Kuriakos

Never use endnotes unless someone is forcing you to do so. They are almost universally reviled.

Are you sitting in on colloquium? If so, see you in a few weeks! I promise no prof at Baylor will look down on you for inquiring about this matter. I got advice at SBL about the paper in my application before I applied, and it was no big deal.

I had profs tell me that if the writing sample is of sufficiently good quality, it doesn't matter if it is too long. I suspect, though, that is may depend on the temperament of the committee. When in doubt, just ask.

If you have a published article, send it.

I would say that the majority of incoming NT PhD students do not have Latin. I don't know of any programs that require it for incoming students. I do think it looks good, though, especially if you are applying somewhere that isn't as canonically focused like UT or UNC-CH. I had a little Latin before my program and just took some more classes in it this summer, but so far I am the only person in NT at my school that I know of who has chosen to take Latin. There was one who graduated several years ago, but he was really a dual classics/NT guy. Others can share what sort of emphasis Latin gets in their programs.

If you consider your Greek to be quite good, then I'd suggest Latin, especially if you can provide a compelling reason for doing so (e.g. Text Crit, studying Apocrypha only preserved in Latin, etc.).

It would be a lot more useful to look at placement numbers the last 5-10 years and percent of graduates employed in TT positions. Places like Fuller (where I received my MA), would plummet dramatically. Several of these are programs that don't fund and churn out massive numbers of PhDs. DTS and SBTS have hundreds of PhD students. Most of them are not getting academic jobs.

I highly doubt that these schools are going to feed your name into a secret database so that they can deny you entry a few years down the road.

I didn't wear pants for my Skype interview. I highly recommend it.

Alllll byyy myselllllllf, Don't wanna be, Alllll by myselllf anymore

I'd guess funding.

Placement is what really matters.

Grades matter a lot less than people think they do.

I should clarify that my comments above only apply to the PhD.

What I was told is that the wait list is created collectively by the Religion department rather than by sub-discipline. That may have changed since. I don't know.

Yep, I can confirm what sacklunch is saying. I was told as much by my Duke profs when I was there.

Acceptances and waitlists are generated after preview weekend at many schools. It takes a while for things to shake out. I got into a program off of the wait list and wasn't at the interview weekend. There are also people who come to interview who don't even make the waitlist after interviewing.

See you in February Edit: Just to be clear, I'm already there not applying.

It would be better to take a year off and self-teach than to spend the money for a second MA.

I was just about to recommend Athenaze!

Those deadlines are coming up! I hope everyone is keeping it together.

Where are you planning to apply?

I'm kind of surprised by this, since the differences between the LXX and MT really demonstrate the infeasability of the doctrine of inerrancy.

Conservative evangelicals are kind of notorious for using TC and grammar as a way to hide out in more liberal programs. I'm sure you could get into a decent MTS program somewhere, but it sounds like you want to do it to legitimize yourself without actually being open to change. I suspect that if you go into it with that intention you will have a bad time of it. You'd probably be better off applying to a UK program and hoping you're lucky enough to get funding. UK PhD programs are bursting at the seams with American conservative evangelicals who could never hack it in a US PhD program because of their convictions (or so I've been repeatedly told by people who know).

Are you an inerrantist and is this reflected in your work?