PeanutButterJellyTime

Has anyone received an official rejection from Yale?

Was this from your POI call? And can I ask who it was?

I haven't from Princeton Seminary, but I did hear from Princeton proper. Not sure if that helps.

Alright, let's talk about Harvard. Who has heard?

I second this. Your scores/GPA/interests are competitive, you should be fine. I applied to seven and received two funded with stipends/one funded tuition/one half funded tuition and my scores and GPA were around the same as yours. Throw your net wide. And you definitely need to decide whether you want to do an MDiv or MTS--it makes a difference. Good luck!!!

SLEEP. And alcohol. Not in that order. Oh, and trash magazines. #don'tjudgeme

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

Hey all...random question. I am attending HDS in the fall, and am finishing my undergrad now. I was admitted with (what I believe to be the standard) "terms and conditions": "Please note that your offer of admission is contingent upon the completion of any courses and programs in progress at a standard comparable in quality to that of your past academic performance. We encourage you to carefully review the statement of the terms and conditions of your acceptance." And then... "All acceptances to Harvard Divinity School are contingent upon satisfactory completion of any courses and degree programs in progress. You are responsible for satisfying any unfinished requirements prior to matriculation; no exceptions can be made. If you are currently an undergraduate student, you must complete all bachelor degree requirements before matriculating at Harvard Divinity School." My question is this. What does "standard comparable in quality" and "satisfactory completion" mean? Since applying my grades have dropped--not significantly, mind you (I'm still above a 3.8 GPA, where I was a 3.9 when I applied...) but I'm a worrier by nature. Does anyone have any advice or answers about this? Could one B or C kill me?

Thank you for saying that. Good luck with your interviews. :-)

What's to say that they don't already restrict it to "highly qualified folks?" This whole thread reeks of academic superiority. Who defines this term? HDS, even with its high acceptance rate, is still a very well regarded program, and still operates under the auspices of the name "Harvard." The students that are getting in are not idiots, as this thread makes it out to seem. If anyone else read the report quoted above, it clearly stated that part of the reason HDS can admit so many MTS candidates is due to funding. It is a well known fact that Harvard and HDS on the whole have much greater endowements than most all other universities, and can afford to take on so many students. I can't imagine that more "selective" programs (and, it has to be noted, smaller--in all respects--faculty, resources, cohort size, funding, etc) would ever actually want to operate under such limited resources as they have been. And, as a point of clarification--a 50% acceptance rate is NOT "infinitely higher."

I can see your point, completely. You get that everywhere, even with upper-level undergrads vs. incoming freshman. Of course you have something to prove, it just makes sense. The reality is that this is a highly competitive field, and most academics tend to err on the side of feelings of superiority, if for only as an attempt of self-preservation. I don't think I could ever walk into a doctoral seminar and expect to be taken as seriously right out of the gate as an M* student as if I were a D* student. But my question still stands, I would really like to know where the charge of a 50% acceptance rate comes from. Like I said, I have never seen it that high--except on here (and excuse me, one other website--something like college confidential--and who knows where that info is coming from.) And even if it were true, that the HDS MTS acceptance rate was still that high, the fact remains that the program is much larger than other institutions (on par with the size of UChicago, I would imagine) and that there are so many different students studying different things, all under the umbrella of the MTS degree.

I've seen a couple of people saying they've been accepted to Vandy's MDiv program, but I was wondering if anyone has gotten accepted into the MA program?

Can I ask where you're getting your 50% acceptance rate? From everything I've heard and read, it seems to be much more selective--while not as selective as the PhD (of course,) the numbers I've seen have been at least half that. One year's acceptance rate--from HDS material--was 7%. The only time I've seen the 50% rate was on here.

The reason I ask is out of genuine curiosity. The website said they only give out a very small amount of merit awards, and most of their awards are need based. I've been given full tuition, but wasn't entirely sure if it was merit or need, or if I would ever find out.