xypathos

What's your situation with Claremont, more specifically? Have you heard back from them and waiting on a financial packet?

Transitioning from History to Religion (vice versa, etc) happens but the logistics of it largely depends on the politics of the department. Anecdotal but when inquiring at Syracuse University I was told by several Departmental Chairs that the university will not admit the acceptance of a Ph.D. student that does not have a secular M.A. degree in the field. For example, it does not matter if you have a M.Div or MTS from Harvard, you will not be accepted into the Ph.D. without first doing a secular M.A. specifically in that field. The Department Chair in History and elsewhere confirmed it as well. Local universities from what I've gathered have similar official and unofficial policies. Again though, there are secular universities that have no problem taking in a M.Div or MTS grad, so it just depends. In short, you're really just best served to contact the Chair or better yet the Secretary (my experience - they often know the rules better than most faculty and are often willing to talk more freely) on any potential complications of having a M* in one field while transitioning to another. Some faculty aren't interested in working with someone transitioning fields, not wanting to work with "confessional students," etc.

There have been a couple active over the last year or two. Unfortunately once they find out the financial situation at Claremont for PhDs, they don't bother applying. For the uninitiated, it's a largely self-pay program where students generally pay their way teaching UGs in local CCs or maybe being able to line up a TA position at a nearby university. If those positions cannot be lined up, it's loans - there's very little funding from the university.

If you are looking for an online MA program and being in the military, I'll add that you should consider American Military University (part of the APUS system, http://www.apus.edu/). It's a regionally accredited school and AMU specifically caters to military individuals and their spouses. I know of a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University in History and another in Sociology that did a Masters through AMU, both former active duty officers (Army and Navy as I recall). So while not much, it would seem that their online M.A., at least, didn't hurt them. It's also slightly cheaper at $12,600 tuition for the whole program. Looking at their website, they offer concentrations in American, Global, Ancient and Classical, European, and Public History. They also offer a separate M.A. in Military History.

I can speak some about Vanderbilt, though I was only there for a year before my partner was accepted into a PhD program and it necessitated me relocating. They do offer some full funding + stipend packages but they're quite limited, maybe 5'ish students. That said, every other M.Div student is generally offered a package of 50-75% funding. The funding however really only covers tuition and associated fees (insurance and the like). You're on your own for room and board, most students simply take out federal loans to cover COL fees but given the renting market in Nashville, most students had to rely on a partner to help cover living expenses or hold down a part time job. The student body always has a large cohort of students working in food and income disparity social justice outreach in Nashville, and every semester the Div. School has a class at Riverbend (prison) where div students and prisoners take a class together. The Riverbend course is always wildly popular and most students take at least one course there for the experience. It's a wonderful school but it has some drawbacks unless you want to work in non-profit/outreach or are pursuing ordination as a Methodist minister. Always glad to talk about my experiences there and/or connect you to current students or administrators for answers I can't provide. Looking at the numbers you provided, I think you'll be accepted but a full funding package is unlikely given the students that traditionally receive them.

Hey everyone! I've established a pretty strong connection with a POI who has encouraged me to apply this time next year (to start Fall 2017). As the way their department works, it's her cycle to take on a student. If I don't apply, it'll be another three years approx. before she takes on someone else. Potential problem is, I won't have my M.Div completed by the time I'd start in 2017 - I'll be a semester short. From her strictly application advice, it won't impact me negatively to leave my program in order to start a PhD. In fact, after a year in she'd be glad to work with me and set aside time for me to take a course a semester at the school and finish my MDiv. My present MDiv school and the potential PhD school would be within a commutable distance. I am pursuing ordination so obviously leaving my program would prolong ordination but that's really the only negative I foresee. Am I missing something? I'm looking to study a fairly new ethical and theological field, at least within the constraints that I want to shape my research. After contacting north of 40 faculty that are tangentially related, I was consistently referred to the same three scholars that I need to work with. Fortunately one is a couple hours away and has been willing to meet and discuss my ideas and thus her advice to apply now rather than waiting. I guess I just want to make sure that I'm not overlooking something and shooting myself in the foot. On the one hand, there is no harm in applying but if I get in and decide to pursue it, it means restructuring quite a bit of my life.

Yes, a year of a language generally means six credits (some schools are 8 - 3+1 "lab" as my school did but it's still the same situation really). Language courses trump exegesis (generally) and exegesis courses trump self-study - generally. If you're perhaps a year short on the language (as per your transcript) but feel that exegesis or self-study has made up for the deficit, show your command of the language in your writing sample. If your POI is amenable to it, toss them a quick email explaining your situation and why your transcript may not be the best reflection of where you're at skill wise. I ran into this same situation feeling that my ability with Czech and Latin didn't square with my lack of course credits on my transcript. Odds are good no matter what, the school will test your ability with the language directly or indirectly.

Its been my observation that more and more scholars are turning to using endnotes outright, as opposed to footnotes. Anecdotal but others have noticed that footnotes are going out of style in the Humanities or at least their use in writing is declining.

I come from a tradition where it depends on how you use your notes. That is, if they're all strictly citing a source then you should use footnotes. However, if you need to use a note to elucidate on a point and it isn't appropriate to do so in the paper (or if you're going to cite a source for further information on a complimentary topic: "For more on X, see...") then you should always use Endnotes. That said, if you need an extra page or two and can't find a solid way to expand your material, use footnotes. If in your case you have too much, convert to endnotes if it's beneficial. I don't know of an Adcom that cares, honestly. It seems even in the Humanities that footnotes are becoming more and more outdated but alas, I love them dearly so I use them unless instructed otherwise.

As per the GRE, you're in the 94th percentile on V and 93rd on AW. These aren't numbers to balk at, you're going to survive all of these institutions' cutoff, presuming they have one. There are far more potentially disastrous things in your application to work on.

Thanks for the correction marXian! I did not mean to imply a direct 1:1 correlation. Rather that MDiv students tended to have more credits "transfer" and shorten the coursework stage of their PhD.

M.Div or PhD? Yes on both accounts. Their PhD graduates are often found at lesser known seminaries. Understandably Harvard, Yale, and Chicago graduates dominate faculty ranks at those respective schools. So on that end, they're fairly incestuous but PTS is still a very highly regarded school.

Howdy folks, I've been sending out emails left and right to potential supervisors trying to find someone interested in working on a project centered around transhumanism. I am particularly interested in theology and ethics but I am willing to negotiate a specific field. I am particularly interested in transhumanism where it applies to end-of-life concerns but also a much broader interest in how Christianity has engaged transhumanism. I am especially interested in Nikolai Fedorov and a slightly lesser extent into Teilhard de Chardin and Francis Bacon. I am also interested in any potential inter-religious dialogue on the issue, especially Buddhism as I have traveled in Tibet, Nepal, and China and have a nominal knowledge of Buddhist philosophy. The responses I have gotten from professors is that I have a legitimate project. The problem is, is that the academy has not caught up to transhumanism yet. Those that do engage with it primarily do it on the side and through issues raised in bioethics. Originally I thought maybe I needed to pull back but after conversing with faculty at Harvard, Yale, and others - go for my original interest, there are legitimate concerns there. As noted earlier, there are just too few faculty for the time being doing work in the field, and it will likely be another five years before scholars turn to issues raised by technology, at least in the nature that I want to discover. Diana Cates at Iowa has expressed a lot of interest in my work and ideas thus far, so that's promising. That said, I am hoping to crowdsource other potential POIs that I may contact from any of you. I still have some emails out that I am waiting to hear back from. It's a long shot, I know but we'll see what turns up.

If it's strictly a numbers game (since I don't know your story, essays, LORs) - I suspect you'll easily get in at Vandy and Emory. I suspect your chances at Yale are quite good too.

Don't bother sending GRE scores to Vandy or Emory (pretty sure Emory doesn't ask for them). Neither school asks for them and honestly, a 149V isn't going to come across as good unless you're an URM with English being a 2nd or 3rd language. MDiv acceptance at Chicago is quite low. I use to have an email from the Director that had the actual breakdown of applicants and acceptances but from what I recall, it's 75 applications and they shoot for roughly 12 people that will actually enroll. So, they accept around 18 or so. You'll get in somewhere but if you want to do PhD work, you're going to have to get your V and Q score up another 10-15 points, each.

An MDiv at a top-tier school will 1) look great and 2) almost always be cheaper than a MTS at a lower school, and often cheaper than an MTS at the very same school. Reason being, the top schools have large endowments and often denominations and benefactors gift money to the school which is used to underwrite tuition for students. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your situation, MDiv students almost always receive more money than MTS students. Also, the acceptance rate for MDiv students is generally far superior than the MTS rate - probably not leaps and bounds but it's very significant. I can speak from personal experience that that is the case at Vandy and friends at Yale and Harvard have confirmed the same as well. Here's how I suggest playing the game: Apply as an MDiv and see what you get offer wise. If it's ultimately still cheaper to do an MTS, check to see what funding if any is impacted by switching programs. For Vandy at least, it's far harder to go from MTS to MDiv, than it is MDiv to MTS - due to funding and credits. Unless there's some real pressing financial situation, you're not saving much if anything doing an MTS. From my limited experience of MDiv friends that went on to do a PhD, they had shorter programs than MTS friends due to having an extra year of coursework.

State side: absolutely Mary Jo Iozzio at Boston College. She's absolutely amazing and I cannot recommend her enough! If you're willing to travel to Europe, University of Aberdeen has a PhD in Practical Theology where you could focus on disability and theological issues. Contact John Swinton, he oversees the Practical Theology program and is very warm and open to talking with prospective students. My partner is currently doing a PhD in Disability Studies through Syracuse University - when it comes to theological issues, Mary at BC is the go to person from her experience.

Regarding writing samples - The advice I was given is that if your article is 30 pages and they ask for 20, send 18-19 pages and use the additional space of 1-2 pages to outline how you wrap up the paper so that they can see how you conclude. While anecdotal, I've had several professors tell me at Vanderbilt that when reviewing writing sources they look at the first 1-2 paragraphs and the last 1-2 paragraphs and move on. On the one hand, they don't have the time to read through and dissect every paper submitted and often they're well versed enough in the material that they can predict the writer's outline by reading the conclusion.

I shoot for no more than three very concise paragraphs. The advice I was given by professors is introduce yourself in a paragraph, a paragraph for what you want to study, and a paragraph on how you got there - coursework, particular scholars, etc. This could be reduced to two paragraphs but for flow purposes I've found that three works better. It gives you some room to wiggle around with but you aren't writing an essay.

I contacted a professor at Oxford that I shared research interests with and laid out a primitive proposal of my interests and potential figures I want to engage through. I contacted this professor last week and have not heard back from them. That said, I realize it is way too early to be worried after only a week passes but it raises the question of how long is sufficient before you send a followup to inquire if they missed the email, were using silence as disinterest, said email found its way to their Spam folder, etc. I was imagining two weeks. I know this particular professor is teaching this semester but I do not know of their workload or outside engagements.

The comment made wasn't that VDS doesn't care about GREs. The comment made was that VDS wanted to see 160+ on Verbal.

Vandy's GDR uses an AdCom system with each field getting one student a year.

Grats you two on VDS

VDS was indeed closed on the 17th. I know GDR made some notifications over the iceageddon break but it was to people being denied to the PhD, that their application was being redirected to the Divinity School for a M*

They did last year, yes. So, I presume that will also be the case this year. Merit awardees were notified first and invited to a Scholar Day, then "gen. pop" was notified shortly after.