aselfmadewinter

I was just talking to one of my professors about that same issue. He basically said that if you're weighing your options between two good schools, and one is more financially viable, or will prevent you from getting into debt, than go to the school that won't land you in debt. The thing is, if you're planning on doing a PhD afterwards, the job market and the salary rates for professors in Religious Studies and Theology is such that it won't be easy to pay your debt back right away once you've finished, and in fact, it can take years to pay back what you owe. We're not doing medicine or law here, and it won't be easy for us to get out of debt once we're in. Just my two cents. Now, if we had jubilee years for grad students...! (yes yes, terrible attempt at a theology joke, my apologies in advance)

Not in Canada... my deadlines are almost all April 1.

Yes. I'm sure alot of us are. You're not alone!

Money is mostly my problem as well. I originally wanted to go to McGill (as I've said elsewhere, I only applied to Canadian schools), but got accepted without funding. The chances of somehow getting funding are almost nil, since they are infamous for having been continually underfunded. However, I have full funding at UBC and McMaster. McMaster seems like a really good choice, since Schuller and Westerholm are there, but it's hard to give up my dream school after being accepted there. McGill is allowing me to wait until I hear about external funding from the SSHRC competition, but my other offers will expire before then. Maybe it's time to let the dream go and accept one of the generous funded offers I've been given.

Exactly. Jobs are hard enough to come by as it is. Schools with unproven reputations are risky business as far as the job market is concerned.

LOL! Yeah, people at TST never know what to call the school we attend, and only we seem to know what the acronym means. To everyone else, it's just theology at Toronto.

It really does seem to me that the strength of the department is what matters most in the end. Hiring rates are also a huge factor.

Does anyone have any opinions on whether or not it's a good call to accept an offer to a fairly new PhD program? I'm trying to choose between two Canadian schools, one of which is a well established university with generally good rankings but whose PhD program is very new and admits only 1-2 students per year, and the other is not as well known generally speaking, but is quite well established in my particular field (Religious Studies). The hiring rate of the grads of the second school is also known to be quite high. Would it be risky to accept an offer to the better known school with the new program, or should I go with the lesser known university with the well established program? Has anyone had any experience with attending a brand new program with a low yearly student intake?

This was a really helpful reply, so thank you very much. I've been talking to some of my professors just today, and McMaster was actually recommended to me over McGill or UBC. Part of that probably has to do with my research interests, although social science is also a big part of what I hope to do. What you said about UBC being new and the two Mc's having professional development support seems to be very true, and it's sort of what I've been worrying about. McMaster advertises somewhere on their RelStud website that 80% of their graduate students find teaching employment after graduating, which is really, really impressive. I think what I've been discovering is that it's important to consider the program's reputation and graduates rather than the rankings. I think I'm a bit closer to making a final decision now.

That's definitely what I'm thinking. BTW, would you mind me asking what field you're in and where you're thinking of heading? I see you've applied to a few of the same schools as me. (And congrats on your acceptances!)

Haha, that's the question of the month! I have no idea yet. My funding offer from McGill is so bad that I'm really considering McMaster and UBC. I got a 50% tuition offer from Toronto (Schoo of Theology, not School of Graduate Studies, hence the funding dilemma). UBC seems really viable. McMaster fairs worse in the rankings, but its Religious Studies department is one of the university's strengths, while at UBC it isn't. I still have no idea. To be honest... I'm going to visit McMaster and maybe McGill and just see how I feel. Maybe I'll get SSHRC.

The thing with my acceptance to Toronto is that the acceptance is actually to the theological school attached to Toronto. Theology is often entirely separate from the Faculty of Graduate Studies, at least in Canada and is not very well funded. As for McGill, they don't have standardized funding across the university, and Religious Studies is its own faculty at McGill. Past PhD applicants to RelStud on this forum have complained about their funding, which makes me think that McGill just has poor funding for RelStud, which is actually confirmed by the faculty's website (which describes PhD funding as "limited"). As for the world rankings... have you checked out the 2010 THE rankings? Toronto ranks 17th in the world, UBC 30th, and McGill 35th. Search "British Columbia" instead of "UBC" on world rankings charts. It's almost always in the top 40, and has recently been ranking higher than McGill. McMaster also makes the top 100. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html

There's funding to be had at Canadian schools for PhD programs. I applied only to Canadian schools and got funding packages that cover both living expenses and tuition. It can be hard to find a funded MA here, but PhDs are mostly funded. Except, of course, at McGill.

It never hurts to call or email and ask. I was originaly interested in Mac because of the faculty members, especially Stephen Westerholm and Annette Yoshiko Reed, but as it happens, Dr. Reed moved to UPenn four years ago and I had no idea. The faculty there is still excellent, even without her, and they have excellent funding. Moreover, I suspect that my acceptance letter was rushed out because I mentioned to the grad admin that I had other offers that would expire this month. I assume that they usually communicate via post, and if you're international, that can take a while.

Early Christianity, mostly historical Jesus/synoptics. I heard from McMaster by email twice, one email telling me not to accept anything untilI I had heard from them and then an email with a scanned PDF acceptance letter on March 4. I still don't have the official letter sent by post, for whatever that's worth. Are you Canadian? I noticed that you listed your location as Australia, but you're also interested in Canadian schools, so I figure it was worth asking. I don't know much about Islamic studies at Mac, but I know that it's known for its Religious Studies department and not much else.

Received confirmation of being waitlisted for Religion at Toronto. Final decisions to come by March 18. Blah. So... Accepted: McGill (TA only, terrible pay), UBC (fully funded), McMaster (fully funded), Toronto (Theology, 50% tuition) Waitlisted: Toronto (Religion) Waiting on: Alberta (probably rejected) I guess if I don't hear good news from Toronto by the 18th, I'm probably going to have to decide between UBC and McMaster. Given that one's a top 30 school and the other isn't, it should be an easy choice, but McMaster is very close to home and has great faculty. Man, I have no idea what to do.

I haven't read that one yet, but I hear great things about it all the time. It's going to be my after thesis reading.

He's more of a theologian than a Biblical scholar, but have you read John Howard Yoder's "Politics of Jesus"? It sounds alot like what you're talking about.

Aw man, I could've used you around for my MA! I've pretty much been the "resident evangelical" even though I'm not entirely sure that Mennonites (particularly those left of centre) should be lumped in with evangelicals. That being said, it's a very ecumenical place. Just... don't mess up mass or liturgy TOO badly . It's actually kind of funny, I can get through any discussion about my denominational background with my Catholic colleagues by bringing how much I like free will. Then it just becomes a love in.

Liberal Mennonite with Catholic leanings and an ecumenical philosophy.

So, has anyone made their decision yet? I'm just in the final stages of decision making now.

Thanks. Good luck to you too. I think I'm pretty well decided now.

Thanks for that info, that's pretty much what I assumed. When did you e-mail her? I find it kind of weird that I never got a response. I guess it shouldn't be too much of a big deal for me, since I'm already in for Theology in Toronto, but the funding is better in Religion because they have an undergrad unit to TA.

I'm pretty sure I asked this already, but according to the results page, at least one person has heard from the Religion dept. at Toronto (ie, not Theology) regarding the PhD program. Has anyone else heard anything from them, and if so, would you care to share? At this point, they're the only school that I really want to hear from before I make my final decision. I e-mailed them, but got no response. What is going on?

I'm not really sure yet, I just haven't at all made a decision. To be honest, I'm leaning towards UBC. I'm in New Testament studies, and UBC has a really neat interdisciplinary approach to Bible courses, plus the school's rep is better than McMaster's. Funding is a problem for me at TST, since I'm in debt because of my MA, and I've already got both my BA and MA from Toronto. Like I said, St. Mike's doesn't fund as well as Emmanuel. I actually just found out about Emmanuel's funding about a month ago, and it was too late to apply over there. I'd like to stay, but I need SSHRC. UBC and McMaster, on the other hand, have given me some great funding offers, and UBC being #2 in Canada isn't bad... but Toronto's clearly the country's top school. I just don't know yet.