From: Edgar M. Krentz (emkrentz@mcs.com)
Date: Wed Jul 03 1996 - 11:14:24 EDT
To Eric Evers: you asked:
>Where should a student"be" when he or she is applying for PhD work? By
>the time I graduate, I will
>have three years of doing Greek work in NT classes under my belt (including
>tutoring work and leading translating groups for NT courses) and two years of
>using Hebrew academically (maybe with doing some tutoring by my senior year,
>if I'm up to it). I plan to take a "crash course" in German next summer, and
>to follow it up with more course work as that becomes possible. My Latin is
>quite, quite weak, my French could be passable it I worked at it for a while,
> But in all honesty, what will "top" doctoral programs expect of their
>>applicants? Other than taking as many Gk/ Hb exegesis courses as
>possible, >what are some key areas in which I should focus? I've been
>told not to worry >about my languages, because Luther has a reputation for
>turning out folks >well-prepared in that field, but that was from a Hebrew
>prof at Luther... so I >wasn't completely reassured. Any advice?
A couple of ideas. (1) I assume that you will have straight A or honors
grades in those NT courses. (2) What will be as important as anything will
be the letters of reference that NT professors write in support of your
application, especially if they are alumni of the school to which you
apply, e.g. David Tiede at Harvard.
(3) Most schools will not about your German, French, and Latin when you
apply. In America passing the language exams is part of the graduate
studies process. Since you aim to have them under control, that will be a
plus.
(4) Make certain there are no incompletes showing up on your transcript! An
incomplete, even if removed, is a sign of failure to meet obligations!
(5) Course work: See if you can do an independent study with some prof in
which you read literature from early Judaism, in Greek if possible: Ps.
Sol., Wisdom, 3 and 4 Maccabees. Or read some significant texts in
hellenistic Greek.
(6) On you own, read in translation the literature in Charelsworths OT
Pseudepigrapha. Also what you can of the history of the Mediterranean world
from 333 B.C to 200 A.D.
And try to have fun doing it. PAX TECUM.
Edgar Krentz, New Testament
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 EAST 55TH STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60615
Tel: 3112-256-0752; (H) 312-947-8105
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:45 EDT