xypathos

There's several things at work here: (1) The European education model (granted it's not unified across the continent) is considerably different than the American model so a lot of students are exposed and have some familiarity with multiple languages before they ever set foot in college, let alone graduate school and (2) European schools don't stress languages like American schools do, which kind of plays into #1. You've asked a rather complex question that doesn't lend itself well to a forum response. Also, more specifically to your question and Americans going to Europe for one year Masters programs: Many of these 1-year programs aren't language intensive so knowledge of English is about all that would be required, whereas any ability in French, German, Latin, etc is simply icing on the cake. Some of these programs are for "funsies" with no real desire to continue on further. Some of these programs are Pre-Masters (or glorified Pg.Dip programs) in that these students are transitioning to Religion from another field. As well, some of these programs look at broad picture ideas and the hope is that something can be teased out which lends itself well to a PhD/DPhil. In addition, most schools in the US don't offer these kind of programs (the EU, I think, REALLY understands the importance of part-time education whereas the US has largely abandoned this mode, at least at the PhD level) so they're a chance for Americans to spend a year or two travelling on their own funds or Federal loans, get some culture and become exposed to different ideas, and most of the time, even at the international rate - it's cheaper than doing it in the US. There's more at work here and largely, it's just a difference of culture and how education is performed and understood.

I don't know about PTS but several schools I applied to for my M.Div didn't release decisions until March 15, regardless of when you interviewed. I'm guessing PTS is different since they're interviewing so early.

Generally speaking, larger the school = larger financial resources. That said, academic scholarships for MTS degrees pale in comparison to MDiv and generally speaking, few 100% awards are given. Most of the students I knew at VDS were on a 50% or better scholarship but that's normal across schools: Say that tuition is 20k but then give everyone a 50% scholarship as an enticement, when in reality tuition is 10k. Apply to the large schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, and Chicago. If you're wanting to stay around Boston, also look at BU and BC, maybe GC as well. There's of course VDS as well. Could you provide more information on your situation or what you're looking to study in regards to Biblical Studies?

Tibet was a blast! The last time I was there was the Spring of '08 with a professor doing work on mystical Judaism in Rabbinic literature and its parallels in Buddhism. I was his glorified RA, though I think it was more of a he wanted someone to chat with and I knew the area enough to get by. Unfortunately shit hit the fan with the 3-14 protests and we were forced to leave so we went to Mongolia. I traveled to Nepal and Burma last summer to see old UG friends but couldn't make it back to Lhasa. I largely focus my studies in this hodge-podge of moral and systematic theology, in particular I'm interested in contemporary theodicy arguments and their relation to technology.

Agreed with @Kuriakos, do a MTS at Duke or several schools, such as Yale, offer a STM (Master of Sacred Theology) which is a bridge for someone wanting to transition from M.Div to PhD but needs a little more academic coursework. Keep in mind that some schools distinguish between academic MA (as opposed to ministerial MDiv) and then MTS or STM. It can get confusing but just check to see what the school has and their requirements for the degree. You'd likely be better served with post-MDiv STM but a MTS wouldn't hurt, just speak with Admissions about how your credits might transfer and not having to take intro courses again.

I second @menge's comments. Ultimately it's going to depend on what you want to do and where you see yourself ending up. If you plan on doing something heavy with languages, as menge partially noted, the MDiv can provide an extra year of coursework. On top of that, your evangelical, typically more conservative schools do languages REALLY well. That said, it depends on what you want to do! Most of your mainline Protestant Div Schools allow students to have quite a bit of wiggle room in how they construct their MDiv program. Others however, lock that shit down and you might have three electives total. It goes without saying that you need to take into account your political and theological beliefs when deciding where to go.

Honestly, I don't know enough of Naropa's program to give enough information of value. I spent a combined two years in Tibet (spread out over 4.5 years, roughly) and contemplated jumping into a comparative study of Buddhism and "mystical Catholicism" but ultimately decided against it. That said, it wasn't because of anything against Naropa (I toured the school years back and have friends that went (I'll reach out to them on your behalf)) but ultimately just decided I'd rather stick to touring the area. I know they shuffled up the curriculum about four years ago but I don't know what impact, if any, that had on its ability to place students. Gregory Seton at Dartmouth graduated from Naropa back in 2004, then went onto Oxford - I don't know how connected he may still be. Holly Gayley graduated in 2000 (went onto Harvard), again - she'll at least be able to speak to the student experience there. Also another option, I think I recall Oxford announcing that they received a scholarship to significantly assist with aid to students wanting to study Tibetan (I realize you want Sanskrit too) in their MPhil program. I don't know of the competition to the program or anything but it's something to consider - http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/mphil-tibetan-and-himalayan-studies

Since a couple expressed an interest in a reading list, here's the texts we've agreed on thus far: John Caputo - Insistence of God Ilia Delio - The Unbearable Wholeness Ivone Gebara - Out of the Depths Richard Kearney - Returning to God after God W. E. B. Du Bois - The Souls of Black Folk Frantz Fanon - Black Skin, White Masks Thomas Jay Oord - The Uncontrolling Love of God We're looking to add, at max, three more texts though likely two. Half jokingly but seriously, I'm making a push for The Little Prince because I think there's a lot at work in such a small novel. I'm also interested in Bernard Haisch's The God Theory but perhaps it's more scientific than theological though I haven't read it.

I contacted the school directly and spoke with two PhD students, one at Harvard and another that went to Oxford.

I'd reach out to David Michelson at Vanderbilt. His specific area is a couple centuries before yours but is heavily into researching Syro-Arabic Christianity and he's also just an amazing guy and very nice. He's on leave this academic year so may be a bit slow responding to emails.

At the MA, you'll need more than grades to get in, especially for an academic, language focused degree. That said, you just simply won't know your financial aid situation until you apply, get accepted, and then see how bad they want you. So, like so many of us in this predicament - apply broadly and see where you get in. Once you're in you'll need to prioritize offers and certainly prestige should be a factor. In your case you definitely want to be mindful of the debt you take on because you also need to accept the possibility that you might not be accepted into a PhD or that it'll take you 2+ cycles to land an acceptance. I don't know your focus specifically but perhaps Harvard's PhD in Himalayan Studies as an alternate possibility. Naropa University's financial aid is fairly poor (so I've been told) but when I last checked maybe 3-4 years ago they had students accepted into Harvard, UVA, Oxford, etc on an almost yearly basis.

The application process is straight forward. Generally you need a Department Chair and Dean of both institutions to approve it. There's no extra funding for relocation or at least I've never heard of anyone getting any. I presume you're a student at one of these ten schools? If so, I'd check with your department chair as they've likely dealt with specifics before. Occasionally extra charges are levied against the students, generally dealing with health insurance. If you're not a student, I'm sorry your SOL as several of the schools mention they'll only accept students from one of the other ten programs due to tuition purposes and academic expectations.

My honest advice is not to date within your department. While it could end well (marriage), if it doesn't it only creates bad blood between potential colleagues and tension within the department among fellow students as they navigate that social conundrum. That said, it happens and I've seen it end well, just be smart about it. We obviously spend a lot of time around each other and become emotionally invested so feelings are natural. EDIT: Here's an older thread with advice:

This will depend on where you end up. In general, yes it counts. From my limited experience if you have experience with a language (self taught, for example) but nothing on your transcript, then generally the department will have you take a language exam. Sometimes even with something on your transcript they'll make you take the exam and some departments take students at their word (I've seen this for French and German only, not for Hebrew or Greek for NT/OT students).

While I'm three months late, a heads up for anyone that stumbles across this thread in the future: Heythrop is in the stages of shutting down and their final degree students began in Sept. of 2016.

Is anyone familiar with Villanova's program, beyond their website? I know that last summer they stopped requiring the GRE and seem to generally really stress preparing their students to become educators at small Catholic colleges, rather than say researchers/writers at major universities. Over the last five years or so (per GC search results) there have been inquiries into their program but they've largely remained unanswered, so . . . I'll broach the subject again!

Ancient recommendations will of course be gladly welcomed!

So I'm getting together with a former professor for a Directed Study on a project that we've tentatively titled, "Unorthodox Theologians and Approaches." Her (the professor) and I have a mutual interest in the myriad of approaches to theodicy, particularly in lesser know theological explorations that may/can influence an argument that engages with the problem of evil. Now, obviously the the Augustinian and Irenaean approaches are known. Lesser known approaches are Open Theism which is in itself a modification of free will, though some "attack" omniscience while others, such as Vincent Brummer, suggest our understanding of omnipotence needs to be reworked. There is of course Pandeism as well, though while already established in Asian contexts, some have engaged with it in a more Christian fashion. We won't be meeting for about a month to hash out a tentative reading list but given the wealth of interests here, I wanted to solicit suggestions for other writers I could bring to our meeting. They don't need to be theologians in the strict definition of the word and they don't even necessarily need to be Christian. As well, they don't need to have written directly on theodicy - that's more or less the aim of the course, to develop the connection between the source and our interest in evil/suffering.

Ideally you should try to shoot for 150 which should put you somewhere around 40%. When it comes to admission, your Q score isn't really going to mean much but where it will is on fellowship "topping (or sometimes Top Up) grants" that are given by the university as a whole to the best students across the school, regardless of department. So instead of a 20-25k stipend, you'll get 30-35 for example. These rarely go to RS students but it happens and if you're decent enough in math, might as well try.

Trying to discern if I'll be applying this year. My professors and advisor are telling me to go for it. The POIs I've contacted have been extremely enthusiastic about my interests and work published and presented thus far. That said, my research interests are niche enough and I really want to attend a large public university for teaching opportunities (I want to end up at a large teaching school) that I'll probably end up in a state school thus mediocre job opportunities even if I were to excel in my program. Also, I'm being vetted for a pastor position at a well endowed church in Vermont, a couple in NY, and I made some "Eh, nothing to lose" inquiries to churches in Canada and was cleared and began interviews last week. I love the idea of school and throwing myself in research for 6+ years and then combining it with teaching but ... I'm 31 years old and not getting younger. Most of these jobs are 40-50k with free housing which is about 95% too enticing to turn down. So, we'll see how things go with these churches over the next several weeks.

As Rabbit Run noted, the real perk of any school within the GTU is being able to take courses across schools and the ecumenical work being done there. That said, all I personally know about Starr King is that it's a UU school so if that fits your theological persuasion, go for it. Hartford has the option for students to complete 1-2 years in an MA and then transfer to Yale Div. - so there's that backdoor in.

Are you looking for a PhD? If so, specifically public history? Certainly there are scholars in history departments that do public history but as far as actual public history PhDs the field is quite small. If you were a NY resident I'd recommend the CGP at Cooperstown. It's an amazing program and their graduates have gone on to work/lead some of the most famous institutions in the NE. That said, it's an MA program.

Barring something we don't know about, I imagine you may get in just about everywhere. While 161 is low for a PhD applicant, you'd probably still survive a cutoff and a 164 would be even stronger. You raise the usual question about financial aid that most do. Here's my general advice: (1) MDIV programs almost always provide more and better funding, (2) if you're wanting to do something in BS (or literary analysis), historical, or traditional theology then you're going to need languages and sometimes A LOT of them and that third year can help and (3) given the state of the job market you need to maximize getting into Harvard, Yale, Duke, and Chicago. To a lesser extent Princeton, Union, Vanderbilt, BC, and BU and probably few others. The common counter to the MDIV vs MA debate is that third year is spent taking courses like preaching or internship in a church. Some of this is certainly true but most programs allow students to cater that third year to their interests - they know not everyone is going into ministry. My MA and MDIV colleagues at Vanderbilt were TAing courses at local universities, same at Yale and Harvard. The capabilities in Boston are almost impossible to beat. You can utilize the BTI to take courses at BC, BU, Harvard, EDS, and some othere. Funding for a lot of M* programs tend to hinge on diversity issues rather than academic. This is a tough pill for a lot to swallow but it's the simple truth.

I'm from NC and in the process of wrapping up an M.A. in Theology and wanting to return to my roots in the historical preservation of sacred spaces. I am from NC though presently living in NY for the last year. I love Savannah and Charleston dearly though I know next to nothing about the HP programs in both of these cities, beyond what their websites share. Is anyone familiar with the reputation of the schools? I've largely heard that SCAD's reputation doesn't justify the tuition and expenses but that was for fields outside of historic preservation. I am not sure about Clemson and CoC's joint program though I know alumni of both schools and they love them fiercely. Just putting feelers out there to inquire. It seems the forum as a whole favors UPenn, Cornell, and UMD and I'm wondering if that's indicative of wider feelings within the profession.

http://archinect.com/forum/thread/99292/the-truth-about-boston-architectural-college It's well regarded but exceptionally hard to graduate from.