=== Your question is: For entry into a DMin is an MDiv a prerequisite? Usually. Some RA schools may allow an applicant to enter with a lower masters. Were you to look at the Western Seminary website , eg, you'd see that with a two year accredited masters one may enter on certain conditions the DMin. More coursework would be required. Most do not realize the education many in the ministry have. Our pastor and youth pastor both have accredited MDivs which took seven years of college and seminary to finish. Now they wish to enter the DMin at George Fox. That's another three years. Ten years of schooling and they make less than a beginning school teacher I'd bet! Of course if one went unaccredited, exceptions re entry reqs widen considerably and things oft get done more quickly.
Fuller offers a DMin program specifically designed for people with only a two year masters in theology/ministry. Of course, you end up doing extra work to make the equivalency. The nice thing about it, though, is that it is designed so that you can do it in the same field-based delivery system employed by the DMin. Most other seminaries which offer a DMin will accept you into the program if you have equivalency to an MDiv -- even though you don't actually have the degree. Northwest Graduate School, which has TRACS but not RA or ATS, has a "special student" option in their DMin. They are well respected.
The normal route is an MDiv. There are (as has been pointed out above) excpetions. Some schools will allow you to do extra course work if you have only a 2 year Masters degree. As mentioned above..NW Graduate School. I can also think of Luther Rice Seminary (very affordable), and for those interested in Family Therapy, Southern Christian University has 2 DMin programs. One program assumes and MDiv and the other does not. SCU is RA. I kind of like the DMin as a practical doctorate for those focussing in ministry related fields but from a practical sense. For example a DMin if Christian Education for those in that field. DMin in Christian Counseling for Therapists, etc. Maybe this will be developed more in the years to come. Except the trend seems to be for more DL PhD type programs. Frankly, many clergy I have known are not impressed by DMin's. One laughed when I asked if he would pursue one and he said 'no'...a PhD....yes. It was a perceived prestige difference. On the other hand I have noticed a trend for clergy of bigger churches (or those than aspire to one) in mainline denominations to need and to get one for career purposes. Good luck! North
