AquinasDuo
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Posts posted by AquinasDuo
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Also, I gleaned a fair bit about the UVA procedures and numbers while there, and I see a lot of chatter about it, so let me help a bit:
They make 5 or 6 offers, and then wait-list a little over a dozen more or so. If one takes the top admit as #1 and the last on the waitlist as #20, then in an average year one would see offers going to as low as #15 or #16, with a 'good' year reaching #12 or #13.
Only 3 of the original offer holders attended the visiting weekend, which (especially when paired with the 2 people on these forums that said they were declining the offer) seems to show that they will visit the wait-list at least a little. Moreover, of the 3 of us there, 1 had some high profile offers, but enough money to visit everywhere so he did. I expect he will decline based on things said. I also know of a few waitlist spots that have been given up. Of course, one cannot know where on the list those people were; however, it seems that at least halfway down the list will see an offer, if not lower.
Though, perhaps I should be careful with my illustration. Their list is not strictly ranked. Given that professors can only mentor so many people, and given the department's focus on balance, I assume that they list is likely loosely ranked with some wiggle room based on areas of interest.
I have an offer I am almost sure to take, visited and listened carefully, have a good friend on the waitlist, and was on the waitlist myself last year, so I have the system fairly well figured out.
Similar can be said of Missouri, if anyone is curious about their method.
Speaking of, we ought reach out to Ian to see if we can't build up a Department Methods and Procedures section on his blog too. It'd be neat to have a single resource with dates, practices, funding packages, etc.
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Hello all!
I just turned down my offer from SUNY - Albany. I hope the spot goes to someone who didn't otherwise get in anywhere. I know too well the feeling of a shutout and would wish that on no one.
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I have declined University of Arizona and UCSD, and I just withdrew from University of Toronto's wait list. Good luck, all -- I sincerely hope this makes good things happen for others here.
I likely missed it, but where is it you are going then?
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Just accepted to the MA at Oklahoma. Applied for the PhD. No funding at the moment, though there is a possibility for funding of some kind in the future. Another option, I guess.
OU is a good choice for Philosophy of Religion, and a decent one for Epistemology. Those that went on after the MA placed well; Oxford and the like.
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Congrats! Any preliminary thoughts? p.s. google map St. Andrew's philosophy building, it's totally beautiful.
Edgecliffe is a splendid building with a nice garden, and the classroom overlooks the North Sea.
Virginia is my lead contender right now. I am waitlisted for funding at St. Andrews, and I would need funding to be able to return. Same for Missouri (their process seems weirder and weirder the more I learn about it), and the fellowship there might sway me. Something draws me to SUNY, it is hard to put my finger on, but I am wiling to wager that passing on Virginia for SUNY would be unwise.
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On 2/27/2014 at 10:50 PM, dgswaim said:
I must admit I'm surprised at how many people mention the cost of sending transcripts. My school never charged me for a transcript. I didn't know that was a thing. Not sure how I feel about being charged for proof of one's own grades.
My US schools don't (except one that does, but only after 30 a semester which is unlikely to be reached), but it costs good money to get things sent from overseas.
Anyway...
I have done this five times to increasing success. It seems this year will be my final time, unless the PhD program I pick proves to be an ill fit in which case I may end up going around once more after the MA step (I don't plan on this, but I know it is done - sometimes even with department suggestion and full support). Here are some things I have learned:
(1) By and large GRE and GPA are only to get you over a minimum bar, and to compete for college/university level funding. Generally, it seems that as long as you aren't cut based on your numbers then they won't matter much thereafter until/unless you are competing for a fellowship.
(2) Writing Sample is KEY. The only real difference between last year and this is my writing sample and it gave me a material and quantifiable bump (only essentially concrete because of my multiple years of pattern setting)
(3) Apply broadly. It is painfully expensive, especially when it doesn't work, but with so much of the process being based on chance and intangibles, it is the best bet.
(4) Remember fit - it makes and breaks. Last year I got a nice email from FSU that my application was great, but there was no one for me to work with there so they had to pass. Often when those odd situations like someone who broadly failed getting into a top program, or someone widely successful getting rejected from a low program, it was fit that caused it.
(4b) Make contact with the department early, especially someone with whom you would like to work. This will help with fit. I saved myself from repeating FSU with Edinburgh this year by emailing ahead and finding out that no one wanted to do what I am doing.
(5) Make sure you do whatever you can to allow your letter writers to write a strong letter for you. Do well in their classes, and overall. Be part of the department. Go to talks and engage with the speaker. Keep in communication with them, and have them be part of your continuing work (thought don't annoy or use them!). These things and more ensure that the letter writer has data in hand that makes the strong - and more personal - letter.
(6) Keep organised, and keep on your documents and recommenders. You are project manager of your application in a very real sense; do your job!
(7) Be realistic in review of your qualifications, and cynical about the whole affair. It is sad, but things like your pedigree and the prominence/known-ness of your letter writers do matter. If you have great stats and a love for the discipline but have no name writers who don't know anyone at the school to which you are applying and you are coming out of a small or second tier school, then you ought be ready to fair poorly.
(8) Do an MA. I wish I had. Specifically, an MA from one of the household name programs like Tufts, Brandeis, NIU, Georgia Tech, WUSTL, etc. It may also help to see if a program you like has a sort of feeder program. For instance, a lot of Western Michigan people end up at Missouri.
(9) Don't get rusty! It is easy, especially when you are applying and are no longer in school, to focus on applications and lose some of your chops in Philosophy. I feel I have, in part because I teach Intro to Phil and so have been inundated with the basics for too long, and know it makes the idea of visits all the more stressful. Indeed, for those schools that make the wait list and acceptance divide based on the visit, it could hurt in a material way.
(10) Don't think about any of the school to which you apply after you apply unless you get accepted. The most heartbreaking part is when a school you personally wanted to go to says no, and it's worse if you looked up the campus and area, and talked about it, and gotten all excited. A big part of surviving the season is avoiding the bummer-filled troughs as time goes by and results start coming out.
(11) Finally, realise that some programs are really nice, and some are pretty rude, and try to focus on communicating with the nice ones. This is because they will, and it will be more pleasant, but also because that is a good sign that the people there are more the type you'd like to work with for the next 3-7 years. This is also a handy screen because it is automatically biased and subjective, and allows you to make valuations without working about PG Rank, or placement, or other things are honestly really hard to use as data for a quality, personally optimal, rational choice.
I hope some of this helpful to someone. I'll go back and add/edit later.
- stressedout, Kantianisms and IanHendon
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Quick Report: St. Andrews and SUNY-Albany today
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It is good news to see so many BU spots planned for decline. They are one of two schools who have yet to get back to me, and I would be chuffed by an offer even coming off a waitlist.
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Cornell, oh Cornell, we would have been great together. Bummer that one, it was the last "dream school" on the list. It also seems Syracuse is about done with its admissions and wait-list...
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BSG--In my opinion, if you are not offered funding, and so decide to take out a loan to finance the MA, and if the cost of their MA is not all that greater than what you'd pay to go to Houston or GSU, you should take the offer from Warwick. Pound for pound it is a much stronger department than both Houston and GSU. Houlgate, Brewer, Poellner, Ansell-Pearson, these are all fairly imminent scholars in the field.
I have to disagree. I got a masters from St. Andrews, which is a pound for pound (;-P) better department than Warwick, and I found it of only a little use to the process. I think the UK/US divide is deeper than we think. Indeed, I was told by an Oxford DPhil that any but the top schools don't really know how to handle his degree and he finds himself hard pressed for work on this side of the pond (as the competition for those top-school spots is incredible on the leanest of days). In the end, one has to ask if the money you will spend on tuition and much higher living cost (given exchange rates) is worth an extended writing sample workshop with some few bonus points on an application (if any says some, or even to a detriment according to a few).
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I feel like I'm guilty of thinking everyone's a guy unless their screenname indicates otherwise, if only because I know philosophy is dominated by men. As a woman, I'm not offended if, for example, I get "bro"ed, etc. on the threads.
I, honestly, assumed you female based on your name.
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I talked to the people in Syracuse's philosophy department and they said they are sending out acceptances a few at a time and that they have more work to do with the applications.
This is good news!
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I am very sorry if this has been addressed prior, I looked and didn't see it but could have missed something:
Do we happen to know if Syracuse and/or Riverside will have a waitlist? I feel like the former does not use one and the latter will, but am not sure from where I got these ideas.
Thanks!
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Have we started referring to definite people as him/her now?
I know that at least two of my writers are lurkers, if not posters, and I want to insure that I am as tactful as can be. Nothing more :-)
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Observation: Many of the people who are getting multiple, high end, acceptances are located in Massachusetts. Perhaps more evidence in support of UG brand value in applications.
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This is something I have long wondered, and as such I have had numerous conversations on the subject. Two things I have gleaned are:
(1) The 'fame' of the letter writer is not really the important part, though name recognition is, and in the end the actual thing being weighed is trust. So, the writer does matter, yes - this is unavoidable - but do not get down if none of yours are 'big names' as they could still be known and trusted by the ad-com committee (or member thereof). Ad-coms are made of people making people decisions, and just as I would trust by best friend's judgement on what computer I need (he is a professional in the field) over that of Bill Gates (bias aside), so too will a committee member trust someone she went to grad school with or corresponds with regularly over some big name across the continent that they have never met. [Of course, an exception might be a big name who's last 10 students are now peppered across the Ivy League and producing excellent philosophy, but then the trust is in the record not really just the person.]
(2) The best way to get a strong letter is to make it. I don't mean write one for the recommender, I mean make effort to gather/create some good things for them to write about. For instance, one of my letter writers had no special contact with me other than one course; however, I was the top student in that course, went to a small conference on campus and impressed him/her, ran into him/her at a major professional conference, and kept in contact. I could have just taken the course, asked for a letter, and probably gotten a decent one, but in making it a point to be noticed in a positive light I made the letter much stronger (or at least able to be much stronger). For another, one of my writers (my research director) found him/herself in a bit of a bind because I had not done exceedingly well in the course for which they had me. But, since I had been top student in other classes they were able to focus on this instead as objective evidence for their subjective support.
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I accepted Arizona's offer. This means I will be turning down an offer at Syracuse, and taking myself off the waitlists of Wash U, Indiana, and Missouri. Hopefully this helps some people. Very excited about this, so anyone else that ends up deciding on Arizona should definitely contact me!
Maybe I'll hear from Syracuse now! (says the wishful thinker)
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I look away for a day and a half, and two of the schools I was eagerly waiting for have come and gone with no news for me. Can't complain, I'm really happy with Virginia, but .. still would have nice, I suppose.
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Realistically, what kinds of schools do you have to get your Phd from to have a realistic chance of eventually teaching at a top-25 school? I'm assuming a school in the top-50?
Almost impossible to say. I did my Undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma (which I think was maybe tied for 50 some years back, and used to be an honourable mention when I was there), and one of our PhD's first job was Tenure Track at Harvard (https://www.fas.harvard.edu/~phildept/jones.html)
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I received an offer from Virginia today. Technically it is conditional based on approval from the graduate college, but I think this is just a procedural note. I hadn't been notified that I was on a waitlist before, so either the waitlist is private (which would be new because I was on the waitlist and knew it last year) or they are sending out a second round of admissions.
Congrats to the MIT admits! Really brilliant!
Any news on if Syracuse released all admits or just a first round?
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Yale hasn't sent rejections. Just FYI I'm keeping a list of what I believe are legitimate reports of notifications. See my blog. Click 'notifications'.
Speaking of said blog: The notifications graphic is missing some good schools, and I cannot figure our why. An example is Virginia, which is one in which I have an immense personal interest.
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I see posts for emails from Yale on acceptances, wait-lists, and rejections; however, I have no emails from Yale. Odd this...
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I did find a few exceptions, but every exception was either an international student or else the top-20 program that admitted them was Notre Dame.
Do we have an insight as to why Notre Dame is an exception? I kick myself every time I realise I cut them from my list year for cost and now have better reason for said kickings, but I am sincerely curious to figure out why Notre Dame admissions are just so.
Dear 2015 applicants, here is what we have learned from the 2014 season
in Philosophy
Posted
Gnothi_Seauton, on 02 Jan 2015 - 11:18 AM, said:
I know I am a little late to the party, but I wanted to be sure and re-emphasize that this advice is very, very important to heed. Environmental factors - especially living conditions - can ruin your work, which might well turn out to ruin your career. I can attest to this first hand, and have seen others hit harder than I.