jelris

I know that feeling. I recently declined a very generous offer from SUNY-Buffalo to accept an offer at Emory. I was very torn about it but knew that it was the right choice.

Vermont is clearly superior in all respects that matter. And as a bonus, Burlington is a very nice city.

No, placement data is a perfectly legitimate concern when looking at graduate programs. Unfortunately, the information is often opaque and/or disorganized. Sometimes departments will have a reasonably extensive list of alumni, when they graduated and where they were placed, if anywhere. If any of your programs do that, you can always try and do a manual list. I have heard that, if you're bold, you may be able to squeeze placement data out of a department by e-mailing the office but I'm not sure how well that would work. It all depends on whether they have the statistics and are purposefully keeping them opaque or whether they are just not keeping very good stats. One kind of soft measures you can kind of use is the NRC ranking for a program (https://www.chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-English/124728). The "Students" rank is derived from "students' completion rates, financial aid, and other criteria" where hopefully other criteria includes student placement. Sometimes, you can find data on the site for the Graduate School as opposed to the departmental site.

I just got waitlisted at Loyola Chicago today so it seems they are still sending things out.

@NotMyAncestorsPhilosophy First of all, congratulations on your acceptance! A prospective student visit that soon does seem to indicate that the acceptances as a whole have probably been sent out. Perhaps your potential cohort members do not use thegradcafe which seems surprising yet possible. I am currently in an MA program and one of my colleagues had never heard of it until I mentioned it recently in his presence. Thanks for the info!

Does anyone have any details on Memphis perchance? I noticed that one person, but only one person, has posted an acceptance so far. Not sure if this indicates that acceptances have been sent out or just that one early acceptance, perhaps to a fellowship nominee.

@Mopreller See you at Emory!

Just got a Skype interview request from Penn State!

Seems like Northwestern just sent out phone call acceptances.

To everyone that got into Buffalo today: Congratulations! And as an inside scoop, they will probably have their new admit visitation days on 3/12 & 3/13 or 3/13 & 3/14 or so I've been told.

As one of my professors once told me in regards to coming up with a list of schools to apply to: Don't rule out any place that, right now, you think you might not want to live in. Your expectations and priorities may change as you move further along in the application process.

@Crow T. Robot Thanks! Hope Duke Literature works out, it would certainly be warmer than the Twin Cities.

Yes, I applied to Emory and Northwestern as well as OSU's Comparative Studies program and programs administered by Comparative Literature departments such as SUNY-Binghamton's PLC program and UMN's CSDS program. So far, I've been admitted to OSU, been waitlisted at UMN, and have received an interview invitation to Emory. Best of luck!

@Warelin That's useful to know! I kept wondering what sorts of outcomes are possible and what sort of yield is probable after something like an on campus interview weekend.

@kinoko I was invited for that interview weekend as well. What's your area of research?

Looks like interviews have gone out!

Yes, it is a 2 year program. I have enjoyed my coursework so far, however, my work is primarily in continental philosophy so I have had limited contact with the professors that you would be working with primarily. The program has good flexibility although there is a required seminar per semester. If you're interested, I would suggest you look up Pence, Roland, Protevi, and Sarkar on the LSU Philosophy website and see how your interests align.

LSU might be a good option for you. I got in with limited coursework in Philosophy as my undergraduate degree was in Modern Culture & Media and it is a funded program with some reasonable support for philosophy of science.

Yes, the sooner they come, the sooner one can plan on what comes next. I'm not as familiar with the other programs you mentioned except for UCSC which seemed like a good fit but likely to be a bit scant on funding from what I've heard.

I applied to Duke Literature this cycle since my interests are primarily theoretical, especially psychoanalytic theory, Marxist theory, and ecocriticism. I'm not holding my breath but am waiting to see about interviews. Glad to know they send out those requests pretty early. Duke Literature and Emory Comparative Literature are probably my top choices right now so knowing either way would be a relief.

@WildeThing I have not contacted any of the faculty yet but I will keep that in mind.

@WildeThing The GPA I posted is from an MA program I'm finishing rather than my undergraduate GPA.

I was actually an undergraduate major in media and cultural studies and am finishing an MA in philosophy so my application list has been all over the place departmentally due to my interdisciplinary interests but have done my best to find departments that are good fits regardless of their disciplinary affiliation. I have applied to one English program, one Literature program, one Media Studies program, five Comparative Literature programs, and six Philosophy programs.

Thanks, everyone! I was very surprised to get a response this early. I figured next week would be the earliest but Buffalo is usually a pretty early responder it seems.

I am the Buffalo acceptance. I posted the standard package that they've offered me although they said they will nominate me for a Schomberg fellowship as well so my package offer may change. My first response from any program so far.