Anxious Annex

Theology and ministry is a tricky sphere to navigate within academia. There are a host of considerations that are out of view for other disciplines, and it is perfectly possible for a completely moldy, unserious department of religion to persist and go largely unnoticed in it's mediocrity within an otherwise extraordinary university. That seems to be the story for Harvard--a divinity school that frankly isn't good for much in my assessment (as a PhD student in theology who once faced your same three options and turned down a fully funded master's program at Harvard because everyone advised against it). I went to Duke Div. in the end (a fully-funded MTS) and finished the program with pretty mixed feelings. In many ways Duke is a dumpster fire: a constant ideological controversy that creates an atmosphere of suspicion and drives talented professors and students to less tense and hostile places. Also, because they receive half of their funding from the Meth. Church, they are required to maintain a %50 demographic of Meth. students. This means that you can get into Duke--esp. the MDiv prog. with little more than a pulse if you are a Methodist. A consequence of this and their other demographic targets is an extreme range of ability and preparation among the students. Some are "functionally literate," some are terrific, and many are somewhere in between. But the spread tends to have a distinctly negative impact on class discussions. It is an awkwardly (and oftine volitile) mixed bag of conservative, rural North Carolina pastors, leftist activist students of many a stripe (in perpetual protest against something or other), and a bewildered or bemused bunch of people trying to study theology without entering the pit. There are a handful of terrific professors around still from whom a dilligent and focused student can still gain a great deal of valuable training. Another pro is that the campus is one of the most beautiful places on Earth (IMO), but know that you are entering a zoo if/when you go. I don't think of Harvard as a viable option (even though they offered me a full ride plus an 8k stipend--for the master's program!). Yale may be a bit more orderly, although my sense is that it has simply acheived more of an ideological consensus than Duke has. My sense is that it is a kind of Marxist-progressive consensus. In neither school will you be able to do theology without reference to distinctly American cultural polemics and ideology. As much as I loathe to send anyone to Duke, I think it's likely your best option when funding is factored in.

Thanks! And my area is systematic theology.

I just got a fellowship offer from CUA and will be accepting the offer! If it's any encouragement to anyone here--I will be withdrawing my application from Marquette and Baylor and hopefully improving the chances or expediting the situation for someone here. Best of luck all.

No news here, except that I got a slightly unclear email from the area director at one of my waitlist schools. The email seemed to say that he was trying to set up a fellowship for me, but that the decision wasn't his. I guess that means that he is trying to get an extra funded spot for me. Does it? I also heard from Baylor. Prof. Nogalski said (last week) that one of the two offers was still up in the air (they were still waiting for a decision from the initial recipient of the offer). Also, he said that the waitlist for the theology subfield wasn't ranked yet (maybe he was just being evasive on this point, though).

I called and left a message at the admissions office and this is an excerpt of what they said in an email reply: We have sent out our initial offer letters but, we’ve only heard back from four of these applicants. We have to wait until we hear from three more before we extend any other offers. Our waitlist letters also went out and it is a pretty long list. I won’t be sending out any rejection letters until the end of March however, if you’ve not heard from us yet, you probably won’t make it this year. We still have 77 applications without decisions, just for the Ph.D. spots. I am sorry that I don’t have more encouraging words to offer.

If you want to hold out, I suggest you press the departments to give you a clear idea of what your odds of getting an offer are. ND's waitlist system is an enigma to me, but, if your chances of getting a spot depends on the chances that one of the accepted ST applicants decides to turn an offer down, I wouldn't hold your breath.

I talked to Cheron Price to see what the eta on the decisions would be, and she said that they would likely come tomorrow. I know of someone who got an early answer but he has military funding. Also, it looks like someone in systematics was able to get word on his application by emailing a prof. yesterday (wish I had done that).

Sorry Knight George, I assumed that you were waitlisted at Marquette. I guess I don't know what your situation means. Still, I suspect that my point may be relevant somehow.

There were a number of accepted Marquette applicants at the weekend event (this past weekend) at Notre Dame. The ones that I heard from hadn't accepted their offers yet. My sense is that new offers will be handed down to people on the waitlists at Catholic institutions like Marquette and CUA if/when people who have offers from these institutions get preferred offers from ND and subsequently turn down Marquette and CUA.

Can anyone claim that acceptance from Notre Dame in the results? And if so, what subfield are you in?

I thought it'd be fun to add more waitlists to the list, and maybe we can soon get a sense of how long these waitlists are. So I (a systematic theology applicant) am waitlisted at CUA, Marquette (I was told that I was third on the list, btw) and Baylor. I haven't been accepted anywhere yet, and my hope for a direct offer is at Notre Dame (my top school), where I interviewed this weekend and expect to hear back by Friday or Saturday.