Hey Y’all, I’m presently a Sophomore undergrad at a top-50 small liberal arts college in the Midwest. I’m trying to craft a strong application to obtain an M.T.S. at Harvard Divinity straight out of Undergrad and, since I’m still a Sophomore, I have a great deal of ability to shape my application in ways that a Senior or even a Junior might not be able to and to greatly impact my chances of admission. My first-year grades were, um, mediocre, at best (that’s being kind to myself), so I think that building a narrative of strong personal and academic growth is the best story I can tell. This semester’s grades are shaping up to be MUCH better but, I guess, I need help with figuring out what else I can be doing now to prepare and improve my chances at admission. There are fairly comprehensive graduate advising services available here but no one really knows very much about Divinity School options and I often feel like the advice I receive from the Religious Studies Department, where I’m a major, is jaded with wanting to keep me as a major (cough, cough - I never imagined I’d be studying Religion when I started college but, hey, life takes some pretty wacky twists and turns). Can any of you offer some advice on what else would lead me to be a strong applicant, other than grades or test scores? Thanks, so, so much for reading this post and for your help. I’m more than happy to answer follow-up questions or message privately.
P.S. - I am “ethnic” and fit into several desirable diversity categories for admissions purposes.
Grades, test scores, recommendations, and prerequisites (if any). I don’t understand your comment about the Religious Studies Dept at your current school. Are you implying that they are trying to keep you for Grad School? That would be out of character for most departments/professors. Normally they are telling you to go somewhere else for grad school.
No, my institution is undergraduate-only. What I meant to say was that many Div Schools seem to be looking for non-religion majors and that I fear the advice I receive is jaded in wanting to keep me from switching to a different major at my Undergraduate institution. What range of GRE scores would be an ideal range for an Ivy Divinity School?
Divinity probably isn’t as competitive as some Ivy professional schools, but I am sure you need high GREs for Harvard, preferably with high grades from a top school.
You are aware that Harvard Divinity is Unitarian? You may not need to have exactly the religion. For example ML King was a Baptist minister, but went to Boston University, which is Methodist. However, if you are Baptist or something like that, I wouldn’t recommend Harvard Divinity, which takes a liberal non fundamentalist approach to religion.
Here is some more information. A friend of mine heard a lecture by a HDS professor, and couldn’t understand any of it. As I implied, if you are strongly religious with traditional points of view.
Yale DS is Congregationalist (Puritan), Princeton DS is Presbyterian, and Columbia DS is nondenominational.Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, and Boston University are all good schools with Methodist Divinity schools.These things aren’t as important as they once were, but I would be aware of the religious affiliation when applying to DS.
My understanding is/was that HDS has, historically, had ties to the Congregationalist (UCC) tradition, too. Am I wrong here? Seriously would love to know if I am, I’d hate to go into the admissions process without having that straightened out.
Personally, I’m Episcopalian but have attended services and worshipped with a variety of Christian denominations at various points in my life. I don’t plan on pursuing a career in ministry after graduate school and, instead, plan to pursue a law degree after earning a master’s degree. If we were having this conversation in-person, I’d tell you that I’d likely make a terrible pastor so I’m trying to steer clear of ministry. For those reasons, I don’t see denominational affiliation as being nearly as much of a concern for me as it might be for others. HDS’ present-day approach appears to be largely secular in nature. That fact is largely what has drawn me to have interest in Harvard and, to some extent, UChicago.
I’d love to hear anything else you might have to say, more advice certainly can’t hurt me.