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xypathos

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Everything posted by xypathos

  1. xypathos
    Yea, rental property owners just about everywhere are notorious about making rent prices available on their websites. That said, if you're living walking distance to campus - 800/month for a one bedroom, closer to 650 or so for a studio. Some rental owners offer all inclusive pricing (internet, cable, heat, etc) but that's hit or miss. I presently live in Syracuse while my partner finishes her PhD, small world!
  2. xypathos
    If you’re wanting housing near the university, there’s plenty of apartment units in the village. There’s public transit but it’s very limited - Alfred is a quite small place and you’re two hours from a real city. Weather wise, winters here can suck quite a bit but Spring and Fall are amazing. People tend to be very nice but they don’t look to get attached to students.
  3. xypathos
    Funding for international students at the Master's level is going to be minimal, you will almost certainly depend on loans in order to complete a Master's degree in the US. Unfortunately, given the schools that you're applying to in the US - your undergraduate degree being from Moody won't cut you any favors, mainstream divinity schools in the US do not look upon Moody favorably. Duke is an exceptional school and if you do well there, it will open a lot of doors for you. You're going to come across the same funding issues in Canada and UK but that is also dependent upon your citizenship.
  4. xypathos
    Generally speaking, your distinction between M.Div and MTS/MAR/MA is true. The former is geared those considering the possibilities of ordination or certain doors that may be opened with an M.Div, whereas the latter is considering academia, professional schools, or needing to acquire skills for a niche field, such as becoming a religion reporter. MTS-style degrees tend to have lower acceptance rates and less funding, while M.Div programs generally have higher acceptance rates and more funding, often due to denominational donors. Keep in mind that M.Div programs are three years, whereas MTS programs are two. M.Div acceptance rates at top schools bounce between 40-60% whereas MTS programs are closer to 30-40%±. My usual advice is that if a student has any inclination toward ordination, religious leadership, or a "ordination if rejected from PhD programs" - go for the M.Div. You'll get most/all of the same courses, you can spend more time with languages, most schools let you cater field supervision to your needs (I TA'ed undergraduate RS courses for a year). In cases where students already have strong grounding in language, solid GRE, and they simply need to check off the "have a Master's" box to even apply - go the MTS route. If you can honestly say, "If I'm resoundingly rejected by all PhD programs then I'd rather go work a cubicle job than work in ministry/non-profit," then definitely hit up the MTS route. Don't spend the extra year and take out the extra loans for work that will crush your soul. M.Div applicants are a dime a dozen when it comes to applying to PhD programs, it's not going to affect anything. You've had an extra year in school so some parts of your app should reflect how you took advantage of that. If your M.Div wasn't competitive or you didn't feel that it prepared you, there's always an STM degree. The one case where an M.Div might trump MTS/MA is if you were going to propose a field of study that touches on "applied/practical theology," (liturgy, homiletics, some theology fields, some areas of ethics, etc.) often schools and/or advisors will expect you to have an M.Div.
  5. xypathos
    Correct, Harvard doesn’t interview.
  6. xypathos
    Four fellows are chosen but the number interviewed every year changes, in 2014 they interviewed twelve and I believe the final # in '16 was nine.
  7. xypathos
    I’ve never known Austin to do competitive interviews but I also know that an interview=\=acceptance. They’ve been known to do some weird things in their interviews too, several years ago they had an HB applicant that they’d only let interview in Hebrew. I imagine it’s a situation of you being, more or less, their preferred candidate but they want to see what they’re buying before they sign the papers. Which probably means there’s 1-2 other candidates sitting on the bench hoping you bomb but you won’t!
  8. xypathos
    Brite Divinity - mid. February, they also only notify by snail mail. They've got to be close to the last school still using this method. Iliff - early March is when the bulk of their notifications are sent out, priority candidates are often notified a little earlier. Union - traditionally first week of March Chicago - first week of March Vanderbilt - mid-late February but it's spotty
  9. xypathos
    Yes to both, esp. for M* EDIT: HDS says that their accepted Master's applicants averaged 158V 157Q 4.0W. This information is from a recruiting fair that various Harvard schools held in China in 2017 that I attended (NOT for Harvard). Your scores however not only beat this but they also make you competitive enough that you'd survive the screening cutoff for PhD applicants - Harvard's medians, not so much.
  10. xypathos
    Probably not at HDS. University-wide fellowships are often screened/filtered by combined GRE scores but I don’t think Harvard considers Master’s applicants for any of their top ones.
  11. xypathos
    You're right. I spoke with a current doc student in HB and they said the school had to cut a slot for each field. Sometimes funding opens up for a second student but it's rare and generally rotates between Biblical Studies and Church History.
  12. xypathos
    It's complicated. The general advice of Adcoms is to avoid talking about mental health issues unless it's directly pertaining to a period of low grades or has direct impact on your research area. Even then though, it's couched within the context of how I've overcome it and the steps I've put in place to make sure it won't happen again. Divinity Schools are a different beast, you're right. They are more interested in you as a person, your story, and the uniqueness that you have to offer to everyone else. No one is going to throw out your app for bringing it up! So rest easy there. The question your reader(s) will be asking is "Why?" Why did you bring this up, what purpose does it serve, and what are you wanting me to know about you that everything else cannot tell me? Going to a community college doesn't warrant you using mental health as a justification, nor does a 3.4 GPA in your first two years of college. You're going to be fine! Most readers will simply write you off as being overly critical of yourself.
  13. xypathos
    I'll add that it's a competitive interview so while you'll be interviewed by faculty and that will be the primary decision, they're also paying attention to group dynamics. per the VDS Calendar, Interviews will be Monday Feb. 5th and 6th, which is usual so I'd expect to leave sometime Wed. morning. You'll have a bit of downtime so check out the shops along 21st Ave if you get hungry - Mellow Mushroom, San Antonio Taco Company (SATCO) (it's a popular div. school hangout for cheap food when you're taking a break from a late night in the library), etc. Vanderbilt also has the tradition of the Whiskey Fairy if you need incentives to accept.
  14. xypathos
    It means you've made it to the short list! I think there were some recent funding cuts but when I was there they accepted ~2 students per field but interviewed ~4 per field.
  15. xypathos
    Also in Brite's favor: They have the Soul Repair Center and probably the school most dedicated to the growing field of "moral injury" and working with soldiers that suffered a traumatic event during war. Dr. Nancy Ramsay leads the SRC and while she does a lot of work in Pastoral Theology, she'd be an awesome person to talk to. For an idea of their courses: https://www.brite.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/S18-Masters-Schedule_010918.pdf (Spring Masters Schedule)
  16. xypathos
    Was returning to YDS not an option? There are of course UU seminaries but you know that. But yea, when it comes to schools with a healthy UU presence and/or being very welcoming to that point of view - HDS and Union are about it. Duke is “liberal” but not in the ways you need and not as liberal as people think. Vandy has a progressive student body on social justice issues but it’s firmly rooted in a Christ-centric ethos. EDIT: If you’re not as concerned about funding, maybe GTU or Claremont.
  17. xypathos
    I know a student there that is doing a second Masters there that got an interview. He’s not active on this forum though. I’ll check with him. EDIT: He’s not the one that posted to the results forum. They interview several so he said not to worry.
  18. xypathos
    It's a checkbox and it is still useful data when it comes to weeding out applicants. It's exceptionally rare that a LOR makes an application, at best it keeps you in contention. It's like getting a 160 Verbal on the GRE - cool, you survived the minimum cutoff (I'm aware some schools have notably lower competitive cutoffs but that's a different matter). LORs are slightly more valuable than GRE scores but marginally so. LORs are largely an American thing too, some European schools have come to accept them but most rely on your past work, research statement, and usually an interview. That's it. I don't want to write a book here or anything but we all obsess over our applications. Understandably so! We're largely being asked to reduce ourselves and capabilities to a handful of numbers, a writing sample, and a personal statement. These things reflect us as a person but at the same time, they don't. Outside of the writing sample and personal statement, this whole process is outside of our control. Someone in some office reads our packet, stamps Yes, No, or Maybe So and that closes or open doors for us. Sure, they might interview you but there's an increasing push to do away with interviews b/c they are admittedly biased. Most schools have something akin to Mercy Readers that are designed to catch applicants that fell through the crack, students that would be exceptional if all things were equal.
  19. xypathos
    It’s common knowledge in Admissions circles but letters are largely a formality that get glanced at and tossed aside. For the mast majority of applicants, they don’t mean jack and probably never truly get read. If you get LORs from someone that has some clout, it’ll go a LONG way. Especially from profs that have a reputation of only writing recommendations for their most exceptional students. The reality though is that most recommendation writers write of their students as if they’re the second coming of Christ. Student X is the strongest student I’ve had in years, X was so insightful and probing in class discussions, X has the desire and hunger to not only flourish at your school but to also make your school better for being there. If your writer can’t/won’t say these things, DON’T ask them! Here’s the catch though, some writers try to make their letter stand out or seem genuine by pointing out a flaw in you and how you work to balance/counter it (some don’t even do this second half). X is reserved in class discussion, X needed more support in structuring writing assignments, X’s initial remarks were topical but needed probing to go deeper, X seems to lack clarity in research focus but makes up for it in dedication, etc. This shit will sink your submarine quicker than having a screen door for a hatch.
  20. xypathos
    You're going to get in somewhere, don't worry. Despite you feeling that your degrees are a bonus, from my own experience working in Admissions - it's going to work against you. Nothing that might jeopardize your acceptance but four degrees, two of which are remarkably similar, it says you don't know what you want to do. It also says you hit the bare minimum to declare it as a major and probably don't have any real depth in any field. If you were applying for an M.Div degree I wouldn't be saying this but you're applying for academic tract M* degrees which are already more competitive, have fewer slots, and offer less funding than their M.Div programs. It's easier to transition from conservative undergrad to an ivy Master's, than it is from a conservative Master's to an ivy PhD. Alas, there are multiple reasons for that. Still, the AdComs will be concerned about significant grade inflation which tends to be more rampant at smaller schools, particularly evangelical ones. Granted inflation is everywhere but in some circles it is far worse. Rather than speaking to your minor in biblical languages, I'd make sure to speak to how many years and what languages you're already working on adding to your skill set. Don't submit GRE scores to any schools that don't ask for them, don't give them extra ammo. Anyway, you'll get in somewhere. I cannot, of course, offer any guidance on probable schools of acceptance or anything.
  21. xypathos
    No, invites should go out next week or beginning of the week after. They just recently had a faculty meeting to finalize their list of candidates they want to interview.
  22. xypathos
    Vandy tends to interview in later January with decisions going out about a month later/early March. When I was a student there I was told that if they don't invite you in for an interview (on campus) or make alternate arrangements for a Skype interview (if you're international), at best you've been waitlisted and should assume rejection. Interviews are a chance for them to get their preferred candidates and 1-2 alternates in the same room, see how they interact and handle interviews, then cut the ones that they don't like.
  23. xypathos
    Grats! What field? I was accepted to REP and I know someone else that was too.
  24. xypathos
    Decisions have been made at FSU and the first round of acceptances (preferred candidates) are being notified through this week.
  25. xypathos
    Fortunately the semester is back in the swing of things so I’ll have some forced distractions, this way my F5 key can get some rest!
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