Harvard & Yale Divinity Schools

[invsblmn]

Anyone here know anything about applying to these divinity schools?

I'm applying to the Masters of Arts in Religion (MAR) program at Yale and the Masters of Theological Studies (MTS) program at Harvard.

I am an '08 ugrad -- so I have little work experience.

3.41 ugrad GPA @ Stanford (English, math majors with an interesting transcript -- I either failed my classes or aced them)

1570 GRE (800M/770V, 4.5 Writing) -- Praise Jesus (except for the writing score part)

Good prof recs and hopefully good essays (as it is my dream to attend divinity school)

"Ethnic" -- I have also lived in many different countries

Only $10,000 in the bank -- will need lots of need-based financial aid

I graduated from a good ugrad college and have pretty good GRE scores, but my ugrad GPA and transcript are quite iffy. Anyone know about average ugrad GPAs for Harvard and Yale divinity schools? I'd expect them to be a bit lower than the business & law schools, surely?

But my biggest concern is the financial aid. I will require a lot of it. The Harvard MTS website says that aid will be offered on the basis on need AND merit -- which could mean anything. Anyone know anything specific about Harvard Divinity's tendency to offer aid to MTS students?

Same question applies for the MAR program at Yale, I suppose. If I don't get the money I can't go. :-(

I would also be grateful if anyone can shed light on admit %s for these divinity schools. I know my GRE scores are stellar but I haven't got a clue about anything else.

Thanks in advance.

[Mathētēs]

You will find helpful information pertaining to Yale Divinity in this thread from early 2009: Many more links for both schools could be found by using the search feature.

[Febronia]

Anyone here know anything about applying to these divinity schools?

I'm applying to the Masters of Arts in Religion (MAR) program at Yale and the Masters of Theological Studies (MTS) program at Harvard.

I am an '08 ugrad -- so I have little work experience.

3.41 ugrad GPA @ Stanford (English, math majors with an interesting transcript -- I either failed my classes or aced them)

1570 GRE (800M/770V, 4.5 Writing) -- Praise Jesus (except for the writing score part)

Good prof recs and hopefully good essays (as it is my dream to attend divinity school)

"Ethnic" -- I have also lived in many different countries

Only $10,000 in the bank -- will need lots of need-based financial aid

I graduated from a good ugrad college and have pretty good GRE scores, but my ugrad GPA and transcript are quite iffy. Anyone know about average ugrad GPAs for Harvard and Yale divinity schools? I'd expect them to be a bit lower than the business & law schools, surely?

But my biggest concern is the financial aid. I will require a lot of it. The Harvard MTS website says that aid will be offered on the basis on need AND merit -- which could mean anything. Anyone know anything specific about Harvard Divinity's tendency to offer aid to MTS students?

Same question applies for the MAR program at Yale, I suppose. If I don't get the money I can't go. :-(

I would also be grateful if anyone can shed light on admit %s for these divinity schools. I know my GRE scores are stellar but I haven't got a clue about anything else.

Thanks in advance.

I'm a current M.Div. student at Harvard. My understanding is that HDS meets full need, but that how much is grant aid and how much is loans depends on merit. The lowest offer I've *heard* of is 50% tuition. (There may, however, be lower offers, and only people with at least a 50% scholarship want to tell people about it!). The highest I've heard of is full tuition and fees plus a stipend of $10,000 per year. As far as I can tell, stipends are fairly unusual, but full tuition awards are reasonably common. People don't talk much about money, but that's my general sense of things...

As for GPA--just looking at straight averages, yours are probably below, but I wouldn't be unduly worried about it. There are plenty of us here with uneven undergraduate records, and it's much easier to get in when there are some D's or F's mixed in with your A's than it would be if you had straight B's.

As far as how Yale compares on financial aid, in my case I didn't get *nearly* as much funding from them as from Harvard, but I know other people who have gotten very generous offers from Yale, so it just seems to vary, I guess.

[invsblmn]

I'm a current M.Div. student at Harvard. My understanding is that HDS meets full need, but that how much is grant aid and how much is loans depends on merit. The lowest offer I've *heard* of is 50% tuition. (There may, however, be lower offers, and only people with at least a 50% scholarship want to tell people about it!). The highest I've heard of is full tuition and fees plus a stipend of $10,000 per year. As far as I can tell, stipends are fairly unusual, but full tuition awards are reasonably common. People don't talk much about money, but that's my general sense of things...

As for GPA--just looking at straight averages, yours are probably below, but I wouldn't be unduly worried about it. There are plenty of us here with uneven undergraduate records, and it's much easier to get in when there are some D's or F's mixed in with your A's than it would be if you had straight B's.

As far as how Yale compares on financial aid, in my case I didn't get *nearly* as much funding from them as from Harvard, but I know other people who have gotten very generous offers from Yale, so it just seems to vary, I guess.

Thank you. This was very helpful. I guess now it's just a matter of wait & see!

[abschleigh]

Anyone here know anything about applying to these divinity schools?

I'm applying to the Masters of Arts in Religion (MAR) program at Yale and the Masters of Theological Studies (MTS) program at Harvard.

I am an '08 ugrad -- so I have little work experience.

3.41 ugrad GPA @ Stanford (English, math majors with an interesting transcript -- I either failed my classes or aced them)

1570 GRE (800M/770V, 4.5 Writing) -- Praise Jesus (except for the writing score part)

Good prof recs and hopefully good essays (as it is my dream to attend divinity school)

"Ethnic" -- I have also lived in many different countries

Only $10,000 in the bank -- will need lots of need-based financial aid

I graduated from a good ugrad college and have pretty good GRE scores, but my ugrad GPA and transcript are quite iffy. Anyone know about average ugrad GPAs for Harvard and Yale divinity schools? I'd expect them to be a bit lower than the business & law schools, surely?

But my biggest concern is the financial aid. I will require a lot of it. The Harvard MTS website says that aid will be offered on the basis on need AND merit -- which could mean anything. Anyone know anything specific about Harvard Divinity's tendency to offer aid to MTS students?

Same question applies for the MAR program at Yale, I suppose. If I don't get the money I can't go. :-(

I would also be grateful if anyone can shed light on admit %s for these divinity schools. I know my GRE scores are stellar but I haven't got a clue about anything else.

Thanks in advance.

I'm a current MAR student at YDS, and I would say that YDS is usually fairly generous with financial aid. I would say around 80% in most cases. They offer ten full rides with stipends with each entering class (they accept around 150 students).

I think the community service aspects of your application will be pretty important, from what I've heard that is a pretty universal quality of a YDS applicant.

And I'm not sure on the grades situation, there is little talk here regarding undergraduate GPAs.

Hope this was helpful!