? Are they with other grad students or undergrads? Can you talk more about hds community and atmosphere

Also, yes yds had a slightly more christian edge in my opinion. It still offers multireligious study , however. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Sleepless in skellefteå said:

I love it! Primarily because I am greatly enjoying my classes and because we get to take half of them outside of HDS, which means that you can really utilize the whole Harvard community. Also, I have really gotten a strong community experience - HDS has its own cafeteria and library and is positioned at the edge of the campus, so it becomes its own little world where you keep bumping into people after introduction week. Even though I have to spend most of my time studying, I have also really enjoyed being in Cambridge and very close to Boston.  I started of with ''Religions of the Americas'' as my concentration, but changed it to ''Religion, Politics and Ethics''. For divinity schools, I only applied to Chicago and HDS. It was a tough choice deciding between them, since I am pretty set on going into academia and I have heard the same thing you said about YDS being said about Chicago. I have also heard from professors that have been at both schools that there definitely exists a difference in culture - I don't necessarily think you are at a disadvantage if you apply for a PhD coming out of Harvard, but you will for sure interact with people with more diverse career goals compared to at a school like Chicago, where most people are planning to go the academic route. A fairly large share of my friends are aiming to work for NGOs or politically. In regards to Yale, I primarily did not apply there because I had heard that it has more of a distinctly Christian profile and I wanted to be in a multireligious environment, but I am not sure if that is actually factual. 

This is definitely helpful! I am planning on studying Second Temple Judaism/Early Christianity, but being non-Christian, I do value more diverse environments. Still, YDS seems pretty acclaimed for what I want which might be more important even though HDS' environment appeals to me quite a bit.

Posted

Hello, Sleepless in Skelleftea

Thanks for offering your insights. As an alum myself of one of the grad programs at Harvard, I realize that there are some petty, snooty "pecking orders" among the various schools in terms of "prestige."

In general, how well respected is HDS on campus among the other schools at Harvard in terms of collaboration? Thanks again for your valuable time!

 

 

Posted
35 minutes ago, Sisko said:

In general, how well respected is HDS on campus among the other schools at Harvard in terms of collaboration? Thanks again for your valuable time!

That's going to vary a lot. I saw it at Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Vanderbilt, etc. There are people that fully recognize and cherish the perspective that a Divinity School student has to offer to a class, committee, and/or the school as a whole.

There are also some that are fully aware that getting into Divinity School is astronomically easier than say law school, business, or undergrad. As such, you will be viewed as less than. This doesn't always play out in public but often in snarky conversations overheard in dining facilities, the library, or wanting to take a class outside the Div School and the professor wanting to meet with you in order to gauge/screen your aptitude/preparation. At Yale, I think every year that I was there, there was an op-ed from an undergraduate student about div students having not earned their right to be at the school. Occasionally a professor weighing the benefits of Yale still engaged in the practice of producing clergy, etc. Divinity School students aren't the only ones to face this "prove yourself" problem. I've made several friends that were graduate students in School of Ed that found themselves having to justify being on campus. 

Posted

Thank you very kindly, xypathos, for your polite feedback! I suspected as much. The occasional elitism and "prove you belong here" mentality do not phase me much, as I am pretty secure in who I am.

Nevertheless, your feedback helps prepare me to the extent that I might encounter such dispositions. Thanks again! 

Posted
23 hours ago, Sisko said:

Hello, Sleepless in Skelleftea

Thanks for offering your insights. As an alum myself of one of the grad programs at Harvard, I realize that there are some petty, snooty "pecking orders" among the various schools in terms of "prestige."

In general, how well respected is HDS on campus among the other schools at Harvard in terms of collaboration? Thanks again for your valuable time!

 

 

I have only been here for a short while, but my experience so far has reflected what Xypathos wrote. However, in the classes outside of HDS that I have been taking (Kennedy School and law school), the professors have seemed genuinly excited about having us there. Perhaps due to the lack of job prospects for people with a div school degree, I feel like HDS students have a reputation for being true nerds who are actually excited about their field. I would also add (aware that I am getting somewhat defensive) that my HDS classes have been more demanding in terms of the amount of readings and assignments than the non-HDS ones. In the end, of course, other peoples opinions are mostly irrelevant for the total experience. 

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