sport01

I'm sorry to hear how difficult this year has been for you, and I do agree that it is really crucial to look into one's options. Academia can suck, as the burgeoning genre of quit-lit tells us. But, just to even out the stories here, I'm in my first year at a top-tier program after a couple years waffling back and forth about whether to choose this path, including a stint in 'the real world.' I love it. It is really hard. It requires therapy. It sucks your soul if you let it. But I am happy - happier than usual, even! - and I think(?) my soul is intact. I guess I wouldn't know if it wasn't...? But I've been reading the Chronicle of Higher Ed since I was a freshman in college, so I was expecting the worst, and this isn't it (yet! much time ahead). I hope that posting this doesn't come across as trying to invalidate your experience. Academia's MO is to grind your ego into sand and see if you reintegrate in its image. And it does its job really well. It can suck. :/

Just for the sake of future compulsive gradcafe checkers - wanted to throw out there that it's past decision date and I never heard from Syracuse. I never called them because I hoped to contribute hard data about their notification dates to the results board...alas.

Hey jsant09, I'm butting in - but at Vanderbilt I took full advantage of the federal work study I was allotted through the FAFSA (29 hours per week) and it paid my living expenses. (Thank you, night shifts at the library circulation desks.) So 2k-4k that you mentioned might be a bit conservative. Hope it works out for you!

VLynn, I've lived in East Nashville since Jan 2013 and haven't had any problems whatsoever. A friend of mine lived in the same house for three years prior to me, and he never had any problems either. Everyone is chomping at the bit to live on this side of town. Have you lived in Nashville within the last five years? Things have changed so rapidly all around the city; it might be a tad difficult to offer timely advice if you lived here awhile ago. In fact - my opinion on East Nashville is that it's quite safe, but it's getting more and more difficult to find reasonable-rent places for single students now. I live in a dumpy little two-bedroom house, and the houses around me are selling for 250k-450k (after they are bought cheap, quickly renovated [but still small!], and put back on the market). You can imagine what that does to rent. (And to the historic residents of these neighborhoods who are getting shoved out. Yay gentrification.) Other neighborhoods... Walking distance to Vandy is pretty tough unless you can find a house to share with other students. There are some small apartments on Blakemore that friends of mine have lived in; but I think they were studios? I live in East Nash and it takes me about 18 minutes to get to Vandy at morning rush hour. Other times of day - 8-12 minutes. I've also lived in the Richland Park area where West End and Murphy intersect; that's a nice old neighborhood. It'd be a quick bike to campus; a long walk; and a 10min drive (West End backs up at rush hours). And then, before that, I lived out where White Bridge/Harding and Charlotte intersect. (That's where the closest Target to Vandy is!) That was a bit farther, but still - a 20 minute drive at rush hour with no highways / much shorter at off times. Quite a few duplexes over there. The only one that I paid over $1000 for rent was the Richland Park area, because it was a three-bedroom house shared with four people. All that to say...it's always hard to find a good place when you're looking from a distance, but it's possible! (And, to be clear, I've enjoyed all these areas!) To find places that were duplexes or houses, I looked on the Vanderbilt classifieds, Belmont classifieds, and craigslist. I preferred those to apartment buildings. Ask your admissions rep if you can be forwarded any rent listings that might come along; while I was at Vandy, the admissions office received lots of housing availability info and distributed it by the listserv. But...rent is rising fast. :/

Yeah...I see you applied for MA. I wonder if MAs and PhDs are on a different timeline - I'm going for the PhD, which is why I didn't count that result as definitive. Hmmm.

So, I'm already squared away, but I'm dying to know - has anyone heard from Syracuse? It's getting so late, and they're the only ones I haven't heard from! I'm almost wondering if my app got lost somewhere, but I don't see it in the results list either. I wonder if it helps or hurts their overall acceptance rate to release decisions so late. (And by acceptance, I mean Syracuse getting THEIR first choice students, not the normal use of the term.)

Hello all! Opinions on Harvard University Housing (apartments) for a person + partner + small dog? It seems comparable with surrounding neighborhoods, since many HUH options includes utilities, but maybe I'm missing something... It makes sense to me to move into it for the first year, get a better sense of the landscape, and then move after the first year if something better/cheaper opens up. Thoughts? Big drawbacks I'm not considering? Also: we're southerners, so we've been a two-car family forever. I'm thinking we'll need to leave at least one behind / sell it, right...? Should we keep one just in case the partner gets a job completely across town, or does everyone really just use public transportation? And finally...how's the job market in Boston for those folks that are tagging along with grad students? I know this will largely depend on industry, but a general impression would likely serve many folks who read this board. Thanks for any feedback! s

Definitely, definitely a good candidate. Also - if you're considering ordination in the UMC, be sure to get that process started BEFORE you enter at VDS. Funding from the UMC is far easier to come by if you start the track pre-seminary. Check with GBHEM's loans & scholarships page and their candidacy office for more info. (even for deacons!)

So this is super late. There's some study abroad stuff. One interdisciplinary course puts professional students from across Vandy together (nursing, business, med, law, div) to think critically about social problems, then shuttles them off to places to put their ideas for solving them into practice. (I think the last few have been South Africa and…Nepal? India?) The Methodists go to England every other year. Folks go to the US/Mexico border. But your best bet is the Imagination Grant, wishy-washy nomenclature notwithstanding. Up to $2500 to do research somewhere else during the summer. Some folks request a small amount and travel within the US; some folks request the full amount to head to places like Greece, North Africa, Iceland, England, India…So check and see if they expect this to remain in place in the future. I think the original Imagination Grant was endowed for five years, so we're coming up on its end soon. It was a huge success, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to renew it somehow. The only catch is that the grant can't be used for tuition.

This makes so much more sense. There was a different admissions team at Vandy in 2010.

Cosign coffeekid. I actually had the same conversation with Vandy's admissions office. (I got my MDiv there, finished last month.) They were really confused about why that rumor would be flying around. Regardless, to the OP - your stats are perfectly fine for a great offer at Vandy. Again, I agree with coffeekid about the SOP - I've known that folks with impeccable stats don't always get the funding there. As far as I can tell - and I haven't spoken to them about this - they use the scholarships to hone what they consider a rich, full class, considering life experiences quite heavily...because it's MDiv/MTS, not MA/PhD. So my cohort of scholarships had a couple eggheads, a smattering of denominational diversity, and then a bunch of really awesome activist-types with great intellectual chops on top of it. So, you know, be human in your SOP. I suspect Candler is similar? Not sure.

I've never had any luck with this, but you might: Fellowship for Theological Education Fund Finder http://www.fteleaders.org/fundfinder