bigsh

Not sure where you're landing on this. Something to consider that a friend of mine mentioned to me the other day is that many programs are struggling to fund at pre-Covid levels and may be for a while (some slots have even disappeared over the course of admissions season). I'm not sure how many fully funded slots there are in your area when you take a survey of programs, but even trying again next year doesn't mean there will be more spots, or that funding will improve. I'm not saying that there wouldn't be that fully funded spot waiting for you next year, but its worth acknowledging that it might not be there and you do have something, if financially imperfect, now. And plenty of people takes loans to get PhD's done, even funded ones.

Well, it looks like its Toronto (TST). I'm actually glad I didn't have to choose between them and CUA, I would not have enjoyed that. But I've never been happier to get a rejection than I was today.

I would encourage you to upgrade to the level where you get to ask a live tax professional if you're unsure of what to do with some of those questions. I am not a tax professional and I can't offer tax advice. You can really run down a rabbit hole on some of those questions. I know that I thought the answer was yes sometimes, but it turned out that the answer was no when i checked with the CPAs, so you should probably check with someone qualified to answer the question.

Notre Dame rejections have arrived.

That's better than the TST side of things. They fund Canadian tuition, but only fund the Canadian portion of the international tuition. But if all you'd have coming in is 19k CAD that would be pretty thin in Toronto.

The main requirement for most of the scholarships I've seen listed up there is either Canadian citizenship or permanent residency. And, if you are a citizen or permanent resident, your tuition is a) about 75% less than international tuition, and b) covered in full. If I go to Toronto I'm distinctly hoping that being married to a Canadian speeds up the residency process. Leuven, OTOH, is something like 1500 euros a year, or per semester, which either way is incredibly affordable. Regarding something else you said, I think there is certainly something to be said for working with the right adviser. In some areas they are going to be opening doors for you over the entire course of your degree.

I received a notice this morning that the the Faculty of Theology at KU Leuven recommended me for acceptance into the Research Master program there. Per my conversations with the admissions folks there, I understand that they tend to consider their Research Master degree as an almost mandatory prereq for doctoral admission, so I decided to apply to so as not to limit my options (they said they virtually never admit folks if they haven't done this degree). Funding info comes later, but Belgium sounds cool. Though not as cool as an actual PhD slot. I'd still need to apply for a doctoral program at Leuven once I finished this degree, and that's a bit of a tough sell, but not an immediate disqualifier.

I appreciate this entire conversation. To be fair, Canada isn't super international for me, and being married to a Canadian (who has never been to Toronto) might help with the funding situation at TST. But, that's not to say that an international move from the states wouldn't be adventurous with small kids (getting to church on Sunday can be adventurous). Part of looking internationally, at least for me, is tied to trying find the right places to do the work I'd like to do and looking for potential advisers by field, not just geography (and there really aren't a ton of options in my area). We're still not sure where we're headed in the fall, and if a funded offer shows up from the states that adds some significant calculus, but we do see significant value in having other cultural experiences as a family. That Belgium admission came in today, and there have certainly been mentions of beer, cheese, and chocolate.

I'm interested to see where this goes. I have an offer at TST and I'm waiting to hear on one last US school. But I never found much in my field in the UK schools, though I did do an application of KU Leuven's Research Master program as a possible avenue for a continental PhD. My seminary has some folks with degrees from TST, and I've known others who came from Toronto who've taught in the US. I've seen some stats about TST having been relatively high in terms of placing faculty in ATS schools though I'm not sure how up to date that was.

I know its a Monday, but I really thought some places would get things out today, without pushing in March (and Lent).

This is a generic comment, so not sure how much it might apply to a specific program. If they are preparing offers, they may need to make sure each offer or admissions letter is tailored to the individual conditions of each applicant. It's a straightforward admin task, but its possible that not every letter looks the same and it takes some time to get them all sorted. But, if that's the case, I'd imagine lots of schools wouldn't want to sit on them for that long (and yet it often feels like they do).

I'm imagining that lots of outstanding decisions should be coming reasonably soon, end of the month-ish? The last time I got rejected from Notre Dame it was on the last day of February and I'm betting that it'll be the same this time. It's very helpful that they save your old applications on their portal.

I think there is great variance school to school in how and when they determine funding for some programs, so that's really, really tough to say.

Speaking solely from my personal and ongoing experience, Yes, a ThM or STM can help in the quest for a doctoral spot. I tried applying to a couple doctoral programs a couple years ago, and was rejected at one and waitlisted at another. I'm wrapping up my STM thesis right now, and I have an admissions offer at at least one school. And they said that the STM made it an easier decision on their end. My MDiv numbers were in the range of yours, and my STM numbers were a bit better. Plenty of school seem to not really view an MDiv as a truly academic degree, even to the extent that some don't count it as a qualifying masters degree. A ThM or STM will fill that requirement, and will demonstrate a capacity for advanced work. The degrees are usually considered as preparatory for doctoral work and would probably open some kind of door for you if you can't get one to open this year, at least that's my experience. A side note, I did my STM where I did my MDiv and there was considerable funding available for the degree. The STM program here also has an incredibly good (if unadvertised) track record of getting folks into doctoral programs at least somewhere. I was sitting in the same kind of spot as you two years ago and my options were go do the STM or mentally wrap my head around the idea of never trying to pursue a PhD. At bare minimum, the ThM will give you an opportunity to do some in depth study that my be helpful in your other pursuits (I'm imagining ordination/pastorate is an option with the MDiv). So, yeah, definitely think about it.

Thank you. The notice came from the central GCTS email account indicating that there would be some follow on conversation from my college. Funding is the tricky part at TST, especially for non-Canadians. Though I scare myself less when I run the conversion on rental prices back to USD.