Phil2013

I think you're fine. Mine clocked in at exactly 20 pages Times New Roman and 6300 words (including bibliography). That word-count exceeds some posted criteria for a desired average for length at some depts. However, it's not a fixed average I take it, so I think in the end you're okay. And I have a couple acceptances under my belt at the moment, so I know at least it's gone over well for those schools!

So OSU acceptances went out awhile back, and today it looks like people found online they were rejected. As of now, neither has happened to me. Hmm...

All but two schools were ranked in my AOS as indicated in my writing sample. Those other two schools were ranked in my second area of interest and were in the middle of the PGR rankings, so they were kind of like "just in case" schools - just in case I didn't get admitted to a program in my AOS, I would be happy going to those schools as they are decently ranked (and I would have a better chance of getting in due to their being not too highly ranked). I applied all the way up and down the PGR. My criteria for picking a school I've been accepted to will be a weight of ranking, desirability of location, perceived ability to fit with specific professors, and financial assistance. Given my acceptances so far and my rejections/implied rejections, I already have an idea to what extent I am sure whether I am going to school X or not on the remaining list of schools applied to and the schools to which I've already been accepted. Some decisions will be harder than others to make, as I'm finding out...

Similarly, I had an extra 1100 sitting around from a scholarship and award which paid for the bulk of my 15 applications.

Given my interests and expectations, I probably could have gone without applying to four of the places that I did. However, I had the resources to do 15, so I did so. The factors for admittance are so idiosyncratic that applying to less than 10 places seems to me to be dangerous, unless you are some hotshot from a top university or applied to less on the idea that if you don't get into said places you wouldn't find philosophy worth doing. If you more or less just want to get in somewhere, you gotta do more than 10, IMO.

15: 14 in US, 1 in Canada. Have one acceptance so far. Pretty evenly distributed among the PGR - one school was amongst the few schools on the PGR that are "evaluated but not ranked."

Unfortunately, I have concluded the same. However, it doesn't make sense for them not to have some 'implicit' waitlist even if they don't tell people about it. After all, people may turn down some of their offers, so if they can admit more students that the people who take the offers, I imagine they'll have to accept more people later...

So I have my first acceptance. The grad committee head asked if I wanted to talk to some grad students. I'm actually a bit confused what I should ask grad students there. There are a lot of things I would be tempted to ask that might be a bit gossipy (things like "what professors suck?"), so I'm wondering if any of you out there have any advice as to what's appropriate to ask grad students and what main sorts of question I should ask. Thanks!

On that note, I dislike Eklund's paper "Carnap and Ontological Pluralism" because I think he gets Carnap wrong

Yeah I've had a hell of a time with transcripts. I got college credit in high school and some schools wanted a transcript from them and some didn't. Perhaps my worst ordeal is one of my letters of rec - one of my professors was late to three schools...

So School X originally required a mailed writing sample. I mailed said transcript more than a month before the deadline. Then, on a random check of my application status now weeks after the deadline, there is no update saying the sample has been received, and I also see that School X's department site has been updated to allow e-mailed samples rather than mailed ones. I swear, all the little stuff...

I like "Metaphysics After Carnap: the Ghost Who Walks?" by Huw Price and "On What Grounds What" by Jonathan Schaffer. Price's piece is about how Quine is probably as much of an anti-metaphysician as Carnap was (and that this is a good thing, Price being on the anti-realist side of metaontology). Schaffer basically agrees, and argues that in part because of this contemporary metaphysics needs to take its cue from Aristotle rather than Quine. I find this interesting as a guy who is already interested in Carnap and Quine.

Metametaphysics, eds. Chalmers, Manley, and Wasserman. I've read various articles over the past year or so; now I'm working on Sider's piece, "Ontological Realism"

It has a grad program that isn't ranked (although formerly was). I took one grad class. I wish I could have taken more (money being the main issue), but I excelled in the one class I did take.

So here's my rundown: AOI: History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, general interest in other areas of history of philosophy in 18th-20th centuries BA GPA: 4.0 Went to unranked large state university Double major in Philosophy and Linguistics GRE: 169 Verbal, 158 Math, 6.0 Analytical Writing I'd prefer not to post my list of schools (well, you know I applied to UCR), but it's long and mostly includes schools ranked on the Gourmet's History of Analytic Phil all the way up and down the overall rankings. They are all Ph.D., but I'll probably be applying to an MA program in the next few days. My one obvious strength is my grades, and my big glaring weakness is coming from a school with an unranked grad program. I think my letters will probably be good for me - even though I come from an unranked program, the professors I got to write them aren't complete unknowns in the field. I like my writing sample, but it's a pretty big unknown as it is in the history of analytic philosophy and thus I am unsure if committees will be able to read off the strength of philosophical acumen they want in a student from my sample. Basically, admission committees are going to have to really like my sample and letters to overcome my school.

Looks like three acceptances to Riverside so far - two on the 18th, one on the 22nd.

I've applied to UCR, so this interests me. Do you know anything else about this admittance? I haven't gotten a decision form them either way. One of my letters was like two days late, I hope that wasn't a factor...