theofan

I have a couple friends with theology PhDs who are non-American and speak English as a second language. Their English is not perfect: they make grammar and pronunciation mistakes here and there, their vocabulary isn't too sophisticated, and they definitely have an accent from their native language. They haven't had much luck getting hired as teachers here in the US. Do you think their English is an obstacle? Would an employer be turned off by someone they can't understand perfectly? Can publications make up for imperfect English? Another friend of mine thinks it's a big factor, so asking your opinions.

The interview weekend is in three weeks!

Hey, the MT interview invitations went out last week. The interviews are in person and there is an interview weekend. But it could be possible you are on a waiting list. I'm not exactly sure how they manage that, but no news could still be good news.

It's against my university's rules to record class conversations without consent of the participants. For good reasons. I wonder if C recorded with consent and the professors are viewing with consent.

He studied in continental Europe.

Yeah, I'm mystified as to why they didn't take my friend. I don't know what else he could have done to improve his application. Maybe he was overqualified? Maybe there were several applications very similiar to his? Anyway, you should have no doubt that you have something unique that ND was looking for and you should be proud of that!

Yeah, my friend just got his rejection letter. Not even waitlisted. He was a highly qualified applicant (philosophy and theology degrees, perfect GPA, near perfect GRE, seven languages, presentations at conferences, pastoral experience, etc.) with interests in sync with the department, but there are just aren't alot of spots available this year...a big congrats to all those who got offers! And I hope those of you with rejection letter in hand can maintain the dream even if it doesn't come true this particular year...

Yes, I hope that out of pure charity all those with offers will make decisions as early as possible!

Hey thanks alot! I will let my friend know...another friend of mine just got into the ND PhD theology program, so at least some good news for me.

Yes, ND likes their MTS candidates and always takes a good number of them for PhD.

Oh thanks, how did you see that in the results? If I search Notre Dame theology no MTS results come up for me for 2021.

Anyone else get into ND MTS? I have a friend who applied and hasn't received any news so he's kinda nervous...

Anyone know when Catholic U of America sends out their acceptances/invites or how their process goes?

I'm not in your field, but I have a couple friends in top tier NT programs and they needed their Greek and Hebrew from day one of the program (like needing to read texts in Hebrew for a seminar). They also had Latin and some German and/or French. You're probably not excited about waiting a little longer to do your doctorate, but perhaps another no-debt option would be to work in the field of education for a few years, and add a language or two with evening and summer classes. It could improve your chances of getting into your dream program.

This is pretty obvious, but it was helpful for me to read the department's PhD manual, which was on the university's website. I gleaned a few good questions from that.