wandajune

For all they know that's just your deadline, or some sort of funding related deadline. I certainly wouldn't sweat it.

Chicagoan reporting in, low of -15 today. Woof.

Anybody else snowed in right now? Not sure where you're all from, but I'm smack in the middle of the crazy snow and freezing temperatures right now. The combination of cabin fever and my neurosis regarding admissions is not fun.

My best writing happens between 8am-11am and 2pm-6pm. If I'm working under an approaching deadline, then I can be pretty productive in the later evening. I like working in a public space (libraries, coffeeshops, bars and restaurants if they aren't noisy), because for some reason I'm less likely to procrastinate or be distracted if other people are around to see what I'm up to. Helps if I'm drinking coffee, too.

I certainly have some self-confidence, and I wouldn't have applied if I didn't consider myself capable of getting in. I think I'm good at philosophy and I think I have a strong application. Striking out is just a real possibility for anyone given the competition, and I refuse to kid myself about that.

Yes, they require an official transcript upon acceptance.

A lot of the information, especially names of the course instructors, are hard to discern from transcripts alone. I'm just glad a lot of the schools I applied to accept unofficial transcripts.

Currently spending a lot of time with friends, who are all aware that I need to take my mind off of this business. Once spring semester starts I'm going to try to just keep myself busy working on my senior thesis and reading for classes. I wish I could completely forget about the whole thing for now, but I've been obsessively checking my email and the online status of my applications to make sure they received all my LORs and transcripts. Too stressful.

Honestly, I have no clue what to expect out of the admissions process. I just continue to hope I'll get in to a few places, but keep the possibility of universal rejection at the forefront of my thoughts to avoid being disappointed. My letter writers have a huge amount of confidence in me. They all agree that I have an extremely good shot, but know that it's possible I may not get in at all. What frustrates me is the repeated attempts of my friends and family members to assure me, "Oh, you'll get in somewhere!" I'd hate to disappoint them all, and it's a definite possibility...

It sounds to me like that should be the minimum requirement, but you should probably contact the program directly to verify.

Loric, everyone here is defending the emphasis on the writing sample because it simply is the most important part of the Philosophy PhD application, by almost all accounts. You're in the philosophy forum. If you have a problem with us discussing aspects of the graduate application process that are particular to philosophy, or somehow are bothered by those of us pursuing graduate degrees in philosophy, I would suggest not posting here.

UCR's deadline is January 5th. I just had a minor heart attack thinking my application was submitted late.

I don't know what's considered proper formatting, but I can tell you what I did. 1) I did not include acknowledgments. 2) Used footnotes. 3) Included an abstract. I was worried about all the same things. I asked a few professors, and never got a specific answer. It's my impression that as long as the formatting isn't distracting from the content of the sample, it shouldn't be a big deal.

He is the MOST dedicated troll.

Even if I get a 4.0 this semester it will barely change my overall GPA, so I'm not going to bother sending the updated transcripts. In your case, I would imagine that getting an A in a graduate level class may help you, I don't know how much though. If it's free to send the transcripts and wont cause too much of a hassle to update your application, it might be worth it.

I for one don't care if this guy is trolling or not. Equally hilarious.

^^^Agreed. I've experienced a lot of self doubt throughout this application process, but I always feel a little better seeing posts from dfindley. I may not be the best grad school applicant, but at least I'm not totally delusional.

dfindley, some programs with strict word limits claim that they will stop reading after X amount of words.

University of Illinois at Chicago has a 300 word limit. I was pulling my hair out trying to condense my statement that much.

You can get the same effect by being honest with your professors. I told mine that I'm trying to get all the application materials in early in order to be considered for priority funding (which is definitely true for at least a few of my programs) and told them the deadlines that I set myself. They've all adhered to these deadlines thus far without an issue.

I think some schools will notify you, some may not. I had one school email me to confirm that they received my score. Currently waiting for applications to be "matched" to my scores, and I'm going to send an email to a few graduate programs inquiring about it if I don't get some sort of indication soon. I don't know if your middle name will make a huge difference, I'm guessing they all have your social security number which should make it obvious.

I'm a bit unsure about that myself. I was already planning on applying there for the MA though, and now it seems that it would be silly not to apply to the PhD. Hm.

Thought this may interest a few of you: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2013/12/arizona-state-re-starts-phd-program.html

I wonder about this a lot, because I take this to be a weakness in my application. Theoretically it shouldn't matter, but top 10ish programs rarely admit students who aren't from prestigious or well-ranked undergraduate programs. I'm not sure if it's because those students are just clearly better, or they have better access to well-known faculty for LORs, or if the prestige of their program actually has some effect on how well received they are by adcoms.