frege-bombs

Russ Shafer-Landau's Moral Realism: A Defence. It's awesome.

Declined UMass Amherst. Hope it helps!

If you have any questions about VT, feel free to PM me.

Just declined my Rice offer. It kind of hurt. They have a cool program. Hope this helps someone!

You can sign up to get weekly emails from PhilPapers telling you about recent articles in journals of your choice (I try and look at some of the more reputable ones -- JPhil, Mind, Nous, P&PR, others) and in your area of interest. Also, just spending a lot of time on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy can get be really helpful in getting a sense of the terrain of a particular issue. Hope that's at least somewhat helpful!

I am also waiting to make final decisions until I take all of my visits, but barring unexpected changes, I will likely be deciding between Ohio State and UMass Amherst. My interests are in mind and metaethics. It's a dead heat at this point. UMass seems to have a somewhat stronger placement record and is stronger in mind, while OSU would be more affordable and stronger in metaethics (though there are still good people doing mind at OSU and metaethics at UMass). One thing that may tip the scales in favor of OSU is that Tristram McPherson was recently hired there away from my MA institution, so there would be some familiarity to that end. All things considered, this is a good problem to have, and I feel very fortunate to have a choice at all. Any thoughts at all re: OSU or UMass would be very welcome!

You could always just accept the Columbia offer and hang out at NYU, take seminars there, attend talks there, etc. My impression is that this is not uncommon.

There was. They will fund up to $300 of travel expenses.

I can claim the UMass post. I received an email from Phillip Bricker around 7:15 this evening with funding details and offer of fellowship, inviting me to visit, etc. I am very grateful. Nothing in the email gave me any indication of whether or not they had sent out all of their acceptances, or what their procedure of notifying applicants is generally. Sorry I can't be more helpful there. Best of luck to you!

Sorry if that sounded braggy. I didn't mean for it to be.

My program is actually doing rather well relative to the past few years: Person A: Admits at Notre Dame, Toronto, Arizona, Rochester, and Syracuse. Waitlists at NYU, Berkeley (very high on the waitlist), and UVA. Person B: Admits at UC Irvine LPS, Carnegie Mellon, Maryland, and Penn. Waitlists at UVA and Indiana HPS. Person C: Admits at Ohio State and Rice. Waitlist at Miami. Person D: Admit at Calgary. Waitlist at Syracuse. Person E: No news Most of us are still waiting for a handful of other schools. I sense that the faculty here are pleased. Feelsgoodman.

"I smoked pot with Johnny Hopkins"

I don't have anything useful to contribute re: contacting admissions, but I've been keeping up with the blog (thanks Jac!) and my vote for best university seal goes to SLU. That sword is dope.

Waitlisted at the University of Miami. Waitlisted at assloads of humidity.

I know that someone from my program was admitted at Maryland today, so I trust that the post on the results page is legitimate. Best of luck!

I'm honestly not sure; nothing in the letter gave any indication either way. Sorry I can't be more helpful, and the very best of luck to you!

Admitted at Rice. The email from the DGS described me as "a perfect fit." I suspect this is because Charles Siewert is there, who is one of my intellectual heroes. I feel very grateful at this moment.

These are all good points. I thought I'd add some thoughts of my own, for whatever they might be worth. *If* ones goal is to get a job as a philosophy professor in the United States, then, all else equal, rank and perceived prestige of the department and faculty should play a large factor in ones decision. For better or for worse, philosophers tend to be elitist, and the impression of a job candidate's PhD granting institution and how well-known the people writing their letters of recommendation are go a long way in helping to cull very large job applicant pools. It perhaps ought not to be this way, but it's probably important to keep in mind that this is how things seem to operate currently. Of course, all else is never equal, and job prospects have to be weighed amongst other factors -- family, finances, location, etc. The job market is so damn competitive, though, that it would be prudent of prospective students to investigate placement and the steps departments take to prepare their candidates for the market. Again, assuming you eventually want to secure an academic job.

Tomorrow is the UNC v. Duke men's basketball game. Maybe watch the game, see if you find yourself rooting for one team or the other, and use that to decide between the two?

lol

Dinged at Wisconsin as well.

It seems that rejections from Southern California are indeed coming in waves (I did not get one yesterday, but got one this morning). Best of luck to all waiting it out at USC.

Cool!

Admitted at *The* Ohio State University. Elated. Go Buckeyes.

George Washington University, which is in D.C., has just started a new (and, I believe funded) terminal MA in philosophy (in addition to their already established MA in philosophy and social policy). Going to a new MA program with no track record of placement to PhD programs is a risk, but perhaps that's alleviated somewhat by the fact that their philosophy and social policy students sometimes do get placed at philosophy PhDs. So, it may be worth having a look there and seeing if there are faculty whose interests overlap with your own. http://philosophy.columbian.gwu.edu/ma-philosophy-0