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I agree, V/Q are fine, but writing needs to be at least 5.0, but the higher the better. But don't sweat it, the GRE gets you through the door and that's it.

I did an MTS and it is true that most schools do not offer near the funding of MDiv programs. Duke offers (I believe) only one (or two) full tuition scholarships, the rest are a set low "scholarship" of a couple thousand (others, feel free to correct me). Vandy offers descent funding, though I don't know about full tuition. Emory has recently opened up their competitive full tuition scholarships (+ stipend?) to MTS students along side MDiv's, so it might be worth investigating.

Do you have any modern languages? Perhaps German would be a better choice than Latin if you don't have it, as several TT PhD programs in NT require you to pass a German reading exam upon entry (in Aug. of your first semester). Also, many traditional programs also require at least two semesters of Hebrew for NT (Yale, for example, suggests 4 semesters for NT). If you're only choosing between Clas. Grk and Latin, I would go Latin, as it would show more diversity.

Just to make it official, my app with ND was updated this morning to make my rejection official.

I certainly agree, its difficult to weight the cost of being where you feel is "best" vs. the financial aspect of it. I'm torn between Candler and Vandy — Emory made a good offer, but Vandy's was better. So now I have to decided if its worth taking on extra debt to be at Emory where I feel like the faculty is a better fit, or if its better to accept VDS's offer and save a little debt for the future...Its a tough call.

I just checked Yale's site – rejected. Not the best news, but I'm not devastated...

I was afraid of that with ND. I had a friend who applied 2 years ago to ND and she said they sent out acceptances around the 10, but didn't inform the wait listed/rejected until early April.

Well, sadly I heard back from Duke MTS — waitlisted

Congrats to those who got into HDS today! I saw one Duke acceptance, anybody else heard from Duke's MTS? That's the one I'm anxious to hear from!

If you would be so kind as to turn down Candler's offer and re-direct that scholarship money to me, I would be much obliged! That's how it works right? Scholarships are transferable...? Oh, I guess not...

For what its worth, I followed the masters forum last year, and I seem to remember only a single person on the forum got accepted (if I remember the complaints correctly). Not to put a damper on things, but I guess it can happen. Maybe the true geniuses aren't surfing web forums but instead are at home studying languages...

I wish you were, oh how I wish you were...! Oh yeah, and regarding the wording of the scholarship offer, I wouldn't worry about, all the offers I've got so far have had the same language.

What's this I hear about a ND acceptance? Oh boy, let the email checking begin...how many hits has ND's online app got in the past two days? Wishful thinking, but any chance we're being trolled...?

I can only speak to my experience, but it seems that the April 15 resolution doesn't hold much influence, even for some signatories (although I know others, like ND, do abide by it). Its non-binding and there is no "enforcement" body over whether schools that sign it actually comply, so in effect it doesn't appear to mean much. I asked the school that required a decision about the April 15 resolution and their response was that it is something that the general university agrees to, but it doesn't apply to individual departments and their admissions decisions. That sounds like a distinction without a difference, but as I said, with no enforcement what's one to do?

xypathos, you should definitely ask for an extension on the deadline for those schools. I'm in the same boat and had 3 schools that wanted decisions before the end of Feb. and I emailed asking for an extension until March 20. Two of the schools were very helpful and agreed to extend it without further questions, the third was less helpful and said they wouldn't extend it and emphasized that if I hadn't returned a decision by the deadline the offer of scholarship AND admission would be withdrawn (which I didn't think was right). I understand a little because it was a big scholarship and they wanted to offer it to somebody else if I didn't accept, so I can't blame them too much. It was difficult to turn them down with such a great offer, but I'm holding out for something big! In my email I just explained that I would like to consider multiple competitive offers before making a final decision and won't hear back from several schools I applied to until March 15. I gave myself a few extra days because I know last year some of the results went out even after the 20th, so I hope that's not the case this year or I'll lose my mind! You could probably also invent a brilliant reason for why you need an extension, but my thinking was that if this is possibly the institution I'm going to try to impress for the next 2 years, honesty is probably the best policy. Long story short, it never hurts to gracefully & graciously ask for an extension, the worst that can happen is them saying no and the deadline stay the same.

I didn't apply to PTS and don't know anything specific about it, so take what I'm about to share with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't read too much into it. One of the schools I applied to sent a login and password in the acceptance letter for me to log into their site if I wanted to accept their offer, so PTS may do something similar and your login credentials are included in your letter. Or, like Emory's OPUS, you might have to create a new/different account to log into that particular site. I wouldn't stress too much until you hear an official response...now you just have to sit at home and never leave for the next 5 days knowing that a letter has been mailed...

well, just a month to go until most of those deadlines. I've been pretty calm up until this point, but now I'm ready to hear some news!

I completely understand, its been several years since my undergrad, so I also chose to submit a professional instead of a 3rd academic when the apps allowed that. I figured it would help to hear from somebody who has interacted with me more recently than my older academic recs. Good luck to you!

Hey BrownCow, I wasn't going to respond and leave this for others with more "experience" to answer, but since its gone un-commented on, I thought I would throw in my 2 cents just to not leave you hanging. It is my understanding if a school specifically asks for a professional recommendation (like asking for 2 academic and 1 prof), they are not looking for the prof. rec. to be about your academic abilities, but to reflect your work habits, reliability, character, cooperative spirit with others, etc. Now, if you work for an academic journal or something along those lines, then certainly it would be great to have a reference that both addresses your work habits and academic prowess, but I think it would be a stretch to say, "he/she writes great shift reports at the end of the day, so they are probably a great writer..." (obviously it would be better phrased than that), and in focusing on academics, they may miss the actual point of a professional reference. My take is, if they wanted another assessment of your academic skill they would ask for 3 academic references, but since they ask for a professional reference (or some a pastoral reference), they are wanting to know how well rounded you are as an individual. That's my take, but its also coming from somebody who is also applying for masters programs, so take it for what its worth. I think you're right to have them focus on your contributions, professionalism, and character as your mentioned. Happy holidays!

Trains, I applied to the MTS, so it may be a little different, but when they called to let me know I was accepted to the program they told me I would hear about scholarship information in March after they've received all of the applications and had time to evaluate them all for scholarships. I don't know if the process is different for MDiv's, but I'm not expecting to hear anything from them soon. Hope this helps aleviate some of the stress! *I just looked at my acceptance letter again to confirm, and it says "scholarship review will begin in January and continue until all funds are depleted," so if it truly "begins" in January, you may not hear an offer from them until later, just my guess.

Since I know I won't hear anything from Duke's MTS until March, I'm kind of living vicariously through those MDiv'ers who applied early! Good luck to you Cito!

Just to keep people updated, I heard back from Emory that I was accepted to their program, now just waiting to hear about scholarships in the spring from them and acceptance info from the rest as well...Did anybody who applied to Duke's early MDiv deadline hear back?

I don't know if this is helpful or not, since the discussion has now shifted to how your M* affects your PhD chances at a top school, but the advice my advisor/friend gave me when I started applying to M*'s is that I need to consider that the school I choose for my M* will most likely narrow my options for a PhD. In his opinion/advice, it is much easier to get into a PhD program that is at the same level or below where you did your Masters (which makes sense). So if your goal is a PhD at a top-tier school, then you increase your odds by doing a M* at a top-tier school. That isn't to say that you can't get into a PhD program with a M* from a 2nd or 3rd tier school, but statistically (as people have pointed out with Emory's PhDs) a vast majority (I'll estimate 85%) come from a top-tier school. So if you get your M* from a "lower" school, then you are essentially competing against all other 2nd & 3rd tier graduates for that 15%. Conversely, if your goal is getting a teaching gig at seminary or the like, then a M* or PhD from a more mainline (liberal?) school may actually hurt your chances (depending on how conservative they are), because don't forget, most hiring is not done by the faculty at those schools, but by the boards and committees which are usually made up of "the old guard" who help support/promote the Universities. I know its anecdotal, but one professor at a major seminary I was talking to told me that they have a strict policy of only hiring PhD's who did a MDiv at a seminary because they need to "know and have experienced the environment we want to create for our students here". So, I'm not saying its impossible to move "tiers", but you will inevitably close certain doors with your school decisions. At least that's how its been explained to me!

I've finished up most of my apps and putting the final touches on two this week to close it out. A couple will let me know in a few weeks, but for most, I think its just a waiting game... I don't know how many times I re-checked my apps before hitting that submit button...

Great Cito! I hope it goes well for you! I panicked a little because I didn't know Duke had an early deadline, but when I looked it up it doesn't apply to the MTS, so I guess I didn't miss it! I'm wrapping up my app for Duke and hope to have the rest in within a few weeks. Then its just waiting...