Choosing a Masters Program

[Panera]

I am currently finishing up my undergraduate work with a double major in Religion and Economics.  Ultimately, I would like to get my PhD with a concentration in ethics in order that I might  teach at the University level.   I have submitted applications to the following MTS programs.

 

• Princeton Theological (Accepted)

• Candler (Accepted)

• Yale Divinity (Pending)

• Vanderbilt (Pending)

• Notre Dame (Pending)

• Duke (Pending)

I would like to choose my Masters program strategically in order to give me the most competitive edge for the coveted PhD spots that I hope to apply to down the road. That being said, any advice on what evaluation criteria (beyond scholarship/funding) that I should be thinking about and how the above programs rate would be greatly appreciated.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Panera

[Aubstopper]

Ratings/prestige are important to a point and all those programs are well-known and prestigious. I think that you should go wherever will give you the best training in your subject of interest---whomever is the strongest in ethics and where there are faculty/resources that can best inform your interests. Focus on getting those strong letters of recommendation from those in your field and network! 

 

A lot of the PhD process is not quantitative: someone can have the right grades, the right GRE, and go to the right schools and not get in anywhere. It's about your proposed research; and given your interests, does the PhD program you're potentially applying to have the faculty to advise you and if so, do they find your research interesting/promising? Start thinking like that and I think you'll be fine wherever you go.  

[Rabbit Run]

All of those are excellent schools for preparing for PhD work. Basically its going to come down to some equation of money/who you want to study with/life situation.

[xypathos]

It's going to come down to what kind of ethics you want to do. If you don't know yet, that's fine, you've got two years to figure it out. If you do have an idea, it'll probably change.

 

Reiterating Aub's point, the application process hinges on things that are largely out of our control as applicants. Jaco Hamman at VDS likes to share his own story as an example of this: His first year applying for PhD programs, from East Germany, and he didn't get in anywhere. The next year he applied again and didn't change anything - same references, same writing sample, etc. Second time around, got in everywhere with most schools giving him university-level funding.

 

Presuming you do a standard two year MTS route, you'll want to hit the ground running.

 

I will say that you'll want to look at the credits required to graduate and pay attention to how that's best served. VDS' MTS is 51 credit hours and while a good chunk of students do graduate in two years, a lot find the work expected out of you makes taking 15 credits hard, especially trying to balance a job or social obligations. So, hearing students take 2.5-3 years to finish the program is common. Last semester I had two introductory courses that weren't bad, but two upper-level courses that one required 10-15 page single space research paper every week with a final that was 20-30 single spaced (this was an Ethics course too) and a theology course where we were assigned 500+ pages of reading a week that we'd spend three hours scrutinizing every minute detail of the text, so trying to get by with skimming the text was of little value. So just keep in mind how you best learn and want to allot your time. I did 15 hours last semester and hated it, doing 9 this semester and I have too much free time but it's letting me have time to read ahead and branch off into personal reading, so that's nice.

[Panera]

I have definitely not developed which category of ethical thought I want to pursue.   It may crossover into areas of public policy given my undergraduate degree and interest in economics but as you indicated I have some time to figure that out. I know that Yale has an MTS concentration in Ethics which is what I have applied to.    I have some familiarity with the ethics professors at the other schools listed but any specific insights would be appreciated.  What is the best way to research the strengths of these programs?

[GREman]

Some questions to help clarify What are your interests? Who have you read / who would you like to read? Any specific tradition you'd be interested in working from (Methodist, Reformed, Baptist, etc.)? 

[Aubstopper]

The best way to get information is to just straight up ask the university programs you're wanting to apply to. No use trudging around with second-hand info when you can get it directly from the schools. Just Google your interests + PhD and see who pops up. Something else is that once you get to working on your graduate thesis, you'll have a much better idea of the field and who is doing what where. Half of the profs I contacted in the inquiry stage were taken directly from the bibliography of my thesis.

 

The only program I'm applying to that might be of interest to you would be Princeton's Religious Studies program (through the graduate school not PTS)  in "Religion, Ethics, and Politics." It seems like it covers all aspects of your current areas of interest.

[Tez92]

I got into Candler as well.

[theophany]

 

I have definitely not developed which category of ethical thought I want to pursue.   It may crossover into areas of public policy given my undergraduate degree and interest in economics but as you indicated I have some time to figure that out. I know that Yale has an MTS concentration in Ethics which is what I have applied to.    I have some familiarity with the ethics professors at the other schools listed but any specific insights would be appreciated.  What is the best way to research the strengths of these programs?

 

 

On the Yale point, make sure you look at the faculty listings. They have had two unsuccessful searches in the past three years, and another professor did not make tenure, so they are going to be down 3 (of 4) ethics faculty for at least another year—and the remaining person is associate dean and only teaches one seminar per semester. They've been pulling in ethics faculty from other schools to teach for the past 3 years.

This is all to say, on this topic, that name recognition only goes so far. You need to do your research about who is teaching and what their interests are in.

[HNV721]

I am currently finishing up my undergraduate work with a double major in Religion and Economics.  Ultimately, I would like to get my PhD with a concentration in ethics in order that I might  teach at the University level.   I have submitted applications to the following MTS programs.

 

• Princeton Theological (Accepted)

• Candler (Accepted)

• Yale Divinity (Pending)

• Vanderbilt (Pending)

• Notre Dame (Pending)

• Duke (Pending)

I would like to choose my Masters program strategically in order to give me the most competitive edge for the coveted PhD spots that I hope to apply to down the road. That being said, any advice on what evaluation criteria (beyond scholarship/funding) that I should be thinking about and how the above programs rate would be greatly appreciated.

 

Those are all fantastic choices and would be great stops, particularly in the "prestige" department which is, unfortunately, absolutely a factor down the road. Now, I would do my best to evaluate where my interests may fit best and go from there. Congrats on being accepted to Candler and Princeton, btw.