KOHR

Thanks for the reply Gnothi_Seauton! My apologies for being a bit vague. One of my bigger anxieties regarding ph.d applications is that, while all of the people writing my letters were fantastic philosophy professors, they are not exactly well-known by any means. While a couple of the professors at my undergrad institution were actively publishing, I don't believe we had any "big-hitters," nor did any of my letter writers mention any affiliation with the programs I am interested in attending. Speaking of which, I'm primarily looking into the following ph.d programs: U Chicago Stony Brook CUNY Loyola Chicago Vanderbilt Penn State Hopefully that helps a bit. Again, I'm happy to hear anybody's stories about attending a standalone MA program in philosophy and what their feelings were about it. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I know this is an overly asked question around these parts but this is the only community of people I know are in an even remotely similar situation to me, so I figured I would come to you for your opinions. Here's my situation: I've recieved an offer from a terminal M.A. program in the UK, which I've already deferred last year. Now its time for me to decide if I should accept the offer for enrollment this coming fall. There is no funding for this program, but it is only one year so it would be about half of the cost when compared to most other similar programs. I have not applied to any other programs because of a couple reasons (the first year, I was only applying to the school through the Fulbright, and this last December I was teaching English abroad with very little money or time to apply elsewhere). That being said, I am very attracted to the program because the faculty focuses directly on my interests. The program is one of the top ranked in its particular field, and hosts two of the major scholars writing on my philosopher-of-interest. My biggest concern is that I would be going into debt and that I may be able to avoid that debt by just waiting and applying to a domestic Ph.D program directly this coming winter. My stats are decent, I believe: Graduated Summa Cum Laude from large state school GPA: 4.000 GRE: 590 verbal, 730 quantitative I know have three excellent rec letters that could be redrafted for new applications My biggest concern is that I don't have a writing sample I'm happy enough with for applications. I do have my undergrad thesis but it's about 2x longer than what most schools want and I don't think it would cut down nicely. So I guess I'm looking for people's thoughts on whether taking out loans to do a terminal masters is practical or if I have a decent shot at funded domestic ph.d programs. I should reiterate that I am interested in working with the faculty at this MA program, but I just don't know if 20k+ loans is a good idea for the service that it offers when there is a possibility of going directly into a ph.d program and taking out no loans. Thanks! I look forward to any advice y'all may be able to offer me.

Found this thread a couple days ago after searching for more information on that email from the UK commission saying they had sent their results back to US-side. I just wanted to let you know that you're not the only one! I too was notified this morning that I've been selected as an alternate for the UK. Kind of disappointing, but there's still hope. Knowing one way or another would be nice-- I feel like it was only a couple days ago I was saying to my friends how getting alternate would be the most stressful response to hear back.