First week in Seminary
I just wanted to put this on Reddit for future students who want to go to seminary.
I’m currently attending Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I’m getting my Master of Divinity in hopes of becoming a Navy Chaplain.
I’m working full-time as a case manager that helps kids get reunified with their families who are in foster care. Personally, this has made school more difficult, just because of the emotional toll case management takes on someone. I’m by no means complaining. I’m just expressing my experience so you have an expectation of what school is going to be like.
I’m 28 years old. I have no kids, just two dogs and a cat and a beautiful wife. My wife works about four nights a week as a barback in fine dining. This is kind of a pro and a con. I don’t get to see her as often, but this gives me more time to do school when she’s not around, that way I can give her my full attention when she is.
My experience so far: I’m taking Intro to Old Testament. From what I’ve understood, this is typically one of the first classes you will take and one of the easier classes you will take as well. I’m doing eight-week classes online. If you’re able to attend in person, I would highly encourage it. It just didn’t work out for my current situation, so going online isn’t a bad thing. I just didn’t need to go in person to fulfill my calling. But I would highly encourage you to go in person if you’re able to.
So far, every week will be almost exactly the same, at least for this class. And I’ll break it down for all my assignments I do in a single week.
I have three lectures I have to watch, with a quiz after every lecture. So, 3 and 3. This typically takes about an hour a day.
I have a discussion post a week where I just talk about the lectures. And you have to reply to another student as well. This can take anywhere from an hour to two hours.
You have to read three different books, and each week you have to read about two chapters per book. So you’re reading six chapters a week.
Now, for two of these books, you have to write 200-word reflections and answer a couple of questions about each book.
I’m kind of a slow reader, and I’m not the best writer. I wouldn’t say I’m a very scholarly person. I’m just an average guy who wasn’t very good at school, so this can take some of you maybe an hour, but for me, this takes 2 to 4 hours depending on my energy.
Anyway, I just wanted to express to you guys my experience and hopefully this will be helpful to future students.
So expect to spend two hours at the very least per day, Monday through Saturday.
Sunday should be your rest day, but it’s probably going to be a catch-up day. Someone told me per credit hour, expect to spend three hours. So this is a three-credit-hour class. So I would say that’s not too far off because I’m spending about nine-ish hours a week.
I don’t wanna discourage anyone, but I just want you to prepare yourself that it is going to be a great sacrifice. You will have to tell your friends and family that you can’t go to certain gatherings or hang out with certain friends, just because of the time commitment, so be prepared for that.
Also, everybody’s timeline is different, but my degree is 84 credit hours and I’m going to take six classes a year, and each one is eight weeks, so my degree is going to take me about 4 1/2 years. Really, I just wanted to make sure I was still a good husband and still had fun. I didn’t want to be always swamped with work, so this is almost full-time.
If you guys have any questions, please feel free to reach out! Again, I am a new student and this is just my first week in seminary. God bless you all and your future endeavors. Feel free to ask me any questions or maybe share your experience you had going to school.
Before you start seminary, I’ll recommend two different books that are about seminary. They’re both pretty short reads. And I recommend another book that I think most people in ministry should read.