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Just got an email that I got the tuition waiver + the stipend at Villanova! Will be confirming my acceptance of the offer tonight!

GOT INTO THE VILLANOVA MA! Funding pending, but I am OVER THE MOON!

Dallas bound y’all!

Just accepted Penn's offer!

As an update for the folks who helped me (and for future applicants who may be in my situation): I got a full-time job as a research coordinator in an extremely productive lab at an amazing institution (which I frankly didn't think I had a shot at getting into). I'm honestly more excited about this "acceptance" than the three non-funded PsyD acceptances I had earlier this year, which really solidifies 1) the fact that I'm passionate about research, and 2) that I've made the right choice by declining offers and planning to reapply to PhD programs in a few years. Yaaaay

Will be attending UPenn in the fall! 💛

Just got accepted off the waitlist for my dream school 😭. Alternate for CGS-M but hopefully good news will come soon for that.

Hi all, I wanted to start a thread to allow us all to share our thoughts and reflect on this application cycle now that it is almost over. This was my second time applying to Counseling Psychology programs, and I know that I have learned a lot about myself (and the ridiculous admissions game) through this process. To give you a bit of background, my first application cycle, I applied to 6 programs (all CounPsy) and though I had a mix of preliminary and in-person interviews for 4 of them, I was eventually rejected from all. I was devastated, and literally had mental breakdowns every few days. So, I really understand the struggle of having to wait, but never getting the news you want. This time, I applied to 17 programs (yeah I know, it is a lot!). I interviewed at 9 - one of them being a School Psychology Ph.D. program - and out of those, ultimately was rejected from 1, waitlisted at 1, and received offers from 7. Based on my experience, I want to share a few thoughts and pieces of advice: Rejections do not determine your self-worth. Please do not feel like you are not qualified/smart/unique enough if you did not get in. I say this because my first time applying was last year, and I have not really gained any more relevant experience since then. I didn’t even change my personal statement besides 2-3 sentences. I improved my interview skills a little bit, but the big difference was where I applied. Which brings me to #2. Last time, I was picky about location/perfect fit. This time, I chose to apply to places where I would actually bring something new to the lab/POI, and I was flexible about location as well. You might think “I would never go here”, but sometimes the interview will change your mind. That happened to me with multiple programs this time. So my advice for both new applicants and applicants who are applying again, is that do not be stuck to one area if it’s possible. Of course, family/partner relocation and finance might be something you have to consider with this. Submit apps early! I submitted materials a month in advance in case I missed anything. Of course, if this is not financially possible for you, then try to review the checklist of materials for each school multiple times. This will give you enough of an idea to fix something if needed. If you can’t afford to interview in person, don’t. Out of my 9 interviews, I did 6 over Skype/phone (although one of them didn’t have in person interviews). I was accepted to 5/6 of the programs I interviewed at on Skype, and 2/3 for the ones in-person. In fact, one of the programs strongly discouraged Skype interviews, and still ended up accepting me in the first round. This goes to show that your interviewing skills can sometimes matter more than your in-person presence. And if you do get in, you can always visit during dates that are more convenient/cost-effective as well. Be proud of yourself for completing and submitting your applications. That is a difficult task in itself. If you got to the interview stage, congratulations on that as well. No matter what the result, don’t give up on your dream of getting a Ph.D. I hope this reflection can be insightful to folks in some way. If you would like to ask any questions, I’d be happy to answer! It would be awesome if all of the wonderful Ph.D. applicants out here could share their reflections as well I’m sure you all could bring much more to this conversation!

To the surprise of probably no one who's ever heard me say anything about anything, I officially accepted Rice's offer of admission.

Off CUNY's waitlist :')

I am officially joining the UC train again. Going to UCSC

I CAN FINALLY POST HERE Y'ALL. Accepted at Baylor!

Well yeah, but you're not going to spend those 42 hours doing whatever. You'll need to make food and eat it. Let's assume you spend 2 hrs/day doing that. That's 14 hrs/wk. Let's also say that you spend 3 hrs/wk commuting (being conservative here), 3 hrs/wk doing laundry/getting groceries/running errands, 7hrs/wk doing things like bathing, brushing your teeth, and going to the bathroom, and 3 hrs/wk exercising. That's a total of 30 hours. Now you're down to 12 hours of "free time" a week. That's less than 2 hrs/day. This of course isn't taking into consideration the time it takes to transition between tasks, nor the time for all the other minutiae that make up a human life. If you're working 70 hrs/week or more, you're not giving yourself any real downtime, or you're cutting corners on all the other stuff I listed, which is neither healthy nor sustainable (and it's unlikely that all those 70 hrs are actually spent working!). When are you going to hang out with friends and/or a significant other? Look, I think philosophy is great, and getting to study it in grad school is awesome, but we're not machines. We need rest and a balanced life. Perpetuating this culture of "you need to work inhuman hours to be good at philosophy" isn't doing anyone any good.

If anyone is interested in loan forgiveness options after graduation, do plenty of research and make sure youVOTE. The current administration is looking to gut some of these programs to get more money for a racist wall.

Accepted my offer to Penn English! AHHHHHHHH

I think its worth putting out a word of warning about this kind of conversation regarding the question of mental health. Graduate programs are extremely stressful environments and philosophy is no exception. Unfortunately, the mental health of graduate students faces a few serious challenges: 1. First there is a the problem of over-identification with one's discipline. As the work/leisure distinction has collapsed over the past few decades (see, for example, the Google model & playbor), it can be hard to separate one's personal work from free time. Strangely enough, philosophy was a discipline that precisely began in leisure time, and yet with the professionalization of philosophy (and the subsequent corporatization of the academy), philosopher students are often trapped in the bind of over-identifying too much with their profession and as a result it makes it extremely difficult to maintain the work/leisure division that is necessary for mental health. 2. One of the byproducts of this is that many philosophy students derive their 'self-worth' from their perceived academic standing in their peer groups. As the divide between work/leisure collapses philosophy students consistently treat their social time with other students as in this nebulous space, often feeling a need to overstate how much work they are actually doing or accomplishing. This is particularly common when students inevitably compare themselves to others in the field/profession and as a mode of compensation they often self-describe in ideal terms (which are usually unsustainable amounts of work). [Here contemporary articles that draw on Lacan's Mirror Stage and Imago re: instagram/social media would be helpful.] Of course, because this is intellectual labor, down time is extremely necessary. As the environment spirals into students comparing themselves with others purported clams about the amount of work they accomplish, it benefits absolutely no-one. 3. As a result of this kind of setting, answering the question about how much effort and time people spend on their work each week becomes a question loaded with psychological stakes that I'm sure the author of this question didn't intent to invoke. It is not a neutral question and the answers we give to it are not neutral. They are directly related to the mental health of our fellow cohorts, our fellow students, and even our potential fellow co-workers or interlocutors. In a certain way my answer to the original question is something like this: With respect to time management, I would echo @hector549, make sure you are not treating work as the sole criterion for how to organize your time. Make sure you organize your life, with clear distinctions between leisure and labor. I work full-time as an adjunct professor, but I still manage to take my dog to the park every day for an hour or so. And if you want to read three other books that have nothing to do with classes you are taking, or prepare ahead of time for something, go ahead and do that, but recognize that you are doing so on your own leisure time. Not on your work time. And you need to be very careful to separate the two.

I wrote a poem for you all after a year of applications to grants/ open calls/ 2 interviews at VCU and RISD that resulted in a rejection and waitlisted status. ————————————————————— We regretfully encourage you to apply to our online print institution with a cv, slideroom sacrifice, numbered explanations of your sense of criticality, and a brief statement explaining the origins of your rigor in contemporary practice. Due to the volume of applicants we will be unable to tell you wether you were selected or not. A full faculty interview panel will be planned to gender reveal your destiny via Skype if the panel selection includes your final application. Please reach in if you have questions. Thank you. Departmental chair

Wow you people work such long hours! I've been clocking myself for years and rarely do more than 30h of philosophy/week. Those are 100% focused though-- I almost always work alone and write best in short bursts. As far as reading is concerned I prefer reading fewer texts very closely rather than trying to read everything on a given topic... has worked well so far. I think philosophy is a discipline where close reading can be extremely beneficial and allow for a lot of creativity. As this thread shows, I think it varies a lot how many hours one needs to put in depending on how one prefers to work. In order to be as focused as I need to be to get shit done in my 30h I basically have to prioritse things like exercise, sleep, getting daylight/being outside. If I didn't get those things I highly doubt I'd be able to produce good work even if put in 70h/week. Find what works for you and don't be stressed out if others seem to do more.

Happy news to share on my end...I got off the waitlist!! Official offer came through today and I am over the moon with excitement and relief and disbelief. There were many times I thought it wouldn't pan out, and I was mentally preparing to put myself through a second attempt, but it all did work out with time! Thanks to everyone here for all of the camaraderie and peer support on this crazy heck of a ride. You all are amazing, and I know everyone here will go out and do so much good for the world. For those on the wait-list: hang in there!! Nothing makes the waiting easier or any less agonizing, but I can now say from experience that people really do get off the wait-list, so just know that not all is over yet! The finish line is near - as April 15th inches closer, I hope everyone hears back good news soon and that we all end up in the right place. 😊

Okay, I heard back from the grad program coordinator at Davis! He was very friendly and helpful, and even gave me a few direct quotes from the Adcomm. Ultimately, there wasn’t much to work on—he said that my app was highly rated by all 3 profs, the comments were almost entirely positive, and that they thought my WS was “very competently written” and “strong,” but not as interesting as some other applicants, and that they think I would probably benefit from getting my MA. The transparency and clarity of his email makes me feel better about the denial letter, and encourages me that the Adcomm had positive feelings about my app as a whole! Might look to get this kind of feedback from other schools.

You have no idea how much I relate to your comment I'm finally 4 out of 4 no's. It was bad getting that news, but it's even worse now since I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do next year. I feel a little too old to keep applying. My final no was from UBC Counselling, last Friday (and wouldn't you know it, I initially missed the email, although I've been frantically refreshing since January). If anyone has a recommendation for alternative programs that they attended and know about that could better prepare me for clinical, please drop me a message. I do need funding for it, but I am willing to work hard for it 😁 And I would really appreciate some alternatives. For those with an acceptance - congrats! it's so freaking exciting! you're going to be doing all sorts of awesome things in the fall. For those still waiting - hold on a little more, it's almost over. *hugs* And for everybody else, maybe I'll see some of you next year around here. All the best, have a great spring and summer!

Just got accepted into villanova!!!!!!

It's looking like U Michigan for me, barring a status change on waitlists.

Hey everyone, I hope I'm not interrupting the peace by asking this question but IS ANYONE ELSE FREAKING OUT? Best of luck to all of you deserving people. I know I won't be the only one frantically checking my status at midnight tonight.

waiting for the official letter, but from Southern Illinois - Carbondale - "You have been admitted, and we plan to offer you a teaching position as a Graduate Assistant. I will send you the offer letter and details soon." !!!!! This is where my favorite scholar (should I have a favorite scholar? what if she thinks i'm a dumbass? what if i'm actually a dumbass?) teaches and where one of my mentor/LOR writers earned their PhD!