Handbook and Resources
View the MTS Program Handbook (PDF)
Student Life
ND Mobile Link provides essential information and services on your mobile device, with an interface optimized for on-the-go access.
Residence Life where you will find information regarding on-campus housing.
Notre Dame Health Services where you will also find information on student health insurance.
The Notre Dame Graduate Student Union provides information on campus events and graduate student life at Notre Dame.
The Graduate Theological Society is the student organization representing the graduate students in the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame Career Center provides help with graduate students seeking placement in either academic or non-academic fields. Their website includes a link (top right of the page) to "Go Irish", Notre Dame's job bank.
University of Notre Dame Job Board where you will find on-campus job postings.
Off-Campus Connector provides students with information about all that the surrounding community has to offer them; to educate and provide resources to interested students about how to transition and live off-campus.
Important Student Information
Colloquia
The colloquia are mandatory. Remember to register for them as a class and to attend regularly.
Language Exams
All M.T.S. students must pass a Graduate Reading exam, normally in either German or French, in order to graduate. Students should successfully complete the exam by the end of the third semester, so that they might focus on the comprehensive exam during their final semester. Students who already know one of these languages upon admission to the program should take the Graduate Reading exam in that language in their first semester, and acquire a second language during their time in the program, in order to pass an exam in that language as well. All students are expected to acquire reading competency in a new language during their time in the M.T.S. program.
Language exams are given in two different places each semester: German/Russian and Theology both do a Graduate Reading Exam for German, and Romance Languages. Graduate Reading Exam for French and Theology. Students may take the language exam in either of the corresponding locations.
The University offers Intensive language courses in German and French, free of tuition, every summer, with exams at the end of the course.
Incomplete Policy
Students will only receive an Incomplete grade with the instructor’s approval. Once given, the Incomplete grade will average as an “F” into the students’ GPA until it is changed upon successful completion of course requirements. If those requirements are not successfully met before the end of the following semester the Incomplete grade will be changed permanently into an F.
T.A. Policy
We do not require any M.T.S. student to work as a teaching assistant since we would like their focus to be on course work and preparation for their future. However, opportunities are available for most M.T.S. students to serve as a paid teaching assistant or research assistant during one semester of the program, ordinarily during the fall semester of the second year. Students may seek other part-time jobs in a research capacity or in other capacities on or off campus, although a student may not work more than twelve hours/week. We do not arrange employment for our students but there are a number of opportunities for work on campus.
Comprehensive Exams
An oral comprehensive examination will be administered toward the end of the final semester of course work. The basis of the comprehensive examination will be material that the student submits to the Director by the last Friday of the first week of classes of the student’s final semester. This material will include: a draft personal statement for doctoral program applications (or an equivalent statement), a set of three to five questions reflecting the student’s theological interests, and two papers of different sizes. The longer (approximately 10-20 pages) paper should be from the students’ area of concentration, and should closely reflect their theological thinking. The shorter paper (approximately 5-10 pages) should be from a different theological area and on a different topic, yet one that is still relevant to the students’ theological interests. Students must submit four copies of all material. Students who do not submit their examination material on time are ineligible to take the examination, and thus ineligible for graduation, in the Spring semester.
The Director will arrange for a board of three faculty members for the student’s exams. At least two of the board members must be from the Department of Theology, and at least one of the board members from the student’s area of concentration. The exam will last one hour and will explore the student’s competency in the area of concentration, and the student’s ability to think creatively and synthetically. At the end of the hour the board will determine whether the student receives a grade of failure, pass, or pass with honors. Students must have a passing grade in order to graduate from the program.