Sara S.

Interesting, I also want to speak to an evangelical audience (I consider myself a "progressive evangelical," vague as that is). In my case, however, I went to a conservative evangelical undergrad, so I kind of need a more liberal seminary in order to maintain credibility to a larger audience in academia. I think it really depends on your history pre-seminary - if you have been involved with more conservative institutions, then I do not think Yale would be much of a liability.

Also in at YDS!!! I look forward to meeting my fellow accepted students in New Haven. Congratulations to you! For those who were not accepted, I echo that this process sucks - it is way too stressful and is often based on factors outside of your control. I had myself convinced I was not accepted before I received the notification based on the stats I saw on this website. You are all awesome students so take heart - you sure intimidated me at least!

I lived in ATL near Emory for about two years in a neighborhood called Virginia Highland. My husband and I both loved it. One of the few neighborhoods in ATL where you can walk to restaurants and coffee shops...lots of community businesses. Great neighborhood for families as well - I always saw lots of parents with kids taking walks in the evenings around the neighborhood. It is kind of yuppie-ish - the type of neighborhood where people dress their tiny dogs in sweaters and the local gelato place sells "doggie gelato." But if you can get past that, it is a great place to live. A bit pricey for AT standards, but I live in Boston now so it seems dirt cheap compared to what I currently pay in rent. The average three-bed will probably run you about $1400/month.

Is there talk of YDS releasing decisions early?

Good to know that I am in good company! Good luck for next Tuesday; I hope to see you in New Haven and not Boston )

Also, thanks for the 'good luck'!

Yes, I am sort of a BTI junkee at this point. Taking two classes at BC this semester actually. I could piece something together through the BTI (and will if I do not get into Yale) but my two concerns with this are: (a) I need to build substantive faculty relationships for strong PhD LoRs, and taking one class here and another class there does not facilitate the building of these types of relationships and ( the only BTI school with a lot of course offerings in NT exegesis is Gordon-Conwell, and while I respect the school, their exegesis courses (from what I have heard) do not leave much room for the ethical imagination.

The biggest reason is because I am trying to prep for a PhD in New Testament ethics and really need to gain competency in NT Greek exegesis; however BU offers no exegesis courses in the original Greek (and hardly any in English) - BU's approach to NT studies is really mostly socio-historical, which is valid but not the area in which I need to gain competency. Actually, none of the Boston schools really have BOTH strong New Testament and Ethics faculty under one roof. Yale, however, has both a great NT and ethics faculty, which is what I have discovered I really need.

I just saw this quite old post and could not help but comment. I too am a Moody Alum who has moved to a more progressive place (though mad props that you are still there and a progressive!) and applied to YDS for Fall 2011 (MAR-concentrated ethics). I am actually currently an MTS student at the Boston University School of Theology, and so applied to transfer to Yale. I did not find Moody to be a hindrance in getting into BU, which is a mainline Methodist seminary and quite liberal in orientation - in fact, I got a full ride and a stipend. I also, however have work experience and an MSW, so it is not the exact same situation, but I find that in many of these schools there is sort of an unspoken "evangelical affirmative action." In fact, YDS in their most recent brochure chose to highlight the evangelical student group. So take heart and say 'hi' to Mr. Milco for me. He is my fav. Meanwhile, we can both fret about admission to YDS ) Sara