janeaude

As has been said, studying abroad doesn't in itself make you a stronger applicant. But if you happen to be on exchange at a well-ranked university, having a letter of recommendation from someone who is respected and recognized within philosophy circles will certainly be a plus.

I don't think there is a foreign language requirement for philosophy programs, unless you plan to do ancient philosophy (then Greek might help). Here's more information on the application process: http://schwitzsplintersunderblog.blogspot.my/2007/10/applying-to-phd-programs-in-philosophy.html

Most of the personal statement should focus on your areas of interests and what specific topics you wish to explore in grad school. Here's a link that might be useful: http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.my/2012/05/applying-to-phd-programs-in-philosophy.html

I posted about this in another thread: The consensus from the replies and from advice I've got through private messages from people currently going through the process of transferring is that it's incredibly hard to move from one PhD program to another.

Admission committees would probably concentrate most on your masters education. Your undergrad will, AT MOST, not disadvantage you. It depends on how high you're aiming but top departments reject even those with philosophy undergrad degrees from top universities (think harvard, princeton, yale) and from universities with highly ranked philosophy departments (Rutgers, Michigan, etc). I don't think the prestige of your undergrad university will put you in any position of advantage. This isn't to say you won't get into great PhD programs. But if you do, it'll be because of your writing sample, your references, and so on, not because of where you did your undergrad degree.

With the offers you have, I wouldn't be upset at all!

Congrats on being admitted! I received a separate email about being nominated for a scholarship right after being offered a place but I'm not sure what you should make of that since they might do it differently for the DPhil and for the different scholarships.

I will probably be declining Arizona but I can't do so until close to the April 15 deadline because I'm still in the dark about my funding situation at other schools and am also on several waitlists. So, if you're on the Arizona waitlist and you're counting on it, I'm sorry I won't be able to decide right now but there will be a huge possibility that I will be declining (I'm posting this for the sake of the post on the results page asking if anyone's planning on declining Arizona).

Any thoughts about starting a PhD with an eye to reapplying in a year or two (after getting the MA) to another PhD program? I've heard that transferring from one department to another happens but usually only under special circumstances (for example, the only person working in your AOI leaves your current department). There's also the awkwardness of telling faculty members at your current department you wish to transfer and asking them for references. Thoughts? Edit: To provide more context, the reason I wish to eventually reapply is that my interests have changed since I prepared and submitted my application. I also foresee them changing even more in grad school. (I've gotten way more interested in epistemology and logic) While the schools I got into are perfect for my original interests, they aren't the best given the direction I'm moving towards.

I know how you feel! Admissions is so ridiculously competitive and dependent on so many factors (how many spots do they have for an ethics person? How many for an international? How much funding do they have this year? Did they accept too many students last year? Who's on the admissions committee this year? Which faculty members are on sabbatical/not looking to take students this year?) that even those who get accepted to more than one school have reason to ascribe some of their success to these contingent matters and feel a bit like a fraud. So, for those who haven't got good news yet, this is also a reason to not feel like you should doubt your abilities and talent.

So far, all 3 acceptances posted on the results page are from international students. Most schools admit more american than international students, so this is surprising. Maybe it's a sign that there's still hope if you're an american student?

Congratulations to all those who got into Yale!! For the rest of us, should we assume that all acceptances have been sent out (four are already posted on gradcafe) and we should presume a rejection at this point?

Based on the posts on gradcafe in the previous years, results seem to be released quite reliably in the 2nd or 3rd week of March.