xypathos

Fire away, always glad to help anyone.

All I can really say without potentially getting someone in trouble is that I know someone involved with the process, which isn't too surprising since I'm a student at VDS.

If all of your material was in by the Jan. 15 deadline, you'll have a decision by the close of next week.

Seconded, the timing is weird but GDR does refer applicants to the Div School for a M* so it's not impossible. With no one being on campus the past two days, it means the decision had already been made and was released today. Presuming their rejection came so early, I doubt they were ever interviewed for a spot.

No, but that's because it was on the website when I was directed to check my status. So, I think that's fairly routine for all of VDS - when we were notified of acceptance we were also informed of our scholarships.

Union is a rolling admissions process. I submitted my application last year around November or December, I think and heard back several weeks later. Vanderbilt was mid to late February - some received notification the second week of February, mine came about a week after the first batch went out. I got an email to check my app status (said I was accepted) and later that evening I got a phone call to welcome me to VDS.

Well, only in name. The spots for students have just been moved to the PhD so it's, in reality, a neutral state.

What was the context of the UChicago email? From the title, my initial reaction was "Oh, well that's a passive aggressive way to tell a PhD applicant that they're being moved to the M* list." Which is exactly what Vanderbilt does to PhD applicants that won't get admitted but also don't have an M*, and it's VDS' way of saying, "try again once you get some more training."

Grats!

Yes, it's the preferred method. They will do Skype/phone interviews but you have to have a fairly good reason for requesting that over a personal interview.

Emory notifies Wednesday. Vandy's GDR is interviewing applicants primarily M-W (Feb. 9-11) and decisions will follow very soon after. I forget the exact numbers but somewhere around 30 people were invited to interview for 9 spots, of which four will be chosen as a Theology and Practice fellow.

It's going to come down to what kind of ethics you want to do. If you don't know yet, that's fine, you've got two years to figure it out. If you do have an idea, it'll probably change. Reiterating Aub's point, the application process hinges on things that are largely out of our control as applicants. Jaco Hamman at VDS likes to share his own story as an example of this: His first year applying for PhD programs, from East Germany, and he didn't get in anywhere. The next year he applied again and didn't change anything - same references, same writing sample, etc. Second time around, got in everywhere with most schools giving him university-level funding. Presuming you do a standard two year MTS route, you'll want to hit the ground running. I will say that you'll want to look at the credits required to graduate and pay attention to how that's best served. VDS' MTS is 51 credit hours and while a good chunk of students do graduate in two years, a lot find the work expected out of you makes taking 15 credits hard, especially trying to balance a job or social obligations. So, hearing students take 2.5-3 years to finish the program is common. Last semester I had two introductory courses that weren't bad, but two upper-level courses that one required 10-15 page single space research paper every week with a final that was 20-30 single spaced (this was an Ethics course too) and a theology course where we were assigned 500+ pages of reading a week that we'd spend three hours scrutinizing every minute detail of the text, so trying to get by with skimming the text was of little value. So just keep in mind how you best learn and want to allot your time. I did 15 hours last semester and hated it, doing 9 this semester and I have too much free time but it's letting me have time to read ahead and branch off into personal reading, so that's nice.

As far as VDS, it really depends on what you want to do within theology. If you're talking something more traditional - there's DeHart and Morrill. I haven't taken a class with either so I can't comment personally, I know DeHart is interested in God-centered theology (trinity, God's relation the created order, etc) and Morrill is interested in liturgy and sacraments. Morrill's added bonus is being a Jesuit priest and while he's on leave this year, I've been told he's an amazingly humble person that genuinely cares about discussing how these ideas affect students on a personal level. Armour does feminist theology. Feminist theology isn't my field but her students adore her. Meeks is retiring at the end of the year. If you're more interested in practical theology, that's over in the RPC Department.

I was asked for an interview at Union but it was because of funding I was nominated for. I just did a search through the Results postings and other students have marked that they've been asked for an interview. But, I didn't see an immediate postings/updates about the interview. So, I think it's safe to presume two things: 1) Some kind of competitive funding, or 2) They're on the fence about you.

It's a matter of applying broadly and catering each application to each school, and if the school encourages it - reach out to PoIs, share your interests and a quick numerical breakdown (GGPA: 3.5, 164V, etc). If they respond with something like "Are you familiar with the work of XYZ?" take that as a hint that they're suggesting you not apply and maybe XYZ is a better fit. Some PoI are matter of fact and will invite you to explain more about your interests and others will be frank about your chances. Utilize them! From my own experience, keep intro emails concise and no more than two paragraphs, probably one, really. Usual advice of when contacting LOR writers - ask them what kind of letter they might write or what kind of student they think you are in terms of % that they've had before. For example, if they say you're in the Top 25%, you'll want to find yourself a different writer. From here at VDS/GDR and friends at PTS and Yale, Adcoms expect LoRs to praise you as the second coming of Jesus, everyone does it. So, ask the writer to quantify you in terms of percentages - Top 10%. As per faculty I've spoken with, "LoR can only hurt you. Nearly every LoR writer is too generous with praise so we have to learn to read between the lines for criticism, and when we see it, it's like sharks drawn to blood. Ask your writers to stick fairly quantifiable terms and if they say you're a "Top 25% student," take it as you need to find a different writer or maybe you're not ready to apply yet." Where are you looking to apply to Jimmy, as far as fields go? We have older students in their 30s and 40s here at VDS so it's certainly possible. As far as VDS and apps go, about 200 for 9-12 spots every year. A handful are automatically declined every year because they send VDS/GDR the wrong stuff - like an essay about why you want to study at Duke, or that you want to study XYZ when there is no faculty member interested in that field, etc. Advice given to current students and those that email in - 90%+ on V-GRE, UG grades aren't given much weight at all (surprisingly), and individual courses on the transcript are almost never looked at. If you have more questions I can probably answer them as they relate to VDS. I presume to some degree what works at VDS also holds for other schools, to a limited degree - I realize VDS is more or less T2 depending on field.

I'd wait til you hear back from all of your programs before worrying too much. Coincidentally, Dr. Byrd at VDS gave a talk to interested PhD applicants this morning about applying. His advice as a former student - wait til every offer comes in and then look at two things: 1) Prestige: Will the reputation of this school and my advisor(s) strengthen me in an already rough job market, and 2) funding. He did stress though that as applications start coming in, if you get a second acceptance that is better than a previous one, extend that lesser regarded school some professional courtesy and let them know that you're declining the offer. Nothing irritates a school more than finding out that a student had 2+ offers and didn't notify them until April 15, and now they have to cross their fingers that an alternate is available or simply not admit someone in the field because an accepted student waited til the last minute to notify them that they're not taking the offer. So grats on your acceptance pcato1! Just hang out til at least one more acceptance comes in, and if it's better or worse (presuming it's a clear distinction), notify the school you won't be attending

Couldn't have said it better. There's this atmosphere at Vandy that if you get an A- in a course you're fucked for PhD studies, and professors have finally started speaking out about this that the obsession with grades has gone too far. I imagine if it's happening at VDS, it's happening elsewhere. That said, it's to be expected. The application system is inherently vague and structured in such a manner that we have to stress about every detail and it's all about vague terms like "fit" and timing. So, for your standard Type A personality that has to be in control, this system strips of us of that so we become vulnerable, which we REALLY hate. After all, we take things personal, if I were to spend hours putting together applications and writing research proposals and get rejected across the board, I'd feel like the schools are saying my ideas aren't worth their time, thus I'm of no value. I get the stressing over anything that culminates in summarizing your work and effort into a single letter but if a school rejects you, it's not because you had a B.

I have, I've met with one of the librarians here at Vandy but due to the specific nature of the question, they said they'd look into it and get back to me. Which is fine, I certainly don't mind waiting and appreciate them doing some digging for me. Just wanted to see if maybe there was a lurker on the forums that shared an interest in the Hussites.

Sort of an odd request, I guess, but I've been devouring texts on the Bohemian Reformation - historical and theological. I prefer working at the intersection of both due to personal interests but I certainly read texts that are "strictly" historical or theological in their treatment of Bohemia (Jan Hus, Hussites (Utraquism, Taborites, Neo-Adamites), Zizka, etc). Anyway, going through the footnotes of the items I'm reading, a name I'm seeing pop up continually is Thomas Fudge. It seems Dr. Fudge primarily focuses on the overlapping of historical and theological interpretations of the Bohemian processes. Which, given his background makes sense - a PhD in medieval history and a PhD in theology certainly makes him qualified to do either. Of scholars still alive, who am I missing? Surely there are other Hussite scholars that work in history and are receptive of theological work and vice versa. However, I'm struggling to find them. There is Phillip Haberkern at BU but I'm not so sure he's receptive to theology, at least not to such a degree that I'd prefer. That said, he has a book coming out through OUP regarding Hus and Luther and their various modes of their commemoration utilized by their supporters - I'm dying to read it. I spoke with a UG prof of mine, a historian that works on Islamic Spain but someone that has read on the matter out of personal interests, and he says Fudge is the leading Hussite scholar alive today. That said, he used the understandable caveat that it's not his field and I should consult someone more qualified for such a claim. So, TL;DR - looking for more things to devour, particularly as it pertains to the theology of the various Hussite groups and Jan Hus, and their respective historical context and hoping some of you know a name working at the intersection of history and theology.

Vandy has several humanist, atheist, and agnostic students among its MTS, MDiv, and PhD program. That said, the school is deeply rooted in the German-Protestant tradition and so you'll be in the minority here but really, that's likely anywhere. I could put you in touch with some of these students and let you ascertain if you should bother applying. That said, Harvard is an absolute for applying to.

I presume Marbury and Azzoni are accepting students but I haven't asked them personally. Azzoni is interesting in that she's listed as a Lecturer and from my experience in other universities, lecturers (even those with a PhD) cannot supervise PhD students, though I recognize Vandy may not follow this. Azzoni's C.V. though says Assistant Professor (TT), so perhaps it's simply an error on VDS' part with their website and records in listing her as a lecturer.

I've taken two seminars in the Philosophy Department at Vandy and experienced both sides of the spectrum. On one hand, it was a room full of vipers that wanted nothing more than to plump up their ego in front of the professor and fellow students by their "Look at how amazing I am!" and another professor who wouldn't have any of that shit. If someone was being overly aggressive he'd inform him that he's "heard enough of them for the day" or if someone is being pushy but not contributing to the conversation, he'd engage the student directly as Billy noted, with examples like "Why Y? What benefit does that afford that X can't?" and if you tossed him a bullshit answer, he'd make sure the class knew it was bullshit If he simply disagreed, that's different. Really, he was going after the personality types that sought to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative but weren't furthering the conversation. It's a personality type I've found common in the history department at Vandy, the "I'm not so much interested in your opinion, unless you can back it up with the text." Being someone interested in history I found this approach comforting.

Fellow Vandy student here (M.Div) - it's a wonderful school with lots of opportunities should you be willing to seek them out. I just wrapped up my first year and have been asked to TA undergraduate classes (in R.S.) at a local university. You've already visited the campus but if you have questions, shoot me a PM. As per killing the time, find something(s) and throw yourself into it.

If it impacts your research interests, go for it. To be honest, I don't know of a Catholic in the divinity school so having that perspective would be nice - though I'm sure there's some hiding somewhere.

I think you'll be fine. I can't speak to the MTS admissions specifically but there are MTS students here that entered with a noticeably lower GPA and a shorter and less impactful CV than you. The GPA cut-off use to be 2.75 but they've since raised it to 2.9. Your involvement in ministry at Hispanic churches is going to be a big asset. VDS has recently hired an Adcom Rep whose sole job is to diversify the student body with primarily Hispanic and Asian-"minded" individuals. "Minded" in this case is people with claims to the heritage or strong ties/interests to those regions.