Norman G

I plan on attending the prospective student day this thursday. Do you know anything about the Divinity School's placement record into PhD programs (from the MDiv specifically), including their own?

It's between University of Chicago and Vanderbilt for me. I currently live in Chicago but I have already made friends with some great people who are/will be attending Vanderbilt. Planning on applying to PhD programs upon completion of the M.Div. I am nearly fully-funded at both institutions. Any advice?

Josh, I received the same same email. In the past, those who were accepted to both the MTS and MDiv, and did not receive a fully-funded offer, were given around 70% funding.

Most of the programs I applied to have massive endowments (far beyond the billion dollar mark) and I’m considering asking for more funding than a couple of schools initially offered. That being said, what are the rules for requesting more funding from a school? Are schools, divinity schools in particular, accustomed to applicants asking for more funding? Finally, can it hurt to ask?

Still nothing for me either. I assume I'll be offered admission but, at this point, I doubt it will be accompanied with a nice scholarship.

Josh, Vanderbilt is so strange. A friend of mine, who called the school, was told that admissions decisions would be made by the first week of March. It's quite weird how these few Vandy acceptances have been like a week apart from each other.

jealous

I'm not sure either. I really wish departments could save us some grief and send all notifications at once--I mean I'm sure those gifted few wouldn't mind waiting a few days to receive their acceptances.

Yes, it is very good for ashley1987 but it makes me nervous for my application

Congrats!! By phone, post, or email?

Like you said, I think it mostly depends on whether the application deadlines for your respective programs has already passed. If so, I would probably avoid the urge to send an updated CV as it would be inconvenience to the department (and, imo, it might cause the department to re-question the original strength of your CV). You don't want to raise an unnecessary red-flag at this point in the game.

Certainly isn't a bad sign. I think you are safe to assume that it is probably someone on the admissions committee at these institutions doing a basic google search on you.

PM sent

Yes, I would say it would be "possible" to live in St. Louis (especially around WashU) without a car. Your admission to WashU will come with a yearly pass for unlimited Metro-Link rides (which includes all buses and the train). The Metro can get you from downtown to the airport in about 25 minutes. However, parking is fairly available in the downtown St. Louis area (when compared to other large cities)--so, if you decide to bring a car you should be able to do so at a fairly reasonable cost. Best of luck!

Alternatively, I don't think it would be inappropriate to inform the schools, at some point in February, that you have a acceptance deadline for one or more program on March 1st. Yet, at the same time, you wouldn't want to influence their decision on your application by informing them that you have offers elsewhere. So, maybe your method is the safest. (This thread might help some)