ludiegrace

I'll be at Saint Louis. Anybody else starting in Historical Theology there?

Thanks, JulesM. Hope there will be some great news waiting for you!

Gus, My rejection letter from Marquette arrived today (on the West Coast). It doesn't say anything about strength of the pool or number of applicants...just says that some area of my application does not meet admission requirements and to strengthen my credentials if I hope to reapply. Good luck to you!

Just received a rejection letter from Marquette. I'm SLU-bound.

I haven't heard a word from Marquette, either.

I agree with what has been said regarding the importance of the right theological and academic fit. I also know that can be hard to determine in advance, if you don't have a good frame of reference for hashing it out. I didn't have a good grasp on my theological leanings when I was applying, so in some ways, it might have behooved me to wait a couple of years, though I don't ultimately regret having gone when and where I did. I got my M.Div. from Yale Divinity, which is mainline/liberal; overall, it was not a great fit for me theologically, which could sometimes be alienating. However, I still had some excellent classes, and I finally figured out how to seek out good mentorship for myself. (That's another thing; I had naive expectations as to how spiritually formative the div school environment would be -- it is not necessarily something that happens easily or organically, and I had to figure out how to fit the intellectual and religious pieces together in a way that worked for me. That might be less the case in a smaller denominational seminary compared to a large ecumenical one, but I don't know.) You can feel free to message me if you have any questions about Yale/the M.Div. experience. Also, my husband is getting his PhD at GTU right here in Berkeley, so between the two of us, we might be able to answer some questions you might have about life here (though we don't know a ton about each individual member school).

I've applied and been admitted to Historical Theology at SLU; it looks like a wonderful program. I'm interested in working with Peter Martens and Cornelia Horn in Greek patristics (especially exegesis and homiletics), but I'd also love to take one of Dr. Steinhauser's seminars on manuscript studies. A big part of what attracted me to SLU is just how deep the Early Church faculty is, actually. Did you see an actual statistic about Protestants at SLU? I'm Protestant, so I'm curious...

I'm one of the SLU admits; I applied to do patristics there. (I've only been reading GradCafe for a couple of weeks.) Yesterday the Director of Grad Studies called with the news that I've been admitted to the PhD program in Historical Theology and that I'm being recommended to the grad school for a ninth-month assistantship (official award letter will come from the grad school, not the department). I really don't know much else at this point, only that I'm told the pool was deep this year and that most of those applying are interested in doing patristics.