Philhopeful

I know that a few other fields on grad cafe have compiled lists of the standard funding offers from top universities in their field. Does anyone know if philosophy has one?

Its an email from the graduate admissions director. No details on funding.

I can also claim a Pitt.

Thanks. And yep, it has changed

I can claim the Austin.

Top 5, and over a week early.

I happen to have heard that a pretty great school is going to release tomorrow. Good luck all!

I don't treat MA programs differently than Phd's--not that that is even relevant for the point that I'm making. But if MAs are increasingly becoming a prerequisite for people to be competitive for Phd programs, then you compound the inaccessibility issue of getting into the field generally.

Yes, I saw where anon1956 claims its a "semantic difference." But its not--as is pointed out a few more comments down. Some people will go to programs even unfunded. Not everyone has that option. Hence the accessibility problem. My pointing out of merit based aid was only supposed to establish that, not the "rip off" point.

Thanks for replying. I did that with one of my applications which required about 750 words more than I could cut. I feel like it might be too conspicuous if what I submit is over twice the size of what they ask for though. I guess I'll see what my adviser thinks.

This is the way that I understand the process too. Its also my understanding that most master's programs that can provide funding will often only fund the top students that they accept. Just speaking generally, if money is already an issue for you, then you're more likely to come from a school which won't prepare you to be competitive for that funding either. So there is also an element of inaccessibility here apart from the more obvious element of ripping students off.

The very last school that I'm applying to requires a 2000 word writing sample and I'm really not sure what to do. Has anyone else applied to any schools with this length expectation? Assuming that they aren't expecting a research paper, would something like a short argument with a single counterargument, or something thats more expository, be okay? I don't think that I wrote any essays that length since sophomore year.

Also in agreement! Most of my friends have sworn off the site for their peace of mind, but I really appreciate this.

Oh, its technically from Classics, with a joint in Ancient philosophy. Okay. That makes me feel a little better.

Oh no. This is going to stress me out a lot.

I want to move out to where ever I am going to be living as soon as possible and to get settled there. I'll probably mostly take the summer off, reading lightly and relaxing. We might not have another summer to relax in awhile after all.

Really? How did you ask them? I made a similar mistake and have been torn about whether to ask

Congrats. That has got to feel pretty good

Location is huge for me. I'd be willing to cope with pretty much anything, but if given the choice I'd love California or Austin. I'd like New York too, but I imagine finding a place to live would be kind of a nightmare

Like "(names change to protect privacy)" the first time that you mention them.

I wonder if I know you. I'd change the names and include a parenthetical. As someone else who has worked in shelters, I'd consider it as unethical to use real names. Some shelters have special provisions about this in their rules for staff and volunteers.

I've definitely experienced a similar slowing down of writing. I tend to think though that it mostly just has to do with the increased level of rigour. None of the things I used to write quickly were anywhere near the same level of sophistication as my current technical writing. With regards to the people advocating for word vomiting--I think you're missing the reason why the work is taking so long. Its because it takes a long time to parse things through and make sure you're saying what you want to be saying. Word vomit approaches are great if you have writers block, are having trouble getting started, or need to get the whole thing on paper to figure out what you want to do with the structure. When it comes to a concise technical argumentative move however, theres no replacement for the slow process of writing it out accurately. In my experience, when you word vomit a technical paragraph, you never get to revise because in revision you have to throw the whole dang thing out and rewrite it from scratch slowly and carefully.

I divide it up into two hour intervals, so its not really that bad. Plus, idk about you, but a big part of my GRE exhaustion came from the timer. Especially on the math sections. Also, thanks for the links Selfhatingphilosopher! I hadn't seen that blog before.

Submitted. Thanks for this announcement, I might have missed that otherwise

Thanks! And I also count note writing and drafting, so its not exclusively reading. It should also be qualified to weekdays. I built up the habit slowly over the last year or so as a way of optimizing my time. When I first started recording my time I was barely doing 12 hours of consistent work a week. It gets a lot easier if you can work at the same time and place though--your mind starts adjusting for the right level of concentration on its own. Writing is my next priority. I'm hoping to do an hour a day. I find it a lot harder though because I never want to write anything until I feel like the idea is well formed.