Looking for people who study Islamic Studies. Can I ask you guys some questions?

[Justicia]

Hi ya'll!

I am an international student from a country in Asia and I'm planning on continuing my study in the United States. I have been studying Islam for the past four years in college and another 6 years in an Islamic Boarding School. and I have some questions and a request:

1. I have been searching for universities that offer MA program in Islamic Studies and so far I can only find few of them such as HDS, BU, Chicago University, George Washington, and Columbia. Since I am an international student, I have to pass the language requirement and thankfully I've passed it (IELTS score 7.5/9). So now I am studying for GRE and about to take it on December. I am going to apply to those schools but they seem a bit out of reach for me considering English is not my first language and those schools, even though not specifically, I believe, require a quite high GRE scores. That's why I need to find some other schools that I can apply to that are not Ivy. Do you guys have any suggestion?

2. There are very few people who study Islamic Studies in the US that I know of, and I have been having difficulties finding people who I can have discussion with, that are open minded. I am currently writing my statement of purpose and I found that my SOP is a bit too on the left or liberal for most of my colleagues here in my country. Do any of mind taking a look at my SOP? I know I should post this in a different thread but I'm afraid that people may not be able to understand my SOP since it's involved some technical terms in Islamic Law. Also because my SOP is quite personal and I am not yet confident sharing it in public. Can I anybody help me out here please??

Thank you guys!!! 

[marXian]

PM'd you.

[menge]

PM'd

[AghaDehlawi]

If you are still looking for info, or need someone to talk with feel free to pm me. I'm a current Islamic Studies grad-student at Rutgers University in NJ.

[DivSkool]

Here's more info about Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/islamic-studies

Feel free to PM me with questions.