anonnn123

NYU and Stanford should definitely send out acceptances today right? They usually do by the end of the first week of March

https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/mst-ancient-philosophy-alumni-information

There's some information on the oxford website on where those who have done the MSt in ancient philosophy have gone after they've finished.

I'm holding on to hope as well but 6 acceptances have already been reported, which is already much more than for previous years. So I'm starting to think it's unlikely many more acceptances are left for them to send out.

Congrats! Did you just receive a call/email from Harvard?

Cool! No worries if you're worried about compromising anonymity but what was the theorem that you proved?

Thanks! All the email said was that I was waitlisted and what the visiting days are.

Just got waitlisted at Rutgers

I highly doubt that it's going to become a top 10 or top 5 program. If you compare the current PGR to the previous one, or the previous one to the one before that, programs rarely move more than 5 spots up or down the ranking within a decade. Given JHU's current rank, it'd be highly surprising for it to become a top 10 or top 5 program anytime soon.

Those scores are fine. You'd be much better off spending your time working on your writing sample anyway!

Application season is here! Which schools are you applying to and where are you hoping most to get accepted?

I wouldn't bother. People on the admission committee probably understand that time constraints and so on are factors and won't infer from your scores that you're not fit to do logic. Of course, as has been mentioned, it might matter if you're applying to logic programs like Berkeley's but for philosophy programs, I don't think it's worth retaking the GRE.

While I agree that it's probably not a good idea to write on some topic just because it's popular, I also disagree that quality is all that matters. It's a good idea to think seriously about the topic of your writing sample and to be slightly strategic sometimes. There are several considerations to take into account. First, you want a topic that's not too niche and doesn't require too much setting up for someone who's not familiar with the literature. This is because the person who reads your writing sample might not work in your particular subfield, much less in that particular area of your subfield. Second, it's still preferable to have a paper on a topic that philosophers still actively engage in. While it's true that working on something you're not interested in just because it's a hot topic will probably not turn out well, a paper on a popular topic will help your chances. This need not be a gimmick. There are legitimate reasons to prefer a more current topic: readers of your writing sample are more inclined to get excited because it deals with questions that they're still interested in and it shows that you're keeping up with the forefronts of research. Again, it's obviously a bad idea to work on something you're not interested in just because it's popular but you might have multiple topics you're interested in and how accessible and current each topic is should factor into your consideration of topic choice. For what it's worth, when I applied, I got into the three schools (two in the top 15). All three schools had faculty members who work on the topic of my writing sample and whom I cited in my writing sample. I didn't get into any of the schools that didn't have people who work on that topic, not even much lower-ranked schools. So, from experience, I'm inclined to think that topic choice, and not just the quality of your writing sample, is an important factor in deciding where you end up getting accepted.

I disagree with the post above. All your letter writers should be philosophers, if you're going to have a half decent chance at admission. When I was applying, I was discouraged by my professors from even asking letters from untenured philosophy faculty members.

I've just declined Arizona and Brown. Hope this helps someone!