Balatro

From a strictly ethics standpoint - I'd suggest also keeping an eye on philosophy programs. Ethics often, in philosophy programs, take on a religious nature because the individuals placed in these situations in their every day lives are often looking through a religious lens of sorts.

But anyway - off the top of my head, I'd strongly suggest Duke or Graduate Theological Union. If you go to Duke, I'd suggest at least taking a serious look at their MDiv program even if your intentions are purely academic - it's a top notch program and had I not been born and raised in NC, I would have taken them up on the acceptance (I wanted to spread my wings some).

Some other programs, while they have strong ethics programs (in my opinion), some lean more philosophy than theology and vice versa.

Duke
Graduate Theological Union
Catholic University of America
Notre Dame
St. Louis University*
Purdue
Indiana University - Bloomington (if you end up here, introduce yourself to David Brakke - wonderful man)
Princeton Theological Seminary/Princeton University (cross registration)
Boston Theological Institute (Harvard, Andover, Boston College, Boston University, etc) --- the cross registration and library access alone is phenomenal!
University of Texas - Austin
Bowling Green State University - their program is in applied philosophy but they have a handful of faculty and students that focus on the intersection of ethics and religion

This listing is subjective at best and depending on who you talk to - it'll be missing key players or have schools that don't belong.

if you're willing to go overseas, I'd suggest Oxford but I get a feeling you'd benefit more from a generalized program.

As far as an MDiv potentially hindering your acceptance chances into PhD programs, don't give it a second thought. Dozens (if not hundreds) of people get into PhD programs with an MDiv as their Masters at top schools - Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Chicago, Yale, Notre Dame, etc. Use your electives (and if capable, push ministerial programs to the summer if possible so you can sub in more academic courses - also keep in mind that some programs will permit you to drop some ministerial courses if you aren't seeking ordination, which opens up more room) to pursue your academic interests. Attend reading groups if they're available, get the syllabus of courses you're interested in but unable to take and read the texts on your own and offer to take the professor out to lunch/coffee every so often to discuss the material, etc.

Best of luck.

The acceptance rate at Harvard Divinity jumps around a lot, from year to year. I know the MDiv acceptance rate as of a couple years ago was hovering between 40-50% when I first began looking into the program as an Undergrad. However as I understand it, the acceptance rate for the MTS is somewhere around 20-25%. The MTS is obviously more academic in focus and given your stats and assuming nothing hidden in your LORs/etc, you should be perfectly fine. I've seen people admitted with much, much worse.

The acceptance rate at Harvard Divinity jumps around a lot, from year to year. I know the MDiv acceptance rate as of a couple years ago was hovering between 40-50% when I first began looking into the program as an Undergrad. However as I understand it, the acceptance rate for the MTS is somewhere around 20-25%. The MTS is obviously more academic in focus and given your stats and assuming nothing hidden in your LORs/etc, you should be perfectly fine. I've seen people admitted with much, much worse.

From a strictly ethics standpoint - I'd suggest also keeping an eye on philosophy programs. Ethics often, in philosophy programs, take on a religious nature because the individuals placed in these situations in their every day lives are often looking through a religious lens of sorts.

But anyway - off the top of my head, I'd strongly suggest Duke or Graduate Theological Union. If you go to Duke, I'd suggest at least taking a serious look at their MDiv program even if your intentions are purely academic - it's a top notch program and had I not been born and raised in NC, I would have taken them up on the acceptance (I wanted to spread my wings some).

Some other programs, while they have strong ethics programs (in my opinion), some lean more philosophy than theology and vice versa.

Duke
Graduate Theological Union
Catholic University of America
Notre Dame
St. Louis University*
Purdue
Indiana University - Bloomington (if you end up here, introduce yourself to David Brakke - wonderful man)
Princeton Theological Seminary/Princeton University (cross registration)
Boston Theological Institute (Harvard, Andover, Boston College, Boston University, etc) --- the cross registration and library access alone is phenomenal!
University of Texas - Austin
Bowling Green State University - their program is in applied philosophy but they have a handful of faculty and students that focus on the intersection of ethics and religion

This listing is subjective at best and depending on who you talk to - it'll be missing key players or have schools that don't belong.

if you're willing to go overseas, I'd suggest Oxford but I get a feeling you'd benefit more from a generalized program.

As far as an MDiv potentially hindering your acceptance chances into PhD programs, don't give it a second thought. Dozens (if not hundreds) of people get into PhD programs with an MDiv as their Masters at top schools - Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Chicago, Yale, Notre Dame, etc. Use your electives (and if capable, push ministerial programs to the summer if possible so you can sub in more academic courses - also keep in mind that some programs will permit you to drop some ministerial courses if you aren't seeking ordination, which opens up more room) to pursue your academic interests. Attend reading groups if they're available, get the syllabus of courses you're interested in but unable to take and read the texts on your own and offer to take the professor out to lunch/coffee every so often to discuss the material, etc.

Best of luck.

An interesting conversation arose between a colleague and myself over lunch, namely - undervalued (or really, underrepresented) international programs in religious studies.

The ground rules we set were pretty simple - the program has to be, for all purposes, outside of the Western Hemisphere - basically North America, Australia, and Western Europe.

Religious studies for our definition includes closely related interdisciplinary subjects - philosophy of religion, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, etc. We also included (for obvious reasons, we feel) such fields as theology.

Academy of Korean Studies
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Kathmandu University
University of Hong Kong
University of Mumbai
University of Cape Town

The following is my short list but admittedly, I'm a little biased as my focus is primarily within Buddhism - more specifically, Buddhist-Christian dialogue and monasticism.

I'd like to hear from others regarding programs they looked into (maybe even passingly) and thought "Oh wow, that's quite the program! I'd be honored to work under XYZ (or attend ABC)."

list*

apologizes for the error

The acceptance rate at Harvard Divinity jumps around a lot, from year to year. I know the MDiv acceptance rate as of a couple years ago was hovering between 40-50% when I first began looking into the program as an Undergrad. However as I understand it, the acceptance rate for the MTS is somewhere around 20-25%. The MTS is obviously more academic in focus and given your stats and assuming nothing hidden in your LORs/etc, you should be perfectly fine. I've seen people admitted with much, much worse.

From a strictly ethics standpoint - I'd suggest also keeping an eye on philosophy programs. Ethics often, in philosophy programs, take on a religious nature because the individuals placed in these situations in their every day lives are often looking through a religious lens of sorts.

But anyway - off the top of my head, I'd strongly suggest Duke or Graduate Theological Union. If you go to Duke, I'd suggest at least taking a serious look at their MDiv program even if your intentions are purely academic - it's a top notch program and had I not been born and raised in NC, I would have taken them up on the acceptance (I wanted to spread my wings some).

Some other programs, while they have strong ethics programs (in my opinion), some lean more philosophy than theology and vice versa.

Duke
Graduate Theological Union
Catholic University of America
Notre Dame
St. Louis University*
Purdue
Indiana University - Bloomington (if you end up here, introduce yourself to David Brakke - wonderful man)
Princeton Theological Seminary/Princeton University (cross registration)
Boston Theological Institute (Harvard, Andover, Boston College, Boston University, etc) --- the cross registration and library access alone is phenomenal!
University of Texas - Austin
Bowling Green State University - their program is in applied philosophy but they have a handful of faculty and students that focus on the intersection of ethics and religion

This listing is subjective at best and depending on who you talk to - it'll be missing key players or have schools that don't belong.

if you're willing to go overseas, I'd suggest Oxford but I get a feeling you'd benefit more from a generalized program.

As far as an MDiv potentially hindering your acceptance chances into PhD programs, don't give it a second thought. Dozens (if not hundreds) of people get into PhD programs with an MDiv as their Masters at top schools - Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Chicago, Yale, Notre Dame, etc. Use your electives (and if capable, push ministerial programs to the summer if possible so you can sub in more academic courses - also keep in mind that some programs will permit you to drop some ministerial courses if you aren't seeking ordination, which opens up more room) to pursue your academic interests. Attend reading groups if they're available, get the syllabus of courses you're interested in but unable to take and read the texts on your own and offer to take the professor out to lunch/coffee every so often to discuss the material, etc.

Best of luck.

Agree with Mocha, your GRE scores will be fine for most M* programs - especially MDIV, MA programs with languages may pose a challenge but you aren't leaning that way anyway.

An interesting conversation arose between a colleague and myself over lunch, namely - undervalued (or really, underrepresented) international programs in religious studies.

The ground rules we set were pretty simple - the program has to be, for all purposes, outside of the Western Hemisphere - basically North America, Australia, and Western Europe.

Religious studies for our definition includes closely related interdisciplinary subjects - philosophy of religion, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, etc. We also included (for obvious reasons, we feel) such fields as theology.

Academy of Korean Studies
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Kathmandu University
University of Hong Kong
University of Mumbai
University of Cape Town

The following is my short list but admittedly, I'm a little biased as my focus is primarily within Buddhism - more specifically, Buddhist-Christian dialogue and monasticism.

I'd like to hear from others regarding programs they looked into (maybe even passingly) and thought "Oh wow, that's quite the program! I'd be honored to work under XYZ (or attend ABC)."

list*

apologizes for the error

list*

apologizes for the error

An interesting conversation arose between a colleague and myself over lunch, namely - undervalued (or really, underrepresented) international programs in religious studies.

The ground rules we set were pretty simple - the program has to be, for all purposes, outside of the Western Hemisphere - basically North America, Australia, and Western Europe.

Religious studies for our definition includes closely related interdisciplinary subjects - philosophy of religion, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, etc. We also included (for obvious reasons, we feel) such fields as theology.

Academy of Korean Studies
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Kathmandu University
University of Hong Kong
University of Mumbai
University of Cape Town

The following is my short list but admittedly, I'm a little biased as my focus is primarily within Buddhism - more specifically, Buddhist-Christian dialogue and monasticism.

I'd like to hear from others regarding programs they looked into (maybe even passingly) and thought "Oh wow, that's quite the program! I'd be honored to work under XYZ (or attend ABC)."

Agree with Mocha, your GRE scores will be fine for most M* programs - especially MDIV, MA programs with languages may pose a challenge but you aren't leaning that way anyway.

From a strictly ethics standpoint - I'd suggest also keeping an eye on philosophy programs. Ethics often, in philosophy programs, take on a religious nature because the individuals placed in these situations in their every day lives are often looking through a religious lens of sorts.

But anyway - off the top of my head, I'd strongly suggest Duke or Graduate Theological Union. If you go to Duke, I'd suggest at least taking a serious look at their MDiv program even if your intentions are purely academic - it's a top notch program and had I not been born and raised in NC, I would have taken them up on the acceptance (I wanted to spread my wings some).

Some other programs, while they have strong ethics programs (in my opinion), some lean more philosophy than theology and vice versa.

Duke
Graduate Theological Union
Catholic University of America
Notre Dame
St. Louis University*
Purdue
Indiana University - Bloomington (if you end up here, introduce yourself to David Brakke - wonderful man)
Princeton Theological Seminary/Princeton University (cross registration)
Boston Theological Institute (Harvard, Andover, Boston College, Boston University, etc) --- the cross registration and library access alone is phenomenal!
University of Texas - Austin
Bowling Green State University - their program is in applied philosophy but they have a handful of faculty and students that focus on the intersection of ethics and religion

This listing is subjective at best and depending on who you talk to - it'll be missing key players or have schools that don't belong.

if you're willing to go overseas, I'd suggest Oxford but I get a feeling you'd benefit more from a generalized program.

As far as an MDiv potentially hindering your acceptance chances into PhD programs, don't give it a second thought. Dozens (if not hundreds) of people get into PhD programs with an MDiv as their Masters at top schools - Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Chicago, Yale, Notre Dame, etc. Use your electives (and if capable, push ministerial programs to the summer if possible so you can sub in more academic courses - also keep in mind that some programs will permit you to drop some ministerial courses if you aren't seeking ordination, which opens up more room) to pursue your academic interests. Attend reading groups if they're available, get the syllabus of courses you're interested in but unable to take and read the texts on your own and offer to take the professor out to lunch/coffee every so often to discuss the material, etc.

Best of luck.

The acceptance rate at Harvard Divinity jumps around a lot, from year to year. I know the MDiv acceptance rate as of a couple years ago was hovering between 40-50% when I first began looking into the program as an Undergrad. However as I understand it, the acceptance rate for the MTS is somewhere around 20-25%. The MTS is obviously more academic in focus and given your stats and assuming nothing hidden in your LORs/etc, you should be perfectly fine. I've seen people admitted with much, much worse.

Wow, I'm surprised they took them without any Hebrew!

I'll be in Boston, not at HDS . Good luck!

Indeed. See you this fall!

Don't think anyone else applied, but finally got denied from UMinnesota Religions in Antiquity MA.

Ahahaha, I should check into who is doing that to me as well! I'm at -114 -.- lmao

Vanderbilt was a close second for me (behind Yale, but I was applying for a unique dual degree and really it came down to only Yale or Vanderbilt).

The school itself is (imo) very liberal. There's some interesting work being done at Vanderbilt with violence/biblical studies/ethics though quite a bit of it is being done with a focus on minorities (particularly women within the Christian church). Ellen Armour and Susan Hylen are immediately coming to mind.

A close friend went to Vanderbilt a couple of years before I went to Yale and on our visits to one another we frequently mentioned that as a generalized whole, we felt Vanderbilt Divinity students were better educated than Yale's - obviously subjective but I've read others here state the same.

You would take the original 24 credits over the first year, then the second year you would take 2 traditional courses (6 credits), and a 0-credit Masters Thesis Research course in the Fall and Spring Semesters.

It would break down like this:

Year 1
Fall: 12 credits (4 courses)
Spring: 12 credits (4 courses)
Year 2
Fall: 6+0 (2 courses and Masters Thesis Research)
Spring: 6+0 (2 courses and Masters Thesis Research)

This route is designed for someone who has inadequate undergraduate preparation in religion or wants to specialize in a specific area of religious studies that they lack preparation. It's fairly common at other schools too - there was a man at Yale pursuing a Masters whose undergraduate work was in nursing so he took extra time to finish his Masters. Another wanted to specialize in the psychology of religion but lacked a solid foundation in psychology so used his first year to pick up some advanced undergraduate coursework in psychology and sociology (along with religious courses).

Are you a MAR or MDiv applicant? That would help decide who can give you the best assistance.

I finished the MDiv at Yale last year so I can look over it - I was one of the rare dual degree students, MDiv and a Masters in Nursing specializing in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing.

I'm still around the campus though taking two courses a semester (at the Divinity school) while I work with a team at YSN on a program to help better educate case managers who treat schizophrenia patients.