Another Grad School Update

Lots has happened since my last blog post, so it’s time for another update. At this point, we have heard back from eight schools, five of which have offered us admission.

1) The five acceptances are: Fordham, Villanova, Catholic University of America, St. Louis, and Calvin Theological Seminary. The first three of those are philosophy programs, and the last two are theology programs.

2) The three rejections are: Princeton, Yale, and Chicago Div School

3) We are still waiting to hear from: Marquette and University of Toronto

I won’t lie - swallowing the fact that my rejections have come from world-class, top tier institutions leaves an unsavory aftertaste. It only makes it worse that I’ve personally known people who have been admitted to each place, people who do not seem that much different than me. At the same time, even though I hate to dismiss failure by appealing to gender or race, it would be naive not to think that being a male WASP may have hurt me. It’s well known that being from a marginalized population gives you an edge with Ivy League admission boards. Perhaps that is even more true in recent years - not long ago Rachel told me she read that the number of female Ivy League presidents is the highest it’s ever been. In light of that, it would be a mistake to take the rejections personally. And besides, I’ve been admitted to five places, each of which had over 100 applications for less than ten spots; I should think that shows that whatever problems I may have, they are not academic. Also, there were only a few people at each institution who fit well with my interests, and that can be a recipe for disaster - what if they retire, move on, or pass away? And when there are only one or two faculty who share your interests there are usually fewer conversation partners.

But enough about the rejections - the truth is that whatever disappointment they might have brought is outweighed by how thrilled we are with the options in hand. Among them, we have funding offers from Fordham, Villanova, and Catholic University. Calvin and St. Louis say that they are considering us for funding, but we have not been offered anything as of yet.

So which to choose?

In my judgment Catholic University and Fordham are on par, both in terms of their scholarly caliber and their ability to support my research interests. Fordham’s funding offer, however, is several thousand dollars higher, so at this point we feel like it would be hard to justify accepting Catholic University.

Villanova’s offer is larger than Catholic University’s but still several thousand dollars less than Fordham. Since the cost of living in New York is dramatically higher, however, the two offers work out to be about equal. And attending Villanova would have all kinds of ancillary benefits - we already have friends in Philly, we love the city and know our way around, we have a church, we would not have to move or find new jobs (or at least we would not be under pressure to do so by the end of the summer), there is easy train access to campus from where we live now, etc. Most significant of all, though, is that I was awarded a special fellowship that allows me to take theology courses on the side with a view toward doing an interdisciplinary dissertation, which is exactly the sort of thing I’ve wanted to do all along.

Even after thinking through all those advantages, however, the question remained whether Villanova would be an equally good fit for my interests (for those who don’t know, I want to study the connection between late medieval philosophy and the early modern period). It was clear that my interests would fit in well at Fordham, but some friends told us that the same might not be true of Villanova. This past Friday I went out to the campus to try to get an answer to that question.

I have to say, this was the most welcoming department I’ve ever visited - the level of kindness and professional interest I was shown was incredible. Five professors took the time to talk with me, I was treated to coffee and lunch, and I’ve had some very lengthy email exchanges with one of the professors since then. At this point I have no doubt that I would find the sort of mentoring and support I will need, and that in itself almost makes up my mind (my reception at Fordham was far less warm).

As to the question of research interests, they do not have people who work on Scotus and Ockham in the same concetrated way as those as at Catholic University or Fordham. However, they have three people who are competent in that time period (two in the theology department and one in the philosophy department) and I am told that they could supervise independent studies in that area if there were a need for it. Also, their resources on Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Continental philosophy are stellar, and there are several people who are interested in problems of cognition and religious knowledge, which would relate to my interests in epistemology.

Long story short - whatever differences there may be between Villanova and Fordham, it seems like they are marginal, whereas the economics of Philly versus New York and the vibes I got when I visited each department are miles apart. At this point, then, we feel like Villanova would be the best fit for us. That is not set in stone and has yet to be communicated to any departments, but that is the direction of our thinking.

Of course, so far I have only been talking about myself (how insensitive of me) - there are decided advantages for Rachel as well. She feels that there are several different ways she could begin moving toward a counseling licensure from where we are now. For one thing, Presbyterian Children’s Village has a campus in the same neighborhood as Villanova, and she may be able to transfer there and cut down on her current commute. Also, there may be the possibility to move toward licensure while working for them, and knowing that we would be situated in Pennsylvania for 5 years or so would give her the freedom to take advantage of that opportunity. Plus there are lots of good connections and friends in her field through church and Westminster. Not to mention that she feels more comfortable about making a home here than in New York!

The last thing I should say is that the Villanova option seems to have brought together and resolved several important concerns. There was our hesitation to leave the great community that we have developed here as well as the difficulty of affording the expense of moving, but there was also the important question about which kind of program to choose - I’ve gone in circles trying to decide between philosophy or theology. The Lord has provided a chance for me to study both within a philosophy department that is suited to my interests, and all without having to move to a new city. That is more than I had hoped or prayed for.

Then again, I seem to remember some famous theologian who said that the Lord is in the habit of giving us such things.