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Hello, I was told by the director of my program that if I want to get accepted into an Old Testament Ph.D. program, it would be good for me to start attending conferences and even submit papers to present at them (I am currently in an M.A. program for Biblical Studies at Providence College). There are several conferences in Biblical and Religious Studies listed on the SBL website, but they are mostly in foreign countries and not so concentrated in the OT. The only two I saw that were highly concentrated were the Society of Old Testament Studies' conference at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland this July 2015, and the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa in September 2016. Does anyone know of any other Old Testament conferences coming up this summer or coming year, preferably in the U.S.? Any info would be appreciated! Thanks, Tim

Wow. That is a lot of Masters degrees. My original conception was that it would be a straight shot to a doctorate like the sciences are. Guess that won't be the case at all.

Sacklunch, Thanks for the insight. From a statistics page I saw on Yale's website, 211 students applied for Religious Studies Ph.Ds last fall and only 9 of them ended up being enrolled. That's extremely competitive to say the least.

Nope it was here in the U.S. I wouldn't want to study outside the U.S. if Hebrew Bible degrees from places like the UK (i.e. Cambridge, Oxford, Gloucestershire, Sheffield) are viewed less prestigiously here. Guess I'll have to do more than the M.A. in Biblical Studies if I want to get into a good Hebrew Bible Ph.D. program. From some HB faculty bios I've looked at, it seems that a lot of them did their the second M.A. at the same school that they got their Ph.D from. Maybe this would cut the time to get the Ph.D. at least slightly?

sacklunch and AbrasaxEos, thanks for your answers. I'm a little shocked about the requirements for a HB Ph.D. at a school like Yale to be honest though. The more I look into it, the more lengthy and over-the-top the requirements seem. Yale's program website says, "students normally begin writing their dissertation in the fourth year and normally will have finished by the end of the sixth." How is it fair to be in school that long? If I do 2 years for an MA and then 2 years for another MA and then 6 years for a Ph.D, that 10 YEARS of graduate school to get a doctorate. Am I missing something here or is this reality? A friend of mine just got his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from one of the top schools in the world and it only took him 3 years after getting his bachelors degree to do it. How can it only take 3 years for a math / science Ph.D. and 10 years for a religious studies Ph.D?

xypathos, thanks for your reply. How much Hebrew is usually necessary to get into a good HB Ph.D. program? Yale says 2 years (on top of other languages), which is a full year more than what I would be getting. Granted, they are the best HB program in the world and the most competitive to get into, but I am hoping to go there if I can. I'm wondering then if I could just take a couple advanced Hebrew courses after I graduate PC rather than getting a completely new M.A. all over again. Or, I'm wondering if I should jump ship now and go get an MAOT at a school like Gordon-Conwell which is much more focused on what I need. The problem is that Gordon-Conwell is a lot more expensive, out-of-state, and in my opinion has less name recognition at top graduate programs than PC does, even though the education would prepare me better. I don't want to make the mistake of spending 2 years getting an M.A. in Biblical Studies at PC if it's not going to prepare me for an HB Ph.D. program. It seems like a good fit for now but I've really talked to anyone who knows about it before, which explains the reason I came to this forum to ask for advice What path did most of you take to get into HB Ph.D. programs? And do you feel it prepared you well?

Hello, I am looking to get into a Ph.D. program in the Hebrew Bible. I just started an M.A. in Biblical Studies at Providence College. Any thoughts on if this will prepare me well to get into a good HB Ph.D. program? While Providence College is not really known for its Old Testament studies, the program does offer Introductory Hebrew and Intermediate Hebrew. I also think that PC has pretty good name recognition at other colleges that I will be applying to in 2 years (as opposed to some seminaries) but am wondering how true this is. And advice would be greatly appreciated! Exegesis is the area I would like to focus on. Thanks, Tim