Yale Divinity School has received a record number of applications for next fall’s entering class, reflecting the School’s outstanding reputation, advances in financial aid, and renewed interest in theological education and religious/spiritual formation.
YDS received a total of 673 applications for its three degree programs: 264 for the M.Div., 374 for the M.A.R., and 35 for the S.T.M. This represents an 18% increase over the 2024 total of 572. YDS had one non-degree applicant for next fall’s class, for a grand total of 674.
The School admitted 23 percent of the applicants for 2025 and will welcome approximately 115 new students in August.
Dean Greg Sterling attributes the surge in applications to factors specific to YDS as well as trends in society. Among them are:
- The stellar reputation of the YDS faculty
- Growing awareness of the School’s significantly improved financial aid, which now includes full-tuition scholarships for all students with demonstrated need and help with living expenses
- Major steps taken by YDS signaling the School’s quality and values, including the recruitment of William Barber to join the faculty and direct the new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, and the construction of the higher-ed sector’s largest living-building residence hall, the Living Village, set to open in August
- Growing interest in theological education and religious/spiritual formation during a time of social upheaval and political chaos, leading many students to seek, in Sterling’s words, “answers that aren’t narrowly defined but that go beyond themselves and help them develop their ability to discern truth and meaning.”
Along with Barber’s appointment to the faculty and the launch of the center he directs, YDS has added several other noteworthy academic programs in recent years. Among them are Black Church Studies and, at the YDS-affiliated Institute of Sacred Music, a multidisciplinary program in Music and the Black Church. Also, the School has revised its signature M.Div. degree program, with a series of changes to take effect beginning in the 2025-26 academic year.
The culmination of a series of improvements to the campus during Sterling’s 13 years as dean, the Living Village will house 50 students in complex designed for full certification by the Living Building Challenge, the most rigorous green-building certification standard in the world. Solar arrays will generate 105 percent of the energy needed for the 50-person residence hall. The facility is built of environmentally benign materials and will use the most sustainable practices for water management.
Intended in part as an eco-theological statement on the imperative to live in harmony with nature, the Living Village is accompanied by related enhancements in religion-and-ecology curriculum and a new professorship in environmental ethics. The professorship’s inaugural holder is Ryan Darr, who is now completing his first year on the faculty.
Sterling said this year’s acceptance rate is the lowest in memory for the School and probably makes YDS the most selective divinity school in the world. Sector-wide statistics for 2024-25 are not yet available, but last year YDS outpaced peer schools’ averages by a significant margin in both applications and selectivity.