xypathos

It makes sense, they've been struggling to place students into TT positions. There's a strong rumor mill going at AAR that BU is aiming to completely shut down the PhD program.

The best way is to simply get them published or accepted for presentation. That shows that you're on the right track. What country are you residing in? That info can help focus you on conferences to present at, while publication can be done anywhere.

Reputable PhD programs in the US will provide full funding, even for international students. I've come across a lot of international students, especially in education, who received funding from the Open Society Foundation so check them out. If you're now wanting to engage Christianity, in a say interreligious dialogue with Islam - Georgetown would be hard to beat. They require you to already be quite familiar with one religious tradition and then you use your doctoral time to develop proficiency in the other. When my wife was doing her PhD at Syracuse (Education), we had a number of friends also working on collaborative PhDs across departments. There were students doing PhDs in Education and utilizing resources in their Religion Department, International Relations, History, Philosophy, etc.

It's going to be a tough market no matter what you do. Schools like Harvard and Yale are struggling to place graduates in tenure-track positions within religious studies/theology. I graduated from Emory and never even got an interview invite for a tenure-track position. That said, I knew I wanted to work as a priest and was happy doing that. I do have a guaranteed part-time job at the local flagship school and happy with that. A M* classmate went to Princeton and completely struck out in interviews but got a job teaching in the UK and has citizenship there now. Life finds a way. That said, you could find a job with a distance PhD from Aberdeen - provided you're geographically and theologically open. You also might not be able to find a TT job and need to settle/start with church+academia. If you have the financial means to be on campus and in the community, I'd always recommend that.

That's Aberdeen's full-time rate. Aberdeen generally won't approve students for a distance PhD if they want to do it full-time, since the assumption is that you're working. If so, your tuition rate is only 50%. That said, if you want to be a professor, regardless of tradition - Aberdeen carries far more weight than CIU. CIU is not readily known and the fact that they don't publish their placement info doesn't bode well. The second a Search Committee googles your degree and see that it was online, you're going in the trash can. There's far too many applicants to bother with an online PhD.

What's your background? By that, personal and/or academic involvement with Islamic Studies? That might help others suggest programs and offer more specific advice.

I can more or less also vouch for what @ם but my interview was in 2017 so things could've changed by then. Four were invited to campus with another 1-2* that were interviewed but not invited (backups). All of the initial acceptances came from those invited but a number of them declined to enroll. *Some subfields didn't identify backups and instead opted to run short, or have no incoming students, because they didn't like their slate of candidates.

In the case of being in the UK and not being particularly interested in ministry work, I'd say try to find scholarship circles that welcome undergraduates to present their research. Most of them have a fairly low bar for undergraduates to present - it's more about tipping your toes in the water. There's also academic journals. It's more so to show that you're thinking about this work beyond simply what you're being taught, you're making your own connections to things. I love to bake and so one of my attempts to merge this was working on a paper that looked at the history of bread (recipe composition, shape of the bread, etc) and the role that played in various locations when it came to temple worship. Beyond that, just pursue your passions and develop yourself as a person. UK PhDs are only 3 years (usually) but in the US it's not uncommon for religious studies/theology programs to be 7+ and many of the lower tier ones are averaging 10-12 years now. So, faculty are making a commitment to you as a person too. Have interests outside religion, it'll keep you sane.

Get it over with and behind you, so that you can move on with your life and not have them hanging over you.

What degree are you eyeing at Vandy? Their acceptance rate for the M.Div is really high. A 3.1 isn't that bad, I attended Vandy with classmates with much worse GPAs from online diploma mills. If you're also Latinx it might be open you up to some diversity scholarships. VDS, and Nashville, is extremely expensive and even 50% funding is quite rare. I think you'll equally be competitive at Iliff and Candler. Yale is hard to pin down since GPA matters more but I'd say you have a 33% shot at worst.

It's school dependent. Enough schools get enough applications that they refuse to read an application until it's complete, often their website will specify if this is their policy. You're always welcome to email/call the school and inquire about your situation. When I was applying for M.Div programs I had a similar situation. They let me submit a "backup" recommendation and once my straggler submitted, I told them who to drop and they deleted the spare recc from my application.

This is school dependent. Generally, no it doesn't need to be a direct fit as far as paper = field, BUT! it needs to showcase skills that are relevant for your field. So, if you're wanting to propose something language intensive, you'd better show skills there. There's no harm in writing a new paper if you have the energy to do it, but you need a trusted mentor(s) to provide feedback. Ideally, your paper is at least tangentially related even it's a little bit of a creative stretch. Most of your programs are going to expect MAR/MTS applicants to submit three academic references but might not require it. That said, don't submit a lukewarm recommendation to hit this. Check what the schools want. Generally you'll only have detailed requirements for M.Div. If your three best are two academic, and one professional - go with that, unless a school says it must be three academic. You can find more about the MTS application here - https://divinity.duke.edu/admissions/how-apply#mts. Its been well over a decade since I applied to Duke but I think the personal statement is what they used to show that commitment.

Is everything else equal? That is, more or less financial aid package (if any). In another thread you were just applying to M* programs to start this fall, guessing that changed? I believe from past posts that you're an international student, right? By that, not a US citizen? If so, I can't really speak to your job prospects outside the US. It's going to be exceptionally hard to get a job in academia with a UK degree, except for conservative, mostly Baptist and Reformed schools. It'll still be hard with them too, just slightly easier.

Are you a US citizen? If so, scholarships are going to be ridiculously hard to secure. The UK schools that are approved for federal loans would much rather you take out loans than receive scholarship money. The US citizens that get scholarships tend to be the ones that had such competitive applications that they're also applying to HYPetc. A UK school will also limit your ability to come back to the US and teach. Many of the UK schools have a reputation for doctrinal bias, so it's more important to focus on who would be supervising your work. Oxford and Cambridge skirts some of this, but again it comes down to who your supervisor is. No idea what this is meant to mean, but scripture had doctrinal purposes, even by its writers.

You're overthinking almost all of this. Your GPA is going to be better than some of your potential classmates, and you bring a perspective that will be unique. Take a deep breath. Write your essays and personal statements that speak to your passions, how HDS/Chicago/etc will help you explore them, and the trajectory you see yourself going, etc. Drop this talk about burdens, things being too late, etc. A 3.6/4.0 GPA is not a burden. Applying to graduate school at 25 is not too late. My advisor once said to me: We reach a crossroads when we graduate college. One can go to therapy, or one can go to graduate school and force our problems on others. Don't be the latter, granted most of us did that.