thekidisalright

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I personally know people accepted at both, so nope!

The past two years I've known people who were contacted on Sunday (and I think one on Monday) so I wouldn't start drinking until Monday the 8th. Assuming, that is, that you're not already drinking to drown the anxiety.

Is anyone else noticing that Notre Dame is super behind in posting materials received? If not, I'm worried that my undergraduate transcript was lost in the mail/processing, since it is still not showing up. Then again, the transcript I requested from Notre Dame to itself took over a month to be marked as received. Assuage my nerves!

Yep, for the past two years they've contacted students via phone on Super Bowl weekend for an interview the last weekend of Feb. We should know soon!

Hi James, what school are you going to? I went to Gordon College, majored in Philosophy and Biblical/Theological Studies and got into ND's MTS. I would suggest either taking some theology courses this year or a course on philosophical ethics. Even if its just one course it can give you some background and prove that your interests truly are theological. And there's always languages! -ES

Also, the standard for competency in a modern language (French and German) is not as intensive as that of an ancient language--usually a 6-week summer course is enough. I took a French course on top of an intensive beginning Latin course during one of my MTS summers and passed easily (and I hate languages/slacked a lot). I had friends who taught themselves with the book and just passed a reading exam.

I graduated from the MTS (History of Christianity) in '09 and am now teaching religion and philosophy at a prep school. Both programs are incredibly rigorous and it would be ridiculous to imply that one was for the real scholars and one for softies. They differ greatly though in their approach, even if you are someone interested in Early Christianity. Keep in mind that in the MTS you will be taking courses in moral and systematic theology, and taking all of your courses with students interested in everything from von Balthazar to feminist Biblical hermeneutics to Trinitarian theology to Jewish-Christian dialogue. Even the historical courses will be thoroughly theological. To put it briefly, you can't get a rigorous education in languages, history, and theology in two years. Something will have to go. The ECS degree is not a theology degree, nor is the MTS-HC a history degree. I know in the courses that we shared together we theologians thought that the ECSers lacked training in method and I'm sure they thought we paid absolutely no attention to historical and literary context or original language. This gap is lamentable though probably not something that can be avoided given only 2 years to take courses. You will not have room in HC to do anything more than 2 semesters of Latin in the school year (though I took an additional intense semester of Latin and a French class in the summer). This is pretty sufficient for going on to PhD programs in Theology, but obviously not for classics. On the other hand, the ECS program would likely not prepare you to teach religion/theology at a high school level as high school theology courses are usually things like Introduction to Systematic Theology, Sacraments, or Ethics. It would certainly prepare you for Latin and History. Hope this helps! ES

Profile: B.A. Philosophy; Biblical and Theological Studies (Gordon College) - 3.8 M.T.S. History of Christianity (University of Notre Dame)- 3.8 1 year teaching experience GRE: 1450 French - Passed Reading Exam Latin - Intermediate NT Greek - Advanced 1. Marquette (deferred) Notre Dame Boston College 2. I'm applying in Systematic Theology at all three schools. My central interests include method, anthropology, and Christology. 3. This time around I have a much shorter list. Now that I know I am employable (am currently teaching religion and philosophy at a prep school) I'm less inclined to go if the fit isn't perfect. I've also given my letter-writing professors drafts of my statements much earlier, and initiated more conversations with them, rather than just handing them a folder. I think I was a little too shy to sell myself last year. I've also been pushing drafts on all my friends (many of whom are in ST at ND right now). This year, I'm able to hand in a writing sample that connects with my personal statement, and is not just chosen because its the best piece of work I have. I have a semester more of classes under my belt than last time, including one more phd class (in a major interest, with a professor who is now writing a letter) and another semester of Latin, so hopefully that will make me look stronger as well. Nervous as hell. ES

I was one of them, so no.

So does anyone have any theories about UVA? It definitely looks like at least some of the process involves rolling admission - more specifically, people have been slowly contacted about being waitlisted. But does that mean all the accepted students were already notified? Or is there a chance that we may be accepted (or waitlisted) when we hear this week, even if we haven't heard anything yet? (I hope so, though certainly wouldn't bet on it). This is your chance to make wild speculations, people!

Congrats retiredwaif. Well, today I heard back from UChicago (rejected). No surprise, but no fun either.

UVAstudent- You wouldn't have any insight into when we'll hear about admissions decisions, would you? I'm going cra-zy. E.S.

Awesome! ::picks fight elsewhere::

I take your point thumbnail, but I don't think these categories--academic and doxological--can be stretched too far. For instance, I tried to rank in order of quality of scholarship, something which I think encapsulates the two. I think that its a little unfair (I'm not saying you're doing this, but Reno certainly does) to conflate conservative with orthodox and liberal with heretical. The question is to what extent one thinks theology is different than catechesis, and how one names this difference. If they are equal than only a few schools are truly theological and others are mere charades. If, however, theology is living and active, interpretive and creative, (wherever on the spectrum we put it, and however we understand it as bounded by the tradition) then there is a certain way in which theology can fail by being too conservative (that is, stagnant and catechetical) or too liberal. Harvard may truly be a place that is antagonistic to the tradition, I don't know too much about the program. But I find Reno's dismissal of Marquette, Fordham, and SLU for being "stuck in the 70s"--that is, focusing on liberation theology, Rahner, feminism--to be kind of ridiculous. None of these ideas challenges Nicea (at least, as they are in these schools, though certainly there are some strange feminist Christologies out there!), and none of their espousers critique the tradition by prioritizing academic prestige over doxological work, but critique it from within precisely for the sake of the tradition and for the sake of the Church. I guess what I'm saying thumbnail, is I think you're distinction is quite helpful, but I'm not sure how many schools would really be weeded out based on being too "academic" (perhaps Harvard?), and that I think Reno uses this type of language just to describe any school that professes any theology he doesn't agree with (even when it is produced by the faithful, to the faithful, etc.). Can we really say that merely because we find a school to be more liberal than we are that it is not "doxological"? Reno seems to think we can and should, which I think is problematic regardless of what side of the fence we are on.

I got a rejection from Yale today. I didn't think I would get in, but it still sucks to hear all of these rejections BEFORE I hear back from UVA, which is my first choice. They have to have made all of the decisions by now, I don't know why they won't contact us.

There's a acceptance post from Yale on the results search, and a friend of mine also got in (she didn't post, and I don't think she will). Considering they only admit like . . 8 students, I wonder if everyone who got in heard today. This doesn't look good.

I haven't heard anything from UVA, and my status online still says pending. (BTW, does everyone else's say at the top "you status is complete"? Because that cracks me up everytime.) If you look at the records from last year, it looks like there were a few waves of notifications, and that people were being accepted from the beginning until the end. I think we're all still in the game. Though honestly, I'd rather here sooner than later.

I'm interested in meeting other people who were accepted to Marquette (particularly, but not limited to the theology department). I was just accepted into the Theology and Society concentration to do interdisciplinary work with philosophy and literary theory. P.S. What the hell is going on with funding? I wasn't offered any, and most of the people I've talked to from years before said that they initially weren't but were then offered money a month from now. Anyhow, I'm hoping the same will happen to me.

I'll appreciate you sharing any knowledge you find out studyordie! Otherwise, it looks like we could hear as soon as this week, or as late as next month. Simply agonizing.

I'm going out of my mind waiting for UVA, even though I know its likely to be a-whole-nother month. Everytime someone calls my cell by accident I see the strange # and think Kevin Hart, is that you? It's like the beginning of a bad rom-com.

Our condolences, deamondeac!

Sbyoda: It sounds like you are pretty competitive, I would apply anywhere and everywhere you want to go. The only thing that would keep you out of any school would be pure arbitrariness (which is a strong factor, I admit). BC/Weston places students in awesome programs. And from what I can tell, Catholic sexual ethics is a niche that will actually help you (unlike philosophy of religion and patristics, which should be avoided like the plague). I imagine that BC is the best place for you to be, what with Lisa Cahill. Don't worry about not being published, it's pretty rare, by no means expected, and I don't know anyone who was accepted in ND's incoming PhD class who was. Emory and Fordham might also be a good place to look, they have awesome people for feminist studies and I'm pretty sure Fordham does a lot in sexual ethics. You should also check out ND, it wouldn't be as strong in that area I don't think, but there are a couple of people you could work with (Cathy Hilkert is wonderful). -E.S.

Accepted in Hebrew Bible, waitlisted in JRC (Is that what it's called?).

I don't think Notre Dame has even met for MTS decisions yet. My understanding was that a lot of programs did master's after Phd, so you still have time. Breathe!