Clare

To the person who was asking about interviews for BC earlier - I was accepted, and no they didn't do interviews, it just came as an email. Same thing with Georgetown's program in Theological and Religious Studies, a direct letter from the director of grad studies. that surprised me since i had assumed all of the schools have interview weekends but apparently not.

Yes, as Decaf said, Yale Divinity School has very good funding. I have quite a few friends who also have full-tuition rides.

I would affirm what those above have said about letters of recommendation. Obviously all the parts of the application are important, but really strong letters from really pertinent people says a lot. I do think you should put a lot of thought into what sort of a methodology you want to pursue. This doesn't necessarily mean you've got to choose one over the other. For example, my undergrad was a Religious Studies degree, then went to Yale Div School for a Masters of Divinity which was explicitly theological, and next year I am going to Georgetown's PhD in Theological and Religious studies, where they seek to equip students with a solid grounding in both. But before you apply to schools, you should be clear about what kind of research you're hoping to learn and to do, and what sort of scholar you want to be. For example, if you're aim is to be a straight up systematic theologian in the western theological tradition, then you need to go to a school that does that, like Notre Dame. If you're wanting to do religious studies and comparative philosophy (you said these were your undergrad majors) then a religious studies program like Yale's doctorate downtown would make more sense. If you're hoping to chart something in between - for example, you want to be a theologian but want to do East Asian theology, and need to engage on a deep level with East Asian religions thought in order to do it authentically - then you want to go to a theology program, but with faculty who are grounded in the philosophical and comparative studies that you need (for example, Georgetown, or maybe Boston University, etc)

I was accepted to Georgetown's doctorate in theology and religious studies, and will be starting there in the fall 2013! Although I visited all the schools I was accepted to, I was most impressed with Georgetown's faculty and students! First of all, the faculty are so strong in their respective traditions, as you would hope and expect; but they were also wonderfully attentive to raising up their doctoral students to be competent colleagues (in terms of intellect, mastery of the material, communication, professionalism, the whole package) . Granted, that was a little intimidating... it seems a small and therefore intense program; Georgetown's program is on the newer side, but they have definitely hit the ground running. So even though I'm coming from an Ivy League masters program, I quickly realized during my visit to Georgetown I wasn't in the Kansas of being a Masters student anymore! The current students there are unusually articulate about their work. I think this is due to both substantial coursework in methodology (religious studies, and theology) and from working so closely with the faculty often in one-on-one tutorials. So, this was all really exciting - so, it's a challenge I know will stretch me to be the best scholar I can be. Students in the other doctoral programs I visited seemed to operate very much as 'grad students,' being part of a cohort of others working on similar types and themes, being guided as a cohort through a program curriculum. While there are benefits to this structure, I felt it allowed students at these other universities to sit back on their heels a bit; it wouldn't be much of a step up from the environment I'm currently in at the master's level. On the contrary, I think Georgetown does a good job of producing mature individual scholars, who from the very start set about articulating their intellectual enterprise and then doing really innovative, solid theological work . As Febronia said above, the students all seemed to be pursuing fascinating and unique research! Finally, the department couldn't be more supportive, both in terms of mentorship and funding, of helping doctoral students do what they need to do to be top scholars. Every time I asked about opportunities (like funding for language study, for research in EAsia, conferences, etc) the answer was always to the effect of "of course, if it will help you gain what you need, that's what this is all about." The department really encouraged students to identify resources they need to be successful, and from the accounts of current students I talked to, really comes through in terms of helping you operate as a scholar in the disciplinary scenes that you'll need to. Therefore, I'm going to Georgetown in the fall, and as you can probably tell, I'm very excited about it!