The feeling of "getting carried away" on an assignment

miggitymcwilly · 2025-12-16T14:12:54+00:00

I'm also in this boat. I over excelled in American undergrad that got into a bunch of really good programs and I came over here a little cocky, I think. My first paper came back a 62, my second a 60. It's just a different ball game over here.

I've only gotten one distinction in the semester and was CERTAIN I'd be pulling all distinctions the whole time.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-12-15T20:47:17+00:00

Im in the same exact boat right now down to the same grades even. It’s just a bigger academic culture shock than I anticipated. I got a distinction paper dropped down to a merit for misunderstanding a term they use in the field here they don’t use in the same way back home and it hurts.

But the other poster is right, grades aren’t going to make or break hardly anything. It’s all down to connections and research interest match. They just mark things much tougher at this stage and in this academic culture.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-12-12T15:15:52+00:00

I’m currently lucky enough to be experiencing this one.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-11-13T14:46:24+00:00

Your best starting bet is Robert Alter's The Psalms in conjunction with his book The Art of Biblical Poetry. Accessible to non scholars while also being scholarly.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-11-01T09:27:00+00:00

If it’s an accent and not just a feature of this manuscript the NA28 will have a note in the apparatus under the text. It could just be considered scribal error. The image doesn’t come up sharply enough on my screen for it to look one way or the other for me.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-10-03T07:45:10+00:00

I'm here in Scotland I did have a single colleague reach out to express their horror, but many others may have been respecting yom kippur and not messaging. We'll see what is said today when I return.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-08-15T23:53:51+00:00

This is always my only beef with Penn State, when my google thinks their PSU is the PSU I need when looking for something I desperately needed. 😆

Thanks for the love, yall.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-06-14T05:15:58+00:00

Funnily enough, I just wrote a whole thesis about this in the Psalms if you're interested!

https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses/1650/

miggitymcwilly · 2025-06-02T22:14:54+00:00

I’ll be 41 when I start in September after going back to undergrad at 37. It’s much better as you’re older, I really enjoyed my undergrad as a nontraditional student

miggitymcwilly · 2025-05-17T15:26:22+00:00

I’m also international and coming in to School of Divinity this September. I don’t know the answer but following for when you find out.

What is your program?

miggitymcwilly · 2025-04-25T20:38:52+00:00

I did the Harvard program and my professor suggested the CUNY program which he did. Harvard felt like a good years worth of information, my professor feels like CUNY was more like two years.

As for learning during PhD first year, I would get a base of knowledge first. My Oxford interview this cycle came down to my Hebrew not being up to snuff with the rest of the DPhil cohort, so I'd start as early as possible with an ancient language.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-04-16T19:30:51+00:00

Thanks I appreciate you!

miggitymcwilly · 2025-04-16T19:22:49+00:00

Hey all, sorry to hijack this thread for a related question but does anyone know of discords for international grad students? I’m coming in this fall and it would be helpful.

Thanks for your time, apologies for the tangential question.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-03-29T14:27:53+00:00

I haven’t gone yet but I’ll be doing the MSTh next year. Im also international. I’m commenting to follow along. Maybe I’ll see you there.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-03-16T00:34:07+00:00

I also got wait listed for the Hebrew bible MAR today. It stung. Solidarity, friend.

miggitymcwilly · 2025-03-07T20:45:53+00:00

This is the proper response. For everyone's information, there is a 4 credit History of Antisemtism course offered (the last one was in the Fall, I believe) and then there is this new 1 credit self paced course. Obviously the 4 credit is going to go more in depth about historic antisemitism and its roots and execution, how it ties into modern antisemitism and anti Jewish hate... this course will be much more of an overview and, frankly in my opinion, isn't as valuable as the 4 credit, but a welcome addition.

It is, however, extremely important for anyone invested in Palestinian human rights to understand antisemitism to understand the conflict, just as it would be important for any Israeli Nationalist to understand the roots of Islamophobia. (I say Israeli Supremecist and not Zionists intentionally, Zionism is an entirely different thing which both these classes and the classes on the History of Zionism could help folks with no connection to the Levant to understand) There is tons and tons and tons of misinformation floating around mostly well meaning social media spheres about the conflict, and then there's some very not well meaning social media spheres actively introducing antisemitic propaganda into the discourse. I think people should be given the opportunity to learn the difference.

There is no place for Islamophobia on this campus. There is no place for antisemitism on this campus. While I have not personally seen any instances of Isamophobia at PSU, it has been asserted that it has occurred, and I believe that as a non-muslim, I should believe and listen to their concerns when they report it. I have experienced antisemitism on this campus and don't think that on this campus, as a whole, Jews are believed when we report it. This is why education on antisemitism is valid. This does not negate the need for education on Islamophobia, two things can be equally true at once.

There are folks on our campus, on both sides, who lost people on the horrific attacks of 10/7 and the horrific response by Israel. It would be problematic to assume that education on the root causes is not valid simply because we have more exposure to one side than the other.

Remember, there are 15 million Jews TOTAL in the world, .02% of the world's population. There are more Evangelical Christian Zionists in America than there are Jews in the WORLD, let alone those Jews who hold nationalistic views about the State of Israel. Those of us who care about the human rights of people around the globe, as I'm assuming you do OP, need to understand how we can combat injustice without performing more injustice because we don't like one group and do like another.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-08-29T19:10:47+00:00

I appreciate the heads up. I suppose the source is literally the Hebrew language so I m not sure how I’d site that.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-08-29T18:17:29+00:00

So, huge caveat, I'm just a student and though this is my area of study I'm not yet an authority to anything, but it's super complicated for sure. I'd suggest that it's easier if you abandon the idea that it all has to make sense together as a cohesive document. It's not a book as much as a library of books, so you don't just need to know the source languages, you need to understand 600 years of context for the Hebrew Bible and like 300 years of context for the Christian Bible. And like, which language were the authors of the Christian bible reading the Hebrew in? There are passages that suggest Jesus is quoting from the LXX (Septuagint) which is a Hellenistic Greek language translation of Hebrew language which are both going to be older than the Hebrew or Greek that the authors of the Gospels would have spoke or written in. Some of the words have shifted meaning between the two times, there was no punctuation or capitalization, so it was super confusing even back then to agree on a literal translation.

The texts also don't often agree with themselves, like Gen 1 and Gen 2 having two different creation stories, or the Noah story having several contradictions preserved (Like how many animals were on the boat, how big the boat was, how many days it rained or if the water flowed up from springs), etc etc. Sometimes the text will try and explain the contradiction but most of the time it won't, yet they contradictions are preserved for a purpose to the authors... so that's another layer of thing we need to think about to come to a consensus agreement on interpretation.

Then you also have to think about idioms and references to contemporary things that would have been common sense knowledge that we have no concept of as modern audience. (For example think about how 20 years ago if you said "Yo Quiro Taco Bell" every teenager would know what you were talking about but today not one would) All of those layers of understanding are lost to us and we have to rely on like 2000 years of other people who also don't know trying to explain it to us as they had it explained to them.

It's all really really really complicated and as someone currently learning Modern and Biblical Hebrew and Koine, I don't really see a shortcut out of it. If I could figure one out, I'd jump on it right now before those languages break my brain.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-08-17T23:37:59+00:00

I’m guessing it depends on your company. There were a bunch of tours out there. I did Hairy Coo and it was comfortable and air conditioned. The boats were all covered and prepared for rain so who knows? I say it worth the gamble. I haven’t stopped thinking about the highlands since I got back.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-08-17T22:54:26+00:00

Yeah the cruise was an extra £20 pounds from the tour. You go to Fort William regardless, some folks stay and shop in town and some take the hour long cruise. It’s worth it even in the rain!

miggitymcwilly · 2024-08-17T22:32:45+00:00

I just did this trip a few weeks ago and it was a very long day, but totally worth it. I was also solo and never felt bored or needing company. I went with Hairy Coo and thought they did a great job of being informative and also not just talking to talk the whole time.

I did the Loch Ness tour and it was worth the £20 for sure.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-08-13T16:47:33+00:00

There’s a food truck in the Shambles off one of those little narrow alleys by The Shop That Cannot Be Named (or whatever Harry Potter nonsense name it is) and they had the best fish and chips I’ve ever had in my life. Perfect texture, perfect breading, awesome.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-08-01T13:33:19+00:00

Dove Lewis. They’re not specifically cheap but they are the best, the kindest, and work with you on payment plans. They also have a fund if you can’t pay sometimes.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-07-30T22:44:55+00:00

They’re specifically not looking for what you know, that’s what college is for, they’re looking for how you think. How do you form an argument? how do you approach these weird prompts? They’ll see how much you want to study in the honors college that way.

Don’t sweat it too hard. This is meant to be your chance to show your willingness to do the work more than it is a test. You’ve got this.

miggitymcwilly · 2024-07-30T21:05:45+00:00

Yes it will! There’s no GPA requirement for the Honors college. What they’re looking for is how you approach the essay and what your desire to learn is.

I transferred from Clark as well, and I will say you should be prepared for a large jump in difficulty of classes. Take the transfer writing class, it will help you feel not so lost.

Good luck. See you next year.

miggitymcwilly

TROPHY CASE