Seatbelt Blue

I applied to Boston College, Fordham, and Seton Hall. So far, I've only gotten a response from Seton Hall, which accepted me. I'm interested primarily in ecclesiology, ecumenism, and Christian anarchism. I'm looking for that fancy midpoint in a triangle where the points are John Paul II, Dorothy Day, and Carlo Martini.

I got into Seton Hall with a middling GPA and a GRE Verbal of 170/170.

street rat

dead letter

Anybody know any theology fellowships I could apply for for the 2013 academic year? I've been admitted to Seton Hall, with applications pending at Boston College and Fordham.

I got my application into Fordham in August. Still haven't heard anything. Anybody have any idea how long they take? It was super early, I know -- I applied for fall 2013 -- but I'm getting antsy.

I got my application for Fordham GSAS in super early -- August 2012 for Fall 2013. Any idea when I might be able to expect a response? It's been months at this point. Seton Hall was able to process my application and decide on admission in about two weeks.

I'm trying to knock this out in two years. I'm going to be married at this point. How on earth am I to do this without taking out $80,000 in debt or winning on Millionaire?

Yay.

How the hell are all of you paying for school? One of the main reasons -- not *the* main reason, but it's definitely a factor -- that I'm applying to BC is that it's a well-financed program that offers a lot of aid. But Seton Hall, to which I've already been accepted, while much less expensive, offers no aid. I'm worried about paying for SHU if I don't get into a program with financial aid; I'm trying to avoid increasing my already-punishing college debt from undergrad, but I can't seem to find much in way of scholarships or fellowships for theology students that aren't ministry-oriented. Anybody got any tips?

black dynamite

As I was just posting elsewhere, I agree with Usmivka. I was admitted to Seton Hall on a pretty mediocre 2.7 GPA primarily, I am convinced, on the grounds of my interview. I'm sure my high MAT score helped, but I was able to meet and connect with the head of the admissions committee, we had a great conversation about the weaknesses of my application, and I'm quite sure the interview is what landed me an acceptance letter.

I'm sort of the reverse. My GREs were through the roof - 170 Verbal, 151 Quant (I know that one's average), and 5.5 writing - while my undergrad GPA is pretty mediocre. I got in at Seton Hall, with applications still pending at BC and Fordham. Here's hoping -- BC is my first choice. I think what made me competitive at Seton Hall, and this would apply both ways I think, was that I had a personal interview and was able to demonstrate my passion for the field. Further, I took the time to forthrightly explain my poor undergraduate performance, which boils down to me being a dumb kid who took a while to figure out that he need to work at college. Further, I was in a second program after my undergrad where I performed very well. I think really the personal interview is a great opportunity to be honest with the people who determine your fate. You put on your best suit and tell them "Look, I'm a good candidate, even if the numbers don't entirely show that. I care about the field. I'm willing to put in the work. I may have some weaknesses but my strengths overcome that. So the question is whether you want to work with me for the next two or three years, and man, I think that you do."

I'll keep that in mind, but we really will need a separate unit. My fiancee is an opera singer, so, ya know, when she practices, things get loud.

I applied at Boston College, Fordham, and Seton Hall for my Master's in Theology, Seton Hall accepted me, and the other two are still pending.

bell pepper

I've got a pending, completed application for Fall 2013 in at Fordham. I'm not in any rush to find out -- and I'm applying at BC, which is my first choice anyway -- but I'm curious if anyone knows when I might could expect a response.

Danke!

My fiancee and I will hopefully be moving to Boston in Fall 2013, presuming I get into BC, and we're trying to start getting a feel for what to expect rentwise. We currently live in NYC, so high rents won't exactly give us sticker shock, but we don't know what our income will be once we move. So what we're trying to find is a relatively affordable area with good access to mass transit because neither of us drives. Thanks!

I'd like to share my personal statement for my application to the Master of Theological Studies program at Boston College to get some reactions and see how it is. Personal statement requirements may be found at http://www.bc.edu/co...ss/degree2.html I used the same personal statement at Fordham, and I believe I used this at Seton Hall, to which I was accepted. Feedback and criticism is appreciated. Please don't troll on the subject of religion, and speak about the personal statement itself. --- After nearly a decade of discernment, in August 2010 I entered seminary for the Diocese of Brooklyn. In eight months I would withdraw, get a job and an apartment, and move on with my life. What always appealed to me the most about the priesthood was the theology. As much as I tried to drum up enthusiasm for the pastoral end of things, the goal in sight was always to be a dedicated theologian and academic, to discuss and discern and define the faith I’ve confessed since I was sixteen. Theology has been an enormous part of my life for that entire time, from my first forays into the basic, core doctrines, to my present reconstructivist analysis of the same. The theology, so rich at its core, so malleable on the edges, which both defines and defies the scope of the Church, has from the beginning been that to which I have always tended. It’s beautiful -- poetry, in a way. In fact, I could call it the science of poetry itself. It’s an attempt to plumb the depths of God and the universe and of man’s own heart. Hard to resist. After I left seminary, I spent months thinking and wondering where to go next, what to do next -- I could never be satisfied at my current job. My intellect is wild and restless and seeks new frontiers, and every day all I get is the same old recorded lectures, endlessly through my iPhone, as I sit at a desk and put products up on a retail website. My undergraduate work was in English, a field I chose because I thought I’d get some significant opportunities to refine my writing, which proved rather elusive, but it did help me put my brain to work in unpacking complex ideas from tightly-woven texts, and only encouraged my natural inclination towards theological thinking; not without cause did I seize onTess of the d’Urbervilles as an icon of Persephone, or on Maggie Tulliver from The Mill on the Floss as an explication on the moral life and apocalypticism. I naturally tend toward larger explanations, and enjoy making small things much bigger than they might otherwise be. My research interests, then, tend toward both the large and the small -- I like unpacking the theology present in any text, from classic works of English literature to comic books, with a particular emphasis on Superman as an exemplary moral figure rather than the savior image so often presented. Further, I have a large interest in ecumenical theology and ecclesiology, and I’ve been kicking around an idea, probably not terribly original, that there can in fact be no such thing as a divided body of Christ. These contribute to society inasmuch as any theology does; religion informs who we are, how we see ourselves, how we think about the world and others, and resultantly, how we act in the world. It’s the queen of sciences because it undergirds the whole human endeavour as fundamentally as the presence of six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains. And what is more, there is something to be said for the vigorous pursuit of the truth of the world, knowable by human reason, discernible from the chaff of human thought, pursued under the light of revelation. These are self-evident goods, and do not need defense. This is why I seek the insane privilege of being able to devote my life to them, to learn at this institution more of how it’s to be done and to be equipped with the tools for the digging.

Hey there. I need to get up to BC for a campus visit. It's not required for the application but I want to go and make a personal impression. So I live in New York, and would need to make this an overnight trip. However, my funds are *extremely* limited right now as I both recover from about a month solid where I couldn't work a full week at work and paying off an engagement ring. So I have a budget of, max, a hundred bucks. I need to find a place to crash from which one can easily reach BC. Any suggestions?

According to the associate admissions dean, BC STM apparently offers pretty goddamn comprehensive funding.

Even before I converted to Catholicism when I was 16, I've always pursued knowledge of a larger world. I used to do it in a very roundabout, unfocused way; little ten-year-old Seatbelt Blue was way into UFOs and the occult, subjects in which my elementary school library was inexplicably well-stocked. I turned my interest to religion as a freshman in high school, and shortly thereafter converted to Catholicism. For a while I focused almost exclusively on its intellectual tenets -- the doctrines and the theologies as well as I could understand them. I eventually found a more holistic, honest way to express the faith, but the lure of theology never abated. It led me to seminary for a year after I graduate college with an English degree, and after I left, I realized the only thing I really loved about being there was the theology. I have a good, natural talent for it. I decided to enter graduate school after a number of discussions with my girlfriend-cum-fiancee regarding where my post-seminary life was going. The conclusions was reached that theology is probably the thing I'm best at, and there's no point in not trying to make a career out of it; if I can find a way to do what I love and support a family doing it, I'll move heaven and earth to make it happen. I've always been the sort of guy who likes to make sure his ideas are clear in his head, and since I'm terribly religious, it makes sense that theology would prove a natural draw. My Catholicism is perhaps the dearest, most important part of me, and in pursuit of it I've inhaled loads of theology.

I'm curious as to how to tailor my SoP for my Boston College STM application, so I'm curious if anyone can give me a heads up as to BC's general theological bent. Conservative/liberal, Thomistic/Augustinian, things of that nature. I tend to explore a lot of crazy theological ideas (I'm tossing around some nutso ecclesiology lately) and I'm curious if this is the sort of thing I should or should not bring up. Their website makes them look pretty solid and a little stolid, which is good if true, because I like having a counterweight, but I'm just really curious what sort of material would serve me well in an SoP to this particular institution.

OOooooooh statement of purpose. I getcha.