the essay that got me into harvard divinity school

me 🤝 god 🤝 maggie rogers

after years of disappointing the asian diaspora community (being queer, going into the arts, not seasoning my food, dating white people, etc), i am proud to announce that i’m atoning with the ultimate aapi flex. i’m going to harvard! no, this is not a joke or delusion.

starting this fall, i’ll be attending harvard divinity school for their religion and public life program. it’s a year-long study and i’ll be working towards a personalized research project of my choice that’s relevant to my field. (don’t ask me what it is because i also want to leave room for exploration and redirection as i go through my studies there.)

there’s many reasons why i applied for this specific school, but all of it boils down to the simple fact that religious institutions are the basis of our existence, for good and for bad. our politics, our culture, our media are all informed by ideas of faith. academically, i’ll be working towards a deep understanding of how religious studies inform our sociopolitical climate. personally, i’m trying to get a 1:1 with god.

also! maggie rogers went through this program and wrote a thesis which "examined cultural consciousness, the spirituality of public gathering and the ethics of pop power.” her 2022 studio album, surrender, was the final product of her study.

i will be writing more on this, but for now, i wanted to share my admission essay with my paid subscribers (y’all are the real ones). if you enjoy my writing and want to support independent journalism, consider subscribing to gut feeling’s paid plan for $5/mo—a los angeles coffee!