Rockbridge Seminary assumes you, as the applicant, is a follower of Jesus Christ and is committed to serving Him through ministry. Further, the seminary assumes that you have a life honoring to Jesus Christ with unqualified church approval.
As a Christian educational institution, the Seminary is redemptive but not rehabilitative in nature. Therefore, you should not apply to Seminary with serious family, health, emotional, or financial problems. The pressures of study, family, finances and other such factors weigh heavily upon a seminary student and the student’s family. These pressures can be a vital factor affecting your well-being, physical and mental health.
As an applicant, you must be actively serving in a local church ministry role, either as a lay ministry volunteer or as a paid staff member. You also must be affirmed by local church leadership through a Church Endorsement Form.
Admission Requirements for Taking Only Recovery Ministry Courses
You must apply at the appropriate program level to take only the Recovery Ministry courses, even if you do not intend to pursue the full program. You apply for the DMS if you have not completed a bachelor degree—the MML or MDIV if you have a bachelor degree.
Admission Requirements for the Diploma in Ministry Studies (DMS)
If you are applying for the Diploma in Ministry Studies program, you must be at least 25 years of age and only hold a high school diploma or its equivalent. If you have completed an undergraduate degree or higher, you must apply for the Master of Ministry Leadership degree (MML), not the DMS.
Admission Requirements for a Master’s Degree (MML or MDIV)
If you are applying to the Master of Ministry Leadership degree (MML) or Master of Divinity Degree (MDIV), you must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
Admission Requirements for the Doctor of Ministry Degree (DMIN)
If you are applying to the Doctor of Ministry degree (DMIN) program, you must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, a Master of Divinity degree (MDIV) or its equivalent from an accredited seminary, and have either at least three years of ministry experience post-MDIV, or at least a total of ten years of ministry experience.
Americans with Disabilities Act Accommodations
Upon request, faculty members will provide reasonable accommodation for you if you have a documented disability.
Rockbridge complies with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and applicable state and local laws that provide for non-discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities. Therefore, it may provide reasonable accommodation for such individuals in accordance with these laws as long as such reasonable accommodation does not create an undue hardship for the Seminary.
If you need accommodation, please notify the Vice President of Academic Services of this need. Where appropriate, Rockbridge may need your permission to obtain additional information from your physician or other medical or rehabilitation professionals.
Non-Discrimination Policy
Within the context of its theological convictions and mission, Rockbridge Seminary does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, disability, age or national or ethnic origin, in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other school-administered programs.
Application Process
To apply for admission to Rockbridge Seminary, you will need to complete the following tasks.
- Complete the online application form found on the Seminary website: https://www.rockbridge.edu/apply.
- Pay the non-refundable $25 application fee.
- Request official copies of all of your previous higher education transcripts be sent directly to Rockbridge Seminary using one of the options below. This includes institutions where you took courses but did not complete a degree. If you are applying for the diploma program, you may mail or email a copy of your high school diploma.
Rockbridge Seminary
3111 E. Battlefield Rd.
Springfield, MO 65804
- Request that your church leadership complete and submit the Church Endorsement Form.
- Complete the setup of your online classroom profile.
- Sign the Learning Community Agreement form.
- Sign the Enrollment Agreement form.
You will be given access to an online classroom to access the appropriate forms. Your application and submitted documents will be reviewed to determine if you are qualified and ready for the program of study you have selected. You will then be notified by email of your admission standing with Rockbridge Seminary.
Student Government-Issued Photo ID
Rockbridge requires applicants to upload a copy of an official government-issued photo ID to confirm their identity, e.g., current driver’s license, current passport, etc. This is used for purposes of satisfying the accreditation requirement of verifying the identity of an online student. This government-issued photo ID should also be used if your program requires identity verification for taking a proctored examination. Student identity verification also occurs in the requirement of a course mentor for each course.
Non-U.S. Applicants
Rockbridge Seminary welcomes international learners. If you are a non-U.S. applicant, for your application to be considered you must complete two additional tasks in addition to the normal application procedures: a non-U.S. transcript evaluation, and a test for English language proficiency.
International Transcript Evaluation World Education Services (WES)
If you hold an international transcript, you must submit the transcript for evaluation by World Education Services (WES). The evaluation of your transcript by WES will help Rockbridge Seminary place you in the best academic program to match your educational experience. If you apply for the Diploma in Ministry Studies program, you must submit your secondary school/high school transcript to WES for evaluation. If you apply for either the Master of Ministry Leadership degree program or the Master of Divinity degree program, you must submit to WES for review the transcript from the college/university from which you hold a bachelor’s degree. The cost for this service provided by WES can be found on their website: http://www.wes.org/.
During the application process, you will be asked the primary purpose of your evaluation. You should answer “Education.” When asked the type of evaluation, you should choose, “Document by Document.” You must click “Add Recipient” to send the required report copy to:
Rockbridge Seminary
3111 E. Battlefield Rd.
Springfield, MO 65804
Since WES will send your evaluated transcripts, you DO NOT need to request that additional transcripts be sent from your educational institution to Rockbridge Seminary.
Test for English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
Because Rockbridge Seminary offers English-only courses, you must take the Test for English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) if your first language is not English. Exceptions to this admission policy are:
- You will not need to take the TOEFL exam if you have completed a university degree in the United States
- You will not need to take the TOEFL exam if English in the primary language or first language in your home country
Your demonstration of English proficiency is by scoring a minimum of 550 (paper-based total) or 80 (Internet-based total) on the Test for English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Information about this service can be found at: https://www.ets.org/toefl.
As an applicant, it is your responsibility to arrange to take the TOEFL test and have the results sent to Rockbridge Seminary. TOEFL will send the results to us via email automatically. The exam is available at the American Embassy in the native country of the applicant. Please use this code for any testing you take with TOEFL:
Rockbridge Seminary TOEFL code: 0082
Rockbridge Seminary reserves the right to require a TOEFL test, and/or a written essay, and/or an audio narrative for any applicant, regardless of home country, spoken first language in that country, and/or language of high school or higher education studies.
Enrollment Agreement
Upon approval for admission to Rockbridge Seminary, you sign an Enrollment Agreement. Once it is signed, you are considered to be a new Rockbridge Seminary student, and may register for your first class when registration opens for the next academic term.
Active Application
Your application for admission is active for one year. After one year you will be required to update your personal info and provide a current church endorsement.
If you do not complete the application process after two years, you will be required to resubmit an application for admission and all other admission documents (except for official transcripts submitted previously).
Notification of Admission Status
Rockbridge will notify you by email of the status of your application. This notification is usually made within a week of the completion of the Application Process. Your admission status will either be full admission, provisional admission, or denied admission.
Full Admission
Full admission is offered to the applicant for which Rockbridge has received all admission documentation as required or requested, no additional demonstration of qualification is needed, and the applicant appears to be the kind of student who would benefit from study at Rockbridge.
Provisional Admission
Provisional admission is offered to the applicant whose official copies of academic transcripts have not yet been received, and/or WES or TOEFL scores are pending. The applicant otherwise satisfies all other qualifications for admission and appears to be the kind of student who would benefit from study at Rockbridge.
Provisional admission is only allowed for one course for one term. Enrollment cannot be made for another course until full admission is granted.
Denied Admission
An applicant denied admission does not meet the qualifications for admission, has learning goals not addressed by the Rockbridge curriculum, or who is not likely to succeed as an online student given Rockbridge’s curriculum design.
Transfer Credit from Previous Academic Studies
Polices on transfer credit for previous transcripted learning can be found under Transferring Credit from Another Institution in this Catalog.
You may submit a request for transfer of credit evaluation by completing the Transcript Evaluation Request Form.
Guest Student and Continuing Education Admission
A guest student is someone who is applying to Rockbridge Seminary with the intent to transfer course credits to another institution, or to take a few courses for personal development purposes only (continuing education). If you are seeking to be a guest student to transfer credit to another institution, you should consult with that institution before applying, and before enrolling in a course.
Guest students and continuing education students are considered to be non-matriculated (non-degree seeking) and do not necessarily plan to pursue or complete a degree with Rockbridge Seminary. Guest students and continuing education students must be academically qualified to take a Rockbridge course at the appropriate degree level.
- Guest students and continuing education students are required to be academically qualified for the desired course to be taken, complete the application process in full, and pay the application fee.
- Advisors are not assigned to guest students or continuing education students.
- Academically qualified guest students and continuing education students are only permitted to take a maximum of 3 courses total (9 credit hours in the DMS or 12 credit hours in the MML/MDIV), or 1 seminar (6 credit hours in the DMIN).