theologyofyourface

Dunno if this is helpful, but I'm a current student at the U of C divinity school and my husband and I moved to Chicago from NYC last year. We found the change to be a big one but definitely doable. Let me know if you have any questions!

I applied to three MA programs, which I thought was fine at the time but which, upon further reflection, was not enough. It was super scary when I was rejected by two of them and had to end up waiting to find out if I got into the third! And when I talked to other people in my field here, it became clear that three was a very small number of places to apply. When I apply for my PhD next year, I'm going to apply to at least 7 programs.

I did it in four years, but my husband took NINE years to finish undergrad, and he didn't have any problems getting into his grad program. The schools where he applied understood that he took so long because was a first-generation college student who had to work full-time in order to pay his own way, with no help from parents or loans.

Divinity. 4. I'm having a great time, and loving my classes and life as a grad student. Really, the only reason I can't give it a 5 is because I'm superstitious and I feel like I'll jinx myself if I do.

See, I'm the same way but backwards-- I can write like a dream but I'm TERRIFIED of talking in class. It's something akin to what SeriousSillyPutty said-- I'm afraid that what I say is a reflection of me and my intelligence, and the idea of anything less than a perfect, fully-formed thought coming out of my mouth is horrifying. I get very anxious in class and hate participating in discussions or answering questions. In my Greek class I break out in a cold sweat whenever my prof asks me to translate aloud. I manage my anxiety by talking with a counselor at my school's counseling center frequently, and by taking a low dose of anti-anxiety medication. You may not need something as drastic as medication, but I bet a counselor will be able to help you find strategies for talking yourself through the writing process. Good luck!

I agree with what Eigen and TakeruK said, basically. My father is a biology professor. He's not at a top university but he's pretty solid in his field, and is in fact the chair of the department at his (medium-sized state) university. I was born while he was in grad school and I can tell you that he did not then work 100 hours a week, nor has he done so since. He works 40 hours/week--sometimes during crunch periods (end of the semester, big grant deadlines, etc.) it's 60 hours/week, and sometimes during the summer it's more like 30, but it depends. It is, in fact, possible to be an academic and also be a normal person. My father has three kids, is the president of a large charity's governing board, volunteers for a local school's science programs, and enjoys going to bed at 9:30 PM most nights. He doesn't spend every waking second of his life working in the lab. And wouldn't you know, he's still managed to make some pretty cool discoveries in the past few years!

Have you thought about taking one of those career assessment tests? I have a friend who took some sort of Myers-Briggs based career aptitude test last year and it helped her figure out where she wanted to go with her career.

Well, in my case, I spent three years living on a campus with my husband, who was an MDiv student, before I applied to grad school. So I got to take classes, talk to professors, and really explore the idea of being an academic before deciding on anything. Also, my dad is a professor (and my mom's a middle school teacher) so I'd always sort of kept the idea of going into a similar profession in the back of my mind.

Yeah, I agree with this. My husband is awaiting his ordination to the Episcopal priesthood and wants to work in ministry, and he has an MDiv; I want to become a professor of religion and teach, so I'm going for an MA that will hopefully lead to a PhD. In my experience, most people who want an MDiv are thinking primarily of their ministry work, although some later end up as professors, too. I think the question you're going to be asked is: why do you want an MDiv? It's not so much a denominational question as it is a vocational question.

Same here.

Me too! And my classes don't start until October!

Divinity A.M. in religion and literature here-- moving into a campus-owned apartment on S. Kenwood later this month!

Well, I actually find it easier to get through grad school when you have someone else (i.e., my husband) who has an income. I guess I've never been one to "live it up," exactly, but we just spent three years on one income in Manhattan while my husband did his degree, and I found it more than doable. And doable in, like, a still-get-to-go-out-to-a-movie-sometimes sense, not a Raman-noodles-for-every-meal sense.

I'm 27 and married, and I'm starting my MA this fall, and planning to do the PhD afterwards, if all goes well. Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about it. My husband just graduated with his Masters at 30, and there were several people in his class who were much older. Older/second-career students are less common, but we exist.

Well, I'm married, so it's not just my stuff-- I've got all my husband's stuff to cart around, too. Also, my husband and I have invested in several pieces of furniture in the past (a decent queen mattress, a new couch, etc.) that were intended to last us a long time. We've been living in unfurnished places with our own furniture for awhile now, so it doesn't make financial sense to buy new things once we get to our new city! I'm 27, as well, and at 22 I didn't have a lot of stuff, either. It tends to accumulate the older you get, I think.

My husband and I will be moving from NYC to Chicago. We're just loading up a U-Haul and moving everything ourselves. It'll be an adventure, that's for sure!

I have a good friend who was in your position. She, too, was very smart, an overachiever who looooooves math, so the PhD seemed natural to her, too. She started a PhD program in math and after one year she was totally over it. She left and got a job working for the State Department doing Operations Research, which is still math, I'm told. She is much happier now. Turns out she was just doing the PhD because it "made sense" with her personality, but she didn't really like or enjoy the world of professional academia. I say take a leave of absence, like Spore did. It'll give you time to figure out if this is really what you want to do.

Windfish, I love what you said about fit being the most important thing. That's so so so true, especially for ministry. I dunno how my husband could have gotten through these past three years if the school he attended hadn't been such a good fit for him-- not just theologically, but in terms of liturgy, mission, history, and academic focus.

I'm going to Chicago in the fall for my MA in divinity and I have no theological background at all. I am currently a secretary and was a poetry major in college. I'm 27. My husband is graduating from General Theological Seminary with an MDiv and his BA was in General Studies. (Yes, you can get a BA in General Studies. I didn't know this until I met him.) It can't hurt to take a few classes, but you really don't need to have vast experience in the subject or anything. Then again, I was rejected by Yale and Harvard, so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt, eh?

Sounds exactly like my job.

I'm going through the same thing! I've been working an office job while my husband does his graduate work for the past three years, and I've been DYING to start my own schooling the whole time. This is actually my last week of full-time employment-- I'm doing part-time for the next two weeks after this, and then I'm done. We have to move out of our apartment by the end of May. It's super hard to concentrate these days-- I feel like I have senioritis or something. Every time I start working on anything, I'm just like, "Oh, who cares? This'll be someone else's problem soon!"

Has anyone here acceped UChicago's offer and gotten any response from them about it? I accepted on March 31st via the website, but I haven't heard anything else-- I haven't gotten housing stuff, my school ID, nothin'. Should I email them, or is this normal?

Me, too!

*high fives you*

Oh my goodness, me too! I made reservations for us at the International House (which is super cheap), only to have them call me to tell me that they made a booking error and they had no room for us. Blahhhhhh. And of course, my husband is kind of shy and doesn't want to stay in someone's apartment, for fear of "imposing."