Apply to USC Religion (PhD)

There is no “right” approach to structuring your CV for graduate school. However, it is a good idea to take some time to identify the skills and achievements you would like to highlight for your application to the Religion PhD.

You must upload copies of your transcripts for each of your previous academic institutions (colleges or universities) via the Graduate Application website.

In addition, you must have official copies sent to USC directly from your institution(s) of study. You can find addresses for mailing or sending e-transcripts here. The Graduate School requires official transcripts in order to process your enrollment.

​The personal statement (2-3 single-spaced pages) should set out your interests, relevant background (especially language training), proposed areas of study, and your ultimate professional ambitions.

Please be detailed; lay out the specific parameters of your area of interest, why you are interested in it, what scholarly contributions you hope to make to the field and why they are important, and what difficulties you anticipate. Tell us why you think the USC School of Religion is the place for you to pursue this interest and who among our faculty you anticipate playing a major role in your training.

Please note that we do not expect you to lay out a full dissertation topic or proposal and will not judge your statement in that light. Your personal statement is simply your opportunity to put flesh on the bare bones of your application, giving us a picture of who you are, what motivates you, and what you find exciting about the field of religion.

All applicants are required to submit a writing sample on a topic related to religion. The School of Religion looks especially for good use of source material and strong, original and critical diagnosis or interpretation. If you have written an honors or M.A. thesis or published an article, send us a copy. You may also submit, however, undergraduate essays or seminar papers more generally. Your writing sample should not greatly exceed 20 double-spaced pages.

Please arrange to have three letters of recommendation submitted by college or university professors or instructors who are familiar with your work, can speak to your scholarly aptitude and have played a significant role in your education. The Graduate Admissions website contains instructions for requesting letters of recommendation in the Program Materials section of the application.

​USC does not require the GRE.

Non-native speakers of English should review USC’s English language proficiency policy to determine whether or not they need to submit TOEFL or IELTS scores. Scores will only be considered if they are received directly from TOEFL or IELTS to USC’s institutional testing code 4852. The School of Religion recognizes that the unique nature of its Ph.D. program will appeal to people of varied backgrounds, including some whose native language is not English. We value diversity and encourage all potential applicants with a serious interest in the study of religion to apply.

All applicants are required to identify which track they are submitting to. The list of tracks, as well as links to their webpages, are below:

• Asia Pacific Religions
• Christian Studies
• Global Islam

Each student entering the PhD program will select a primary academic advisor before classes begin. The advisor must be an internal member of the School of Religion who works in the student’s proposed area of research. In addition, at least one other faculty member from the school of Religion is selected to constitute, along with the primary advisor, the student’s “mentoring committee.”

The mentoring committee is responsible for overseeing the student’s program of course work, course of language study, timing of qualifying exams and so on. The membership of the mentoring committee can be changed at any time with the agreement of the student, the student’s primary advisor, and the School of Religion director of Graduate Studies.

To review and choose your academic advisors, please visit here.

Your choice of TWO (2) advisors must be noted in the Graduate Application Website in the “Questions,” section.

In the application, you will be asked to describe your training in relevant research languages.

For each language, you are to list the program or courses taken and number of years studied. If you have taken any standardized language exams, list the exams taken and scores received. It would also be useful to upload official exam reports under the “Other” document category in the Documents tab.

If you have acquired research language competency through other means, you may want to consider uploading a letter of evaluation from a language instructor who can attest to your competency in the relevant research language(s). You many upload such letters to the “Other” document category in the Documents tab.