PM64

I checked out Georgia State and they seemed to specifically mention that people in situations like mine with respect to my lack of a formal background in philosophy are not eligible for their MA program. I think I would qualify for the University of Houston, but I would be required take a bunch of extra classes that would make up for my lack of a formal background. Although, I do still plan on applying there because depending on what kind of funding offer I receive (assuming I'm admitted) it may still be viable option for me even with the extra courses. I should have also mentioned my state of residence and undergraduate university which are Virginia and the University of Virginia, respectively. Virginia Tech has one of the top 5 terminal MA programs according to the PGR so I'll definitely be applying there as well. The one PhD program I'll be applying to is UVA as sort of a long shot. I think the faculty at UVA are generally aware of the GPA disparity between the engineering and arts & sciences students here (which is quite significant), so that might make my application look a bit better than it would otherwise. Do you think it would be worth applying to programs at Canadian universities (taking the particulars of my situation into account, not just in general) if I intend to move onto a PhD program in the US in the future? I haven't been able to come to any conclusions about how being an American will factor into admission or how a MA from a Canadian University would look on applications to American PhD programs, but from what I've read it seems like admission is generally more difficult for Canadian MA programs and they also seem to offer more funding (MA seems to be more of a requisite path to take rather than a "remedial" one in Canada). I'm trying to at least determine the schools I'm applying to ASAP so that I can give my letter writers (who I have yet to actually contact about this) a month of leeway at minimum (because I want to have the information for how they are to submit their letters on hand if they request it of me). This is the current list of schools I plan on applying to: University of Virginia Tufts University Brandeis University Virginia Tech University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee University of Houston San Francisco State University Texas Tech Colorado State University Texas A&M

Thanks for the suggestions and advice so far everyone. Yes and thanks. A good portion have been from the required and recommended reading lists of the philosophy courses offered at my university. Only a small portion have been about certain continental philosophers/philosophy that I don't think I would encounter in the course of my studies at American universities. It's related to the topic I've done the most independent reading on, theories of truth. Material related to this topic is typically tied up with theories of meaning and reference as well, but my writing sample doesn't focus on those. I just picked something I was interested in and started out with a few introductory books before moving onto more specialized ones and finally articles, both to establish a well-informed stance of my own and to develop more sympathy for the motivations behind the positions I disagree with in order to really hit them where it hurts with my arguments (it sounds cruel putting it this way lol). I don't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but I definitely remember Carnegie Mellon having a multidisciplinary program dealing with logic, methodology, decision/game theory, etc. in addition to their philosophy one where it sounded like a background in CS is actually something they're looking for. Although, I also seem to remember looking into their financial aid and costs of attendance and concluding that it would be too expensive for me.

I'll be graduating in May as a Computer Science major and am looking to apply to graduate programs in Philosophy that begin Fall '15. I won't get into the reasons underlying this decision here. GRE: 169V 168Q (first and probably only attempt, just took it today so I don't know my writing score yet) GPA: ~2.9 (has gradually improved since my first year and I can probably bring this up to a 3.0 by the end of this semester) background in philosophy: only 2 classes, but 100+ books on my own and a significant number of articles primary areas of interest: metaphysics, logic, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, aesthetics, philosophy of science I've checked my writing sample over with various professors, so assume that it is on par with those of the other candidates for where I'm applying. I will have only 1 letter of reference from a philosophy professor. The other two I will likely try to get from my professors in Artificial Intelligence and Discrete Math (any other suggestions?). I can honestly see my application being interpreted in vastly different ways. Here are two examples: 1) "He has high GRE scores, has gradually improved his GPA, and it looks like he just happened to find his true calling later than others. I can see him succeeding in our program." 2) "The disparity between his GRE scores and GPA show that he is generally an undedicated student. Additionally, he has almost no formal background in Philosophy and I can't see him performing well here." I know schools attach different weights to the different parts of one's application, but can somebody give me a general idea as to how I stand with respect to broad categories of standards (i.e. rank #25-50 PhD programs, top 15 or so MA programs, lower ranked MA programs, etc.)? Funding is a fairly high priority for me and I will not be able to pay the full cost of attending most master's programs unaided. With this in mind, my realistic (at least I hope) goal is to get into a decent MA program with significant or full funding to build up an academic background that will make me a competitive applicant for top 50 PhD programs in the future. Is this feasible given my status which includes a lack of a formal background in Philosophy?