RiskyNT

I'm a PhD student in Princeton, and Una Stojnic will be teaching a few classes here in the fall. I'm trying to find some info on her and see if her classes are good. Has anyone here taken classes with her? Would you advise it? Thanks!

Oh my gosh, I'm at PTS, and this is so true for my experience. We have a teaching course that meets in the evenings once a month for the first two years. It is such a waste of time. It is way too generalized and way too repetitive. Even we you think we'll talk about something specific (like the one session on grading), it's totally unhelpful ("Have you thought about making a rubric?"....wow, no shit, sherlock). I want to believe that it's possible to have a good course on pedagogy, but I've never seen it. We also talk a fair amount of job market stuff, but, like sacklunch's experience, we only hear from profs who are at PTS. The quoted passage very much rings true for me. Our program has tons of TA/precepting opportunities (it depends on department, but you can expect to TA at least once a year). Then there are two opportunities for more teaching when you're ABD. You can apply to be a "teaching fellow." This varies based on the prof you're paired with from glorified TA to co-instructor. Or you can apply to teach your own course that you design, most offer an elective that is somehow related to their dissertation. There are about six of each of those available across the entire seminary each year. I think it's hard to get teaching opportunities for us because we don't have an undergrad we can teach at. Occasionally, if there is a gap in the faculty, a biblical studies student might be able to teach the intro languages class, but for some reason they prefer to hire adjuncts or non-tenure tracks for that.

I also have Accordance and love it. The wealth of primary sources you can get is amazing. And the language tools and searches are vast. I haven't used Logos or Bible Works, but I love Accordance and it does everything I need and more. I've never regretted having it.

Here are two interesting reports that have to do with the job market, and they might relate to what school you'll want to choose. https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/publications-presentations/documents/tenure-and-other-faculty-facts-part-2.pdf https://www.aarweb.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Career_Services/AARSBLJobsReport2015-2016.pdf EDIT: I post these because, if I was applying this year, I wouldn't put too much stock in people's speculations of what have good placements rates. Sure, they are better than nothing. But look at the numbers. It's easy to think that one school's reputation or lack thereof means that it is good or bad. You should look at the data. (And if someone has other data besides what I've posted, then, please, obviously, post it)

Everyone is giving good advice. It would be very surprising if you didn't get in anywhere. And it's for sure true that it's easier to go into an ivy masters than an ivy phd. Quick question, do you really have four bachelors degrees? Or do you mean you have one degree with four majors? Four bachelors degrees is crazy.

I might be misremembering, but didn't Duke do this last year? I seem to remember Duke doing this last year.

Title pretty much says it all. Any geography.

I'm in New Testament, and I asked some profs about this specifically. I thought that my best paper was on a topic related to Paul, but many programs I applied with an interest in Jesus and the Gospels. They said that wouldn't be a problem, and now I'm going to a school with a focus on Jesus/Gospels and my writings sample was on Paul. I think what's more important is that you can demonstrate the ability to make a quality argument with outstanding sources.

After many months of an extremely stressful application season, some of us can rejoice in that we have been accepted and will begin our PhD in Religion in the fall. As I look forward to that, I would be interested in hearing from current candidates (and accepted ones) concerning some of the most helpful and useful practices and habits for a PhD student in Religion. For example, my subfield is New Testament, so I plan on forcing myself to read something from the Greek NT and Hebrew Bible every day. Another example, I knew a professor who had a habit of publishing at least two book reviews a year. It was a fairly easy way to keep up with new literature and stay in publishing. Publishing a book review every semester seems plausible to me, so I am going to try to do that. What others thoughts do you have? What are important habits and best practices for PhD students in Religion?

I often have a footnote in papers, typically after the first biblical quotation, which says something along the lines of "all biblical quotations are the author's own translation unless otherwise noted." But more and more I just don't translate. My writing sample included non-translated Greek, Hebrew, and French. If you quote the languages without translating them then people will know that you know the languages. I do NT. This might be different for other sub-disciplines, but I'd imagine it's similar.

I still haven't heard anything from Emory (no interview, no waitlist, no rejection). In my mind I've definitely put them in the rejection column, but can anyone shed light on this? I know that they have sent out some acceptances and waitlists. Does the fact that I haven't gotten an rejection yet mean that I have some hope, or have they just not yet sent out rejections?

Yea, I am. For Marquette, I'm interested in Paul's use of Jewish tradition in the formation of his theology and in his reception in the early church. I also think that Marquette's interdisciplinary approach is interesting.

I'm one of the NT folks. I guess I'll stop lurking and join the fray. I applied to PTS, Duke Div, Duke Grad, Emory, Notre Dame, Baylor, Yale, SMU, CUA, and Marquette. So far, I've had interviews (or been invited to interviews) at PTS, Marquette, and Baylor. Does anyone know when/if Duke interviews should be going out?