|
Hey TL!
A while back I posted about grad schools, how to start looking, where to look, etc. and I'm really happy with Teamliquid's assistance.
I've come to another point though where I need to start looking more seriously at Grad programs and deciding where I'm going to end up (I'm a junior about to enter my Spring semester).
Note: I'm a theology and biblical studies major and want to go to grad school for theological studies.
I have a few questions maybe some of you could help with:
*How does financial aid for Grad programs work? Is there any similarity at all to undergrad aid?
*If I'm narrowed down to three schools (Fuller Theological Seminary, Wheaton College, and Duke University) how do I go about further exploring these schools? I've read the work of some of the professors, but you can only do so much of that and browsing websites before you've exhausted publically available material.
Does anyone have any tips or good advice for a fellow TL member?
Thanks in advance <3
|
What do you want to do with those degrees, what will you want to do worth your grad work? Use that information and rank the grad programs in the order of which will accomplish your goals.
|
On December 30 2011 11:23 Risen wrote:
What do you want to do with those degrees, what will you want to do worth your grad work? Use that information and rank the grad programs in the order of which will accomplish your goals.
I wanna do research. College professor has always sounded interesting to me, but if there are other ways to do research without having to teach, I'd be interested in that as well.
|
DUKE!!!
I'm class of 2009, couldn't recommend the school more highly.
|
On December 30 2011 11:45 imjorman wrote:Show nested quote +On December 30 2011 11:23 Risen wrote:
What do you want to do with those degrees, what will you want to do worth your grad work? Use that information and rank the grad programs in the order of which will accomplish your goals. I wanna do research. College professor has always sounded interesting to me, but if there are other ways to do research without having to teach, I'd be interested in that as well.
What do you want to research?
|
As far as financial aid goes, what you should be looking for is a "free-ride". That is, the tuition is free, and the school pays you around 1.5k-2.5k per month for your cost of living.
I am not sure about theology, but most non-science grad schools have very little financial aid.
|
On December 30 2011 12:02 Risen wrote:Show nested quote +On December 30 2011 11:45 imjorman wrote:On December 30 2011 11:23 Risen wrote:
What do you want to do with those degrees, what will you want to do worth your grad work? Use that information and rank the grad programs in the order of which will accomplish your goals. I wanna do research. College professor has always sounded interesting to me, but if there are other ways to do research without having to teach, I'd be interested in that as well. What do you want to research?
I have an interest in theology surrounding the development of churches. It seems as if American churches/Christianity have gone way off base from what the Christ (and the rest of the Bible) meant. Other than that, I really like translating from the Greek. So maybe study of the early Church fathers.
|
On December 30 2011 13:19 Sufficiency wrote:
As far as financial aid goes, what you should be looking for is a "free-ride". That is, the tuition is free, and the school pays you around 1.5k-2.5k per month for your cost of living.
I am not sure about theology, but most non-science grad schools have very little financial aid.
Yeah I'm learning about this as I go. Is a job even remotely viable while in grad school full-time or would it just be to much? (Keep in mind I'll be married by then as well).
|
In my opinion, three schools is too little. In most fields you apply to around 10 programs because there is a bit of randomness in admissions and unless you are a pure genius it is far from certain that you will get in. So three program is bare minimum. You will decide which offer to take once you have it.
Regarding professors, I am surprised you don't have access to their work. Usually, all the articles written by academics are available at their websites unless these are books. But then why don't you check them out from the library.
Regarding financial aid, often you can earn extra money by working as a TA.
Finally, I would also try to get information about the jobs that people got after graduation. Some universities have great placement while others, even thoug
|
For your specific field, you may actually want to track down some clergy who know the programs. This is especially true for Fuller, which also has full Lutheran and Presbyterian (?) ordination programs; I know much less about the Wheaton and Duke programs. It's true that religious studies with the goal of ordination is quite different from theological studies with a goal of research -- but pastor's and such are pretty much in the business of generously giving advice to anyone who asks, are very approachable, and at worst will just tell you that they can't help you much.
|
On December 30 2011 14:17 imjorman wrote:Show nested quote +On December 30 2011 13:19 Sufficiency wrote:
As far as financial aid goes, what you should be looking for is a "free-ride". That is, the tuition is free, and the school pays you around 1.5k-2.5k per month for your cost of living.
I am not sure about theology, but most non-science grad schools have very little financial aid.
Yeah I'm learning about this as I go. Is a job even remotely viable while in grad school full-time or would it just be to much? (Keep in mind I'll be married by then as well).
I don't understand why you want another job when the school covers your cost of living. In fact, it is highly discouraged that you do that.
Also, you are probably applying to too few schools. I am not 100% familiar with your field, but I think most people will tell you to apply to at least 6-10 different schools. The selection process for graduate school is highly random - this is because graduate schools do not take a lot of applicants each year so applications are often judged on an individual basis without any systematic criteria - sometimes even a very strong applicant will be turned down for a variety of different reasons.
On December 30 2011 14:16 imjorman wrote:Show nested quote +On December 30 2011 12:02 Risen wrote:On December 30 2011 11:45 imjorman wrote:On December 30 2011 11:23 Risen wrote:
What do you want to do with those degrees, what will you want to do worth your grad work? Use that information and rank the grad programs in the order of which will accomplish your goals. I wanna do research. College professor has always sounded interesting to me, but if there are other ways to do research without having to teach, I'd be interested in that as well. What do you want to research? I have an interest in theology surrounding the development of churches. It seems as if American churches/Christianity have gone way off base from what the Christ (and the rest of the Bible) meant. Other than that, I really like translating from the Greek. So maybe study of the early Church fathers.
This sounds kind of like history as well. You may be able to look into that.
|
By grad school, do you mean you want to pursue your MA or PhD? If you do your MA, it'll be probably 2-3 years and you'll most likely have to cover your own expenses. Most schools offer free tuition plus stipend for MAs to work as either teacher assistants (TAs) or research assistants (RAs). Prior to starting my PhD, I worked as a TA for 3 semesters and the job is incredibly easy. Unfortunately, it involves a lot of bitch and mindnumbing work. For a PhD program, if you get accepted, they will cover everything (tuition, fees, plus stipend).
There are numerous ways to be able to do research without having to teach (which is what I'm interested in). From what I've found, these positions are usually for established academics who have proven themselves but considering your focus, it may not be applicable to you.
|
On December 31 2011 00:56 Dknight wrote:
By grad school, do you mean you want to pursue your MA or PhD? If you do your MA, it'll be probably 2-3 years and you'll most likely have to cover your own expenses. Most schools offer free tuition plus stipend for MAs to work as either teacher assistants (TAs) or research assistants (RAs). Prior to starting my PhD, I worked as a TA for 3 semesters and the job is incredibly easy. Unfortunately, it involves a lot of bitch and mindnumbing work. For a PhD program, if you get accepted, they will cover everything (tuition, fees, plus stipend).
There are numerous ways to be able to do research without having to teach (which is what I'm interested in). From what I've found, these positions are usually for established academics who have proven themselves but considering your focus, it may not be applicable to you.
I want to ultimately pursue my PhD, but any program I've looked at says you need an MA first. So I want to go down that road. Unfortunately for me, a lot of the schools people in my field go to are called seminaries and they only focus on the MA/PhD level so there are to undergrads to TA for.
If I went to a normal university like Duke, however, the opportunities would be there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
