Colac

Absolutely. Sure, it's not common per se but it does happen. Regarding a POI leaving an institution, I've seen it work one of two ways 1) the student comes with the POI or 2) the POI arranges for a new advisor to oversee the student. I've never personally seen a situation of a student leaving School A for School C, because their POI took a job with School B. Regarding transferring for other reasons: spouse takes a job offer, better aligned research interests, etc - it happens, just not that common.

I'll certainly look into these programs marXian, thank you a lot. If questions come up about NW, I'll shoot you a PM. Would your advice still hold for philosophy of religion? I took a seminar with Hodges (Vandy) last year and loved it but that's more or less the extent of official coursework dedicated to phil. or religion, though certainly I've read some in my theology courses, and Brummer and Schelling being the center of my research paper.

Hey everyone, I'm an MTS student at Vanderbilt interested in theology and the philosophy of science. A little more specifically, I'm especially interested in divine omnipotence, free will, divine persuasion, and the issues they raise for theodicy. I'm still working out a more specific interest statement while heeding the advice of my adviser and faculty to not get too specific. The advice I've been given from Vandy faculty is that my current interest statement isn't too specific but could use some further chronological refinement. To that extent, I'm interested in 19th century thinkers through current thinkers. For what faculty have told me at Vandy, they're often more willing to admit students with generalized interests than some other schools, with the hope that by the completion of the first year of coursework that the student will have finalized a more specific research area. I'm presently working on a paper that will largely be a comparative study of divine omnipotence as it pertains to theodicy. I'll be looking at Jon Levenson, Vincent Brummer, and Schelling in the construction of my argument. It's almost guaranteed that this work will form the foundation of my thesis. My reason for being here, I'm interested in programs that balance philosophy and theology. I don't want to go too far into either, though I'm certainly comfortable being in say a theology department that will allow me access to solid philosophy coursework and vice versa. I'm politically, theologically, and socially progressive so I want to stay away from evangelical schools that would dampen this - understanding that they too would limit career prospects. I'm geographically open, even willing to go overseas if the program is that strong of a match. UG GPA: 3.9 G GPA: 3.7 (presently) GRE: 162/157/5 Personally: I do identify as a theist and attend Episcopalian services but my theological interests don't always line up with mainstream-progressive thought. Adviser has suggested I keep Vanderbilt in mind but I'm wanting to consider other options, despite how much my adviser has said they'd love to supervise my development as a PhD student. I originally entered as an M.Div student but after a series of theology courses and not being interested in ordination, I decided to swap to the MTS to save myself a year. So, while I'm still on track to graduate I have work to make up for when it comes to researching programs. So, I'm looking to cast a wide net and narrow it down from there.