Fact Sheet

If you are interested in applying for admission to the Near Eastern Studies PhD Program, please read the following and complete the Fact Sheet provided. (Please note that the Program in Near Eastern Studies is not accepting MA applications for 202223 admission.)

Instructions for Graduate Applicants

  1. The Admissions Process

    Once you have decided to seek admission to the Department, submit your application. In addition, you will have to include with your application the two items described below: writing sample and Fact Sheet

    After you have sent in your application to the Office of Graduate Admission, there are two stages to the admissions process. In the first stage, we go through the files of all applicants and short-list about one in three. At this stage, we judge you exclusively on the content of your file. In the second stage, the short-listed applicants are invited to visit the Department. This will be on-line, via Zoom, for 2022–23 admission. If you do not attend the visit, we will still consider your application, but it is to your advantage to attend if possible.

    Normally we send out invitations to short-listed candidates in late January. The on-line visit will takes place in early February 2023.

    We make our final decisions soon after the visit; the Graduate School will be writing to you to let you know the outcome.

  2. Writing Sample

    We require you to include a writing sample with your application. A paper of fifteen to thirty pages, or a combination of smaller items, is enough. We prefer writing on a Near Eastern topic, but this is not mandatory. We are looking for evidence that you can make sense of a body of sources, ideally in their original languages, and use them effectively to analyze, argue, and confront scholarly problems. Enter the title of your writing sample on the Fact Sheet, and include it with your application. Do not send it directly to us.

  3. Fact Sheet

    Complete the attached Fact Sheet carefully and accurately. You will find that some of the information we are asking you to supply is also required by the Graduate School, while some of it is not. The information you give us here will play a significant part in the first stage of the admissions process described above. Before filling in the Fact Sheet, read the notes below. Again, include the completed Fact Sheet with your application when you submit it to the Graduate School.


Notes on Completing the Fact Sheet

Item 2: If this changes during the admissions process, be sure to let us know directly. The same goes for 3, 4, and 5.

Item 4: E-mail is our preferred way of communicating with short-listed applicants once we have mailed out the invitation to visit.

Item 6: If you have spent or are spending a year at CASA, simply enter "CASA." Do not enter summer study.

Item 7: Do not enter languages of which your knowledge is equivalent to less than one semester of study. If you can read Ottoman Turkish, enter it as a separate language. If you are short-listed, we will test you on the languages you enter here to evaluate your current level and future potential. 

Item 8: We are interested in your ability to read secondary literature on your field of interest (not to order a cup of coffee or discuss Proust). If you are short-listed, we will probably give you a quick test of the languages you enter here. If you do not yet have the required ability, but have a foundation in the language which places you within striking distance of it, enter the language in parentheses.

Item 9: This refers to full-time faculty of the Department (Cook, Ghamari-Tabrizi, Gribetz, Hanioğlu, Harb, Haykel, Krakowski, Larson, Modarressi, Reynolds, Rustow, Sheffield, Weiss, and Zaman). Note that some faculty may be on leave and unavailable to read applications. Please check the individual faculty biographies posted on the department’s website to learn who they may be.

Item 11: You may check more than one box in a line if appropriate.