Yetanotherdegree

I have a small book allowance I get to use to order whatever I want. I already have my textbooks, and I have to spend it within the next month so I can't just wait and buy future text books. What would you recommend? I have enough for a nice little pile of books and I don't know what to buy

I think it kind of depends on how low your scores are and how great the rest of your application is. I know that where I'm applying the V score is considered important, the Q score doesn't matter unless its so far below what they usually see that it raises a red flag, and the AW needs to be respectable. This info came from the program director at a TT institution, FWIW. I've also heard that everyone gets one mistake/issue, but not more than one. If your GRE scores are your one thing and the rest of the application is stellar, then you should be fine, as long as those low numbers aren't too low.

I did, and I am scheduled to take the GRE on August 31. I don't know if I will do it or not - I have enough prep to get through without adding in another thing. If anyone does go ahead with it, please do post here and let us know how it goes.

If you do decide to take a year or so, try to find a relevant job, work on application materials, and just generally do something that shows commitment and maturity. I don't know if you do need this, but if you were to apply for 2014 and not get in, then you could use the time between things to help "spin" your story so that you'll be a stronger applicant the following year. It won't hurt to try, but it's also good to have a backup plan and you know where your weaknesses are.

Hmm, didnt read that far. In that case, I got nothing. In my experience, the non-MDiv programs tend to run at about 30-33% (which, of course, is a huge generalization)...

I would assume that the stats are for all degree programs offered by HDS, and that the ThD stats are what pull the numbers down.

If you have a consistent pattern of challenges and lower grades, you may find that you need to take a year or two off after undergrad and before applying to to masters programs. This would allow you to demonstrate growth, maturity, and focus, and may be more appealing to admissions committees than saying that you had ongoing challenges that never allowed you to fully actualize your potential, even if those challenges were especially difficult/compelling. I'm not saying this is the case with you at all, but that pattern can be interpreted by admissions committees and others as a sign of an inability to focus on school or a potentially problematic refusal to take responsibility for academic performance, neither of which are positives for graduate admissions. If there is any possibility that an admissions committee might interpret your past performance this way, then you will want to make sure you address these concerns with actions and not just words. I don't think your GPA is so low that you don't have a chance anywhere, but I don't think it's a guaranteed admission either. But more importantly, if you have plans to do doctoral work, then your MDiv grades have to be outstanding, not just because the doctoral program admissions are extremely competitive, but because you need to overcome your less than stellar undergrad GPA. Would a year or two out of school help you to do this?

I know this may sound like an impossible task, but if you are thinking about a PhD, then you might want to consider which school and academics you would like to work with in the future. Once you have some ideas about where you would like to be in 4-5 years, it may be easier to see where you might want to go for an MDiv or similar.

I'm in a completely different academic area, but the places where I am applying specify the type of sample I need to provide. And, while I can interpret this relatively loosely, I would not want to push it too far. What do your applications ask for? If it's just an academic writing sample, then the undergrad thesis should work. However if you are a native english speaker (bilingual?) then I would think that the relevant pieces in Spanish might be especially impressive as they demonstrate superior language ability. I would check with the program director for each of your applications and offer them a choice, see what they have to say. This only works if you can demonstrate that you have no issues whatsoever with English - if it is not your first language, then you need to submit something that demonstrates your ability to produce high-level academic work in the language of instruction at the place where you are applying. Sending in a sample in another language would only serve to raise concerns about your ability to work in English. Good luck!

You may already know this, but just in case you don't: a divinity school is part of a larger university, while a seminary is not. So, for example, Duke Divinity School, Yale DIv School, Harvard Div School etc, are all schools of the respective universities. Seminaries can have relationships with larger institutions (Princeton, for example) but are much more independent/separate. Because of this, I think divinity schools can sometimes be a bit harder to get into, although they often have access to better resources and more faculty. It sounds like a div school with a range of faculty, schools of thought etc would be a better fit for you, but perhaps more of a challenge re admission. However I don't think it would be impossible, especially if you are open with them about your challenges during your undergrad. What are your long-range goals? If they include doctoral studies, you may wish to consider a very well-known, mainstream divinity school instead of a small seminary, as a degree from that sort of place is more likely to set you up for doctoral work. Maybe somewhere like Vanderbilt Divinty School?

I second what JDM said about applying for an MDiv. Do you have specific theological or denominational interests/requirements that might help us to direct you to programs that would fit?

Hmm, your first post is to promote a service? Okay... Also, the 'about' section of the link has enough grammatical errors that I would be very hesitant to use such a service. Caveat emptor and all that.

I have been told (by the director of the doctoral program I'm applying to) that yes, a very low GRE score in quant will be used to rule out candidates, even in a program that has no math whatsoever. Given your score, yes, I would retake. For most applicants, I don't think it's a big deal, but a score in the 20s might result in your application being automatically rejected.

The bigger schools definitely have more and better funding. I would start with places that have been around for a long time, with endowments and funding for many/most students. The smaller places will have and offer less $. My MDiv was paid for by long-dead christian souls who had thoughtfully remembered my institution in their final bequests I'm not sure about the philosophy side of things, but I know there are posters on here who could help with that, if you post and ask.

I don't know about it, but I looked at the website and they are a candidate for accreditation by ATS, the association of theological schools, not actually accredited. Because they are not yet accredited, a degree from there is not likely to be acceptable to any of the mainstream institutions. When the top-tier places ask for a degree from an accredited institution, they mean ATS. For this reason alone, I would not consider a degree from there if you ever hope to study anywhere else on the strength of that degree.

Thanks, AbrasaxEos! I do have an idea that I am interested in potentially pursuing that would work for the Duke conference I posted earlier today. I just found out about the conference though, and the idea/direction is relatively new for me. I would need to do a lot of work to get it to the stage where I could submit, especially since I'm not quite sure what that stage looks like, never having done this before. I'm torn. I have an idea that I would genuinely like to pursue, the conference is easy/convenient for me since I'm at Duke, and I am interested in the conference itself, in engaging with and learning from fellow students, as well as in exploring academia and testing out whether or not this direction is a good fit for me. However, I'm just about to start a masters-level program and would need to submit a completed paper in a week, on a topic I have not fully developed or researched. I write fast but that might be asking a bit much... I do have quite a bit of teaching/presenting experience and can write for oral delivery. I suspect the format (writing for presentation) means that I might be able to get something together by August 1, but on the other hand, I might just do better if I could plan for something that doesn't require submission next week... Decisions, decisions...

Talk to me as if I know nothing at all about academic conferences Why would I want to participate? Is it worth the effort? Who typically presents at these sorts of things? (Something like the Duke grad student conference, the ones geared to students rather than faculty -and yes, I know the answer is "students, of course!" But what types and levels etc etc) What would I get out of the experience? Have you done it? Would you? I'm kind of tempted, and kind of not. Trying to decide whether I should put together a submission. Too soon/wait? Or go for it? Thanks!

http://divinity.duke.edu/academics/degrees/doctor-theology/duke-graduate-conference-theology It's a bit short notice, but it looks interesting...

I'm wondering if I need to go buy another machine... I use my ipad for most things. With a keyboard, I can take notes etc although the pages app isn't as helpful as an actual word processing program. I have a PC that I like a lot but it is getting older and slower and has started to not do things it should do. And I have access to other computers, both PC and Mac, as needed. Is there any reason why I would need more access or comgputing power than what I have described above? It's a theology degree, not aerospace engineering. All I need is to be able to type words. What do you use for school? And if you could pick anything, what would you want to use? Thanks

I figured they were both in the same department, different areas I don't think you can or should apply to both, at least not with a typical North American PhD program. The applications would go to the same committee and (if you could even get two applications in to the same place) it would look...unfocused at best. You mentioned that its a UK-style program, so the process may be different. But if you were applying here, you would do one app and mention your interests and both POIs in your SOP and the committee/POIs would sort out the specifics at that point,

Thank you Eigen. I retread my post from earlier and just to be clear, while I would like to use the resource, I am not willing to steal it. I appreciate your deleting the link. Although it did look like a great study tool...

If I were in your shoes, I would be thinking about the area slightly beyond my area of interest. Would the choice between OT and NT POIs affect the language requirements for your degree? And what about approaches/overlapping interests/related research? How might the POI affect the broader horizons that will be brought into your work? I would also look at lists of POI publications to see where their research and interests are leading (especially recent work) and I might try to find a current or recent student of theirs to ask about supervisory style etc. Finally, I would ask myself if one would be better for future job projects. Is one a more significant academic? Does one give you credibility in an academic area or subdiscipline that might prove more beneficial than the other? If you were going to spend the rest of your life tied to one discipline or the other, would you prefer to be NT or OT? Good luck. It sounds like kind of a fun dilemma to have

Ok, I looked at the link you provided and here are my thoughts: 1) the resource is excellent. It's hard of find good RC exercises and this link has 99 of them, clearly laid out and explained. If you work through them all, I think you would improve your score on RC questions, possibly significantly. But.. 2) I'm pretty sure this is a pirated copy of a book that should not be downloaded for free. I feel pretty strongly that intellectual property rights should be respected and just because you can use something doesn't mean you should.. So.. Excellent resource, questionable source. I'm conflicted - I want to use the exercises, but I don't think it's right to do so,

It's not long enough. Try for at least three points (and maybe a fourth "on the other hand...but..." type of comment.) An easy point is to observe that "unprecedented growth" does not make for real statistics and the article could benefit from looking at the actual numbers - what if the unprecedented growth is a ten-fold increase in restaurants, from 1 restaurant to 10 in a country of 5 million people? That restaurant industry would have "unprecedented growth" but it would be a lousy investment... There is always a numbers issue in this type of question, learn to find it and it's an easy paragraph. Good luck.

Ok, those are fairly specific . Interesting, but specific. Thanks for sharing. I think I'm going to join NAPS, and I guess either SBL or AAR would be a good idea. Or both...