Admissions and Aid: Application Requirements

Your writing sample should demonstrate your strengths in writing, research, and critical analysis—skills that will be directly applicable to academic work at HDS. You can choose to submit: 

• An excerpt of an academic paper in any subject area within...

Your letters of recommendation should address the ways in which your professional experience supports your goals for graduate theological study. Many of our students have been out of school and working for a number of years. In cases where applicants have...

Letters of recommendation are some of the best sources of information our office receives about you, as they allow us to hear how your mentors, supervisors, and professors view you and your abilities.  

Letters should address your intellectual abilities...

You can access the project proposal form and instructions within the HDS online application for admission. 

Within the program, master of religion and public life (MRPL) students will complete a final project that engages the topic of religion within their...

The Statement of Purpose is an integral part of the application and is evaluated with great care by the Admissions Committee. It should include your general background (education, work experience, volunteer work, and/or relevant personal experience) and...

We do not have a minimum GPA (grade point average). The admissions committee reviews each application holistically and each component of the application is carefully reviewed with the knowledge that successful HDS students possess strengths in different...

Please upload your most recent transcript via the online application.

Should you be admitted and choose to enroll at HDS, you will be required to provide final, official transcripts from all degree-granting institutions you attended.

Applicants are required to upload unofficial transcripts from each postsecondary institution that they have attended in the academic history section of the application. All transcripts should show courses completed, grades received, duration of study...

We strongly discourage you from submitting extraneous materials beyond our requirements, as they will not be included in your application nor reviewed by the Admissions Committee.

Once your application has been submitted, you will be able log back into the online application status page and track our office’s receipt of your supporting documents and recommendations. Due to the high volume of applications we receive each year...