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Rabbit Run

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Everything posted by Rabbit Run

  1. Some departments do (biblical studies I believe) other do not (theology).
  2. To add to the chorus: If you applied to the Mdiv at each of these schools, the odds are you'd likely get into at least one (barring anything problematic in your previous academic history etc.)
  3. Ive know people who've done M.Div. + MTS successfully, so its definitely an option. They went to different schools for the different degrees in the cases I'm thinking of. The main other option is a one year STM/ThM, which is not a good idea imo unless you do it at same school where you did primary M*
  4. I would encourage a visit to see if it would be a good fit, but I don't know how far a meeting with a professor would go since Masters admissions are (I believe) determined by a committee made of up people from the admissions department and select faculty. If you set up a visit with office of aadmissions and do well (i.e. can explain why PTS is a good place for you to continue your Masters work) then that will go a longer way than meeting with a professor (although you ought to try to do that to)
  5. As a grad of PTS I can think of a number of students who transfered in from evangelical schools like Fuller, Gordon-Conwell, etc. Can think of a couple similar folks from YDS as well. Definitely at think that happens with some regularity.
  6. In addition to the programs mentioned, also look at Drew and Villanova. Villanova has both a theology department and a philosophy program with a theological track.
  7. Speaking as a PhD student in theology at PTS I agree that a PhD from Duke University (unclear if this applied to ThD through the Divinity School) will likely set you up to be more marketable than say a PhD from PTS. PTS has a decent placement record at smaller Christian liberal arts college and at seminaries (in fact we're #1 in placement here, https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/publications-presentations/documents/tenure-and-other-faculty-facts-part-2.pdf). A Duke PhD would likely do better in applications, particularly at less religiously affiliated place places like a state university or a religious studies department at a liberal arts college (yet PTS's theology department does have relatively recent grads at R1 places like Yale Divinity School and University of Chicago Divinity School). But the bigger issue is that there simply aren't many jobs in theology, regardless if your doctorate is from Yale, Duke, or Princeton Seminary. The R1 school is likely not going to be hiring a theologian regardless of where the degree is from. If you lurk the job boards for theologians, they're primarily postdocs, schools such as those in the UK, or small virtually unknown schools. You should weight the various factors concerning location, academic fit ecclesial affiliation, but also financial matters with this in mind: no matter where you go, the prospects of getting into a PhD program are slim and the prospects of getting a job on the other side slimmer. This is good advice, but I'd question a little how much less Duke is concerned with pastoral formation here (as an outsider here so likely to be wrong). A large part of their theological identity in recent decades has been an emphasis on the church and its practices as the context for theological discourse. I also would put money on them being the most pastorally focused divinity school, but I could be wrong here; at the end of the day they're still a United Methodist seminary with a considerable investment to this mission and identity in addition to being part of R1 Duke University.
  8. I'd be very surprised if there was a stark difference. It would vary by professor more than school in my guess. If the funding is significantly better at Duke as you say then I'd go there, depending on your interests
  9. It a good seminary in my understanding, and you'll likely get a good education depending on what you want (that is, they're probably gonna be focused on Christian theology and biblical studies), but is not known as a feeder school into PhD programs. It would be a good option if you're not committed to doing a PhD and want to stay in the area. But you may need to do a ThM or an STM at a bigger school down the road to make the leap to PhD. Does University of Pittsburgh have a program? I recall a recall professor from undergraduate having a PhD from there
  10. If your goal is mainly to explore Hebrew and to see where that takes you, and if you want to do that in a religious context, you have a lot of options in DC. Look at Virginia Seminary, Wesley Seminary, Dominican House of Studies, or maybe CUA. Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond is another option. Each should be teaching at least introductory Hebrew and some exegesis classes, which you might want to audit if not enroll in a full degree program.
  11. The common wisdom is that the quantitative portion is MUCH less important. I think as long as you didn't flat out fail you're alright, especially with verbal and writing scores like that
  12. I tell people that the numbers are "necessary but not sufficient" to get in. All the numbers (i.e. generally 90% on verbal, 5 on writing, good GPA) do is get you past some initial cutoffs . From there its the pieces others have mentioned above: fit, recommendations, etc.
  13. The general wisdom is that the MTS is better for academic prep (this is true), but if you scroll through the Ph.D. profiles at top schools you'll find that there's quite a few people with MDivs (especially if it's from someplace like HDS or YDS). So yes, an MTS will help you, but an MDiv isn't gonna keep you out. You should talk to someone who's a grad of HDS or someone from admissions about this, but my sense of HDS's MDiv is that it doesn't differ wildly in content from the MTS; even if they have some ministerial/pastoral classes you ought to take, you still would have a lot of freedom in course selection so that you can do more academic prep.
  14. If you're in DFW then I imagine Perkins/SMU would be an option for you. I don't know what their HB/OT reputation is, but they're a strong divinity school. I can think of two folks who went to SBC seminaries and ended up in good PhD programs (one in OT as a matter of fact), but they both did masters at other schools. I want to gauge people's takes on this, but my perception for some reason is that SEBTS is considered the most moderate of the SBC seminaries; not that that quells the worry raised in this thread, but might help.
  15. would be curious to get the perspective of a Duke student, but I applied to both and was told by a professor that it didn't matter; of course, this was just one professor's take.
  16. I don't know what the process is, but its certainly possible. I can think of at least 4 or 5 people who transferrred into my M.Div program while I was there. Likely best to contact admissions at the schools in question and find out how it works.
  17. Duke Divinity, Candler School of theology (Emory), Vanderbilt Divinity, Perkins School of Theology (Southern Methodist Univeristy) for divinity schools. UVA, UNC-Chapel Hill, and FSU have MA programs that might be of interest.
  18. Yeah, I graduated from the M.Div at PTS so I know the scene; feel free to PM if you have questions.
  19. To add on the point of postliberal theology (which of course is a vague and contested term), I'd add Wycliffe (which is part of U Toronto) would be very good since they have a few prominent Lindbeck students workings out of that tradition (Joseph Mangina and Ephraim Radner).
  20. Princeton Seminary would be a good fit for you given it meets criteria 1 very well in particular. Theres also a natural connection w/the Presbyterian church, although I don't know how important that is to you/its a PC(USA) school anyways. Union Presbyterian is a fine school in a nice city, but it would not be as easy to get to a PhD program from there. The rest of the list is good, but you might want to consider Duke Divinity or Wake Forest, especially since you're in NC.
  21. ...and J Kameron Carter last week. Plus Eboni Marshall Thurman also went to Yale and Reinhard Hütter is leaving (has left?) for CUA. Heres some articles about Duke. As sacklunch said, would be best to have a Duke student weight in from their perspective https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/05/24/467233031/black-ministry-students-at-duke-say-they-face-unequal-treatment-and-racism http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2018/03/lgbtqia-duke-divinity-students-protest-treatment-issue-list-of-demands
  22. I'm not a student at Duke, but its worth noting the Anglican/Episcopal House will be headed up by Christopher Beeley (formerly of Yale Divinity) beginning in the Fall, which is an excellent hire imo. My outside perception of Duke is that it's the most moderate/conservative of the big divinity schools. It seems to be a tense place right now from what I've heard, with a lot of professors leaving and with tension surrounding race and human sexuality.
  23. This is good advice, but I'd qualify it a bit for PTS, whose M.Div is fairly flexible. They tend to offer quite a bit of cross listed courses (i.e. a course in Church History that also meets a Practical Theology Req).
  24. I don't think this is weird, I applied to Theology, Ethics, and Historical Theology subfields depending on the school/faculty etc. Of course, these are all much more related than say, Ancient Near East and American Church History, but all this is to say that where you apply is dependent on how the school carves up the disciplines/where the faculty you want to work with are.
  25. In part bc of networking (especially if you're looking PU for PhD work, but mainly because it just makes you a stronger applicant: if you do well in a course over there, it can demonstrate that you can succeed not just in a seminary/divinity school setting, but in Tier 1 graduate settings too. It's not the biggest thing, but its a good feather in the cap.
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