xypathos

I worked during my MA and found it very manageable. I probably kept between 15-20 hours a week most of the time, dropping to 8-10 during exams and paper season, then doing 20-30 during downtime. I had a boss willing to work with me on this though.
Most of the people I hung out with in grad school worked, everything from bartending, waiting tables, after school teachers, IT, etc.
I didn't notice a change in the quality of work, just more of it. If you're worried about it I'd suggest 12 hours your first semester and see how it goes. You ultimately know yourself better than we do! That said, a large part of divinity school and grad life in general is taking time to attend social events and form those bonds, be it a house party, grabbing beers at a happy hour, or attending a lunch lecture. Don't ever get yourself in a position to where you can't attend some of these!

That's awesome!!!

Hey all, in case any folks stumble on this thread next year and are wondering if it's possible to get more money from one of the big Div schools: 
YDS just raised my scholarship from 80% to a full ride. It does happen! I was persistent in asking and following up. 

I'm fine with you being upset with what I wrote. I could've sprinkled some sugar on it and beat around the bushes, but you need someone in your corner to tell you the hard truth. You clearly didn't have that someone this cycle.
I worked full-time in undergrad, as a line cook and pantry chef. Plenty of people before you, your classmates, and future students worked full-time and still slammed out high grades at probably every university in the US/world. You're nothing special there.
More than five schools work on continental philosophy and religion. That's just poor planning.
If you want to be in a competitive philosophy department you need a M.A. in their field. You can get in to a PhD program without an M.A., your chances are higher than 0% but not by much. If you haven't seen it yet, the PGR (Philosophical Gourmet Report) is considered the preeminent ranking system but it also has a fair share of detractors. Recently Brian Leiter (founder) stepped down from running it and that's for the better - they have a solid Advisory Board in place now. Dailynous.com is also a top site to learn about the field itself, what prof is moving where, where the leaders in the field think the next hot subfields will be, etc.
The people in the Philosophy forum here at GradCafe are far better equipped to handle philosophy questions. I can direct you to some funded M.A. options but they'll know even more. If you're wanting to do a PhD in Religious Studies (or Theology) with a focus in philosophy of religion, I can certainly help there.
My intent was not to hurt your feelings but to simply tell you the truth, nothing more, nothing less.
EDIT: Thanks for the kind words @Boolakanaka!

Were these PhD programs literally in these schools' respective Philosophy Department or was it a focus in philosophy but in the Theology/Religious Studies Department?
If they were actual philosophy departments, you made a costly error. Philosophy departments have a noted bias against people coming over from theology, even more so without a M.A. in Philosophy. Getting accepted into a philosophy program is rather difficult - there's been a resurgence of interest, so most schools have seen an uptick in applicants - coupled with schools generally cutting funded Humanities spots to divert funds to STEM. Also, five schools is, IMO, simply not enough for someone with your stats. When you look at Verbal and Quant scores for successful applicants to philosophy, you're much more likely to see 163+ in both fields and W of 5+. Is your GPA undergrad or grad? A 3.5 from grad school, particularly from Brite, won't be cutting you any favors.
If you made any discussions about reading philosophy and political theory between the ages of 14-18, delete that shit from any Personal Statement you use next time. 1) No one cares, 2) There's 0% chance you understood it in such a way that would be meaningful in a grad program, 3) It gives people the wrong idea of you / it's the wrong kind of bragging.

I'm fine with you being upset with what I wrote. I could've sprinkled some sugar on it and beat around the bushes, but you need someone in your corner to tell you the hard truth. You clearly didn't have that someone this cycle.
I worked full-time in undergrad, as a line cook and pantry chef. Plenty of people before you, your classmates, and future students worked full-time and still slammed out high grades at probably every university in the US/world. You're nothing special there.
More than five schools work on continental philosophy and religion. That's just poor planning.
If you want to be in a competitive philosophy department you need a M.A. in their field. You can get in to a PhD program without an M.A., your chances are higher than 0% but not by much. If you haven't seen it yet, the PGR (Philosophical Gourmet Report) is considered the preeminent ranking system but it also has a fair share of detractors. Recently Brian Leiter (founder) stepped down from running it and that's for the better - they have a solid Advisory Board in place now. Dailynous.com is also a top site to learn about the field itself, what prof is moving where, where the leaders in the field think the next hot subfields will be, etc.
The people in the Philosophy forum here at GradCafe are far better equipped to handle philosophy questions. I can direct you to some funded M.A. options but they'll know even more. If you're wanting to do a PhD in Religious Studies (or Theology) with a focus in philosophy of religion, I can certainly help there.
My intent was not to hurt your feelings but to simply tell you the truth, nothing more, nothing less.
EDIT: Thanks for the kind words @Boolakanaka!

Were these PhD programs literally in these schools' respective Philosophy Department or was it a focus in philosophy but in the Theology/Religious Studies Department?
If they were actual philosophy departments, you made a costly error. Philosophy departments have a noted bias against people coming over from theology, even more so without a M.A. in Philosophy. Getting accepted into a philosophy program is rather difficult - there's been a resurgence of interest, so most schools have seen an uptick in applicants - coupled with schools generally cutting funded Humanities spots to divert funds to STEM. Also, five schools is, IMO, simply not enough for someone with your stats. When you look at Verbal and Quant scores for successful applicants to philosophy, you're much more likely to see 163+ in both fields and W of 5+. Is your GPA undergrad or grad? A 3.5 from grad school, particularly from Brite, won't be cutting you any favors.
If you made any discussions about reading philosophy and political theory between the ages of 14-18, delete that shit from any Personal Statement you use next time. 1) No one cares, 2) There's 0% chance you understood it in such a way that would be meaningful in a grad program, 3) It gives people the wrong idea of you / it's the wrong kind of bragging.

I'm fine with you being upset with what I wrote. I could've sprinkled some sugar on it and beat around the bushes, but you need someone in your corner to tell you the hard truth. You clearly didn't have that someone this cycle.
I worked full-time in undergrad, as a line cook and pantry chef. Plenty of people before you, your classmates, and future students worked full-time and still slammed out high grades at probably every university in the US/world. You're nothing special there.
More than five schools work on continental philosophy and religion. That's just poor planning.
If you want to be in a competitive philosophy department you need a M.A. in their field. You can get in to a PhD program without an M.A., your chances are higher than 0% but not by much. If you haven't seen it yet, the PGR (Philosophical Gourmet Report) is considered the preeminent ranking system but it also has a fair share of detractors. Recently Brian Leiter (founder) stepped down from running it and that's for the better - they have a solid Advisory Board in place now. Dailynous.com is also a top site to learn about the field itself, what prof is moving where, where the leaders in the field think the next hot subfields will be, etc.
The people in the Philosophy forum here at GradCafe are far better equipped to handle philosophy questions. I can direct you to some funded M.A. options but they'll know even more. If you're wanting to do a PhD in Religious Studies (or Theology) with a focus in philosophy of religion, I can certainly help there.
My intent was not to hurt your feelings but to simply tell you the truth, nothing more, nothing less.
EDIT: Thanks for the kind words @Boolakanaka!

I'm fine with you being upset with what I wrote. I could've sprinkled some sugar on it and beat around the bushes, but you need someone in your corner to tell you the hard truth. You clearly didn't have that someone this cycle.
I worked full-time in undergrad, as a line cook and pantry chef. Plenty of people before you, your classmates, and future students worked full-time and still slammed out high grades at probably every university in the US/world. You're nothing special there.
More than five schools work on continental philosophy and religion. That's just poor planning.
If you want to be in a competitive philosophy department you need a M.A. in their field. You can get in to a PhD program without an M.A., your chances are higher than 0% but not by much. If you haven't seen it yet, the PGR (Philosophical Gourmet Report) is considered the preeminent ranking system but it also has a fair share of detractors. Recently Brian Leiter (founder) stepped down from running it and that's for the better - they have a solid Advisory Board in place now. Dailynous.com is also a top site to learn about the field itself, what prof is moving where, where the leaders in the field think the next hot subfields will be, etc.
The people in the Philosophy forum here at GradCafe are far better equipped to handle philosophy questions. I can direct you to some funded M.A. options but they'll know even more. If you're wanting to do a PhD in Religious Studies (or Theology) with a focus in philosophy of religion, I can certainly help there.
My intent was not to hurt your feelings but to simply tell you the truth, nothing more, nothing less.
EDIT: Thanks for the kind words @Boolakanaka!

I'm fine with you being upset with what I wrote. I could've sprinkled some sugar on it and beat around the bushes, but you need someone in your corner to tell you the hard truth. You clearly didn't have that someone this cycle.
I worked full-time in undergrad, as a line cook and pantry chef. Plenty of people before you, your classmates, and future students worked full-time and still slammed out high grades at probably every university in the US/world. You're nothing special there.
More than five schools work on continental philosophy and religion. That's just poor planning.
If you want to be in a competitive philosophy department you need a M.A. in their field. You can get in to a PhD program without an M.A., your chances are higher than 0% but not by much. If you haven't seen it yet, the PGR (Philosophical Gourmet Report) is considered the preeminent ranking system but it also has a fair share of detractors. Recently Brian Leiter (founder) stepped down from running it and that's for the better - they have a solid Advisory Board in place now. Dailynous.com is also a top site to learn about the field itself, what prof is moving where, where the leaders in the field think the next hot subfields will be, etc.
The people in the Philosophy forum here at GradCafe are far better equipped to handle philosophy questions. I can direct you to some funded M.A. options but they'll know even more. If you're wanting to do a PhD in Religious Studies (or Theology) with a focus in philosophy of religion, I can certainly help there.
My intent was not to hurt your feelings but to simply tell you the truth, nothing more, nothing less.
EDIT: Thanks for the kind words @Boolakanaka!

@wilsonrg With all due respect, xypathos is not only very respected on the board, but moreover and to the more germane point, his response provided answers that were spot on and lucid. Perhaps it was not in the tone or inflection you desired, they were nonetheless entirely accurate. A tad bit of advice and counsel, the academy is a long arduous road, filled with much more disappointment than success, and if this blunt but totally on point assessment already rankles you, perhaps you need to rethink your attitude as you go down this incredibly long path....

@wilsonrgI suggest you look at the breath and content of many many of his past posts, it’s both extensive and highly comprehensive and accurate on the topic of the study of theology/religion. As well, look at the institutions at which he matriculated—equally impressive—in total, all of it speaks for itself. But, please do what you think is appropriate it with the information.

I worked during my MA and found it very manageable. I probably kept between 15-20 hours a week most of the time, dropping to 8-10 during exams and paper season, then doing 20-30 during downtime. I had a boss willing to work with me on this though.
Most of the people I hung out with in grad school worked, everything from bartending, waiting tables, after school teachers, IT, etc.
I didn't notice a change in the quality of work, just more of it. If you're worried about it I'd suggest 12 hours your first semester and see how it goes. You ultimately know yourself better than we do! That said, a large part of divinity school and grad life in general is taking time to attend social events and form those bonds, be it a house party, grabbing beers at a happy hour, or attending a lunch lecture. Don't ever get yourself in a position to where you can't attend some of these!

Getting an academic job, PhD or DMin, is going to be hard and likely require multiple rejections (really they just never respond to your application). That said, most schools and particularly small, rural ones, don't put as much weight into scrutinizing potential adjunct faculty. Warm body? Check. Masters degree in something directly relevant to the course? Check. Not a complete asshole to where students complain a lot? Check. I'm being a bit silly but it's somewhat true. You're doing the work that they do but a lot cheaper and it frees them up to do research and/or teach seminars on things they prefer. As long as you're a passionate and knowledgeable teacher, it's really only your bank account that suffers.
You might need to land a job at the local community college, volunteer teaching at a community center, etc to have some kind of experience but it's absolutely doable! Landing jobs at CCs and small colleges is far more about who you know - getting that Dean/Department Chair to directly pull your app and skip over everyone else is key. It's a shit game but adjunct positions don't play by the same rules as a tenure-track position.

Can you be more specific on American religions? If it's reception of Buddhism in America, for example, that makes quite a difference.
Doesn't Stanford only keep like one American Religion student at a time, maybe two with a brief overlap? On the one hand, probably a fair amount of attention to your work but then how many faculty do they keep on in that area to help form you?
My gut says go to Columbia. When I think of Stanford, they're renowned for the Buddhist studies, not American religion (IMO). I'm also firmly rooted in east coast culture so I'm biased. Being in NYC as a grad student and the resources available to you, I don't know if I'd pass that up.

There's no official policy barring a non-MDiv/BD graduate from doing a STM but it's not advised. You'd be taking courses, probably, in the field that you're hoping to do a PhD in, which you should've done with the MAR. You'd likely be forced into doing a lot of independent studies which could be hard to setup.
Most schools also don't offer ANY financial aid for the MTS/ThM so you'd be taking out significant loans for this experience. If you're going to go the one year MTS/ThM route, I'd advise a different school (just make it a good one!) since it'll open connections with other faculty for reccs and connections. Just keep in mind that they really only have 3-4 months to get to know you enough to write a LOR, if you're wanting one of them. It's also unlikely that any of your MTS courses would be on a transcript to benefit you. There's other problems with MTS degrees too but that's a different thread.

Hey guys, tying it back in to @JHubbs financial question earlier, I requested extra funding from Duke University and heard back yesterday that they're giving it to me! Pretty awesome! That means I'll be headed there this Fall! You never know what might happen when you just ask.

If you want to better position yourself for a PhD program in North America then HDS is your only option.
KU Leuven is a wonderful school with access to amazing cultural resources. There has been the occasional student here that graduated from Leuven and gone onto top programs. That said, I've also seen faculty have to google KU Leuven when someone says their name.
There is also a rather wide belief that you only go to Europe for a Masters and then to the US for PhD because you couldn't get a cheaper M* degree here. You're an international student so this won't affect you as much but being a third world applicant and getting a funded position at HDS speaks to your ability, what HDS sees in you, and what they believe that you can offer their student body.
I've never lived in Cambridge or Leuven so I can't speak to costs.
I lived on the Isle of Man for two years and as part of that process the diocese had someone sit down with me, over Skype, and do the visa paperwork. There's ways to frame resources so that you don't need to have $22,000 in a bank account but rather have access to it. I don't know if HDS has someone that can help with this but I suspect so. I know some of my international classmates at Vanderbilt from Africa and Asia did similar things too. On a US visa you'll be entitled to work up to 20 hours a week when classes are in session and 37.5 when they are not - not sure about Belgium/EU.

If you want to better position yourself for a PhD program in North America then HDS is your only option.
KU Leuven is a wonderful school with access to amazing cultural resources. There has been the occasional student here that graduated from Leuven and gone onto top programs. That said, I've also seen faculty have to google KU Leuven when someone says their name.
There is also a rather wide belief that you only go to Europe for a Masters and then to the US for PhD because you couldn't get a cheaper M* degree here. You're an international student so this won't affect you as much but being a third world applicant and getting a funded position at HDS speaks to your ability, what HDS sees in you, and what they believe that you can offer their student body.
I've never lived in Cambridge or Leuven so I can't speak to costs.
I lived on the Isle of Man for two years and as part of that process the diocese had someone sit down with me, over Skype, and do the visa paperwork. There's ways to frame resources so that you don't need to have $22,000 in a bank account but rather have access to it. I don't know if HDS has someone that can help with this but I suspect so. I know some of my international classmates at Vanderbilt from Africa and Asia did similar things too. On a US visa you'll be entitled to work up to 20 hours a week when classes are in session and 37.5 when they are not - not sure about Belgium/EU.

As a whole, GPA isn't that important for most M.Div programs. They review people holistically and understand that people come from all walks of life. That said, divinity school is a graduate program so if your GPA is particularly bad (around a 2.0 out of 4.0), then a sentence or two about how you improved your grades and the step(s) you've taken to make sure you don't repeat bad grades would be helpful. Don't spend more than 1-2 sentences on this though!

Hello -- I just received my acceptance from VDS (for MTS) -- better late then never!

Adcoms don't have access to how your M* was paid for. If you attended a school with a named scholarship and included it on your PS, that's something they could google or might even know off the top of their head.
Otherwise, financial aid and admissions (for most schools) are kept in two distinct offices for 1) logistical purposes and 2) money shouldn't factor into an admissions decision. When it comes to real PhD programs (real being ones that you're not paying for), absolutely no one in admissions and/or faculty care about how much debt you have. They also have no way of finding out without severely going out of their way for that info and raising suspicions.
I would say that performance is all that matters but that's not entirely true. Fit is really the big thing that matters but fit is an all encompassing term for how you've performed, if your prospective advisor can put with your personality and vice versa, the level of curiosity you exhibit, your ability to grow and be receptive to ideas, etc.

Ultimately a PhD from Duke will open far more doors for you than PTS. Some of this will depend on what kind of school you want to teach in but even then, Duke will open more doors, and a larger variety of them, than PTS.
Every school is facing problems with their graduates landing tenure track jobs out of the gate or within 1-2 years. That said, I know of about half a dozen recent PTS theology (PhD) grads that were doing 2-3 postdoc programs* (so anywhere from 2-6 years) before they landed a tenure-track job at even virtually unknown schools. Three of them "gave up" and moved to the UK to work at large universities that cater to conservative students that come for the DPhil and return home, generally to a church job.
*Some of these were official postdoc programs. Others were designed to run for 1-3 years and then you're expected to move on but weren't officially classified as seeking postdocs.

Ultimately a PhD from Duke will open far more doors for you than PTS. Some of this will depend on what kind of school you want to teach in but even then, Duke will open more doors, and a larger variety of them, than PTS.
Every school is facing problems with their graduates landing tenure track jobs out of the gate or within 1-2 years. That said, I know of about half a dozen recent PTS theology (PhD) grads that were doing 2-3 postdoc programs* (so anywhere from 2-6 years) before they landed a tenure-track job at even virtually unknown schools. Three of them "gave up" and moved to the UK to work at large universities that cater to conservative students that come for the DPhil and return home, generally to a church job.
*Some of these were official postdoc programs. Others were designed to run for 1-3 years and then you're expected to move on but weren't officially classified as seeking postdocs.

Emory is a fine school. I don't know anyone that has graduated from Emory with this degree though so I can't speak to that.
If you're wanting to go onto a Ph.D. with a focus on pastoral care, most of these programs are going to expect a M.Div and sizeable CPE experience.