Jufarius87

Waitlisted :x I think I may have screwed myself with a late application... oh well, Yale is wonderful!

Epic Win: YDS M.Div And......... Waitlisted at HDS M.Div :| Not really sure whether that is win or fail.... I called their admissions office today and there is no concrete info on how many people are taken off the waitlist soooo... Well, while I will be staying on the waitlist, I am a big fan of New Haven

Come back tommorrow Post your epic wins (and fails) here!

Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that the economy has pushed people towards a ministerial education? Not just Harvard specifically but apparently div schools and seminaries across the country are seeing application increases. I thought ministry was supposed to be a calling from God, not plan b. (Such thoughts do not extend to the increase in applicants to the MTS/MAR/Th.M programs, which are by nature geared more towards careers in academia and other jobs which do not require ordination)

Friday the 13th??? Oy! Bad Karma man, Bad Karma....

Yale Divinity seems like it would be Home for you. First, I will say that I have perceived a difference in the style of coursework and interpretation when looking into seminaries and divinity schools. Whereas Seminaries tend to be more thoroughly dedicated to the training of ministers, Div schools tend to have a good mix between furture academic/lay ministers and ordination candidates. Div schools, partially for this reason, have a more scholastic aspproach, whereas seminaries are more faith/God first oriented. There are obviously exceptions to this rule, but it is what I have found as a generality. You already have alumni status at another school at Yale, and your Episcopal leanings will be more than welcomed at Yale Div (Yale is affliated with an Episcopal Div school). So Given Your UG was good enough to get you into Yale Art, your Grad degree from Yale, and your Work Exp, I think You would get into Yale Div With $$$. I imagine you would want to start in the MAR program (M.Div is for ordination candidates usually), Yale has several MAR concentrations, including Liturgics, which given your art background and your interest in Religious History may suit you well. Best of Luck, PS I talked to a Yale admissions person at their open house, she said that the GRE usually wasnt important and is not required.

Given lousy economy though I think more people will accept than did the admits of the 07-08 year. for this reason I think YDS will admit less, perhaps 35-42%? with a possible waitlist in case they project wrong.

From "YDS Our year in review SPECTRUM" 07-08 admissions gave a 50% yield rate for M.Div, 43% yield rate for MAR, and 70% yield rate for STM. If the same hold this year the school should admit roughly 250-290 applicants, making the overall admit rate something around 40-50% That said, overall enrollement for 07-08 was 207 M.Divs, 148 MARs, and 19 STMS, good news for the MARs if YDS try to balance this number in favor of equaling out MAR-M.DIv population, bad news if it is just general practice to have more M.Divs than MARs.

Hi Caro, I applied to Div Schools this year (M.Div program) and have done a fair amount of research on admissions, what would you like to know? (GPA/GRE/ECs/Career goals/denomination any of that junk would be useful to answering your questions). Best.

Yay! (hopefully) So, Congrats on your acceptance to CUA, but if it came down to a masters at Harvard or Yale Vs PhD at CUA what would you do?

Do you guys think there is a big difference in the difficulty between getting into an M.Div compared to a MTS/MAR program?

Are you sure that it didnt go under review and then was switched back? I'd say best to get a hold of them. I'm going for M.Div, mine says under review, potential variations in applicant statuses scare me at this point

Im freaking out over my M.Div app.... They're still updating things though. My last letter of rec went complete a couple days ago, which finalizes my app.

Congrats! I totally called that though.

An indirect answer, I saw that you were accepted to Edinburgh A while ago. They are something of a global powerhouse, and from personal exp I can vouch that their campus is flat out beautiful and the people are friendly. If you can muster any amount of Aid I recommend going there. That said I was accepted to the BD program there last cycle, and realize how hard aid is to come by. I cant speak to SLU.

No need to thank me, I call them as I see them. Im in a rather strange spot. I was a Methodist, but I will be converting to Eastern Orthodoxy. As far as doctoral programs in the english speaking world are concerned.... we gots near nothin So my next closest bet for being a theological match is probably Catholic institutions. My academic passion is the intersection of Political Theology and Early Church History. Basically studying the Christianized Roman Empire and finding cultural parallels to how Christians involve themselves in modern political institutions. Also have an interest in Church History as a stand alone, the Ecumenical Councils, Early Christology, Theology of the Church Fathers, etc. As I said though, it will be awhile for me. 3 years of M.Div + 3 years of chaplaincy work first.

I will be shocked if you dont get into Marquette and at least one other place you apply to, assuming your UG record is solid. Out of Curiousity, would you recommend Notre Dame Theology for Non-Catholics? Doctoral work is something way off in the future for me, but I am curious as to how Catholic-focused their studies are.

lol thas what makes it fun, clumping those groups together encourages debate No no... only 10 maximum voting options per poll. lol

Tough Luck with Harvard Deac.... good taste though, good taste

We all want to STUDY religion.... but just out of curiousity, I thought it would be interesting to discuss what we actually believe... I'll go first, my family started out not so religious, then my parents had the "born again" experience. Couple years later I finally came to faith as well. After having studied Church History though, Im strongly considering converting to Eastern Orthodoxy (thus Im putting in a vote for Christian-Apostolic, even though Im not as of yet in such a church :| )

Congrats academicricket! Anyone heard from HDS? I imagine they will be moving from Doctoral to Masters apps soon... Gahh!! I had a problem with a letter of rec, I hope it gets resolved on time >.<

You'probably right though, life is good.

I CANT!!!! If I stop concerning myself with admissions info, that means I'll actually have to start working on my thesis again, lulz.

From the HDS website, class of 2008. Class entering fall 2008: Applied 677 Admitted 253 Incoming 160 MDiv 50 MTS 100 ThD 6 ThM 4 Students of color 24% International 8% Female 58% Male 42% Age range 21-58 Average age 27 Student religious affiliations more than 30 The number would indicate prima facie that admissions stats would be at about 253/677 ~ 37.3% However, given that Th.D admissions is included in this number, I imagine that the Masters Admit Rate is a quite different number. In short, most of you seem to be doctoral hopefuls, and have analyzed the admissions game thoroughly. So in your expert opinions, for the sake of helping masters hopefuls, how many of those 677 applicants would you estimate are for the ultra-coveted 6 doctoral seats, and how many do you think are for the M.Div and MTS respectively? I ask because I would like to estimate admissions for the M.Div and MTS hopefuls separately.

RE Philmajor: I only applied to three schools, Harvard, Yale, Duke, I got an early accept to Duke so i didnt need to apply anywhere else. RE Rollofthedice: If you dont mind my asking, what were your numbers/ECs/etc? I feel somewhat confident about Yale, but due to recent circumstances (denominational switch) Harvard is probably my easiest fit now, whereas Duke would've have been before the switch.