lbub

Thank you for the advice, hector! I will have a degree by that time if I use all of my general elective credits on philosophy, which I may as well do. Didn't consider asking my letter writers to mention it, that is a good idea.

Hello everyone My GPA is a 3.95 but I have withdrawn from two full-time semesters in a row. The only justification I can give is that there was a death in my immediate family and that I was in a state of poor mental health, making careless and inexplicable decisions. I was a math major at the time and not really feeling it. Last semester I finally stuck around, taking nothing but philosophy courses (because I still need many electives), making all As and finding them extremely enjoyable. Now, it's a little early, but I'm entertaining the idea of shooting for grad school in philosophy. I should graduate next fall. But even if I do everything else right -- make the As, do well on the GREs, write a thesis, craft a beautiful WS, get awesome letters -- is there anything to do about the black hole in the middle of my transcript, other than mention that it was due to personal issues, long since resolved? I should mention that I go to a regular old state university, so I don't have prestige on my side. I would probably apply to a MA program first and gamble for a few outside scholarships. Would it help my case to take more philosophy the spring after I graduate and apply? Or take a productive gap year and reapply if I get shut out or don't get funding? Of course, there may be other things to do to mitigate the effect of a big chunk of W's. Just trying to get a wide range of advice -- I'll be talking to faculty as well. Thank you guys for any help you can give!