xypathos

Have you started attending an episcopal church? Generally before you can even officially have this conversation with your rector and bishop, they're going to require that you've been attending a church for a year. Attending YDS and knocking out Anglican courses at Berkeley would obviously be nice. But, if you're looking to start this process in school be weary of the timeline! You'd be starting a Parish Discernment Committee sometime around your second year, which generally have to run at least six months. Assuming you get through all of that and they go "Okay! We'll ordain you!" you're then required by canon law to wait another eighteen months. You'd be right at the end of your M.Div then and some bishops aren't fond of ordaining people and then having them go somewhere else. Some are! Some bishops take a strict "I'm ordaining you for my diocese" while others take a "I'm ordaining you for the Church." Try to get a feel of this early in the process. If you have questions, concerns, or thoughts I'm glad to try and help! I'm a priest down in the way too hot state of Texas.

You should still be fine. In your PS (Personal Statement) I'd include no more than 2-3 sentences explaining what happened and move on. I wouldn't bother with redoing the course unless that is important to you.

As far as doing it - it's as simple as applying. As a M.Div student you'd need to apply during your first year. Once accepted you inform the Registrar's Office for HDS and they'll meet with you and layout the sequence in which you have to take the courses. I can't speak to MPP specifically but my classmates that did JD, MD, or MSN degrees usually split the M.Div degree. Something like this: Year 1 - Div School Year 2+ - Other degree Year X - Finish Div School The reasoning being is that M.Div coursework is the easiest to split up and most other degrees are significantly more complicated. As far as opportunities - that's up to you. You're going to be asked why you're applying by both schools and how you plan on using both degrees so I'd spend some time getting comfortable with your answer.

I'm ABD from a university in the southeast and currently working as an instructor in Texas as I finish up my dissertation. My field is contemporary theology in the US: how evangelicals discuss theodicy and its implications on the environment and marginalized populations, part. people with disabilities. Time management has always been a struggle of mine - I'm still shitty about keeping my eye on assignments due and prioritizing them. So, I went old school about two years ago and got one of those large paper monthly calendars you use to see on people's desks. It's now mounted on the wall in front of my desk so that I always see it while working. It lets me write in meetings, assignments, "Read 15 pages of X on the 15th, 10 on the 16th," etc. My close friend actually secured a whiteboard on wheels that they use instead, which I like as a probably more longterm solution but I live in a studio so space is precious. I teach full-time now at a small college in Texas while I finish my dissertation. My actual teaching workload is probably 15 hours a week, with another 10-15 on preparation. The rest is advising some students and minor administrative duties that average less than 5 hours a week. I've tried multiple word processors from Word, Google Docs, Open Office, etc but I always come back to Word for the same reasons that @sacklunch noted - it syncs well with OneDrive and Dropbox. I'll take this time to stress that you need a subscription to OneDrive, Dropbox, or some type of secure place. Computers fail and you don't want to lose your work. My wife kept her dissertation on her laptop, not backed up anywhere else, and sure enough her laptop crashed one evening and we could not get it to work again. We took it to a tech who advised us that the laptop was garbage now but he was able to salvage large parts of her dissertation and other documents so she could rebuild it. Lesson learned but it was an intense two weeks that seriously caused her to contemplate dropping out. I reserve one full day a week for non-school time, usually Sunday (I also work as a supply priest so it's convenient) and then a half-day somewhere else in the week. If I have to give up on something it's the half-day but that hasn't happened in quite a while. I use Zotero for references and cataloging my research. It was a mandatory workshop for my M* so I've just kept using it and don't have any experience with other software. When I was pre-comp I dedicated myself to reading an article or chapter a week from my school's reading list in preparation for comps. Sometimes I could get two done in a week if it was short or more directly relevant to my research. My process was to quick skim the text to understand framework, let that simmer for a day or so, reconstruct from memory, and then using the text as a guide I filled in the holes and did a more thorough analysis. I still don't like taking notes on PDFs so I print things out and write in the margins. If it's a lengthy file I'll use the Notes feature on Mac because I don't want to print out 100 pages for something that might have 15 pages that are relevant. Otherwise my notes are categorized somehow: pre-comp they were sorted to their relevant exam/class/etc., now its done by chapter in my dissertation. I admittedly haven't really touched languages since passing my reading exams given the contemporary nature of my field and a focus on North America (spec. USA), I don't see that changing. I did exams in French and German, and one in Latin though I studied it in high school and college and have kept up with it some, but it's not relevant to my work.

I'd pick Notre Dame, I think. At the very least you'll graduate with much lower debt. Yale's offer only covers tuition so everything else you need to decide. If you do want to seriously consider teaching in Catholic schools, ND's name carries far more weight. Doesn't ND also have a M* in religious education for students that want to teach? I imagine having the ability to get a course or two under your belt in pedagogy or something would be beneficial. I can't speak to ND directly, but presumably their curriculum would permit you to take courses in political theory or in a number of departments?

Very common to have no published papers and in many ways, desirable. The work you produced as a M* student, hopefully, should be second rate to what you've done as a doc student, just as faculty work should trump student work. As my advisor put it: Your focus as a M* student should entirely be focused on consuming knowledge. We don't want students that as M* students felt like they knew it so well that they needed to go educating others, because ultimately you known jack shit. I think it's beneficial to have some kind of presentation(s) under your belt though, only because it helps you talk about your research interests. There are regional meetings and graduate student conferences that are run for this very reason, a space for budding and new scholars to bounce ideas off of other young people.

CUA is offering their Semitic courses online this summer: Syriac, Coptic. Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic (focus on Christian Arabic literature). Princeton will continue to offer German, French, and Latin for reading exam purposes - online. At $525/course it's rather affordable.

If you want to know more about the April 15 Resolution, here you go. Within the field we operate within, I think just about all schools have signed onto it and most adhere to it. Some schools have been known to try and push students to make decisions before the 15th but that's another issue. As @thiscalltoarms noted, some schools purge their waitlist shortly after the 15th and Admissions for the Fall is officially over so they adhere to that date for planning purposes. Given the times that we find ourself in, I'd always ask for more time. The worst case scenario is that they say no. Just understand that they're under no obligation to provide it but they want people at the school that want to be there.

As you've noted, I've also had a fair number of Buddhist friends go to HDS and Chicago and speak well of the programs. My concern for UTSNYC is that it's a 72 hour program that lets you do 27 hours in Buddhism. So if you're wanting to do a deep dive into Mahayana Buddhism, Union isn't the first place I would consider, otherwise you're doing a traditionally Christian M.Div and doing a minor along the way. GTU's IBU is well respected and it'd put you in a place where you can explore spiritual care from other traditions rather easily. As with all GTU programs, financial aid is the issue that you're going to run into. Union will also be a financial aid hurdle to jump through but access to Columbia and the wider NYC area doing your work could prove interesting. Not talked about much here but a place I visit often when visiting family in Colorado is Naropa University in Boulder. You would be able to do a M.Div there catered specifically to ind-Tibetan Buddhism. I love the campus, the students that have dedicated themselves to languages have been known to go onto Harvard, Chicago, Oxford, etc.; and spiritual care is a strong driving force of the school. Again though, financial aid would likely be a concern. There's University of the West too but I know very little about them, though I know they're not directly Tibetan. They have a M.Div in Buddhist Chaplaincy and it has regional accreditation.

I asked for, and got, extensions from all of my schools when I applied back in 2014 when my wife was also applying. I was open with them and I think most of them gave me two weeks or less - I don't think anyone gave me more than two. C19 is obviously far more serious so I think most schools would understand a need for more time, just don't be surprised if they say no or only give a week or two. They're under no obligation to give you any but they're generally not assholes. The only time I've seen them clamp down on decisions if someone was offered a named scholarship and the student wavered on accepting. The advice that I've given some of my undergrad students looking at M* programs in Divinity and Religion - go where the money is, then consider name, and location. So from that perspective, back when I applied, I eliminated some schools from even giving them a visit.

There’s a placement list somewhere, just not online it seems. I’d suggest reaching out to the director or the secretary and see if they’d be willing to share it. They’d be silly not to track that on a spreadsheet somewhere and if they aren’t willing to share it - that’s some cause for concern. Granted, scrubbing of names is common but dissertation titles are still there so in the age of Google, no such thing as privacy. I’d also look at the list of their current PhD students in the field you’ll be in, preferably someone in their 3rd or 4th year, and get their assessment and how cohorts before them did on the market.

Depends on the degree, I guess. Are we talking M* or PhD? Either way, I believe CTS M* students still have access to taking courses at other Chicago seminaries. One of my PT (Practical Theology) profs in seminary was a PhD grad from CTS and they were fucking awesome. They're currently at SMU. Otherwise I don't know much about their placement and I didn't see a list on their website.

Crazy - no. But, I think it's unlikely given that often this money comes from endowments where they already "have" the money. I think a much bigger fear, and more likely an outcome, is that we (the USA) don't do enough to quarantine and we really stretch this pandemic out to the 15-19 months that some researchers are suggesting is highly likely. If that happens, I think we can safely rely on a number of schools pulling a prolonged break and essentially going offline for a year and thus cutting back on graduate students. A number of my colleagues, myself included, that are hitting the professor job market have been told that schools are putting hiring freezes in place. One colleague had already signed their contract and was assured that their job is "secure" but they need to financially prepare for the reality that there is no 2020-21 academic year.

If you already have PhD offers on the table and they're fully funded, I'd think long and hard about rolling the dice for another M* degree.

Grad students are here. As per taking courses outside the Div. School the policy can be found here. In short, such courses must be directly relevant to your goals and if you take a fourth course in the same department it'll trigger a PSC review which is more of a formality and gives a more structured chance to decide how the the two departments (Div School and Medieval) might work together to support you, while also making sure that you're on track with everything.

@Fiat I'd take a look at Yale's associated faculty for their Medieval Studies program, if you haven't already, and see if there are faculty there you could envision taking a course with. They always post semester courses here but Fall 2020 hasn't been posted yet and it looks like course search hasn't been updated for Fall yet either. There's not a lot of Religious Studies peeps on their faculty list but there are some. The Christian medievalists that I know, few in number, have not come from Yale but that doesn't mean you can't be very successful there! Under their People heading is a listing of current grad students with contact information. The few I looked at all had bios too, so I'd find someone that you connect with and try to get their honest opinion. My limited experience has told me that you're more likely to get a frank assessment over the phone than by email, FYI.

It was on a Saturday in 2014. The decisions have already been made and a computer decides when to release them to the portal.

If you're applying M* then yes, I believe Yale only releases March 15th. EDIT: It was that way back when I applied in 2014. It was all automated and results were posted in the afternoon to the portal.

I've had a handful of former classmates (undergrad and grad) that went onto Chicago for PhD studies and they've all described it as extremely competitive and cutthroat. I suspect the same is for M* students there, esp. since they still (or I assume they still do) have an internal application process for M* students to go straight into the PhD. It's ultimately going to come down to what profs you want to work with. Some love the fighting among students, some even feed it. Some purposefully seek out that silent rockstar that knows how to balance when to speak and when to stfu and listen to their classmates, and let their writing speak for itself. From friends, it's most evident with faculty and students working in some field of philosophy at the Div. School. As an undergrad philosophy major at a competitive Ivy, philosophy departments are great at breeding assertive assholes. It taught me skills that took years to unlearn while also killing my love of philosophy but that's a different thread. I'm not sure about swapping at Chicago specifically. Generally, it's as simple as going to the dean's office and signing a piece of paper and maybe getting your advisor to sign it too. If your funding was specifically tied to the M.A. that might prove problematic but generally funding is better at the M.Div level so it might also open some avenues.

I don't think it'll have any negative impact on your success and reception at the school. Faculty know full well that it's a two-way street when it comes to fit. Given the state of the job market it's absolutely imperative on your part to land at a school that will position you for success.

Each school is different on waitlist deadlines. My school took someone off the waitlist in, I think, early-to-mid June several years back in my cohort. I suspect they went down their list to see who was still available from the way my friend (who got the offer) describes it but I don't know. I think it was someone that accepted and then backed out last minute. You can of course ask for an extension to make a decision but they're under no obligation to offer it. On the bright side - they're not going to rescind the offer for asking but they're going to know that you're hoping for a better offer/location/school.

Per Union, there's not enough to say why they might have rejected you. That said, MTS programs are more competitive than say Mdiv but neither are overly competitive at Union. Financially they're not in a great position and have had to sale or lease parts of their campus and relied heavily on Columbia to bail them out over the years. So...you probably dodged a bullet there. One of their PhD students use to be active here 5'ish years ago and said outside of a select few students, everyone was on loans, including their PhD students to afford NYC. If you're wanting American religious history, looking at your current acceptances and speaking very broadly, go to Boston. If Harvard opens up and it's financially feasible, that'd be an option. Yale use to have one of the strongest American religious history programs you could hope for. I don't know if that's still the case as I'm out of the loop but I know it's still very strong. I'm biased for New England so the decision for me would be easy but that's just me dreading summers outside of NE.

A former colleague did his PhD at UPenn and loved it and has never stopped speaking highly of the program (his field is Japanese religious history). I don't personally know anyone that went to Georgetown in Islamic Studies or their Theo & RS programs so I can't speak to that. That said, I've worked with Georgetown graduates on various endeavors and they were as academically rigorous as just about anywhere else. As @Theobuckeye noted, DC is going to be expensive on a PhD stipend. Philly is too but probably not as bad. As someone wrapping up a PhD here soon and looking toward life outside of being a student, I'd encourage you to consider what kind of job you want. Can you see yourself teaching in an Arabic Studies or a History Department? Do you fashion yourself more as a RS scholar? One of the cool things about the interdisciplinary nature of Islamic Studies and Jewish Studies is that you find scholars working in departments that they didn't get their PhD in. So it's possible to hop around but that's still largely the exception to the rule.

Not really. If you're borrowing or dependent on a political theory/theorist(s) that you can say is German or French, you should start there. Ultimately, you'll need familiarity with both. Depending on timeframe (Middles Ages, for example), an advisor would likely tack on Latin - maybe.

Simply that you can pass a reading proficiency exam in German or French before you enter the program. "Research language" sounds daunting and I guess it is to a degree, but it's just a test of your basic ability to read and translate a text of approx. 500 words. Often, as in my case, as part of orientation they had reading exams you had to take. In the case of my school everyone took one in French or German (some got to choose Spanish). Even if you failed they gave you some length of time to study and retake the exam - usually a year.