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Is anybody here a foreign student that has applied to a Ph.D. (or intends to do so)? I would like to know if you have any advice for preparing the applications. I'm from Argentina and I want to apply to a Ph.D. in Aesthetics (continental). These would be some of the questions. 1) How should I show I'm a good student if the people that will read my application do not know anything about my university (like how good it is, what is a good GPA there, etc.)? 2) How should I choose the professors that will write my letters of recommendation? 3) How much do conference presentations, publications, etc. count as the journals in which I published are not very known in the US? 4) What should my profile be like? It may sound too general, but when you are not from the US it is not that easy to really be aware of what it is important to aware of! Thank you!!

Hi! I'm a Philosophy student and I'm interested in the Ph.D. program in Art History at CUNY, as my AOI is aesthetics. Could you tell me which do you think is the profile of a student that is admitted here? Do I have any chances as a Philosophy student? Is this program (as far as you can tell, of course) only historical or more theoretical (as it is actually described in the webpage)? Thanks!!

What do you mean? It's either one... side of the force or the other?

Ok, thanks a lot. I didn't really pay so much attention to PGR, since I've seen it's not really useful for what I'm looking for. Yet, I wonder if the better choice wouldn't be to study both continental and analytic tradition in one's AOI, to really be able to have both insights and start clearing up that great division... I don't really know what the better choice is. I have to admit I really didn't find interesting the few things I read in analytic aesthetics...

Thank you all for your inputs! magog, could you explain to me the difference between those two groups of schools? I’m sorry, but I’m not from the US, so I’ve been doing some research on Ph.D. programs, but I don’t have like a general view of them.

Thanks a lot for answering! A few things: I’ve studied a lot of modern philosophy, and I’m really interested in it. Let’s say Spinoza, Kant, Schelling, Diderot, Nietzsche (not so modern but anyway). I’m studying aesthetics theories in philosophy but I don’t want to make it so far from... well, art. So I’m trying to reach a middle way betweeen studying philosophy and studying all the things I need to know to be sure I know what I am talking about. Thank you for all your suggestions. As I’ve said some lines above, I want my research not to be detached from art history. My main experience in art is that I am an editor (among three other editors) in an art magazine. But I don't think that could be enough. Thanks in general for your advice!

Hi! I would like to apply to a Ph.D. in Philosophy, but as my AOI is Aesthetics and I'm interested in "continental" philosophy, I do not have a great deal of options, especially if I want to apply to a top school. I'm considering the possibility of applying to a Ph.D. in Art History/Art Criticism/Art Theory, but I want my research, thesis and everything to be philosophical. Is it possible to do so in a program in Art History? Are professors (in general) interested in more theoretical issues? Do they study philosophical texts deeply? And is it possible to be accepted? What should my background be to be accepted in a good Ph.D. program in Art History? Any opinions would be extremely useful. Thanks!!

Hi! I wondered if anyone of you applied to a Ph.D. program that wasn't IN Philosophy specifically, because your interests were philosophical but outside the Philosophy departments, such as English departments, Comp. Lit., German/French Studies, Latin American Studies, etc. I would like to apply to a Ph.D. in Philosophy, but as my AOI is Aesthetics and I'm interested in continental philosophy, I do not have a great deal of options, especially if I want to apply to a top school. I'm considering the possibility of applying to a Ph.D. in Art History/Art Criticism/Art Theory, but I want my research, thesis and everything to be philosophical. Could you talk about how was your experience? Is it possible to do philosophical work in other areas? Do the professors have philosophical knowledge? Does a Philosophy student have chances of being accepted in a program not in Philosophy? I read some of you have in fact this problem, so I thought maybe we could talk about this and hear different experiences. It might be useful to many of us! Thanks!

Thank you SO much! I'll read some of their work so I can have an idea of what they do and how they do it. I hope I have chances of being accepted at a school like Columbia. I asked in the Philosophy gradcafe forum and some people helped me to have an idea. Thanks again!

Yes, I've seen the aesthetics-online website. Thank you! I wondered if you knew in the area of Art History more theory based programs. Thank you. I'm definitely looking for continental programs, though I'm not interested in doing my research on any author or school in the history of Philosophy, which is something quite common in continental philosophy. I've seen New School and I loved it, but then I found out they aren't so nice when giving financial aid, only a few students get it, and I would need stipend and all... Thanks a lot!! I would LOVE to do my Ph.D. in Philosophy. Thank you very much for your advice regarding faculty. It's really really useful. The only problem with Philosophy Ph.D. programs in the US is that they often have lots of required courses in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and analytic philosophy in general, and honestly I'm not at all interested in those areas. The only thing I find interesting of analytic philosophy is its focus on problems and not authors. I'll look into the professors you mentioned. Thanks again!

I forgot to say I'm very interested in interdisciplinary programs. Example: I saw Media&Modernity program at Princeton and fell in love with it, but were disappointed it wasn't actually a Ph.D. program...

Hi! I'm a Philosophy student and I'm interested in Aesthetics. I want to apply to a Ph.D. but as Aesthetics is not a huge area of study in Philosophy, I was thinking maybe in applying to a Ph.D. in Art History. The problem is I'm most interested in theory and art criticism, not so much in history. I saw some that looked interesting, but as I come from Argentina I don't really know how great they are, what is their reputation, etc., except for what rankings say, which can be not so trustworthy... These are the ones that looked good: Princeton Columbia CUNY Stony Brook MIT What do you think? Which Ph.D. programs would you recommend? Thanks!

Thank you!! Yes, I'm considering continental programs, but why do you think an MA would allow me more access to high level schools? In my degree in Philosophy they emphasize history a lot, and I think it's very useful, it's just I'm not myself interested in my research being historical. I've looked at SPEP schools, and at The Philosophy Gourmet Report, but which continental programs would you recommend? Because some programs are considered continental friendly only because there are one or two professors whose research is in the boundaries of continental philosophy, but that is not enough if I really want to focus on what I'm interested in...

Thanks A LOT for your input, it is really useful. It is true Warwick is great, I didn't know Leeds, and I'll also check Chicago and Northwestern. I'm more interested in Aesthetics than in Philosophy of Art. Not as much on the side of those questions about perception and beauty as in connection to Political Philosophy, for example. That is why I found New School interesting, but as you describe it, it doesn't look as a great option. I'm really no interested in "analytic" philosophy, but I admit that "continental" philosophy sometimes leads to the study of a certain author or a certain school. It ends up being about HISTORY of philosophy, and not about finding interesting problems, and I don't want my research to go that way. So I'm quite confused about what I should chose. Thanks again. I'm happy to know my background is good!! It scares me a bit that I come from Argentina. Those who will review my application won't know my university, nor the professors that will write my letters of recommendation. I guess if the letters are good that won't be a terrible issue, but anyway...

Another strange thing about The Gourmet Report: Temple U is in group 4, but seems to be a great place for Aesthetics/Philosophy of Art. So, why isn't it in a higher position?! Maybe I don't understand the report properly.

Thank you very much for your post. It's good to know UBC could be more of a back up. The job market factor is important, you are right... I'm strongly interested in research, and being a professor sounds very good. But as my area of interest is Aesthetics, I'm also considering applying to a Ph.D. in Art History so that I have the possibility of working in a museum, or in the field of art criticism maybe, which also interests me. I read the gourmet report, but sometimes I find it confusing. Yesterday I was reading it again and I remembered that the first time I checked it, for example, I saw CUNY as a top option and I went to the CUNY website, and the Ph.D. program in Philosophy was not so great. Courses in epistemology, philosophy of mind, etc. are required, and I'm not interested in those areas. I could take only TWO courses in Aesthetics. If I'm making the huge effort of pursuing a Ph.D., I want to be really interested in a larger part of it! I found much more interesting the Art History Ph.D. program at CUNY, but I'm sure that it's not what the gourmet report meant when they put CUNY as one of the top options...

Thanks for your answer! Yes, I checked The Phil Gourmet some time ago, but I had forgotten about it. Thank you. There is one professor who has sent some students to the US, I recently heard of one who was accepted in Columbia, which sounds like good news. I already spoke this professor so that we can have a meeting to talk about these things, but anyway he's from an area of study thousands of miles away from Aesthetics, so it will be very useful for general stuff but not for more specific things. Anyway, I would like to know how far I am from the ideal student that applies for a Ph.D., so that I try to get the closer I can to it. I'm a little bit scared, for example, at me not having a MA by the time I'll apply, but at the same time my degree in Philosophy is really long.

Correction: I said I worked as an editor in a contemporary art review, but now I realize that sounded too good. I'm part of a group of four editors, who respond to an editor-in-chief.

Hi! I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina. This year I will finish my degree in Philosophy, and I want to apply to a Ph.D. in the USA (or maybe in Canada). I would like to know if I have chances in top schools, for example. It's really difficult for me to know if I do have chances, because everything is quite different. Maybe I can tell you about my background and you could give me some advice? Here I go: - The degree in Philosophy here in the Universidad de Buenos Aires is quite different from a BA, because it's longer and almost all my courses have been in Philosophy, except 8 (they are 30 in total). Each course lasts for 16 weeks and have generally 6 hours per week (a few have 8 hours per week). It's probably how degrees were in the 19th century. - My GPA is pretty good, I guess. Here the grades are from 1 to 10, and you pass with 4 (though the minimum decent grade is 7), so in the A to D (4.0) language, it would be something between 3.7 and 4.0. - I have 8 conference papers (that is how they are called in the USA, isn't it? You go to a conference and present a short text -6 pages, sometimes 15- about a subject of your research or an area of interest. I wouldn't call that a paper, in Argentina it's about presenting a little part of a broader research, not a paper that could be right away be sent to a journal). - I have two peer-reviewed publications: one book review in an Argentine journal about Nietzsche, and an article (still not published, but accepted) in a Chilean review of Philosophy undergraduates. (I should add the publications made by the conferences in which I presented my papers, another 8, but I don't know if they could be considered as real publications.) - I have other publications that are not peer-reviewed: 2 book reviews in the culture supplement of one important newspaper here, 3 articles in a contemporary art review (that belongs to a very well known art institution), in which I've been working as an editor since 2011. I would like to apply to a Ph.D. in Philosophy or in Art History, I'm not sure about what to do, because Aesthetics is not generally taken as a central area of study in most Ph.D. Philosophy programs, at least that is what I found in my research on the web. Up to now, I found these interesting programs (not ordered by preference): - Philosophy at Stony Brook - Art History at Stony Brook - Philosophy at University of British Columbia - Art and Archaeology at Princeton - Art and Archaeology at Columbia - Art History at CUNY - History + Theory of Architecture and Art at MIT - Philosophy at PennState - Philosophy at New School I think that's it. What should I do to present a successful application? Do I have any chances? I would be SUPER thankful I you could help me. Thank you very much for reading this probably too long post!