primenumbers

You should note that most top MA programs are just as competitive and have just as high variance as PhD programs, so if you can improve your background locally as a non-degree seeking student, it may be wise to apply to both if you are sure that is what you want to do.

Of course, that makes sense. I only brought it up because when I applied, I did not fully understand how competitive it really was.

Please don't take this as offensive, but I don't think there are any safety schools in the top 50 for anyone. I was lucky enough to get a top 10 and top 15 acceptance, but I also was rejected at numerous lower ranked programs. The acceptance pool per school is so small that a lot of arbitrary decisions have to be made by admissions committees. It is a high-variance process, and so not predictable. If you want "safety schools", you'll have to go down the rankings a bit more. This is true for everyone, regardless of how good an applicant they are, but even more so if you believe you have a few less-than-ideal application components.

PhD, and funded! I think technical philosophy is favored a bit at the moment... I see you are applying to CMU. I had a great experience visiting there. They are a cool department for sure. They accept a lot of students for their masters program rather than the PhD, though...

If he's into math, consider what part of math he's into... If he's a prob-stat guy, give him some contemporary formal epistemology. That's what got me into philosophy. If he's a logic/set theory guy, give him fundamental philosophy of math stuff.

That's awesome, and VERY similar to my area. I was a math/philosophy double major undergrad, and had pretty good luck this year on philosophy admissions with a semi-technical decision theory paper. Good luck!

I was not attacking you. I was simply pointing out that what you arguing against is literally my personal rationale for being interested in something. While the application process surely has to do with you, my personal reasons for being interested in a set of data do not. Again, I point out that my worry about the results page is that relatively few people do supply their stats there, and those that are provided are very high. I think it is very possible that this is artificial, due to the fact that the data on the results page is not in a large data-set and is presented individually, though anonymously. It is likely, then, that people with lower stats may not share those. Parts of the application other than the writing sample can at least be somewhat quantified, but the writing sample cannot easily be quantified at all. Additionally, I have heard from several Leiter-ranked school professors that the importance of the writing sample has declined following an increase in faculty assistance in writing said samples. I think that the overall quality of my application was shown by my results. What I don't know is what part of my application made it a better application than I had expected it to be, and this data will at the very least, provide some insight there.

No, I don't think people give false information on the results page. I think they neglect to provide information in many cases, and I am speculating that people with lower stats are less likely to be among those providing information, since it is publicly viewable. People filling out the survey, however, have a clear interest in creating an accurate data bank, and may be questioning their own results. Since the information from that will never be public aside from summary statistics, those people are likely to provide information, regardless of the excellence of the stats. While writing samples cannot really be quantified easily, pretty much every other part of the application can be. As such, if the quantitative data does not explain my results, then I can more reliably assume that my writing sample was the difference. Honestly, I don't understand why you feel the need to question me on this. I see no harm in me being excited to get data and see where I fall statistically on various measures. Big data sets can provide a lot of information, so even if I were not wondering why I got the results I did, I think that I would be interested in seeing the results of this survey. If you are so sure the writing sample is the most important component and that it can't be quantified, then you are of course not required to view the results. Your sentiments do not apply to me, however, and there is no need to badger people over opinions that literally have nothing to do with you.

But again, I think there may be a reporting bias in that only people with good stats attach them there, whereas theoretically, people who take the survey have an interest in accurate data and are more likely to report less excellent scores.

But without data, how am I to know that my perception of normal successful applicant GPA is accurate?

Well, maybe. I am not sure that there isn't a bias, though, for people on sites like this to only post their good stats. As such, I wonder if maybe I didn't do better than my stats would predict. My writing sample was fun, but it never got a thorough professor read before I sent it, so I find it hard to believe that it is that much better than other people's heavily edited samples. I thought it might have been my letters...

Thanks! I'm not saying that I am alone in loving philosophy. I think that because I haven't had the most favorable of philosophical conditions in my undergrad, I was possibly able to emphasize how much independent work I had to do to get where I am. I also think that my subject area (formal stuff, I'm a math/philosophy double major for my undergrad) may have also helped, but I am not really sure... It is all in how it comes out on the application, and I think that might have been what helped me out so much. In any case, I am really grateful for how well this process has gone for me!

... I had not thought of that one. It is actually closer to that than you think...

Trying to maintain a bit of anonymity, but I'm moving from PA to CA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would say that the biggest thing that I learned is that this process is completely, utterly, unpredictable. I have a lower-than-average GPA, great GRE's (all >95th % except writing), never got any feedback on my writing sample from a philosopher, went to a mediocre undergrad-only liberal arts school, had a letter from someone who taught for a few years then quit philosophy, and never let anyone read my SOP. I'm a white, upper-middle class student whose family as all been to college. I just really love what I study, and I think that came out in my application. I got 5 PhD acceptances (2 top 20, 3 top 21-50) and a masters acceptance. You shouldn't sell your chances short based on your situation, nor should you assume you will get in anywhere. One thing that I think helped me that won't help you next year, but might help younger students, is that I was able to study abroad at a prestigious school in philosophy and got a letter from there. I think that gave me a bit of extra legitimacy for grad programs!