xypathos
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Everything posted by xypathos
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Yes, they’re just encouraging you to finish and submit your app. I wouldn’t read into this.
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I'm pretty sure you're required to wear no pants during a Skype interview and hope you never have to stand up. I think they call it "Business on the top, Party on the bottom."
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Of course! Probably all of us have felt it at least once or twice ... a day! It's a sucking feeling and it'll only suck more if your first notifications are rejections. I can tell you though that once your first acceptance comes in, it's all gravy. You take a deep breath and go "Alright, I was, at least, good enough." Should you have choices, you'll be cloud nine.
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I assure you, there's a due date! Some schools are rather strict on this where your app can't be edited or added to beyond midnight of the deadline. Others, you're good until someone certifies it as complete. As @TakeruK suggested, email the prof and let them know of the application deadline. Should they be unable to meet it, hopefully you can scrounge up a backup.
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The passive approach is to simply ask for more time. As @dmueller0711 has noted, if you withdraw now there won't be an issue come PhD time. If you accept and withdraw later, they'll have access to previous applications. If they look it up or not, who knows. Either way, it doesn't look good for you when you accept and withdraw, even with extreme circumstances. Is this school Union by chance? Don't name them here, I'm just curious since it fits their routine. They do this every year, making offers even before the close of the priority deadline. They offer you a 50-75% scholarship to entice you and then tell you that you have two weeks to decide. They also generally throw in a warning that you might be waitlisted come general review or likely offered a lower scholarship than what they're offering now, should stronger applicants apply in the mean time.
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I'm the same way! I print articles out and mark it up the old fashioned way. I got into it while at Vandy and Dr. Lim really encouraged his students to forego laptops. Props to the people that mark up pdfs on their computer, I just couldn't get into it. I feel a little bad for the forest that I've killed off but I just tell myself to blame the profs that assign 200+ pages of reading a week and give it to us in pdfs rather than telling us to buy the book.
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Any idea on how these threads have gone elsewhere? My approach so far has been to read compiled texts in my major and minor sub fields, along with 1-3 journal articles a week. I aim for 3 but with coursework and life I’m lucky if I get 2. i do a thorough read of each and then reconstruct their basic argument on a yellow notepad. I then do a very quick reread and plug in holes. These notes I keep in binders that are categorized. Fortunately (or unfortunately) reading lists for fields are pretty set in stone + what our unique focus adds. So, I don’t have to do a lot of searching and adding. So for actual supplies, I buy a lot of paper, pens, and binders. I guess notecards, book resources, and such for language study if that’s needed.
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I’m in the process of transferring schools. The POIs that I’ve spoken with have been supportive and that they’ll do everything they can to keep me from starting over. Granted, I’m in year one so it wouldn’t be a huge loss. My advisor here and dean are also very supportive and contacted potential schools on my behalf so I feel like I’ve skipped a lot of the usual application process.
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Okay, that explains Fuller then. I don't know about Fuller's financial aid capacity but there was a guy on here that did a M* there and said that Fuller's aid was generally in the 50-75% range. We hear, on here, often about students that did an M.Div at an evangelical school and end up having to do a MTS or another degree at a more mainline school in order to transition to a PhD. If that represents the truth for most applicants, I don't know. Should you find yourself at Duke or Yale and do well then you'll be pretty well set for PhD applications. I don't really operate in evangelical circles so I can't say much, honestly. Evangelical mainline schools tend to be okay with hiring outside their circles whereas conservative evangelical schools often hire their own graduates or those from a neighboring school with shared theological outlooks. Often, they don't even openly advertise and pursue their own candidates.
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Yes and it's only for PCUSA churches, I do believe. So if you're say PCA, Cumberland Pres, etc., then there's nothing guaranteed. I do know in the case of 100% for PCUSA members, you are required to provide documentation, or at least you were. I attended Vanderbilt which had a wide array of students. I also came across a wide array of students at Yale and Union that hadn't taken religious studies courses. I'm presently at a small though decently known Catholic school for a PhD but am pursuing a transfer this application cycle.
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Emails from Drew went out today that applicants should know by February 28th. The wording, to me, came across that applications are being considered in batches. My POI told me that specific departments began screening applicants within a few days of them receiving notifications that an applicant had uploaded writing sample and a PS. They, by and large, don't wait until the deadline and generally have a short list of candidates by the end of the first week in January before they go to committee.
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Yea, you're going to be fine! I had classmates from departments like music, public communications, exercise science, etc. Many of them had never even taken an undergraduate Religious Studies course and were phenomenal M.Div students. Play up your leadership experience, that'll be a big boost. Are you a recent grad? The median age at Yale, Princeton, and Duke averages mid to late 20s with some dips into the 30s sometimes. I don't know about Fuller. Vanderbilt is another school with a low median age if you're wanting to have plenty of opportunities to socialize. Speaking of Fuller, it's a bit of an outlier amidst the other three. Are you looking for a more evangelical school? Even in general, what are you hoping that your M.Div does for you? How do you want to develop, what kind of doors to you want it/you to open, etc? If you're applying this year have you taken the GRE? If so, I'd add Harvard. If not, I wouldn't spend the time and money to take it for one school. There's Chicago too if you want to apply there but they only accept about 12-15 students, granted 30 apply on a busy year. So, something to consider. If you're Presbyterian you'll be a strong candidate for PTS' 100% tuition scholarship. If not, I imagine you'll land close to the 80% one which is still very good.
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Good luck with the deadline everyone! It's the big one for most of us, followed up by January 15th for those schools that take mercy on us.
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I agree with @918Philosophizer. During my time in divinity school people entirely fell into one of these categories: 1) They took out loans entirely or in addition to their stipend. 2) They worked full time and attended school part time. 3) They worked part time. 4) They had a spouse that worked full time and they made it through on their salary. I know of no one, nor have heard of anyone, that made it through school solely on their stipend. Fun fact: I don't know a single PhD student in my current school that is surviving on their stipend. Most have some kind of side hustle: Moonlighting at a community college/online school, summer teaching, and/or part-time job. Some take out loans, others have a full-time working spouse. For what it's worth, I didn't know a single PhD student at VDS surviving on their stipend. There was a Chronicle of HigherEd article from several years back after a fairly exhaustive survey where they speculated that less than 10% of all PhD students are able to actually solely survive on their stipend. I'd believe it too.
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Could be. Apps to our program (not Duke!) are down 30% of what we usually get. Most are citing fear of the pending tax reform that will hit grad students with a large tax bill.
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Baylor and Michigan have deadlines of December 1st.
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At Yale and Union I received a flat $12,200 scholarship, which I think was about 50%. Vanderbilt offered me 100% plus a $10k stipend. I also had two AmeriCorps awards and FinAid was willing to let me "spend" them and then they cut me a check for the amount, so a little over another $10k.
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As @rheya19 noted, it doesn't have to be in Religious Studies. I've had colleagues that came over from Classics, History, and Sociology. That said, your school will certainly be looking for coursework in religion. If you don't have any then you're shooting yourself in the foot before the race even begins. Most of the programs that I know that take non-RS students into their PhD programs are still looking for 15-18 credits in RS for your app to be considered viable.
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I could be wrong but I think I read somewhere that the acceptance rate is largely around 60% for the MA since it's seen as a cash cow for the university. With the late deadline (generally a marker of a "Shit, I didn't get accepted anywhere!" school), partial funding, and also accepting of part-time students, I'd tend to think that the acceptance rate is fairly high.
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How's everyone handling the impending deadlines? I'm retaking the GRE on the 17th in haste as I attempt to transfer programs. I didn't realize until about three weeks ago that my GRE scores expired but better now than a week before deadlines.
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I have a friend that did their M* there but didn't want to stay on for a Ph.D., instead moving elsewhere. Their placement list can be located here: https://www.udayton.edu/artssciences/academics/religiousstudies/grad/phd-success/phd_theology_outcomes.php Problem is that it isn't broken down by year and whether these positions are current or their first position. As you can see from the list, lots of non-profit and high school teachers and administrators. It doesn't appear that anyone has landed at a major university which is also due to the fact that it's a theology degree and not religious studies.
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If it's a professor you have no history with, I'd say two weeks is a good minimum amount of time to wait.
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An example of a denominational journal would be: http://www.anglicantheologicalreview.org/ or the Methodist Review. While they can be useful for your own career, allow you to explore the implications of your work in a more personal space, or help pad your CV early in your career, they pale in comparison to a publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal, such as JBL (Journal of Biblical Literature) or the Journal of Religion, published out of Chicago. Ultimately, on average, the requirements to get published in a denominational journal over a secular one are lower. Religious Studies is such a large field that most ranking indexes aren't going to be that useful. Scimago's rankings are certainly a useful starting place but that's about it - http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=1212
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Here's what I can add regarding UTS from Dorrien himself. Granted, it's much more about the application process itself and the competitiveness. UTS accepts one student per field. So, that roughly breaks down as such: one student for Bible, one for History, one for Theology and Ethics, one for Interreligious, and then one for Practical. In reality though, sometimes History and/or Interreligious get rolled into another subfield depending on the strength of that year's applicant pool. Theology and Ethics is their most competitive field, receiving several hundred applications. From there the field is reduced to about 30-40 serious applicants and then faculty begin their case of advocating for their specific student(s). Ultimately, one student is chosen for the entire field. In rare cases where a student is awarded a multiyear fellowship, such as the Episcopal Fellowship - this frees up a spot and they'll accept a second student in that original student's field.
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I'm in year one of a PhD program and will probably be applying to leave, this cycle. It's a well regarded Catholic school and while I had reservations about attending after a campus visit, I went through with it since I liked the school better than the others. Lo and behold, the professors are noticeably more conservative than they led on and being the only non-Catholic student, the jeers and remarks toward my denomination (Episcopal Church) are going ignored when I ask them to stop. This being said, I have the blessing of the director and my advisor. My grades have been solid and I co-authored a paper with a prof that has been accepted to a well regarded journal. All in all, I'm not leaving soured by the university - I just can't see myself being here 5+ years and coming out better for it.
