philstudent1991

No go at Houston? NIU?

He's right. I totally forgot about that. Sorry bud. You may as well email.

I heard from U Chicago today so be sure to check your spam. If nothing is there...you may be on the waitlist, or else why not reject you outright with the rest of us?

As was I. Does anyone know anything about it? I take it it's not funded? And it's interdisciplinary, not just philosophy, so....ya.

Certainly. Swarthmore and Dartmouth immediately come to mind. But let's be sure not to let a debate over details cloud the nature of the advice to prospective applicants, which is that pedigree matters very much.

I was contacted by Houston and said they can't offer funding, so I will very likely decline.

If your BA isn't from a well regarded school, and by this I probably mean PGR, don't even mess with PhD programs. No matter who you are your chances are very poor. There are many good MA programs that you should consider to stepping stone your way in to a top school.

I was accepted to Georgia State! Finally some good news. Of course I will have to wait for other offers if any to come in, but I am happy to know that I have an option now. If anyone on here attended Georgia State, could you please please please PM me? Thanks!

Ya, but why would they? I wouldn't turn anything down until I knew what all my options were. What we really need is a hard deadline on offers. We have a deadline to let schools know by: April 15. They need to have a deadline too, say February 15 or March 15. That would help with the waitlist movement. That way, people would have all the information they needed to make their decision earlier and everyone would benefit. As we know, some schools don't bother to release rejections until April even though they've made all their decisions and I think that they screw everyone, even themselves.

I can't imagine that being a "toxic" writing sample. Who knows, maybe it was poorly done, but it doesn't sound like it, and it certainly doesn't sound like the topic itself was a poor choice.

I really don't think you can be too upset about it. MIT is crazy hard to get in to. I think some of those people that get in are computers. Unless your dad was on the ad com or something, it's not worth being upset about. Even fantastic applicants got rejected.

At least one of mine said something along the lines of, one of the best in 15 years, his few equivalent students got phds in philosophy. but I feel that's a pretty middling letter with letter inflation these days lol

I got a 169 V and don't have anything but rejections so far lol just sayin. I don't think GRE can help you much if you went to a lesser known school.

For me personally, if I get shut out of PhDs and go to an MA, I will definitely ask all the departments what I could have done better, how far I made it through the process if anyone remembers, those sorts of things so I can know for next time. I applied to 11 phd so surely someone will bite.

I'm surprised there are so many moral realists here.

Same question

I think that people are simply reporting a psychological preference when they talk about moral frameworks and I don't believe that any moral claims correspond with a reality. However, in my actions I think I end up with contractualism. I don't run red lights and rob banks not because I think it's wrong but because I know that we are all better off if we all play by certain rules. If I had a bank, I wouldn't want people to rob it. This is not to be confused with Kantian universal maxims however, because if I'm alone at an intersection late at night and there are no contract enforcers around, I may well break the law.

That's a good point. I guess it's because skepticism and nihilism are common enough views, but aren't really normative, as I imagine adherents could vary quite widely on a given moral dilemma. I could have perhaps put "consequentialism" or "deontology" rather than utilitarianism and Kant, but I figured this is the most precise way to do it. I am surprised by the diversity of opinions, and at how many people marked "other". It makes me happy that this storied philosophical debate is alive and well!

I've never done a poll before so I apologize if this messes up and wastes everyone's time...

Idk. If I wasn't a moral skeptic I'd probably favor utilitarianism. The only way to think about ethics that seems to make sense to me is the consequentialist framework (other than the error theory framework, to which I subscribe).

Are you a human being?

Ohhh ya know what, I might have to change my vote. Descartes' proof of God is so bad that some think he just threw it in there to avoid charges of heresy.

I second Anselm

I've been wondering the same thing. No, no word so far. Also, to weigh in on the whether faircloud crossed the line or not debate...I'm gonna have to go with no. Raising the issue of whether philosophy really is logos calling is a fair point, and honestly one that his real world friends may be hesitant to raise. I think we need to be honest with each other here, even if the truth hurts. I am glad people have been honest with me on here, pointing out that my chances are slim coming from a non prestigious school and those sorts of points, because that is really important for me to know and it influenced how I targeted my applications. In the end, I think it's best to know the truth, even if the truth sucks.

Reached my up vote quota but that sounds like a plan!