Master's Divinity School and Graduate School

I am new here and was wondering if anyone knows anything about Master's Divinity School. www.mdivs.edu

They are not accredited but have state licensure and also partner with a fully accredited univeristy through the USDE in their undergraduate department.

Their credibility page on their site is interesting as they have partnered with the likes of The Olford Institute of Biblical Preaching and other ministries.

I need some feedback on whether this is a respected institute as I am seeking to complete a Masters degree in Christian Education.
Their coursework seems valid and their faculty and staff have some very prestigious degrees.

I would truly appreciate any feedback that you could give.

 

Bill Grover and Uncle Janko are the resident MDS scholars, so perhaps they can offer some insight regarding this Evansville entity.

 

They are generally considered to be a degree mill -- or close to it. Do a search on the school in the degreeinfo archives and you'll pick up on some of the background. Their DD "adepto ex factum" raises a few eye brows.

I'm not saying that they have nothing to offer but you can set your sights higher. There are lots of solid MACE or MRE degrees out there. Toward what end are you wanting to complete a degree in CE?

 

Thanks for your reply, Brad.

I am seeking to earn a quality, legitimate degree from a conservative evangelical institution. My undergrad was a degree in Theology, therefore I did not want to be repetitious by earning an MDiv.

However, I must be able to complete my degree through correspondance.

I've looked at Trinity, although after reviewing this site I see that they are less than admirable. I do not want to pursue anything with Liberty University as I attended there for one year in my undergrad and was very unimpressed with their program.

Any help would be well taken.

 

nonononononononousethebloodysearchfunctionnononono

 

Conservative is often in the eye of the beholder

1. Theology at the graduate level is not necessarily a repetition of what occurs at an undergrad level. I sit on a board which interviews and examines candidates for ministerial credentials. There is a notable difference between those who have training at the undergrad and those who have training at the MDiv levels. The level of engagement is different. So don't write off the MDiv too quickly.

2. I think Moody has a masters that can be completed through correspondence. But their website is down tonight so I can't double check. There are a lot of ATS accredited schools offering distance education. Some of them are conservative and some offer the whole degree through a combination of distance and abbreviated or dispersed residencies. A few of the ABHE schools offer a masters through distance. You'll have to walk through the list to see who is currently up and running with distance programs. The list changes.

There are some TRACS schools which have a high level of flexibility. I like the program at the Northwest Graduate School of Theology. Faith Seminary has a track record.

 

MDS

I'm from South Africa. I've read the other threads about MDS, and inspite of that I have decided to enroll with this school. I'm registered for the program 'Master of Biblical studies'. If I have to compare the deffinition of a degree mill with MDS, I cannot see how they are considered to be a degree mill. I have to work through 14 textbooks of +- 500 pages each and must do several assignments on this. Besides the course work I must also do a mini thesis.

I agree, this is not a UNISA degree, and MDS may do a few things wrong but I will not consider them as a degree mill. If you MUST have an accredited degree, then go for one, otherwise a school like MDS serves a purpose. And you can still say you've earned it.

Regards.

Danie.

 

Ag shame, Danie. You're paying through the nose for a useless degree from a silly school that has used sunday school booklets as course texts and is run surreptitiously by another ethically-challenged school. If you would use the search function you can search this site for the full story. Use "Evansville" as your search term, since the words in this "school's" name are not distinctive for search purposes. My God, man, you could get a real degree from any number of SA schools or from quite a number of real US schools. Quit before you're too far behind. I wish you well, but you are making a mistake. There is simply nothing you can get from this entity which you cannot get from a legitimate school at equal or smaller cost to you. This is not an attack. Please don't waste any more money. If you can't get admitted to a South African school because of a poor academic record, please say so. Somebody here can come up with legitimate strategies to help you. Regards, Janko

 

Someone above said they were considering MDS because they had looked at Trinity and Liberty U and were unimpressed. Huhhh?? Trinity at least seems to be on track for Regional Accreditation. Liberty U *IS* Regionally Accredited and has TRACS accreditation as well.

Did MDS not at one time offer the Dr. Of Practical Ministry for six courses with no pesky exams.

There are so....so....many better options. South Africa has a bunch of highly credible programs that are very....very...affordable *AND* 100% distance leanring. WHy do an MDS degree that appears to have little utility and the poential to go boom in a resume?

If you want very affordable, apparently equivalent of accredited but without a long track record try South African Theological Seminary http://www.sats.edu.za

North

 

Hi North: You are correct about the joke doctorate (sic) offered by this entity.

 

But at this time only the undergrad programs are accredited, correct?

 

Jimmy,
I see that you received degrees from Bethany. This is an unaccredited school, correct?
How does it differ from Trinity or Master's?

 

John,

This is somewhat difficult to answer as I have never taken any classes at Master's and only began one class at Trinity.

The courses at Bethany were very thorough and required a great deal of work. The Th.M. was earned in '84 and the Ph.D. was earned in '91 so any comparison might not really be fair.

I don't know how stringent or rigorous Bethany's programs are today. I do know Trinity's programs are strong since I began one course there last year (DRS degree program). The course in world religions was thorough and required a great deal of reading and numerous papers. I dropped out of the program before I completed the course.

I feel confident in saying the MDS programs are rather elementary and that any Bethany degree program would be far superior to theirs.

I would have to concur with nearly everyone on here that with all the relatively inexpensive accredited programs nowadays, an unaccredited school, unless accreditation is not an issue insofar as career or one's denomination, is not an option.

 

Here's the deal.

Bethany-of-Dothan (to distinguish it from Bethany-of-Mankato and Bethany-of-Richmond) is an unaccredited school with possibly substandard requirements but unquestionably real; there is no reason not to regard a degree from Bethany-of-Dothan as honestly earned, whatever debate there might be (or not) over the comparative rigor of the work.

On the other hand, the Tar-Baby-of-Evansville is palpably ridiculous, derisory in its requirements, sordid in its lack of institutional self-disclosure (who own it, runs it, profits from it, etc.), idiotic in its choice of textbooks (Life Application Bible reader's guides, for pete's sake), and openly appeals to those who are too backward intellectually or culturally to consider a real seminary, whether standard or substandard, accredited or unaccredited. The name is a transparent knock-off of John Macarthur's school (a classic degree mill ploy). Its parent organization is Trinity-of-Newburgh (a careful perusal of names will reveal the connection), a school for which many great claims have been made (I find them unconvincing, but let it go). In fact, for the sake of argument, let's say that Trinity-of-Newburgh is on the up-and-up. Why, then, do the folks who run Trinity run Master's just a few miles away? Why did they start it in the first place? Why aren't they forthright about this fact? (A Trinity "adviser" admitted it to me privately, too.) Might it not be that, no matter what its shady past, T-of-N does require real work in quite likely standard amounts and rigor, and that the function of MDS is to furnish impressive postnominal initials to those who are too stupid to hack it at T-of-N? And, no, there's no theological difference, so they can't hide behind that.

In sum, I have no problem calling Dr Clifton Dr Clifton with a straight face. As a voluble Carpathian, however, I couldn't address a putative Dr von Tar-Baby with anything other than laughter--or tears.

Why Tar-Baby? The original Tar-Baby of southern American folklore, if you recall, was a simulacrum, a dummy, a lure, set squarely in the path of a braggart to catch him in his braggadocio. And you know what? It worked.

 

Thank you and in regards to the rest of your post, you are a very witty and funny man!

 

Ha! Janko... you're killin' me, here. [LOL]

Being the bull in a china shop that I can sometimes be, I think I would have described it as appealing to those from parts of the country where brothers and sisters routinely marry; but, hey... I think I much prefer your level of restraint.

I'm tellin' ya'... I love this guy. This is like the third time in almost as many days that something he's posted made me burst into audible laughter. I think, from now on, whenever I come here to see what's going on, I'm gonna' make sure I also search for any new threads in which Janko has posted. The entertainment value, alone, seems well worth the effort!

Oooh. Ouch. Stop it. That requires too much suspension of disbelief.

[Ugh. I think I hurt myself, here.]

What he said, johnrsorrell. Trust me... what he said.

Oh, to have the audible and visual cues of which a forum deprives us right about now.

 

Well stated, Janko, and I concur with the above summary. However, why don't you tell us what you really think about Evansville-Newburgh?

 

John,
Try http://www.bakersguide.com

BLD

 

Wow! It is amazing how much attention this "worthless school" gets from all the top rank acedemics. There are probably more posts on this forum concerning MDS than on any one accredited school. Hhhhmmmmm....there must be something.....this school is really worth talking about.

I am well aware of what I can get in South Africa. Why must I do what all this "high rank acedemics" (who probably have nothing better to do than babble on one note about MDS for the past 3 years or so.) tell me what to do and what is best for me?? I have good reason to do what I am doing, and believe I have the choice to do so.

So, keep on babling and keep the name of MDS alive!

 

Danie,
Could it just possibly be that they are concerned for you and your future?

BLD