kenshiro

Thanks! ?

Glad someone started this thread, it's been crickets in here for months. Only applying to Duke ThD in Christian Systematic Theology, so two weeks left, and still waiting on my last LoR. So yes, stress is a constant companion.

Yes, everyone should have a moonshot school. The issue for me is that my partner and I live in Durham (I am the second body in a two-body academic problem) so in systematics, it's Duke or bust.

I'm applying for the second time for the ThD at Duke (Systematics, not NT though so YMMV). Just providing a datapoint for Duke. I have an MS/PhD in a science discipline and was briefly a professor and chaplain at an EMEA campus of an R1 US university. I also have an M.Div (cum laude, not that anyone cares) from an evangelical seminary. My GRE was 170/170, and I have 5 years working in finance and 10 in tech. My LoRs were good, but not stellar. I didn't get a second look from Duke. There is a bit of a special circumstance, as I had selected Huetter as my PoI and he stealth left Duke before my application cycle during the recent Catholic faculty bloodbath (oops!), but still. I took one cycle off to write a paper that I presented at SBL and that is in submission to JBL, found another PoI and established a relationship with him (he's writing a supplementary LoR/LoS), completely rewrote my personal statement, and got a couple of new recommenders who are writing much stronger statements, including a MacArthur Fellow with whom I worked. I'm still not confident. Duke had a lot of internal admits from the ThM, which means that in effect external candidates are competing for fewer spots. 100% of the current students with whom I have conferred came through the ThM, some of them after being punted down after a doctoral application. And for those vanishingly few spots, while they're looking for interdisciplinary people, a cursory reading of abstracts from the PhD and ThD dissertations over the last ten years indicates that "interdisciplinary" means "social sciences and nothing else." The impression I get from speaking with students is that if you're in the general pool (i.e. not with a PoI who already really wants to work with you), the first-cut criteria used to desk reject or move you to the next round are not really flexible - GPA, GRE, research track record. In your case the last two are mutable, and while there's not really a downside other than the application fee for applying this year, it would probably be worth it to improve those two in order to stand a fighting chance for a Duke admit.

It's a no for me. Time to get on with life. Godspeed to everyone still waiting!

Same issue for me. I submitted to 5156 (Duke) Departments 4901 and 4999, and the scores don't appear on the site. Bit late to be worrying about it now, however.

Looks like someone posted a Duke GPR acceptance - anyone get anything from Div?

Perhaps rather than calling them competitive and non-competitive, it'd be more enlightening to call them qualifying and disqualifying. The distinction being that the former is to determine whether you're the right candidate, and the latter is to ensure you're not the wrong candidate.

Thanks for the encouragement, but I doubt there are many applicants to the GPR for my ThD track (Systematics). We'll see what happens, though...

Looks like people posted interviews from Duke Div today? Both entries are in Biblical Studies; I applied on the Theology track at Div and am still hoping for the best...