sacklunch

Find a lot of people to read your statement. Have them tear it apart, repeat. I honestly spent around 100 hours writing my 'skeleton draft.' It would not appear that way if you read it, but because of countless rewrites, it ended up being a huge time sink. On the bright side, I have heard back from four schools already, all very positive, so I'm very glad I spent that many hours slaving over the damn thing.

Brown (RAM) and Yale interview are up. Anyone know if Brown takes more than one for RAM?

Congrats mate!

UNC's offer was sent out several weeks ago. If you haven't heard it's likely bad. :'(

I think they are doing Skype interviews for ThD students now. No idea if that means all the invites have been sent out already.

The admit rate is very high compared with other M* programs in the humanities, but so is almost every other divinity school. I can't see many of the Div schools lowering their acceptance rates anytime soon, since many, perhaps not so much HDS, make a TON of money off the students (MDiv's getting even 50% aid over three years). The only way for them to make their programs more competitive would be to substantially lower their program sizes, thus reducing funds for department faculty and resources. I have heard of Harvard finally saying farewell to their ThD program in order to better align with the overall focus of Harvard as a hardcore research institution, and maybe they should. As far as I know, Harvard's ThD is the only 'pure' academic theological doctorate still available in North America. But, who knows, I have heard that rumor over the last four or five years and have no clue if it will ever change. Anyone have any insight on this?

You might contact some of the DMin granting schools, but I doubt you would fare well as a non-Christian. Even if you were accepted into one of those programs I think you would be miserable studying in that totally Christian environment. On the other hand, it would be awesome to see a non-Christian pursue a DMin...so keep us informed.

ND sent out invites about a week ago. There may still be hope, but I believe they invite twice as many people than they can accept, so if you're not on that list, you're likely out.

^ Well said. Now that this has come up, what are your opinions about choosing a 'higher ranked' program for practical reasons? I have discussed this very issue with some recent doctoral students and was told it would be wise to pick the better ranked school since the job market is so terrible. These are recent PhD's from 'top programs' (e.g. Duke, Harvard), who apparently are having trouble finding jobs (no way!...heh). So, I wonder, if these sort of 'rankings' matter more now that the economy is so awful. Of course anyone would be lucky to have any options at all, but I wonder if fit truly trumps rankings when getting a job is the end goal. In that sense, yes, Duke is a 'better' school in that it has name recognition outside of religion/theology. I have been told by recent PhD's this matters. At the end of the day the random small schools that hire you would improve their appearance by having a PhD from Duke rather than Baylor. It sucks, but it seems reasonable. Can we all agree on that, at least? Was sagen sie?

Coming from a non-Christian point of view, but having studied at both flagship Catholic and Protestant schools (Duke being one), I have no problem saying that Duke is, at least in the area of all things "Christian," fairly conservative. It's not so bad that if you are non-Christian you feel pressured to "convert," but it's the kind of environment, mostly due to the Divinity School, that you truly feel like an outsider if you're not Christian, usually of the Protestant variety. This has caused a lot of tension between the Div School and the Dept of Religion (BTW now officially called the Dept. of Religious Studies) and the result has been Religion profs 'warning' their students to steer away from the Div courses. I have no idea if Baylor is more 'conservative' than Duke, but I would suspect it would be from browsing its faculty. In short, the days of Sanders are long behind us, sadly. Duke nearly hired Boyarin, which may have given it that "other side" to challenge its 'Protestant hegemony.' This, alongside a number of significant faculty having retired/about to (and being replaced by, I think, more 'Orthodox' faculty), suggests Duke will become more conservative as time goes or, at the very least much more homogeneous.

There are plenty of fantastic public 'religious studies' departments, as Macrina mentioned CH, and as your avatar suggests, U Michigan. Though be aware schools like Michigan, as well as places like UCLA and Wisconsin-Madison, have departments named "Near Eastern Studies" and so on, but are often an amalgam of religious studies, ancient history, and classics. Not surprisingly the lines between these fields are usually misleading and depending on what public school you are looking at, the dept. name may mean something quite different vis-a-vis another.

I feel like decisions are late this year....or maybe I'm just freaking out. eh??

You're a Harvard College alum? If so, stop worrying.

I think it would make it pretty difficult. FWIW, both Duke and CH have been recently really enforcing the 'no work outside of the university' rule. In fact, Duke just changed the PhD student TA rule where you now can only do (I think) one class a semester, which naturally cuts everyone's funds. I guess this was never enforced before, but for whatever reason now the admins are strict about it (I guess they think grad students are making too much money...). CH is a lot more expensive than Durham, but considering other large cities, it's pretty decent. If you want to be in walking distance to campus I imagine it would be pretty expensive, but pretty cheap if you live within bus distance (or biking). I think most people expect to pay around $500 a month with roommates and maybe 750-800 without.

Because of your interests, I suspect you will need a fair bit of Latin, too. If you transferred you could begin that (in Classics) and continue with your other languages (and perhaps pick up some German). It's hard to not project my own preference in your situation, which naturally leads me to argue for the state school. But really, most of the big name MDiv's have an acceptance rate of like 50%, so with your great GPA and even decent letters I bet you will get into most of the programs you apply to, including places like HDS, YDS, DDS, and so on. I would also suggest looking into some history MA programs, because they are generally more academically inclined (and rigorous, IMO), though again, funding may be an issue. Many MDiv programs end up being more like a second BA (I have heard this from MDiv's at Harvard, BC, Yale, Emory, and Duke), since many of the people coming in do not have any real academic background in religious studies/theology, coupled with the degree requirements (trying to cram ministry, languages, and historical training into three years!) as well as the size of the program (when you have more than 20 people in class I find it really difficult to tailor the course to different levels, plus I feel less accountable overall). Take that for what you will.

Would you transfer and complete a BA at a state school or get a second BA? You say money is an issue (understandably), but what about postgrad studies? You will most def. have to get a masters and many of them require substantial debt (MDiv's always pay more, though some of the bigger names offer a lot of full rides, e.g. HDS and ND). Are you willing to move and if so, how far? What is your eventual goal? If you are still fairly conservative (I suspect you may be more conservative than you even know. I grew up in the Midwest and it wasn't until I was in my late teens, when I left, that I realized how truly conservative I was...and I was/am agnostic!). Unfortunately, I think undergraduate names somewhat 'stick' and I have noticed people have a tendency to connect, at least part, of their academic identity on where they came from. On the other hand, if you browse many of the graduate students at the top schools, many (most?) went to random liberal arts schools. So I think you will be in good company regardless if you stay at your school and finish up or transfer to a more recognizable state school. Anyways, the above questions I think need to be answered for anyone to really help, and someone who actually studies modern church history would be great, too! best

Well said. I don't mean to equate them, and perhaps I have. For that I apologize. I am generally a relativist and my nihilism gets the best of me, on most days. It's sometimes hard to care much about anything and anyone else, accordingly. Though it's good to be shown when one is wrong, and for that, I thank you. cheers

Makes sense. I'm curious, what do you think about higher admissions rates for women in fields that traditionally have fewer women? I have had this conversation with half a dozen women in my field (religious studies), a field that has historically been dominated by men (and is in some subfields). For example, some of these women have been given more scholarship money, larger stipends, and so on, because they have traditionally been underrepresented, in order to increase the overall pool of women in the field. I am fairly indifferent about this, though I do think there should be more representation by women in many/all underrepresented fields (even if only historically). So, for example, if two applicants have similar stats and the one thing that separates them is gender, should the woman or even man be given priority? Or even simply, should women be given more scholarships in order to attend graduate school (esp. masters programs) on account of their sex? On the flip side, I know this happens in some fields with men, for instance fields like Public Health, which is almost entirely dominated by women. I have had this same conversation with men in the field (masters) and they said they had received on average more aid and acceptances than their women peers (who had either equal or higher stats). Was sagen sie?

Perhaps I have done more harm than good. Sorry folks, I stand corrected. <3

To be fair, I don't think this is unique for women. I get the exact same shit from my family, though I'm sure a bit less on the biological 'prime' for making a baby. Even still, my mom frequently reminds me that I will run out of time to find a lady because I have moved around so much for school. In the same way, the humanities in general prompts the 'good luck getting a job' comments, I think regardless of gender.

Just released, might shed some light on the job market for you folks: Job Advertisement Data 2001-2010 Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/OpeningsReport2001-2010.pdf

Yes. I am truly freaking out...every ten minutes or so.

Ah crap, sorry didn't see someone already posted it!

Yale Religious Studies interview is up.