Hello, all. I’m a current junior at a small, private liberal arts college, majoring in Religious Studies. I am currently trying to decide between an MDiv and PhD following graduation — the plan as of now is to apply for both and figure it out along the way.
I feel pretty confident that I’ll get into at least a couple of my MDiv schools (UChicago, Yale, Harvard, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke). My primary issue is that I do not have any significant community service/social justice involvement in my college career, though I am working on changing that.
I am more concerned with my chances of getting into a PhD program, particularly without an MA. As of now, my top programs are: Indiana University Bloomington, Northwestern, Princeton, and UPenn. There are other programs I am interested in, but many program pages state that only “exceptional” and “rare” students are admitted without a previous master’s degree. What exactly are the qualities that characterize such a student? With application fees being so high, I have to be strategic about where I apply, so I want to know if I should even consider those types of grad programs.
Some info about me:
- Major GPA is 3.91, overall is a 3.87.
- I’ve taken 4 semesters of French, and plan on continuing with advanced comp/lit senior year. I’m also planning on doing an intensive introductory year-long course senior year either with German or Greek to knock out language requirements as much as I can.
- Haven’t taken GREs yet, but have begun studying, and will take them late spring/early summer. (What scores are top PhD scores looking for? I know that it’s not as important for Div programs)
- Had a paid individual research fellowship under a faculty mentor, presented results in a public forum, and will hopefully be getting my final paper published.
- Did a semester abroad at an elite UK uni.
- Plan on spending this summer in Buddhist monastery, will also take classes there (though not for credit).
- Currently work at an art gallery doing education outreach/programming with the community.
- Pretty positive my letters of rec will be very strong, same with writing samples
I would love if anyone could give me some feedback on the likelihood of where my sights are set, testimonies of their own experience applying, etc. If anyone has any other recommendations of programs to look into that would be awesome. Also, if people could tell me which programs are “back ups” v “reach” (not totally sure of each schools reputation in relation to the others) I would appreciate it — I’m trying to narrow down my list as much as possible. Thanks so much!