This led me to think about which evangelical schools in the US have the best programs now. Before discussing criteria, which schools actually fit in this category? DTS, Fuller, Southeastern, Southern, TEDS, Wheaton, and WTS. What did I forget?

First, based on my own subjective perception of faculty, I would probably put Fuller Seminary at the top of the list, followed by Wheaton. Fuller’s Pasadena campus has a number of well-known scholars including Joel B. Green, Donald A. Hagner, Seyoon Kim, and Marianne Meye Thompson to name a few. Wheaton’s graduate school has Greg Beale (for now), Douglas Moo, and Nicholas Perrin. It will be interesting to see how the line-up changes when they announce Beale’s replacement.

Second, I looked at each of these schools in terms of finances; I think Wheaton comes out on top here. By looking at the websites for these schools, it seems that most of them offer scholarships, which are not always guaranteed since they are granted on competitive bases. Plus, scholarships probably don’t cover all of one’s tuition or contribute to living expenses, which is very important to take into consideration. How much debt will one have after graduating? Is it too much to pay back? Wheaton, however, gives full funding to all its admitted students. According to Wheaton’s site: “A full tuition scholarship, as well as a research fellowship, for each of the six students accepted per year will enable each student to devote himself or herself to advanced learning as a fully involved member of the academic community.” I think this is really what separates Wheaton from the others. Of course, since they fund their students, they can only bring in six, which makes it even more competitive.

A third consideration is location, but personal preference will vary widely. If one can afford it, I’d definitely suggest Fuller because Pasadena is such a nice town (with the world’s best bookstore, Archives). Yet, some might prefer to be in Kentucky, Texas, Illinois, Philly, or understandably in North Carolina.

One of the most important issues about doing a PhD at a seminary is their placement record. Does the school have a good placement record? What types of schools do the students teach at? Unfortunately, I don’t know the placement records of any of these schools.

Keep in mind that the criteria for choosing a school for doctoral work is different than that for master’s work. Based on these criteria and my subjective and brief look at these schools, I would probably suggest both Fuller and Wheaton as the best evangelical schools for doctoral work in New Testament. Of course, prospective applicants will find other determining factors for their situation, which may make another school look better. Nevertheless Fuller and Wheaton both have strong faculty members, although Fuller appears to have more depth in this area. Wheaton has the best funding and for that reason, Wheaton gets my overall top choice. The program is young, less than ten years old, yet I think they have done a very good job at mixing the right ingredients.

I also really like Wheaton’s website, which gives prospective students the averages of GREs and GPAs for their accepted students. I think everyone will be waiting to find out who Beale’s replacement will be.

So those are my thoughts. I’m interested to hear what others think about this and what they would change about the criteria or how I viewed the programs. I’m open to discussion–this was just some quickly put-together thoughts.

NB: Though I tried to limit this discussion to evangelical schools. Some schools might have evangelical scholars but are not necessarily evangelical institutions.