Alex Madlinger

I turned down an offer I really like because the funding was only 50%, and I completely agree with your decision. Some people might have circumstances that make a 50% offer doable. I didn't.

Well I made all my decisions official. Turned down Duke and Wake Forest (MA) for the University of Minnesota, MA Religions in Antiquity. Fully funded + stipend, albeit a little colder than I'm used to.

Not an expert in this field, but does the University of Minnesota's MA in Religions in Antiquity fit your interests?

Is there any group of people that hasn't heard back yet, or is it time to make decisions?

Seriously Notre Dame's rejection letter was more encouraging than Wake Forest's acceptance letter.

I got my official letter from ND. Was anyone else's letter weirdly encouraging? What I got has to be a form letter, but it doesn't read like a normal rejection letter.

Seriously though his dog is stumpy. Kinda like a sausage with legs.

I found out that this is actually something the scholarly community recognizes. Evangelicals can do some really great work in Greek, textual criticism, linguistics because those degrees are largely 'safe,' ie it's not like issues of form criticism, historical Jesus, etc, which conservative evangelicals might be uncomfortable with theologically. A few generations ago, leaving for Europe to get a PhD in text criticism, in order to return to the states to teach New Testament, amounted to an evangelical strategy, if I understand correctly. My seminary is the same way, though not as good as DTS or GC by any means. No MA in New Testament/Religion/Biblical Studies but an MA in Biblical Languages. They have an MA in OT as well, but it's largely a Hebrew language degree. Caveat: I'm speaking about the very conservative types here, not every Christian who identifies as 'evangelical.'

In general, being part of an SBC seminary disqualifies you from participating fully in the discipline. I'd imagine that's doubly true in philosophy. But even in biblical studies, the professors that I'm familiar with are all considered to be boring or fringe.

Major second.

Oh man, here we go!

Haha, two factors at play. (1) I grew up in super fundamentalist craziness, so when I went I signed up for seminary a bazillian years ago the SBC seemed super chill and moderate. (2) It was really during my time in seminary that I chose my life path (ancient religions) and became a 'normal, secular' student of early Christianity. So it's more of a don't-look-back thing than a I'm-surprised-and-didn't-expect-that thing. Oh, and there was the time that an SBC leader told people that academic freedom was invented to protect liberals. Which, I suppose, is true, but seriously?

I'd say, IDK leave us alone or go hang out with your friends or something. But you don't have any friends. You're a loser. And your dog is stumpy.

I PMed you. The short answer is they're really, really conservative.

Because I have a degree from an SBC seminary and don't.

Hey why don't you shut up and go away

Full disclosure, I don't find it surprising at all but I was trying to avoid sounding combative to ianfaircloud, who had just said that Philosophy takes the writing sample more seriously than religion.

Alright, alright. My comments were a mistake, ill conceived and ill stated. I'm at an evangelical seminary and I got rejected from all of the uber-prestigious programs I applied to. I'm not trying to be elitist or snobbish, so I sincerely apologize to anyone I offended, and I won't try to defend my comments or interact with any more replies.

I guess 'exasperated' is a better word. And yeah, I suppose that would be annoying too. Haven't met anyone like that, but I only have a small handful of personal friends who are taking this route. Oy, remember not to say anything that sounds even partially dismissive to people with an evangelical MDiv... Hello people, evangelical born and bred here, at an evangelical institution. And, I honestly didn't know that about Yale, but then again I don't have a ton of research interests in common with Yale profs so I don't know too much about the program. I've met several people from GCTS in several different great schools. I get the feeling they're a fantastic seminary, but I haven't had much personal experience with them.

You know? My comment was out of hand, and while I don't think I'm being elitist against evangelicals, I'm still just venting my frustration about a human being who annoyed me, and I don't feel like that's an action worth defending. If I knew how to delete/retract my comments, I would. --- Thanks for the support, I'm glad somebody knows what I'm taking about :/ I'm not far enough along in the process to get too many requests for advice, but I have gotten a few and I'm happy to tell anyone anything I've learned. People who ask someone else for advice are, in my book, categorically excused from the group I'm describing. The person who frustrated me literally told me, 'If God wants me to get in, he will open doors.' That response was not a general statement of trust in God, but an answer to the question, 'Have you considered getting a second MA?'

Duke offers 45% funding to all accepted students, if I understand correctly. I have a few other offers, most importantly an offer with full funding and tuition elsewhere. That's what made the decision so difficult, but I feel like I need to follow the money despite my love for this program.

Duke and Harvard's PhD don't accept students with one MA from an evangelical school that regularly, as far as I understand. Especially not in the fields I'm familiar with, especially not recently. I understand why you're accusing me of elitism, but it's not the case here. I'm from an evangelical institution, and I have plenty of friends from evangelical institutions who are getting into fantastic schools and I think it's awesome. The phenomenon I was trying to point to was people who are ridiculously and obviously unprepared, and yet they apply to the top schools as if they literally knew nothing about how difficult the application process was. My friends who are successful from evangelical institutions have all taken account of how difficult the field is and acted accordingly, getting a second MA or a ThM from a great school. So in other words, it's not that he had the guts to apply to some of the best programs in his discipline. It's that he *only* applied to the very best schools with almost no recognition that these programs were nearly impossible to get in to. Of course, my evaluation of his application is based on conversations with him that you don't have, so it could come off as if I was judging him off the cuff. I guess what frustrates me about is #1 It happens all the time in seminary (the attitude that I don't really care, whatever, and somehow I'll get into Harvard one day) and #2 by acting like it's no big deal and they can get in to the best schools without trying, they are completely ignoring their friends who are working incredibly hard (and being successful) to get into the best schools through second master's degrees. It's a failure to take this whole process seriously that frustrates me. -- This isn't a super substantive reply to your post, the quote etc, but that's because I judged that I hadn't made myself clear. This isn't a post about bashing anyone's viewpoint or anything of the sort. I'm sure there are people from public universities or mainline divinity schools who act as if they think they can waltz into the best programs.

Does anyone else get irrationally angry when they meet someone who is applying to PhDs but clearly making terrible life decisions? Like, I met two people in the last week who made me want to attack them with a lexicon. One of them has an MA from an evangelical seminary. He only applied to Chicago, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins and he (obviously) got rejected to every single one. The other one was musing about his life plans and said, 'Oh, I don't know. I guess I'll apply to Duke and [random evangelical seminary].' You don't just 'guess' you'll put in an application at what is probably the best university to study New Testament in the US! Does anyone else get super frustrated to meet people who clearly aren't taking the process seriously enough? Or do I have some weird psychological problem?

Don't consider Southern Baptist Theological Seminary... Just don't.

Body Politics, I just lost it in the middle of class. Thank you for that post.