David943

I attended Gordon-Conwell for an MDIV and Reformed Theological Seminary for an MA in Biblical Studies. I have many friends who have gone on to do PhD work at top schools. All my comments apply to the South Hamilton campus. So here are my 2 cents: Gordon-Conwell is almost certainly the best evangelical school for those who want to go on to do PhD work in Biblical Studies (the other top school for this would be to do a M.A. in Biblical Exegesis at Wheaton). What do other schools think of Gordon-Conwell? I had lunch with a distinguished OT Professor at Yale a couple of years ago and the first thing he mentioned about Gordon-Conwell is that the school does a good job at teaching Biblical languages. On the other hand, he would have tended to see the professors (pejoratively) as fundamentalists. This means that it is probably much easier to go to Yale from Gordon-Conwell then from a Southern Baptist School - but they may be wary of you until they meet you. Here are few observations: (1) Gordon-Conwell has many students who go on to earn PhDs at Yale, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, etc ... It really is one of the very best evangelical schools for those who want to pursue PhD level work. An added bonus: Because Gordon-Conwell is part of the Boston Theological Institute you can cross-register and take some classes at Harvard, Boston-College, etc ... while you are still a student at Gordon-Conwell. This is a great way for evangelicals to gain exposure to critical scholarship. (2) The Administration at Gordon-Conwell will strongly suggest that students take the MDiv over M.A. degrees because they recognize that many students who think they are going to get PhDs - won't. If you are committed to pursuing an academic career you will be much better off earning two Masters degrees at Gordon-Conwell such as a MA in Biblical Languages and a MA in Old Testament than earning a MDiv and you can earn two MA degrees in the same amount of time as the MDiv - 3 years of full time study. (3) This is obviously subjective, but I would say that Gordon-Conwell is very strong in Biblical Languages, OT, and NT. The Theology department is underwhelming and the history department faculty while solid are not exceptional. You would certainly find a much stronger history department at Yale. So a great deal depends upon what you want to study. (4) Getting a fully funded PhD fellowship at a top school is really competitive. It isn't enough to be a good student (even a really good student). You will need to plan your Masters level work in a way that distinguishes you. So, for example if you wanted to pursue studies in the Old Testament, at Gordon-Conwell, you could take Intermediated and Advanced Hebrew Grammar, Ugaritic, Biblical Aramaic, Targumic Aramaic, and Akkadian. A student going to a typical evangelical seminary probably couldn't take more than Intermediate Hebrew. Those sorts of courses will make you stand out (assuming you are earning close to a 4.0 GPA). (5) The faculty at Gordon-Conwell are very approachable and care a great deal about their students. (6) Deal with financial reality. If you are wealthy, you can stop reading now but, for most students - the prospect of making it through three years of graduate school before heading off to spend 4 or 5 years working on a PhD is financially terrifying. If you can get in to the MTS program at Notre Dame and pay no tuition (or get a full ride at another top school) then you should strongly consider doing that over paying $45-50k in tuition at GCTS over three years. Best wishes, David