Admission Statistics for Divinity School/Theological Seminaries

[Esenabla]

Hello,

I'm looking for the acceptance rates of the graduate programs listed below. If anyone knows the size of any of the student bodies, that would also be nice to know. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Princeton Theological Seminary (MA)

Union Theological Seminary (MA)

Harvard Divinity School (MA)

Yale Divinity School (MA)

Rice University (MA in the Study of Religion)

NYU (Religious Studies MA)

 

 

[fuzzylogician]

Can't help you with numbers, but I would assume many, if not all, of these programs have a People page listing their graduate students, so you could do your own detective work to figure out student body sizes. 

[cr615]

15 hours ago, Esenabla said:

Hello,

I'm looking for the acceptance rates of the graduate programs listed below. If anyone knows the size of any of the student bodies, that would also be nice to know. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Princeton Theological Seminary (MA)

Union Theological Seminary (MA)

Harvard Divinity School (MA)

Yale Divinity School (MA)

Rice University (MA in the Study of Religion)

NYU (Religious Studies MA)

 

 

I don't know factual percentages. I've read approximately 70% admissions rate for Harvard Divinity and around 51% for Chicago Divinity (I realize that it's not on your list, but its the only other percentage that I've seen).  I would anticipate that all of the other schools are between the 50-70% admissions rate.

 

These high admissions rate might be surprising especially when we consider that these are elite universities and seminaries. You also have to consider the following factors:

-Programs are selecting from an already highly self-selective pool of applicants. If you are paying the application fee for Harvard and taking the time to complete the application process  chances are that you were a strong undergrad student and know that you have at least a chance. While undergrad admissions are much more competitive at a place like Harvard, think of how many high school students send in applications to Harvard just because its Harvard but they actually have no chance. 

-People are not flooding into religious vocations

-The threshold for admissions for masters program are different than they are for elite undergrad programs or med school, law school, or PhD programs at any institution. The threshold isn't 'who are the absolute' best students', but rather it is 'can this person do the work'.

 

 

[AGingeryGinger]

I looked into divinity schools but couldn't justify going and not having any form of financial stipend. The only mdiv i know that offers a form of stipend is wake forest, emory, and harvard, and those schools offer roughly $5,000-7,000/year. 

If you are going to work with a church, then its fine they might be able to support you, but its rather hard to justify the cost of a divinity school when a combined ma/phd or an ma in a related field might offer actual funding.

Best of luck!

[GeekOfManyShades]

On 1/6/2018 at 5:50 PM, AGingeryGinger said:

I looked into divinity schools but couldn't justify going and not having any form of financial stipend. The only mdiv i know that offers a form of stipend is wake forest, emory, and harvard, and those schools offer roughly $5,000-7,000/year.

Sorry I’m a bit late to this conversation, but Princeton Theological Seminary offers a stipend at the MDiv and MA level that covers 80-90% of the tuition depending on the year. You still have to pay your room and board, but their tuition is only $15,000/year to begin with.

Source: I am a graduate of PTS.

Edit: just realized you probably meant a stipend on top of tuition coverage, which PTS only offers to select students. Source: didn’t read closely enough the first time. Haha.

Edited February 17, 2018 by GeekOfManyShades
Didn’t read closely enough

[GeekOfManyShades]

On 1/4/2018 at 8:20 PM, Esenabla said:

If anyone knows the size of any of the student bodies, that would also be nice to know. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Princeton Theological Seminary (MA)

Can’t help with the acceptance rates, but the PTS student body is about 500-600.

[Averroes MD]

On 1/5/2018 at 11:45 AM, cr615 said:

I don't know factual percentages. I've read approximately 70% admissions rate for Harvard Divinity and around 51% for Chicago Divinity (I realize that it's not on your list, but its the only other percentage that I've seen).  I would anticipate that all of the other schools are between the 50-70% admissions rate.

 

These high admissions rate might be surprising especially when we consider that these are elite universities and seminaries. You also have to consider the following factors:

-Programs are selecting from an already highly self-selective pool of applicants. If you are paying the application fee for Harvard and taking the time to complete the application process  chances are that you were a strong undergrad student and know that you have at least a chance. While undergrad admissions are much more competitive at a place like Harvard, think of how many high school students send in applications to Harvard just because its Harvard but they actually have no chance. 

-People are not flooding into religious vocations

-The threshold for admissions for masters program are different than they are for elite undergrad programs or med school, law school, or PhD programs at any institution. The threshold isn't 'who are the absolute' best students', but rather it is 'can this person do the work'.

 

 

I recall that HDS was in the 30-40% range...but, it is a bit nebulous. 

EDIT: Quora's brain seems to think the number is between 18-50%. So basically, somewhere between 1 and 100%. 

On a serious note, I think 70% seems too high. 

[Rabbit Run]

10 hours ago, GeekOfManyShades said:

Can’t help with the acceptance rates, but the PTS student body is about 500-600.

PTS's acceptance rate is between 40% and 50%. They're shrinking the student body some, so that might affect things. Between 30% and 50% is pretty standard for Masters programs at most big name divinity schools and seminaries.