December 2006 – Page 3

Update: please see my March 06, 2009 post Advice about Duke Th.D. and Ph.D programs in theology

Original December 2006 post:

I am applying to Ph.D. programs in Practical Theology for next fall. Most applications are due December 31st.

I'm applying at the following schools (in no particular order):

Duke Divinity School (Th.D. – Practice of Leading Religious Communities and Institutions, Ethics, New Testament)
Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D. Practical Theology – Christian Education)
Fuller Theological Seminary (Ph.D. School of Theology, Practical Theology – Missional Leadership)
Luther Theological Seminary (Ph.D. Congregational Mission and Leadership)
Emory University (Ph.D. Person, Community, and Religious Life)

Each program is excellent and I am excited about them for different reasons. In my area only 1-3 students is accepted per year at each school. Anything can happen in the admissions process. It is very competitive. In the broader pool, you are competing with all of the church history, systematic theology, ethics, New Testament, and Old Testament applicants. Some of them have never left the library and done a practical thing in their life and therefore look pretty darn good on paper. In this pool about 20 are accepted for 150 spots. That is about average for these schools. And even fewer get funding. Did I mention that it is competitive?

Everyone asks me what my top choice is. I would like to be accepted to all five programs and then have the happy problem of having to choose where do go based on what they offer me and a zillion other factors . . . but did I mention that they are competitive and that therefore this is unlikely?

These programs all weigh heavily your GRE score (which I take December 15), your foreign languages, your references, your grades, where you went to school, your personal statement, and your writing sample. See my comments on taking the GRE here.

Perhaps some of you didn't know that I don't have a Ph.D. I'm 31 years old and I have only have my MDiv. Amy and I are teaching at Taylor University in our second year of 1 year contracts. We were able to slip in without the typical Ph.D. because there was a one year position that needed to be filled. Surprisingly, another one year gap presented itself this year. We are enjoying teaching. Amy and I share 26 credits. (One full-time load is 24 credits). We teach different courses and share the parenting load. It is great.

I'm very excited about doing my Ph.D. in order to deepen and learn and prepare myself for further leading, teaching, writing and ministry. I look forward to continuing to serve the church by equipping pastors and young people in the seminary and university.

Amy and I also have a deep love for the local church. It would not be surprising if we ended up spending more time in leadership of a local church. Amy misses church leadership greatly. She would likely serve as an associate pastor part-time while I worked on my Ph.D and we would continue to coparent.

My interests in studying include:

Ecclesiology
How young adults in their 20's are integrated into church leadership structures
How emerging church values are affecting megachurches
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Pauline ecclesiology
New Testament ethics
Bridging theology and practice
Practical theology
The use of Scripture by church leaders to explain church strategies
How contemporary business models affect models of church

I would appreciate your prayers in the next month as I contact references, finish my sample paper, and take the GRE. (And grade papers, teach classes, get transcripts . . . You'll also hopefully understand if the blog gets neglected a little.

Grace and peace to you.

andy

Update:

Give me feedback on my Ph.D. sample paper here.

Other recommended links about the Ph.D. Application Process:

T Brookins on
Getting Accepted to the Ph.D: Preface
Saturday, March 29, 2008

Prof. John Stackhouse’s Weblog

Thinking about a Ph.D.?

Sean Michael Lucas, Chief Academic Officer and Associate Professor
of Church History at Covenant Theological Seminary, has written a post
about the phenomenon of seminarians getting sick of the church and
falling in love with their professors and becoming infatuated with
getting their Ph.D. He tries to set them straight:Ministerial Students, Calling, and PhD Studies

There is a sober and comprehensive description of the New Testament
Ph.D. process by Nijay Gupta, a Ph.D. student at Durham University: Interested in a NT PhD?

There are also a lot of links at Durham Ph.D. student Ben Blackwell's blog:

Durham Ph.D. student Kevin Bywater's Why a PhD?

The GRE is a standarized test like the SAT or ACT you took in high school. You take it on a computer. You can basically take it anytime you want as long as there are spots at the test center near you (universities, etc.). It is wise to sign up a month ahead of time to make sure you don't have a problem getting in.

You have to take it to get in to most Ph.D. programs in the United States. It is usually not required in the UK. You may also take it to get into competitive masters programs. (Seminaries don't require it for Master degrees or DMin programs). Of course, anyone may read this but I am specifically writing for those like me and my friends who went to seminary and then decided to apply to Ph.D. programs in Religion (like Systematic Theology, Old Testament, New Testament, Church History, Practical Theology and Philosophy). See my category Ph.D. for my full Ph.D. journey.

Here is my advice regarding studying for the GRE. You should read the official info about the test at the ETS website.

I took it last December and am taking it again December 15.

My friends who got into Ph.D. programs in Religion (at Harvard University, Baylor University and University of Chicago) had both Math and Verbal scores over 700. (Perfect is 800 and 800). They had writing scores of 5.5 (out of a perfect 6.0).

There are also a few other statistics about the GRE:

GRE (Duke University Graduate Program in Religion Ph.D.averages 729 Verbal and 739 Quantitative).
Duke Divinity School Th.D. FAQ #6: "There is no specific minimum score. Students admitted to the Th.D.
through our first four years had a mean GRE verbal score of 690 and a
mean GRE quantitative score of 655." See my post How to Study for the GRE.

This test is not all about intelligence. It is a lot about how much you study.

If you are not trying to get into some prestigious program, don't stress about this test.

If you are, do pay attention. If you do well, you get paid to do your graduate work. If you don't, you may not get in to that prestigious program that awards fellowships (grants, scholarships, $). You don't have to believe me. But ask other students, professors you are interested in studying with, Ph.D. studies offices, and see how your prospective school weighs your GRE score. Sadly, many weigh it highly. They also seriously take into account your grades, references, personal essay, personal visit, writing sample and foreign languages.

It is not unreasonable to start studying for the GRE 9 months in advance. But if you have two weeks, you will only have time to familiarize yourself with the test and take a couple practice tests. Definitely do that.

There are computer practice tests that you can take from ETS for free with your GRE registration. The Kaplan and Barron's books also provide them.

1. Vocabulary.

Get Barron's How to Prepare for the GRE.

From my experience, it is the best prep book. Kaplan's GRE Premier Program is good too and perhaps more accessible. But Barron's is more comprehensive.

Study the words for as many months as you can. Figure out a system of going through them.

Make flashcards of the ones you don't know. I don't think you can buy flashcards of the whole Barron's list right now. The Kaplan GRE Exam Vocabulary Flashcards Flip-o-matic is a Flipbook not flashcards and is not as helpful as real flashcards. There are many online free vocab games. There are also some you can download for free to do on your computer. But I like to walk around and study words and not be tied to my computer.

I used http://www.flashcardexchange.com/ It was ok. There is no way to rate how good the lists are which is a huge problem. At flashcardexchange, I recommend the 20 part Barron's list from 2004 that someone took the trouble to type in. You can use flashcardexchange for free if you just want to do online quizzing (but that is a waste because there are better sites). It costs $20 for a lifetime membership of printing and using the site to its fullest.

Believe it or not, I printed off the Barron's list. Lots of flashcards. I used 24 point font for words ("questions") and 18 point font for definitions ("answers"). It worked ok. It was a place to start and better than doing it myself. It took some serious paper and ink cartridges though.

The Barron's list has about 3,500 words. You will know 75% of them probably already. I did 90 words a day six days a week. I should have done 100 words a day 5 days a week and then reviewed on Saturdays. Take Sunday off.

Use Google News to search for the ways a word is used today in news. (I just searched news in the United States by picking that in Advanced New Search). This will help you remember it. I also searched at nytimes.com how words were used.

I also liked looking up words at dictionary.com. At dictionary.com, my favorite dictionary was WordNet and Word of the Day.

I wrote hints from this info on the back of cards I had printed out (by the definitions).

Whew. We'll see how I do. I have a lot of reviewing to do in the next two weeks.

You also need to learn to read fast. But this is tough to teach I think. I have been listening to Nature and Scientific American podcasts to help get me thinking like a scientist. (Some of the readings are from science journals that I never typically read).

You need to practice the specific kind of questions on the test.

2. Math

Get a tutor. I hired a sophomore secondary education Math major and met three times a week. I paid her $10 an hour.

Use the Barron's book.

Do lots of problems.

Use a pencil and blank paper in practice. No automatic pencils. Before last year's test day, I hadn't held a #2 pencil in five years.

Princeton Theological Seminary has told me they don't care about your math score. But all the other schools apologize that it matters to them but they still admit that it does.

You will have to learn to do questions quickly or skip them.

A lot of engineers take this test and get perfect 800.

3. Writing

Practice.

You can see all the possible topics. "View the entire pool of Issue topics and Argument topics ." But I didn't read through all of them. I didn't have time.

You can pay $10 to get your essays graded to see how you are doing. "ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice"

I was only able to get 5.0 on these ScoreItNow! tests in three tries but it was excellent practice.

I hope this has been helpful.

Update:

I did my GRE December 15th.

690 Verbal, 96% scored below
700 Quantitative, 70% scored below
5.5 on writing, 87% scored below

I knew every single vocabulary word which was great but many of the analogies were still difficult and I took too much time on them. What killed me was one particularly brutal reading comprehension section with like 5 questions on something scientific. Therefore, I barely improved after all of my efforts studying for the verbal. I was bummed to miss 700 by 1 notch but 96% below is still pretty good.

The quantitative is a bit humorous. I tried to work out as many questions as possible (about the first 20) and the last 8 I guessed in the last 30 seconds.

No regrets on the writing.

Postscript: March 2009

I did get into Duke Divinity School's Th.D. program and have written all about the Ph.D. / Th.D. application process at

Advice about Duke Th.D. and Ph.D programs in theology