PhD Applications Fall '18 Season

[bijou2017]

52 minutes ago, xypathos said:

I’ve never known Austin to do competitive interviews but I also know that an interview=\=acceptance. They’ve been known to do some weird things in their interviews too, several years ago they had an HB applicant that they’d only let interview in Hebrew.

I imagine it’s a situation of you being, more or less, their preferred candidate but they want to see what they’re buying before they sign the papers. Which probably means there’s 1-2 other candidates sitting on the bench hoping you bomb but you won’t!

Thanks! That's both comforting and terrifying at the same time, haha. It's my first interview so I'm pretty nervous!

[KA.DINGER.RA]

31 minutes ago, msdb said:

I saw on the results page that someone had been invited to interview at Notre Dame for the WCWR track. (Congrats to you, results-poster!) I assume this means interview invites have gone out for each of ND's concentrations but was curious if anyone knew for sure. 

Also, does anyone know how many candidates Vanderbilt interviews for the T & P Fellowship? And is it just one fellowship, or are there multiple T & P spots per year? 

Thanks!

This is likely untrue. WRWC is pretty independent of the other concentrations and their decisions usually go out separately. 

I know WRWC is a thing but I literally never see any of those folks around. It's basically a different department. 

[xypathos]

31 minutes ago, msdb said:

Also, does anyone know how many candidates Vanderbilt interviews for the T & P Fellowship? And is it just one fellowship, or are there multiple T & P spots per year? 

Four fellows are chosen but the number interviewed every year changes, in 2014 they interviewed twelve and I believe the final # in '16 was nine.

[msdb]

Thanks, @KA.DINGER.RA and @xypathos! Y'all are giving me hope this afternoon!

[the.waiting.game]

On 1/17/2018 at 4:19 PM, chaotic said:

I wonder how many applicants Emory invites for interview. Does anyone here has any idea? 30 applicants for 10 spots?

There's not a set number of interviewees, but only 14 students are admitted each year. In my first year of the PhD here. It varies by course of study. That's assuming there were applicants to all of them, or enough in that area. But each area of study isn't guaranteed a certain number of slots either, so the 14 admitted students will vary per course of study across the GDR--some more, some less, some none.

[ugh2017]

Does anyone know for sure if Harvard does PhD interviews every year? 

[KA.DINGER.RA]

36 minutes ago, ugh2017 said:

Does anyone know for sure if Harvard does PhD interviews every year? 

From what I’ve heard, they do not interview. 

[xypathos]

Correct, Harvard doesn’t interview.

[KA.DINGER.RA]

I was walking out of the building and saw the entire CJA faculty meeting yesterday (minus most of the biblical studies professors, since they're basically all on sabbatical). Even with all of the new hirings and job talk meetings going on, they're usually not all together at once like that. If you applied to ND, I would expect to hear back about PhD interviews sometime relatively soon.

[kenshiro]

Looks like people posted interviews from Duke Div today? Both entries are in Biblical Studies; I applied on the Theology track at Div and am still hoping for the best...

Edited January 23, 2018 by kenshiro

[Epaphroditus]

9 hours ago, kenshiro said:

Looks like people posted interviews from Duke Div today? Both entries are in Biblical Studies; I applied on the Theology track at Div and am still hoping for the best...

I was one of them (for NT). Not entirely sure about other tracks, but my guess is that everyone has received interview invites for the ThD, since admissions decisions are not field-specific. Don't lose hope though! Some ThD candidates may not accept if they get into Duke's GPR.

[kenshiro]

39 minutes ago, Hopeless_Academic said:

I was one of them (for NT). Not entirely sure about other tracks, but my guess is that everyone has received interview invites for the ThD, since admissions decisions are not field-specific. Don't lose hope though! Some ThD candidates may not accept if they get into Duke's GPR.

Thanks for the encouragement, but I doubt there are many applicants to the GPR for my ThD track (Systematics). We'll see what happens, though...

[ShewantsthePhD101]

On 1/22/2018 at 4:45 PM, the.waiting.game said:

There's not a set number of interviewees, but only 14 students are admitted each year. In my first year of the PhD here. It varies by course of study. That's assuming there were applicants to all of them, or enough in that area. But each area of study isn't guaranteed a certain number of slots either, so the 14 admitted students will vary per course of study across the GDR--some more, some less, some none.

Any idea how many of us they're bringing in this year?

[KA.DINGER.RA]

I just spoke with a professor with whom I am quite close. He said to expect to hear back from ND this week. 

This may only be for CJA, but I would imagine it is for all of the non-WRWC applicants. Get stoked!

[lames18]

9 hours ago, KA.DINGER.RA said:

I just spoke with a professor with whom I am quite close. He said to expect to hear back from ND this week. 

This may only be for CJA, but I would imagine it is for all of the non-WRWC applicants. Get stoked!

Thanks @KA.DINGER.RA for the updates! And perhaps a silly question... what does CJA stand for?

[KA.DINGER.RA]

7 minutes ago, lames18 said:

Thanks @KA.DINGER.RA for the updates! And perhaps a silly question... what does CJA stand for?

Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity. They don’t have an actual “biblical studies” concentration so they squeeze some Bible-y early Christianity folks in with us.

[ShewantsthePhD101]

This process is highlighting for me what an incredibly impatient human being I am... 

[hyperborean]

Wait-listed at Baylor for PhD in Religion (historical theology). Good look to the couple gents on here invited to preview weekend in Feb!

a-0 w-1 r-0 out of 7

[lames18]

Does anyone know anything about Fordham's or Union Theological Seminary's process? Can't seem to find much about those two on here.

[xypathos]

I can speak to Union's process quite extensively, not so well plugged into Fordham.

What kind of information are you looking for? UTS recently decided that they're no longer admitting students that they cannot fully fund. As a result, that means they accept approximately one student per subfield/department - sometimes funding permits a second student somewhere.

Right now faculty in each department are advocating for their preferred candidate. It varies a little but certain candidates are automatically disqualified as simply being less than ideal, then faculty create a ranking of what they perceive to be the strongest candidates. If you end up toward the bottom on several faculty list, you're cut. This process goes on until they have about ten candidates left and then it's a fight to the death  Some departments, like Theology, get 40 applicants that they consider competitive and this whittling down process takes a LONG time. Other departments, like Practical Theology, only gets about 8 applicants that they consider competitive so it's over in no time.  

[turktheman]

38 minutes ago, lames18 said:

Does anyone know anything about Fordham's or Union Theological Seminary's process? Can't seem to find much about those two on here.

I can't speak to UTS, but Fordham can vary depending on subfield and year. In Bible or Ancient Christianity they meet late January, and they tend to call admitted candidates sometime at the beginning of January or within 2 weeks of February. Funding package takes about another 2 weeks to get after that. They do keep a short list of candidates in case the contacted candidate rejects the offer.

[ShewantsthePhD101]

On 1/19/2018 at 12:49 PM, HaxMeidelberger said:

Just got an interview invite to Vanderbilt! First invitation for me so far. Any pointers for how these things typically go?

Were you invited to interview for the fellowship or your program?

[just_a_history_guy]

24 minutes ago, ShewantsthePhD101 said:

Were you invited to interview for the fellowship or your program?

I was invited to be interviewed by faculty in my area of study.

Edited January 25, 2018 by HaxMeidelberger
syntax

[lames18]

50 minutes ago, xypathos said:

I can speak to Union's process quite extensively, not so well plugged into Fordham.

What kind of information are you looking for? UTS recently decided that they're no longer admitting students that they cannot fully fund. As a result, that means they accept approximately one student per subfield/department - sometimes funding permits a second student somewhere.

Right now faculty in each department are advocating for their preferred candidate. It varies a little but certain candidates are automatically disqualified as simply being less than ideal, then faculty create a ranking of what they perceive to be the strongest candidates. If you end up toward the bottom on several faculty list, you're cut. This process goes on until they have about ten candidates left and then it's a fight to the death  Some departments, like Theology, get 40 applicants that they consider competitive and this whittling down process takes a LONG time. Other departments, like Practical Theology, only gets about 8 applicants that they consider competitive so it's over in no time.  

Yeah, I have heard that they accept very few students... and I applied to Theology, so I know chances are slim. Any idea on timeline?

[lames18]

50 minutes ago, turktheman said:

I can't speak to UTS, but Fordham can vary depending on subfield and year. In Bible or Ancient Christianity they meet late January, and they tend to call admitted candidates sometime at the beginning of January or within 2 weeks of February. Funding package takes about another 2 weeks to get after that. They do keep a short list of candidates in case the contacted candidate rejects the offer.

Thanks! Good to know