Choosing a seminary

I could not agree more!!!

 

Pilgrim-

Just curious. Did you do your undergrad at Liberty? If so, are you saying that they applied 15 of your hours from the B.S. in Religion Degree toward one of the Seminary MA degrees? I had someone ask about Liberty's policy in this regard; your answer would be a very timely help. God bless.

 

Liberty gives up to so many hours depending on the seminary degree you pursue if you have a religious/Bible education. My B.S. is in Bible Ministry, but from another institution and I had 30 hours applied to my M.Div.

 

FYI...Liberty just changed their policy on this. They no longer grant advanced standing. That's what they told me when I asked about three weeks ago.

 

Stefan wrote:

But that assumes the folks try to repay the loans and susequently qualify for ICR. If you don't, you default. So I see the point. I don't agree, but I see it.

Most of the folks I went to seminary with ended up in very similar situations to what they left. Again, that's situational. It is worthy of investigation.

I'd like to see two options:
1. M.Div if you have a BA/BS in Religion that's 60 hrs, let's say. It's an additional 30 hours of leveling courses (similar to what MBA students have to do without a BS in Business) for those without such.
2. The M.Div is for non-religion undergrads, while the ThM should be for BA/BS Religion students. ThM would be 60-75 hrs, and could be a thesis or non-thesis option. I don't know how tenable this is as the M.Div is the gold standard.

PilgrimPastor:

But is it wise stewardship of time and money to pay for all that refresher? I took undergrad courses in business and have 30 hrs towards the MBA. The grad level courses in business go deeper than just refresher or reinforcement. My seminary experience, while worth it, was very repetitive. I would've been better served by taking, say an advanced NT and a NT elective than to take NT 1 and NT 2 all over again.

Havensdad"

Dallas Seminary believes they lean in that direction. I sort of like their program. If only it were offered at SBTS :laugh:

 

Wow, you are right! I am glad I finished my degree already. The military did not like the Chaplains getting "short cut" degrees. So Liberty did away with it. I do not like this decision. My M.Div was not shorted anything. I did not have to take some classes that would have been redundant, but I guess they have to comply.

 

IBR is different than ICR. IBR is a much more flexible program, and you can start on it from day one of repayment by submitting the paperwork during the 6 month grace period.

That would work. The ThM is a higher degree than the M.Div, though, and I don't think it hurts the DTS graduates.

 

To be fair, you can still use ICE exams to do the same things for many classes.

 

I did the B.S. Religion and they applied at least 15 credit hours of Bible / Theology courses as advanced standing. I'm pretty sure it was 15 from the B.S. into the M.A.R. (Church Ministry) It may have been more from undergraduate to graduate but I'm pretty sure it was 15 and positive that it was 15 from M.A. to M.Div.

Then they did the same into the M.Div. So all together, it just sort of knocked my M.Div. from 90 to 75 hours. Given that almost all of my undergraduate was in Bible / Ministry / Theology / Philosophy / Leadership / etc. I think it was more than adequate training.

Now, I don't think that they are as free with the advanced standing from other institutions, but they may give some. They used to be a lot more free with credits than they are now. But from LU to LBTS they are (or at least were) really good about advanced standing.