introspectiveopacity

Yes you can walk home from the bus stop in the daytime safely...as you can in pretty much any city in the US.

I'm coming from a BA at a small liberal arts college, and I will be going to a Leiter top 10 PhD program next year. I applied to 11, was (eventually) accepted to 3, waitlisted at 1, and rejected from 7.

Presumably it would, since the reason departments are forced to accept so few is because they only have a few funded positions available. If you can guarantee independent funding, they may be willing to accept an extra applicant.

The test scores are percentiles.

Haha, I'm flattered, truly.

Just got this email myself...as noted above, I had thought that I was out of the running.

Same here. I would think that it does, yes.

This one was painful for me.

I'm always totally perplexed by charts like these. Median Starting Salary for philosophy majors is about $40,000. I'm a year out of college and I make about $10,000 year. I can't imagine myself making much more than $20,000 a year anytime in the next 5 years. Who the hell are all these people making $40,000+ a year as a starting salary? How? I'm not sure how I would ever make $40,000 a year in my lifetime (adjusting for inflation).

Hmm, of course, since the form does not include an MA gpa question, it's possible that people with MAs are listing their undergrad gpas without noting that they have MAs.

How many of those are undergrad GPAs from people in MA programs?

My writing sample was about 20 pages, which fit the requirements of most departments. A few required 15 pages or less, however...I just sent the 20 page paper anyway, and I didn't note that anywhere on the application. I was waitlisted at one of the 15-page departments, and I haven't been accepted anywhere else. It's not like they're going to throw your app out without looking at it if you're off by a few pages. Perhaps they will be less inclined to read the whole sample, though.

Red Bull, is your list of schools determined entirely by a desire to live in California? If so, why not USC/UCLA, UCR, UCI, or UCSC?

I think plenty of people would be totally fine living in Seward. It's just less yuppie-ish than uptown. I think it's a great neighborhood, and I'd much rather live there than uptown. Particularly if you're going to live on a less luxurious grad stipend, you can save lots of money by living in a house with roommates in a neighborhood that is a little less "polished." Minneapolis/St. Paul is not that dangerous of a city...most neighborhoods are pretty safe as long as you take basic precautions.

Fit: There's obviously no point in applying to a program that doesn't have multiple people who work in my areas of interest. Prestige: Basically placement record and PGR ranking. (I want to work in analytic, so PGR makes sense for me.) Wanted a range of programs, a majority in the top PGR 25, a few down to rank 40. Location: The program should be in a city I would enjoy living in, which takes into account my lack of a car, vegetarianism, etc. Unless it's a top 10 program...I could make do in New Brunswick, New Jersey.