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AcademicX

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AcademicX last won the day on April 8 2014

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    2014 Fall
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    Philosophy PhD

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  1. I agree with what has been said above; there are many factors for what school is better for you (e.g your interests, placement record, location and scholarly community). I would disagree, however, that Columbia has a lot of students or that they are overly competitive. I am a Columbia student, so take my word for what it's worth. Columbia accepts 6-8 students every year, which is average. It has some strengths in continental philosophy but the overall orientation is analytic. If you are interested in Kant, german idealism, the Frankfurt school, phenomenology (mostly Heidegger and merleau ponty), Nietzsche then Columbia is a good place for doing that. I did my undergrad at a predominantly continental school and I was advised to go to the more traditional SPEP programs rather than Columbia. I have nothing against SPEP continental philosophy, but I think that it would be a shame for the continentally-oriented to overlook traditionally analytic departments.
  2. Hi all, I am currently doing a PhD in philosophy but I'm looking to change disciplines. Even though I took some political science classes as an undergrad and I have a decent background in math (calculus, linear algebra, intro to stats), I think I would benefit from doing a masters in political science before applying to PhD programs. Unfortunately, the ones offered in the U.S. seem to have few opportunities for funding. I am aware of the MPhil programs in the UK (Oxford, LSE, Cambridge) and I was wondering if you knew of other strong departments in the US or elsewhere with masters programs. Thank you in advance!
  3. In college I took two semesters of calculus and linear algebra, as well as applied statistics (my college didn't have a polisci methods class). As for language, I am a native Spanish speaker and almost fluent in French (although it's getting rusty). You're right, I need to do a lot of reading. I'm certainly not up to date or even entirely familiar with all the literature in the field. Is there anything else I should consider before applying?
  4. Hi everyone, I am a PhD Student in philosophy who is seriously thinking about switching to political science. I am still in the MA part of my degree, so I haven't spent that much time in graduate philosophy. I was a political science/philosophy major in undergrad but I eventually set for philosophy and dropped my political science major. Although I really like philosophy, I constantly find myself asking whether I should be studying political science. I enjoy political theory and philosophical discussions about race, but I sometimes wish my research was more directly applicable to real-world issues. When I studied political science, I was mainly interested in Latin American politics; specifically, democratization, weak political parties, and indigenous politics. I am aware that I would need to refine my research interests and read much more if I were to apply to political science programs. But my main question is whether it would be feasible for me to switch fields. I am mostly worried about my not having a political science undergraduate degree. I could potentially ask two undergraduate professors for letters of recommendation, but i don't know if they would be good given that I haven't worked with them for over 2 years. One possibility, and I would love it if people could tell me if they find problems with it, would be to sit in political science classes at my university and try to develop an academic relationship with the professors. I study at an Ivy League that just happens to have very good professors in my political science interests and if I could impress them I may be able to get strong letters from them. Do you know of any cases similar to mine? I would be grateful if you could tell me your opinion about this and whether my background in another discipline might harm my admissions prospects. I am worried that, if I were to apply to political science programs, I may not land in a program as good as my philosophy program and will end up hurting my job prospects. Thank you!
  5. man, i totally quoted this guy on a paper i wrote about Spinoza's conception of time and the eternity of the soul, but i didnt look into his ideas any further. His argument looks really interesting...it will take me some time to make sense of it completely though.
  6. Any recommendations on political philosophy? I have a mostly Continental background, so I would like to read more about the major authors/themes in the Anglo-American tradition before the beginning of the semester. Thanks.
  7. The New School doesn't have any money. I think that the most they give to students is 50% off tuition and no stipend, which is really bad considering the cost of living in NYC. Other schools in the area give full tuition waivers and 25k+ stipends. I would advise you to apply to places like Fordham, Stony Brook, Columbia and even CUNY and seek to take classes at the New School through the NYC Philosophy Consortium. Even then, the New Schools seems like a magic place and if you have the money, you should strongly consider it.
  8. Hi pedagogo, I saw in another post that you're from South America. I'm from Peru, where are you from? I have to say that I love Columbia and that I think it's a great place to study continental philosophy, especially if you are interested in the German tradition. Based on your interests, I think that Columbia would be great for you. If by Critical Theory you mean the Frankfurt School, Columbia has Lydia Goehr and Axel Honneth. Goehr's main focus is aesthetics and Robert Gooding-Williams (our new hire from UChicago!) works on it too. My main interest is social and political philosophy and I think that Columbia has one of the best departments in the country in terms of breadth: Axel Honneth, Gooding-Williams, Michelle Moody-Adams, Fred Neuhouser, Akeel Bilgrami. Columbia also has Taylor Carman who especializes on Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty and is well-trained in 20th century continental philosophy (including existentialism). I am also planning on using the resources available in the University. For example, next semester I'm taking a class with Balibar who is a visiting professor. He will be gone after the fall, but there are always great people coming to Columbia! Butler just went back to Berkeley, but she may come back to Columbia in the future (and so may Wendy Brown). There's also the possibility of taking classes at other universities through the NYC consortium (e.g., Stony Brook, Fordham, NYU, CUNY, New School, etc.). There are definitely more opportunities in New York than you can take advantage of just because of the lack of time. Also, when I visited Columbia, I got a great feeling of the department. Grad students, staff and faculty were all very nice and helpful. If you have other questions about Columbia, let me know. I'm starting there next fall and I'm super excited.
  9. hey Ianfaircloud, are you posting the results soon? I'm very curious to see them/I need something to do after getting done with college...
  10. ExponentialDecay, on 08 May 2014 - 8:21 PM, said: This is true. International students do not qualify to many of the government/NGO fellowships available for American citizens and residents. However, it seems that the OP said that his friend was an international student "resident". If he's actually a resident, I think that most of the fellowships available for American citizens would also apply to him. In the case of school funding, the money comes from the school, not from the state. For private universities, at least, there doesn't seem to be any reason to give different funding to international and domestic students. This may be different for public universities, however.
  11. All the PhD programs that I know offer the same funding to international students than to domestic students. I don't see why that would be different for MA programs (but again, who knows?). Something to keep in mind is that fellowship funding for international students is automatically taxed 20% (not sure about state tax and other types), so tell your friend to plan his budget accordingly.
  12. For what it's worth, when I visited Vanderbilt I met a lot of students who got into the program with little to no background in philosophy. I was surprised by this and I don't know if it is that common. I think that, for Vanderbilt at least, the admissions committee was willing to admit people who didnt have a philosophy B.A. as long as their academic credentials were related to the field they wanted to study--which seems to be your case. That said, I think it would be more realistic for you to apply to MA program and a few PhD ones. Also, you mentioned that you are interested in analytic philosophy of art. However, the professor from whom you are getting your letter is continental and you took a couple of classes in continental philosophy. Have you considered studying philosophy of art from a continental perspective? It seems to me that it is more popular among continentals than analytics, anyways. I say this because I get the sense that continental departments are more open to accepting people from academic backgrounds other than philosophy, but that's just an assertion without any empirical backing.
  13. smells like northwestern...
  14. I would probably take GSU's offer and work my butt off for two years and then hope for the best in the next application season. Admittedly, philosophy applications are very unpredictable and you may end up shut out no matter how hard you try, but you may also get lucky and get into a great department. I think the opportunity to take classes at Emory is invaluable because you would get the chance to take classes with and impress faculty with a big name in continental circles (which I think plays a big role in admissions). You could also go to USF and transfer after you get your master's but I don't know how willing professors will be to write recommendation letters for you given that you would choose to leave them for another department after they invested time and money on you.
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