Kuriakos

I think you've earned the right to rant about that one. Sorry that happened to you!

If you think Wheaton is no longer conservative, then you are probably a fundie. As for Fuller, it is clear you haven't the foggiest idea what is taught there. I don't think I met a single religious pluralist in the student body much less a professor while I was there. There might be some "universalist" students (no faculty that I know of) but I suspect they would be universalists in the Barthian sense.

You can rule out any SBC run institution.

If applications don't work out, here is a 40k a year job many of you would be qualified for: https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/wrg/4244720190.html

Good luck, everybody. May all your applications be warmly received and all your stipends generous!

All the Ancient Med people I know live in Carborro which is quite close and far more reasonable than Chapel Hill proper. Also, I took some seminars at UNC-CH while I was at Duke and driving in from south Durham only took 15 minutes, so there are other more reasonable options.

Sheffield might work if the UK is an option.

I think the chances of you being admitted to a PhD program in Islamic Studies with no previous degrees that are directly relevant are quite slim. (I understand of course that your Philosophy minor might have given you some exposure to Islamic history, but I think most adcomms would be inherently skeptical about your application.)

If you are going to self-teach Greek, I'd recommend Athenaze to you.

In my experience, it is your sort who do the walking.

I'd bet my bottom dollar Perique69 is one of those people at SBL whose eyes never rise above name badge level. As for wanting to be on the "list," I'm content in the knowledge that people smarter than me are making a tremendous investment both in terms of time and money to educate me and that the placement rate for my program is good (even if most of those people teach at small Liberal Arts colleges). I don't need to be the best. I don't need a festschrift when I retire. I just want to get paid to do what I love. It is really as simple as that.

WLC is a "research professor" who lives on the other side of the country from Talbot. According to some former Talbot students, He doesn't really contribute academically (at least not regularly).

More.

This thread has more drama than Downton Abbey

I'm certain the BJU recommendation was a joke.

I know someone who was admitted to UNC straight from undergrad.

Two things: 1) Luther Rice is basically a diploma mill 2) Christian Apologetics degrees are not worth the paper they are printed on. Do yourself a huge favor and go with something on the Philosophy of Religion end of things. Your future is far less limited then.

Actually, total number of applicants is reported to the NCHE and gets factored into a programs selectivity numbers which in turn affects their ranking. I do not, however, believe that the top programs like wading through so many applications.

I've heard professors at more than one school admit that they use GREs to bring the number of applications down to a reasonable size. I take their comments to mean they don't give those eliminated applications much of a reading at all.

I remember a bunch of people telling me I needed to break 700 on the verbal to be competitive. I have no idea what that is on the new system.

Start in on some German and French

UChicago Baylor UT

Well, the Duke adcomm is probably going to be thinking the same thing about UNC, but Goodacre is the one you want to be in contact with if you are set on Duke. He's done a lot of work with non-canonical Gospels and is very open to broader discussions of early Christianity than some traditional NT people.

If your Greek and Hebrew are still up to par (or if you can get them up to speed before starting), then I say go for the ThM. But if you are going to need more time to get some of your basic skills going again, then I'd suggest considering an academic MA of some sort.