Survivor: University Edition
Written by Mandy on September 29th, 2008Calvin and I are soon going to begin a joint series, and we wanted to do a post explaining a bit about what we are going to be doing and why.
In a little under a year, we’ll begin applying to Ph.D programs. We’ve compiled a rather large list of potential programs, and this new series will be a “Survivor,” of sorts, to determine the best Ph.D programs for us. We’re putting our thoughts into writing so we’ll be able to narrow down our choices to a reasonable number of programs to which we will actually apply. We’re also hoping that if there is anyone reading who would have first-hand information on a particular program that we review, they’ll chime in with thoughts of their own. The information that we gather for each program will be posted in a fairly standard format.
If anyone else is in a similar situation as us, we would certainly be happy if our series helped that person out as well.
So, with no further ado, we’ll begin by listing the contenders, in no particular order (drum roll):
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Michigan
- Hebrew Union College
- Penn State
- University of Wisconsin
- Yale University
- Brandeis University
- Harvard University
- Catholic University of America
- University of Toronto
- New York University
- Notre Dame
- UC Berkley
- UCLA
- Ohio State University
- University of Chicago
- Emory University
Now, some of these we are already fairly sure we won’t apply to, but we thought we’d give them their fair shake. Additionally, if you know of a Ph.D program in Hebrew Bible/Ancient Near East/OrSomethingSimilar at a University that we’ve forgotten, please feel free to comment or shoot us an email.
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Yale no longer takes Ph.D. students for Northwest Semitic, Bible, Comparative Semitics or for Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Unless you are interested in Egyptology or Assyriology only, then the programs there are defunct.
If you’re not against going over seas, I’d check out Hebrew University in Jerusalem as well as Oxford.
It would be worth looking into Jewish Theological Seminary (Ph.D. programs in Ancient Judaism as well as Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages).
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Art,
At Yale, the program we’re looking at is in the Religion Department.
Thanks for the JTS suggestion!
Mandy
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Nice list! I think any school on this list will be fantastic. All the best in your applications.
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Hi guys, I just happened across your blog…I’m applying to NELC programs this fall in HB text. crit. and your list mirrors mine almost exactly, though I put NYU on there and am only applying to 8 from my list. If you want to discuss the merits/demerits of each program, I’d rather email than post on a semi-public forum. On a side note, it is exciting to “see” another female in this field!
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I’m looking at a number of the above schools (specifically, Harvard, NYU, Penn, Brandeis and Emory). I’m also looking at the Bernard Revel School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, although I don’t suppose that is on anyone’s list here…
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I am also applying. My short list has (no order) Yale, Harvard,U of Penn., Johns Hopkins, and Notre Dame, so far. I know full funding is automatic in some of these if you are accepted. Do you happen to know if it’s true for all of these? I was once accepted to Brandeis, but they wanted me to redo my Master’s and didn’t offer me enough funding to make it feasible.
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I heard programs at U of Texas and UCSB recommended. Which ones have you decided not to apply to and why?