S.T.M at a different school?

[guruofgreatness]

I'm currently a M.Div at Duke Divinity school and will be applying to school for the S.T.M as preparatory work for a PHD. I have a New Testament focus and Duke obviously has great New Testament scholars , but I'm wondering if it would help me in order to get into good PHD program later if I went somewhere else (such as Yale) for my S.T.M in order to diversify my education.

Any thoughts?

[JonathanEdwards]

I'm currently a M.Div at Duke Divinity school and will be applying to school for the S.T.M as preparatory work for a PHD. I have a New Testament focus and Duke obviously has great New Testament scholars , but I'm wondering if it would help me in order to get into good PHD program later if I went somewhere else (such as Yale) for my S.T.M in order to diversify my education.

Any thoughts?

I suppose the short version is ‘Building credibility in a variety of areas of expertise’ is very much a positive, while ‘making your resume look more diversified’ is rather not. (I’m not suggesting you’re merely looking to do the latter, just that how you put this is critical.)

The long version is, be prepared to articulate the ‘why?’ of such a move. I’d urge you to consider that where you go to study can have a variety of benefits, but primary among these should be who you are going to study under. If you go to Yale (a fine choice) because they have a particular scholar you wish to conduct research under, that’s a great reason. If your goal is ultimately to return to Duke as a stronger candidate, you may need to explain how your research interests changed (and you’re not some kind of dilettante). Perhaps you’d be able to say you went to Yale to explore a particular research interest within New Testament that a scholar there specialized in, but decided to return to your potential supervisor of choice at Duke because that was your ultimate interest.

Best wishes wherever you wind up!

[guruofgreatness]

Thank you Westcott.

I would certainly love to return to Duke as a PhD candidate but because of how few students they admit every year, it’s certainly not something I can count on. I have about 6-7 schools in mind that I plan on applying to for my PhD.

And yes, there is a particular scholar I wish to study under for my S.T.M at Yale. I suppose my logic is that when a school sees that I graduated from Duke with my M.Div and then Yale for my S.T.M, it would make me appear to be a more well rounded candidate in the sense that my studies have been done under a variety of different scholars from different schools.

I could be way off base but I just think it would make me a stronger candidate than if I just stayed at Duke for an additional year under the same people for a Th.M