HNV721

Have any Vandy MTS applicants received a decision yet? Or have an idea of when a lot of us are supposed to be notified?

Those are all fantastic choices and would be great stops, particularly in the "prestige" department which is, unfortunately, absolutely a factor down the road. Now, I would do my best to evaluate where my interests may fit best and go from there. Congrats on being accepted to Candler and Princeton, btw.

Not any of the schools mentioned here, but I recently was informed of my acceptance to the MA in American Religious History at both The Florida State University and the University of Missouri. Also applied to HDS (MTS), VDS (MTS), Ole Miss, and UGA.

Funding is absolutely available for MA-level religious studies programs - it just takes a little effort to find them. Two religious studies programs I applied to - Florida State University and the University of Missouri - have accepted me and offered tutition waivers with modest stipends. Public schools like these will often provide the best funding opportunities, at least for the MA. Unless you are independently wealthy, divinity schools would probably be too pricey.

Cool, man! Congratulations. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to the symposium. I work weird, late, weekend hours that are hard to get out of. Plus it being six hours-plus away does not help. Hope you have a good time if you are going.

And I got into my top choice - Florida State University's MA for American Religious History. Bad-A funding, too. YUS.

Also, to be clear, I did not suggest or pick "naturalist" as my term to describe humanism ... that was what the links above utilized, FWIW

I really like what you said in the bold section above. I agree to an extent. At a brief glance, a lot of humanistic values are similar to liberal protestant thought - i.e., faith (in a christian sense)/understanding (in a humanistic sense) via reason, focus big time on doing good for others (or, in a Christian sense installing kingdom of God on earth/social gospel - Adolf von Harnack and NT Wright) instead of always looking for the supernatural as THE ... "proof" or foundational context for our existence, I guess. And, for the record, I really think that mindset is good for religious or nonreligious. With that being said, though, I still find issue with combining "humanism" with "spirit(uality)." That does not mean - at all - that I think a humanist "minister" cannot do good just like a traditional pastor, or otherwise. But what are we saying when we claim to not believe in a god, but that we are spiritual? To me, that inevitably leads to a road of relativism where everything means nothing and vice versa. Then, why would that person go to a divinity school? That in and of itself is bluntly ironic.

Definitely not. I would say that service to others seems to be a very big trait of Humanism. And I think anybody - religious or otherwise - "benefit" from serving others. That is OK. But, on the other end, I do not see how a humanist could serve in a spiritual context. That would appear contradictory. Moving on, I have questions. And these are not rhetorical come-backs. Actual questions. What about secular humanism is "spiritual"? If, in general, Humanism promotes understanding nature, "good," and purpose via human existence, how can a humanist be spiritual or believe in spiritual ministry? If a "spirit" or "spirituality" is not derived from a religion or god (which it normally is, obviously), does it not at least suggest some type of transcendence or "higher" sense of being/value than our natural human state can attain on its own? If so, then, how would that person be Humanist (in a general sense) if they are seemingly violating the main tenet of excluding supernaturalism in their understanding of the universe? And just as a side question to you, what does "serve spiritually" mean? Particularly if the one serving does not claim a particular faith or spiritual faith? What does that look like?

And again, the above question is only directed toward a secular Humanist, or, as the provided info stated, someone who "lives by" a naturalistic, non-supernatural view (which I realize can not blanket the entirety of humanism).

How does a nonreligious person benefit in their nonreligious practice by earning a degree geared toward spiritual formation and interreligious education?

If that is the definition of Humanism OP adheres to, why get a MDiv? Honest question. Not saying everyone that goes to HDS should be Christian - or even religious - but if s/he fits the wiki definition of a Humanist I kinda don't get the point of going into the MDiv when the MTS is right there (unless there is some financial or time advantage to the MDiv, which then would make plenty of practical sense).

Guess it depends on what you mean by humanist ... would you be pursuing it purely for secular academic purposes? If so, why do MDiv instead of MTS? If some type of Christian ministry or ordination is undesired, I think you would just be willingly abusing yourself.

Does anybody here know of a divinity school (MTS) or religious studies (MA) application that is free? VDS', for the MTS anyway, is free of charge. Just tryin' to scope out any others.

As long as you have formed a decent out-of-the-classroom relationship and performed well on your coursework, I would not worry about your letters in general. Actually, some advice one of my letter-writers gave me was to focus much more on SOPs and writing sample. By his logic, those are the only two pieces of the application that you - the student - composed for your case to be admitted. TIFWIW

I have kind of been concerned about the same thing. Out of my five applications, only two are to divinity schools - Vandy and Harvard. In Harvard's, I hardly mentioned any thing about my faith. I did a bit more in Vanderbilt's. I find it kind of bizarre that mentioning your religious affections in your application to a theology school is some how detrimental. Seems backwards to me. Anyway, after worrying about it, I found a lot of peace in the realization that if a divinity school program cannot handle a brief mention of my love for Jesus, I can safely conclude it is probably not the place for me.

Anybody here have any familiarity with M.A. programs combining History and Public History into one? South Carolina has one, I believe. I was curious as to the benefits of doing such a thing, the options you'd be afforded after completion, etc.

Thanks for your replies, guys. I only need one "yes" out of the bunch. Just hopin' to get it.

I really like all the components of my applications. SOPs were a bit weird for me for some reason. Just felt awkward, but I got better and better the more I tried. Unfortunately I think my SOP for FSU is my weakest and that's my number one choice. We will see. Thanks for the feedback.

Based off my stats, how viable do you - the board - think I am for the schools I applied to (listed below). - BA in history, graduated summa cum laude (note: graduated from regional public school) - 3.59 grade point avg (averaged 3.91 over last 85+ credit hours at graduating institution) - 3.8 in history, 4.0 in religious studies (minor), 4.0 in languages - GRE: 161 verbal, 148 quant, 5.0 writing Applying to Vanderbilt Divinity (MTS; POI = Byrd), Harvard Divinity (MTS; POI = Brekus), FSU (MA, religious studies; POI = Porterfield + Corrigan), Mizzou (MA, religious studies; POI = Callahan + Wigger), Ole Miss (MA, history; POI = Ownby) Judge away!

I'll throw in my $0.02. Thus far, the only for-sure applications I have are Florida State University (American Religious History), the University of Missouri (Am. Rel. Hist.), and Harvard Divinity (M.T.S., Religions of the Americas). I am most interested, obviously, in studying ARH but have had a bit of a tough time finding the right fit. Those three - plus maybe Vandy Divinity and Yale Divinity - may be the only ones I apply to. Any suggestions would be great, however.

For those who have applied to M.A.'s/M.T.S.'s the last few years: What were your GRE scores (and percentiles)? What was your undergrad GPA? Where did you apply and where were you accepted?

Agreed, AbrasaxEos. I do not have a huge problem with GPA, but I started slow in college. I transferred from my first school after my freshman year and finished with a 3.9 institutional GPA and graduated summa. From what I have seen, YDS does not ask for the GRE, right? If they do, I scored in the 87th-percentile on verbal, so I am not really sure where that stacks up. Actually I am not sure how my profile stacks up at all, but I guess I will be finding out soon with acceptance + rejection letters.

Thanks for the reply.

Has anybody gone through the process of transferring from comprehensive to concentrated? How easy is it? Would it be really risky to try that?