rabgogh06 Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 (edited) rabgogh06 may I ask to which program you will end up? Debating between Hopkins, Brandeis, Emory and Brown. Not sure yet. I want to decide by the end of the week. Edited March 18, 2014 by rabgogh06
jessiej Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Debating between Hopkins, Brandeis, Emory and Brown. Not sure yet. I want to decide by the end of the week. They are all excellent! Wish you make a best choice for you!
awells27 Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Anyone get admitted to Penn? Got my impersonal rejection today within 2 minutes of a Denver/Iliff acceptance. Can't say I would be happy living on the West side of Philly. One more school to go, and this ordeal is finally over.
sacklunch Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 I talked to Penn. They only accepted two students, none in the Judaism/Christianity in Antiquity track! They are a very small program, so not surprised, I guess. Still kinda sucks. Oh wells.
awells27 Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 I talked to Penn. They only accepted two students, none in the Judaism/Christianity in Antiquity track! They are a very small program, so not surprised, I guess. Still kinda sucks. Oh wells. Why would they take apps in the J/C in Antiquity track and then admit no one? I could have saved my money and applied to UCSB.
Body Politics Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Because your application fee spends just as well either way?
awells27 Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Because your application fee spends just as well either way? Very disingenuous, given that I had contacted the grad admit coordinator and told her my emphasis specifically and inquired as to whether they would be taking on new grad students.. I suppose their position is that they take the two best apps overall. Whatev.
rabgogh06 Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 They are all excellent! Wish you make a best choice for you! Thx. I sent you a pm saying more off the record. I don't know if you are wait listed at any of those places.
sacklunch Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 Very disingenuous, given that I had contacted the grad admit coordinator and told her my emphasis specifically and inquired as to whether they would be taking on new grad students.. I suppose their position is that they take the two best apps overall. Whatev. Same. It is likely that she and others did not know when we inquired.
O_Porcupine Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Anyone else here receive a form acceptance from CUA without any funding information? Good news, to be sure, but not immediately helpful.
runthejewels Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 I suppose their position is that they take the two best apps overall. Whatev. Yeah, UPenn only takes the two they feel are the best fit at that moment. It could have been two acceptances to J/C in Antiquity (though it wasn't). When I inquired, I was told I was better off applying to a different department (where my POIs were also appointed) b/c of the kind of students (methodologically) my sub-field in religious studies was interested in was not an exact fit for me. It was good advice - it worked!
awells27 Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 In my case, my research interests were strongly a match for the J/C Antiquity field, but I suppose my writing sample did not show enough of that, and my undergrad transcripts are less than stellar. But given some people struggle to get one admit, and I got 3, I have every reason to be thankful. runthejewels 1
sacklunch Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 Anyone else here receive a form acceptance from CUA without any funding information? Good news, to be sure, but not immediately helpful. You may save yourself the wait...CUA, as far as I know, does not fund fully any students, in either Religion, Semitics, or ECS. I contacted all three departments last year and asked, and they all said no fully funded positions are available. Meeting their students last SBL confirmed this, too. BC is a fantastic school and has a great program. That and on the job market, everyone knows CUA students pay for their PhD's. That may hurt you and pit you as that person who wasn't 'good enough' to get into a funded program. I have heard this from several profs at several top schools, FWIW.
sacklunch Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 In my case, my research interests were strongly a match for the J/C Antiquity field, but I suppose my writing sample did not show enough of that, and my undergrad transcripts are less than stellar. But given some people struggle to get one admit, and I got 3, I have every reason to be thankful. I may have stole IU and UM from you...!! Haha! They are great programs, but I couldn't pass up Duke. Congrats again on UCLA!!
Body Politics Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 (edited) You may save yourself the wait...CUA, as far as I know, does not fund fully any students, in either Religion, Semitics, or ECS. I contacted all three departments last year and asked, and they all said no fully funded positions are available. Meeting their students last SBL confirmed this, too. BC is a fantastic school and has a great program. That and on the job market, everyone knows CUA students pay for their PhD's. That may hurt you and pit you as that person who wasn't 'good enough' to get into a funded program. I have heard this from several profs at several top schools, FWIW. That is a really fucked-up barometer for judging programs. I think you're right, that it's definitely a rubric that many people use, but somebody please tell me I'm not alone in thinking that dollars and cents are not really that great of an indicator for one's education, ability, and expertise. "Hmm...yes, this candidate holds the PhD and passed his defense with distinction...but he didn't turn a profit from his studies, so...." Edited March 19, 2014 by Body Politics
Body Politics Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 In before Perique sets me straight. RedDoor, MsBOOM and Kuriakos 3
sacklunch Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 I should have made it clear that I don't know if this is true or not (thus not my opinion!), but merely was told this by several professors. There is no doubt that CUA has a fantastic number of scholars covering several departments. It's also worth mentioning that no one is really 'turning a profit.' If you get a PhD from CUA chances are you have done so through taking out loans. The cost of the school, combined with DC's cost of living, would make it pretty difficult to attend unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars saved. From their perspective, in a rough job market, I guess I can understand. The student who was funded through her/his PhD likely had the ability to focus all their time on their research, instead of trying to work on the side to make ends meet. The CUA students I met all seem to have side jobs or are doing the PhD part-time in order to make it work. Again, this is all second hand, so take it for what it's worth. My main point was that given a funded offer vs a non-funded offer, especially when the 'rankings' favor the funded offer (i.e. BC), there is little reason to choose the unfunded spot (personal reasons notwithstanding).
Body Politics Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Yeah, man. Don't mishear me. I wasn't trying to say you were wrong. I think you're right. The way I read you, you were just reporting what other professors had said, who might have also just been reporting to you the way they perceive the academic world to work. I just think that the pattern of using fully-fundedness as a hiring criterion is wrong-headed.
awells27 Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 I may have stole IU and UM from you...!! Haha! They are great programs, but I couldn't pass up Duke. Congrats again on UCLA!! Honestly they were not my first choices, despite reputation. UCLA and Rice were my top 2, so it worked out for everyone. Chances are some person who got rejected at UCLA and Marquette got in off the waitlist after your declining.
yoondaddy Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 Heard back from Georgetown tonight, not in off the waitlist. There were four admits, and they all accpeted.
theogeek Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 This is not in any way a helpful or productive post... but I just have to say, waiting for Virginia is making me nuts.
theophany Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 This is not in any way a helpful or productive post... but I just have to say, waiting for Virginia is making me nuts. If you haven't heard anything one way or the other from UVa, odds aren't good. Admits and those on the wait list were notified a month ago.
Alex Madlinger Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 (edited) Does anyone else get irrationally angry when they meet someone who is applying to PhDs but clearly making terrible life decisions? Like, I met two people in the last week who made me want to attack them with a lexicon. One of them has an MA from an evangelical seminary. He only applied to Chicago, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins and he (obviously) got rejected to every single one. The other one was musing about his life plans and said, 'Oh, I don't know. I guess I'll apply to Duke and [random evangelical seminary].' You don't just 'guess' you'll put in an application at what is probably the best university to study New Testament in the US! Does anyone else get super frustrated to meet people who clearly aren't taking the process seriously enough? Or do I have some weird psychological problem? Edited March 20, 2014 by Alex Madlinger Lux Lex Pax and marXian 1 1
diazalon Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 (edited) Does anyone else get irrationally angry when they meet someone who is applying to PhDs but clearly making terrible life decisions? Like, I met two people in the last week who made me want to attack them with a lexicon. One of them has an MA from an evangelical seminary. He only applied to Chicago, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins and he (obviously) got rejected to every single one. The other one was musing about his life plans and said, 'Oh, I don't know. I guess I'll apply to Duke and [random evangelical seminary].' You don't just 'guess' you'll put in an application at what is probably the best university to study New Testament in the US! Does anyone get up get super frustrated to meet people who clearly isn't taking the process seriously enough? Or do I have some weird psychological problem? Why do you say obviously? All three of those institutions admit students from evangelical seminaries with some regularity - especially Harvard and Duke. I would remind you of Stephen Neill's excellent advice, "What matters is not so much the particular views that any scholar holds as the validity of the methods which he uses, and the integrity of his devotion to them." - The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861-1986. Your comments, on the other hand, suggest that you might indeed have "some weird psychological problem." Namely elitism. Edited March 20, 2014 by diazalon Lux Lex Pax, newenglandshawn and theophany 3
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