What program are you attending (2009)?

[academiccricket]

achowa00 suggested we create a new thread, and I'm happy to kick it off. If you feel comfortable, post your stats, relevant information, and what you think you did "right"/what you would change...for next year's applicants.

I accepted Brandeis' offer for their M.A. program in NEJS, focusing primarily on Bible and Ancient Near East.

My stats:

M.A. in Jewish Studies (concentration in Hebrew Bible), from non-rigorous, small school in MA.

GPA: 3.7

GRE; 1190 (590 v. 600 q.)

B.A. in Religion, English from a respectable SLAC

GPA: 2.72

Presented at an international conference / forthcoming publication from this conference

Adjunct experience in upper-division course relevant to my area of study

Went on archaeological dig for a full-season

I have a lot of languages under my belt (German, Hebrew, Akkadian, Attic Greek, Aramaic...am currently adding classical arabic)

Things I would do:

-take the GRE again.

-not apply to as many schools (I applied to 9, got into two...)

-make contacts with programs and find out about their programs that ISN'T listed on their website (e.g. one program I applied to ONLY takes their Ph.D. candidates from their M.A.s, and I was subsequently rejected from this program because I didn't go there for an M.A...)

Things I wouldn't do:

-I would NOT apply to div schools or programs that have 500+ applicants, as I'm sure they throw out my application after seeing my low ugpa,

despite having performed strongly since.

I took a course with a professor at Brandeis (and got an A in his course) who remembered me, plus I had two great letters of recommendation for this school.

[4minutemile]

I will be attending Harvard Divinity School for the MTS. I'd be more than happy to share stats, etc, over private message, which I'm sure I'll be checking during next year's cycle. Best of luck to everyone.

[samsarictraveler]

I'm attending Yale for Asian Religions. My stats are

GRE: 730v/790q/5a

uGPA: 3.7 (with a lot of grad courses)

I also have French (which is much more important than german in my field), and four years or so of Sanskrit.

If I were to go through this process again, I would probably apply for outside fellowships. Its really no skin off your back to apply even if you have little chance, and if you get one, programs that are extremely expensive like Chicago's MA program suddenly become reasonable.

[Jufarius87]

Will be attending Yale Divinity (M.Div)

Stats

3.82/4.0 UGPA in Philosophy and Mathematics (2 grad courses in econ, 1 in PHI, 2 other PHI that were grad but recognized as honors UG work)

No prior grad degrees

No piror languages

No GREs

Other relevant information

Two elected positions at college

Summa and PBK

Honors Thesis

University Honors Program, Philosophy Honors Program

Things I Would Do

LEARN LANGUAGES, it may or may not help you get into more schools, but Im gonna be playing catch up with all the people who actually majored in relevant fields

Get Work Experience (1 or 2 years)

Couple more courses in history or literature

Things I would not do,

SWITCH DENOMINATIONS IN THE MIDDLE OF APPLYING - causes unnecessary complications :shock:

[mariposa]

I am trying to decide between BU ThD in theology, Drew PhD in theological studies, and Duke ThD in theology. Honestly, I don't know where I will come down on this one. I'm extremely grateful to have three offers on the table, though, because this has been a very bad year for applications.

As far as doing things differently, I guess I would add the following:

DO...

...ask for app fee waivers if you're in a bad financial situation.

...ask your professors and potential professors at various schools for suggestions in assembling your apps (don't do it all by yourself without getting the input of people who have done this before and helped others before)

...figure out what you want to study and where you can do that. "Know thyself" still seems to be good advice.

DON'T...

...get too caught up in "playing the game." Particularly in religion, it's quite disgusting, if not overtly antithetical.

[waitingtoexhale]

I'll be attending Emory this fall. Much like everyone else who applies, I have good stats (high GPA and GRE score), strong letters, languages (Greek, Hebrew, and French), spent a considerable amount of time on my SoP, and submitted a polished chapter of my masters thesis for the writing sample. My professors were very helpful throughout the application process: looking over my SoP, recommending certain doctoral programs, and providing encouragement with honest insights. Though I was hopeful about receiving a few offers, I was also aware of the incredibly slim odds and knew that whatever strengths I possessed in my application did not guarantee positive news.

DO...

...identify and apply to several programs that are of interest to you. Unless external circumstances tie you down to a particular city/state, I think it's judicious to apply to different schools to give yourself more chances and options. But don't apply to so many schools that you don't give each individual application the ample focus, time, and attention it requires. And if you are like me and your meager finances dictate a need for full funding, be wary of schools that historically and commonly offer acceptances without adequate funding.

...talk to friends and colleagues in other disciplines who are also applying to doctoral programs. It helped me see that religion isn't the only discipline with a challenging and stressful application process and pushed back against the ever-present 'woe is me' myopia about the unpleasant application process in religion.

[braun_braun]

I am international. I was rejected at Harvard and Yale Divinity (PhD in Ancient Christianity) and my stats....

Bachelor in Philosophy (GPA 3.7)

Bachelor in Theology (GPA 3.9)

Master in Biblical Studies (GPA 3.9)

All of this from top universities (in my country: Spain)

I have a Fulbright Doctoral Scholarship, two years of Hebrew, Koin

[retiredwaif]

I'll be doing the concentrated M.A.R at Yale Div in History of Christianity.

It's one of those weird admits, in my opinion: I was rejected at most of the other places I applied. I'm a "non-traditional" student with lopsided (550/750/4.5) GREs, 3.8 GPA, good recs, really spotty transcript (lots of W's, I had a baby mid-B.A), strong writing sample, slightly nutty SOP (or so I've been informed). I was not expecting to get into Yale. My advisor basically told me I was a perfect fit for someplace like Drew or GTU, but stopped just short of saying "don't bother" about Yale. Half my documents never made it but my application was reviewed anyway, and lo and behold.

I still sort of think they're going to change their minds.

[mariposa]

I made my decision: Going to Duke (ThD)!

[cavedan]

I'm going to Yale for the Ancient Christianity Ph.D.

Stats: uGPA 3.85 (state university), gGPA 3.82 (ivy divinity school), GRE 790 V / 800 Q / 6.0 W, Greek, Coptic, Hebrew, and a little German, Arabic, and Latin, no publications, a couple papers presented, a couple seasons of field excavations (I was looking for programs that also had some archaeological component). also, an SoP that i spent forever on and was pretty confident about.

Advice: find another student/TA whom you trust and who's been through the process recently and have them help you with things like revising your statement and writing sample - they'll be more thorough and more honest with you than your advisors may be, and they are 'safer' confidants for your rough drafts and anxieties, although you should of course also get feedback from your professors if they are willing to help you. start very early on your statement (like summertime, or right now) so that when you give it to your recommenders or to potential advisors you can show them something fairly polished. you should probably plan to apply to 6-10 schools, even if your stats are good, because there are so many factors and so few slots that admission is not guaranteed anywhere. similarly, no one aspect of your application is going to get you in (for example, near-perfect GRE's - i have a stack of tersely worded rejection letters to prove this). so, just do your best to make sure that no one thing will get you kicked out (for example, try to get 700+ verbal on the GRE if at all possible). while it kills me to say this, "fit" (that aggravatingly unquantifiable nuisance) is probably still the most important thing - and finding a way to communicate this fit in your SoP or via contact with potential advisors, something I didn't do nearly enough of.

That's probably it for me on GradCafe until next year, so congrats to all who are matriculating this year, thanks to everyone for all the helpful posts and advice this cycle, and good luck to everyone applying next year!

[tshaunprice]

I'll be attending the University of Aberdeen, Scotland for a PhD in Practical Theology (Ethics)

Stats:

UG GPA: 3.2 from a Baptist College

MA (thesis), MDiv, ThM (thesis) from a Baptist Seminary with a 4.0 in the ThM

MA in English (3.93) from a state university

A few conference papers presented, one published article, and several published book reviews.

Things I would do differently: i took the GRE twice and even took one of those six week long GRE prep classes. Yes, my Quant. score shot up 160 points, but UK schools hardly ever require GRE scores. How ironic.

I have been looking at Aberdeen's theology department for about three years, but put it to the wayside because there is little funding opportunities available to international students as compared to doing a PhD in the states. I applied to quite a few programs here in the US, but didn't get any offers with funding from a school I really wanted to attend, so I looked towards the motherland. I think I ended up going 3 for 9 in terms of acceptances and rejections.

-If I had to do it over again (which I sincerely hope I do not) I would probably spend more time visiting schools, and designing a statement of purpose around certain professors rather than taking the shotgun approach and sending a similar SoP to most of the programs.

[emmyphil]

Hi! I am attending Yale Divinity in the fall for the MDiv program. My stats sound like everyone one else. I was a Religious Studies/ English double major with a minor in Dramaturgy at UNC Chapel Hill. Took grad classes, graduated with honors, had language experience, studied abroad twice etc

I think my advice would be to interview in person. I interviewed at Yale and Duke with successful results. I did not interview at Harvard... and did not get in. Of course, there could be other reasons for this. However, I think it is worth considering.

going to Yale in the fall...

[studyordie]

Even though I won't be attending anywhere next year I'm going to post this here because I think it will help people interested in results vis-a-vis stats and such. I've posted my GREs and GPAs elsewhere so I'll just say that with the exception of a 3.44 undergrad from a good school, my stats are very good. My graduate institution is not famous in its own right, but two of my recommenders are big names in a field close to mine, church history. What really hurt me, as far as I can surmise, is fit. I made the best arguments I could, but the simple fact of the matter is that my interests are not well represented anywhere in the US. I think I could still succeed somewhere, there are people whose expertise is such that they could supervise my dissertation, but I will have to convince faculty that a project they are not already sold on is worthwhile, and given the number of qualified applicants each year whose interests are more precisely those of the profs, I am not holding my breath on that one. This is a result of studying theology under church historians, so there was no one there to tell me what is hot in the field and what is not while I was younger and less of an ideologue, or at least less of the ideologue I am now . At this point, however, I like what I like and that's that.

I've got a job lined up where I will be helping poor people with mental illnesses and I am genuinely excited about it, which I would have never guessed was possible a few months or even weeks ago. A huge congrats to all the people who made it this year, enjoy every moment of it! I might be around next year as there are several schools in and around DC that I could see myself at if the whole "real job" thing is worse than I'm expecting.

[braun_braun]

Yes! I got accepted at Vanderbilt, PhD in New Testament with full tuition and a six year plan with stipend!!!!!!!!!!!!! Definetely going.

[pleo]

Yes! I got accepted at Vanderbilt, PhD in New Testament with full tuition and a six year plan with stipend!!!!!!!!!!!!! Definetely going.

Good luck!

I am international too. I am hoping to join Varndebilt (Ph.D) next fall as well.

[JusticeYeti]

Still no luck,

I just found out today I got wait listed at Duke Divinity for the M.Div, I'm kinda bummed but kinda hopeful. I got wait-listed at the high ranked Jesuit school I go to now only to get in later. Does anyone have any idea how hard it is to get off the wait-list at Duke or does it fluctuate too much to call? Duke is still my number one choice, so I'm praying hard.

Yale Div- Rejected

Harvard Div- Rejected

Duke Div- Wait-listed

Candler- Still Waiting