By Travis Langdon
Old Gold and Black Reporter
With its board of visitors and three new faculty members recently announced, the divinity school is currently preparing for its opening in the spring of 1999 by finalizing the application and admissions process while renovations to Wingate Hall are completed. When the school opens, it is expected that around 35 to 40 students will be enrolled under the Masters of Divinity program.
The primary objective of the divinity school will be to prepare students for work in the clergy, specifically in the form of Christian ministry. The program will also qualify students for chaplain positions in hospitals and the military. However, it is expected that some of the students in the program will attempt to receive their doctorate after completing the divinity program for work in theological education.
Bill Leonard, the dean of the divinity school, expects applications to be sent out around the beginning of June so that they can be returned well in advance. The school hopes to know much of its incoming class by next March, although it anticipates that a small number of admissions for the spring of 1999 will be made after that.
As the school's opening approaches, the administration is growing increasingly enthusiastic about the interest that perspective students have displayed for the program as well as the opportunity to come in contact with new people through the application process.
"There are some people who have been waiting on this school for several years. These are largely people in the region who already have jobs, who have been waiting for this particular school at this particular time. We have a second group that, as we have become more public about our plans, has contacted us. And the third group is made up of people that we have recruited. We've been doing that for the last year or two," Leonard said.
This recruiting process has entailed visiting potential students in undergraduate institutions as well as congregational organizations. Leonard said that recruiting has taken place particularly, but not exclusively, in institutions with a Baptist tradition. However, Leonard's lectures at different college campuses and the conversations that he and other recruiting officers have had with people about the divinity school have made a diverse cross-section of interested students possible.
Based on the number of inquiries already received, the application pool is expected to be fairly large by the time applications are made available.
"We have not yet officially advertised the divinity school; we will begin doing that around May 15. We have a nice poster and a viewbook in development that will go out to most undergraduate colleges, some churches, campus ministers, chaplain offices, religion departments and places where students who might be interested in theological education would be. The amount of inquiries that we've already received based only on word-of-mouth inquiries is remarkable," Scott Hudgins, the director of student recruitment for the divinity school, said.
Once the applications are distributed, the divinity school will select students on a rolling basis. However, the selection committee will not begin to review applications until after December 1. The application does not have an official due date, but students are encouraged to submit as early as possible, due to the nature of the selection process for both admission and financial aid.
Because the curriculum offered at the divinity school will be challenging and rigorous, the criteria for admission will be somewhat strict. Applicants are expected to take the Graduate Record Exam, have a specified GPA in undergraduate study and submit three letters of recommendation. In addition, a more subjective analysis of applicants will also be made.
Hudgins said the admissions committee will use four general selection standards. First the applicant needs to have a strong academic record that demonstrates potential for graduate level work.
Applicants also need to demonstrate through commitments, experiences and references promise for ministry.
The third standard is a commitment to Christian vocation, which should be shown through an essay. "Christian vocation is a very broad term, and we want to keep it broad because we want a diversity of students," Hudgins said.
Finally, the student should not only benefit from but also contribute to theological education at the university. "We are in many ways different from other divinity schools, and we want students who can take advantage of the full offerings of the university," Hudgins said. |