xypathos

Probably somewhere around 25,000 are from the Top 10 commenters here!

I can only speak from the shared experience of individuals in the philosophy subsection so take the following with that caveat. Several have remarked (from their experience and shared advice from professors), that once you attend a seminary or divinity school, making the jump to a philosophy department for a PhD becomes astronomically harder. There was a perception, on their end, that they had become tainted by being in an environment with feeds/supports confessional students and were no longer capable of being critical and unbiased in their work. Caputo has spoken of this some, anecdotally, about his reception among fellow philosophers and theologians though with the acknowledgements he spent most of his career at a Catholic university in a program very heavy in Philosophy of Religion.

From what I gathered, though I didn't ask about specifics, is that it was a former student that went into ministry for several years and is now returning to the academy. Which makes sense given Lim's known preference for students.

Poo! I'm colorblind so I can't tell if your coloring is green or red but hopefully green! I've visited for conferences and to see a HS friend that went there for UG - lovely school. I'm curious to know who the admit went to. I had heard rumors that it was Paul Lim's choice and that he verbally promised the slot to a former student of his when he taught at Gordon-Conwell. Which is all fine and dandy but when a student at VDS, the faculty said explicitly "We choose the best candidate for the field, as a whole." Yet fellow PhD students and faculty members after a beer or two, would confide that it's acually rotational and when it's your time, you get to choose your student - done deal. I don't understand that if that is in fact the case, tell us! Say, "We're taking one Americanist this year in Historical Studies! That's it!" Save yourselves the time to slog through applications on Reformation, save us the money, etc.

I don't know what to say other than emphasize what has already been said. A Harvard PhD *MIGHT* get you an interview but if you don't have someone specifically within your field to guide your research, you will suffer from it. PhDs are about the people you know, the profs. that have co-authored a paper with you, or capable of writing that LOR for you come employment time. This mindset of "If my PhD doesn't say it's awarded by Harvard, what's the point of doing it?" is undergraduate level, recognizable name = greatness, thinking.

Also, not at all schools publicly post placement records on their website because of confidentiality concerns but I know Claremont, SMU, and Fordham made detailed lists and contact info available to me when I asked for it.

I just received a shipment of Herr's ketchup potato chips, courtesy of my partner. They're my guilty pleasure for when I visit Canada and she knew I was pretty stressed waiting for notifications so she thought this would help. Glad to share while we click F5 in unison!

Just tell them the truth, they've had this happen before and understand. I had to do the same thing when Union wanted me to accept their M.Div offer by Feb. 28 or so back in 2014. Something to the effect of, "I greatly appreciate your offer of acceptance. BU is an amazing school and is a great fit for me. That said, surely you can understand that not all schools have notified yet. As such, I kindly ask for an additional few weeks so that I may mull over potential offers and take into full account their accompanying financial aid offers, as you understand that affordability is a prime concern." Tweak it to your situation but keep it short and simple.

I can support this with my conversations with Dr. Dorrien. Several PhD students have been successful in securing housing in exchange for TA/RA'ing but that's about it since UTS has a glut of students right now. Apparently getting in isn't the hard part, it's balancing work in order to fund your studies.

I know Vandy has already held interviews and they have a finalist list but don't know if acceptances have already gone out. I thought someone earlier claimed an acceptance from Marquette (here on the forums) but maybe that was just an interview.

Without knowing what schools you've applied to, we can't offer much in the way of an answer. Some schools haven't sent out any notifications whatsoever whereas some are already done deciding for the year and have notified.

It would probably help, on some level anyway, when appropriate to name the school when we're considering them a second tier school. Broadly speaking, Drew sure would probably be a T2 yet within Methodist circles, it's spoken of highly from my anecdotal experience. Duke is T1, yet some of the conservative circles I know of, their graduates are passed over. The latter doesn't mean much broadly but I think we need some greater context. Iowa is a T2 school, yet their graduates easily land TT jobs provided they're geographically flexible but this is probably true for any school really.

My partner is in Syracuse's Disability Studies program. She applied to York but was denied b/c of the availability of funds for American students. Glad to pass on any questions you may have of the field and/or schools.

If memory serves correct, and the results page seems to suggest, Vandy notifies the last week of February. EDIT: I believe Vanderbilt is only accepting one Historical Studies student this round and it'll be someone in Reformation, so that means it'll go to Paul Lim for "deciding" who gets it. I don't know if that's specifically the tract you applied for but given your sig, I assumed so. Sometimes they'll take a second student in the field if funding permits but that's sporadic.

So per a friend that had an in-person interview with Warner a little over a week ago - decisions will come out in 3-5 weeks. The faculty haven't gathered yet with the Dean in order to finalize the budget, which students will get assistantships, how many they're accepting yet, etc. Full funding and assistanthips are prioritized for Ph.D. students over Ed.D., and those interested in a research or professor position are prioritized over students wanting to go into Student Affairs or another administration department. This last bit of information is relevant to Higher Ed. and Educational Policy specifically, so she was told but not necessarily to other programs.

I'm not sure what the CPE unit is for. I know what it is, but I mean what do you want to get from it, and what are you hoping to use it to move onto? If you're looking to do a chaplaincy residency, the year long paid program, the ones that I've looked at want one unit of CPE acquired before you begin. True, perhaps there are some that don't - I imagine there are, I've just never seen them. The thing is, they're going to want ACPE accredited programs, which almost all mean that it takes place in the confines of a hospital. There are parish and even alternative programs (homeless ministry, prison, nursing homes, etc) but not all of these are accredited (probably most are). So as such, your internship courses in seminary would definitely not count. I only know of one college chaplaincy residency program and that's at Westminster College in Fulton, MO but they've already closed applications and finalized their list of finalists. They only open that process up every 2-3 years so it'll be a while before they look for another one. Georgetown has something similar but it's voluntary, though you get housing (just no board or stipend), but it's only 20/hours a week. The ACPE website runs a list of residency programs with positions open, unfortunately not everyone publicly advertises in their directory so it's to your benefit to contact individual hospitals. btw, I love The Little Prince and have incorporated it into a theology directed study I'm doing this semester.

The bug exists on desktop as well. I would just enter as is, if they ever get around to fixing it, hopefully the swap them as well, as @maxhgns noted.

This has been a known bug on GC for a while now that the devs have never gotten around to fixing, so it's not your error! System just always swaps Q/V.

Should have news coming out of Vandy around the 10th. They're pretty consistent about releasing on the 2nd Friday of the month.

I was checking app status at a school and noticed that the status had been bolded. I got super excited and then realized it said "Complete. Your application is under review by the Department" - text which earlier had not been bolded. Surely it doesn't mean anything, I got super excited and then confused - why the change?!? Why must they tease me so?!? On the flip side. As some know, all things willing, I'll be ordained to the priesthood in June (presently a transitional deacon) and received word today that my bishop "is still actively discerning" if they'll sign off on me leaving the diocese so that I may pursue studies. I realize they have time, there's no rush but still it's a technicality I don't want hanging over my head.

Accepted into NCSU for Public History (PhD) but I've already turned it down as I got into a school that I'd rather attend. Hope it opens up a slot for someone that wants to be there.

I had my interview with Boston College almost two weeks ago now but haven't heard anything back. Some have already claimed results for theology this year so I'm guessing, at best, that I was waitlisted.

I had two immediate thoughts, though they're pretty linked and reliant on one another. 1) Anonymity - Releasing specific results such as GPA and GRE makes it far easier for programs and individuals to identify you. 2) Embarrassment - We're all on GC because we're seeking to maximize every effort to get accepted somewhere. Most of us are Type A personalities or pretty darn close to it. We're likely to retake the GRE for a boost of 2+ points in V or a .5 increase in writing. We scrutinize the placement of words in our PS and go through 20+ drafts and have 5+ readers also look them over. We spend a summer using a tool like Magoosh, we do 2+ Masters degrees to boost our chances to get into Harvard, etc. So, after all of this work - what if you still don't get in? To say that even a 4.0 GPA, 170V, 6 W couldn't get in at their top school. Or more likely, what if you just can't break 160V and you have this cloud hanging over your head that this stupid test is going to do you in. We (GC users) are outliers, we're not the norm (I strongly suspect).

I remember my wife's first IRB to go to the local mall and conduct surveys for a project related to the history of contemporary disability culture. Syracuse's IRB process was intense and took better part of 3/4th of the year before it finally got the green light, despite two faculty members walking her through the process.

Hi Terrell, It sounds like you're asking us to help you comb through a list of "dissertation only" PhD/DPhil and "degree by publication" programs. Is that correct? I just want to make sure that we don't miss another concern you may have. The immediate concern I had was one of how your degree will be received. Prospective schools that you will be teaching at are required to meet certain minimum qualifications - such as having faculty qualified to teach subjects. Anyway, you already work in academia so you're aware of this and it's probably something you've thought of! As for dissertation only programs, that's pretty much every school in the UK and South Africa, as you've already noted as well. I've had faculty that did their PhD at Durham, Andrews (or maybe it was Aberdeen, or maybe both - I don't remember right now), while holding teaching jobs in the States. I know Durham takes such students and you come to the UK twice a year, otherwise you're wherever you need to be. Degree by publication is a little harder to come by but I know of a couple such programs in Australia and New Zealand. I think the Hussite scholar Thomas Fudge did his second PhD at Otago by distance/publication. Granted his first DPhil was from Cambridge so have to keep that in mind too. Unless you have a pressing issue that says you have to have this degree done in less than three years, I'd look at some distance programs in the UK. Mileage varies and it depends on where you want to end up but UK degrees carry more weight than SA ones. As well, if you want to end up teaching at a secular school, a DPhil in Religion/Theology from Durham (for example), will carry more weight than a PhD from SATS. Knowing more about what you want to study would also help to focus on specific schools that might be worthwhile to look at. There are a slew of unaccredited PhD programs in theology that require little to no face-time with your professor but that's not a road you want to go down.