Kaerephon

I wonder this all the time.. A lot of people, if they get in, put up CVs either on their personal department pages or personal websites, some of which include undergrad data--if you want to be a creep about it, you can find out a lot --but mainly it does come down to, as the others have said, pedigree, GPA (esp. Philosophy) and high GRE scores (though my academic advisor swears they don't count for as much in admissions as most people think).

Ah, ok. Thanks for the comment. 'Staying calm' about it.

Hi all So, I'm considering going to grad school in philosophy (i.e., being unemployed). I go to a high end public school (not Rutgers, but whatever), have mostly stellar grades (over all GPA is 3.91) and strong(ish) GRE scores (99% V, 84% Q, 96% W). I have great recs and publications too. Now, the thing is, I have all A's in philosophy classes (low to high) except one which I took as a Junior where I got a B-. Now I've been perusing the interweb and it seems that to get a lowish grade in your major as late as your Junior year is not looked on favorably. In fact, from what I've been seeing, it appears to be worse than getting a few B's freshmen year (because, hey, it's freshmen year). I'm wondering if this is true, i.e., if having one bad grade late is worse than having a few bad grades early. Will this impact my chances, or will it be seen as an inconsequential fluke? If it matters, the course was a 200 elective: metalogic. He taught it at a 400 level though, and assumed massive amounts of background knowledge in mathematics. I'm wondering if it won't matter so much, at least as long as I don't intend to specialize in philosophy of logic/math logic (which I don't) as a grad student. Cheers