Deliberate

I wasn't notified of a decision regarding NYU. I checked my spam folder and made sure my email was typed correctly on my application. AFAIK all of their decisions have been released. Has this happened to other people as well?

How much does this help for placement? I've been surprised to see tenure track professors at top schools having very few publications when they were PhD students (one or two). Without any information, I would have thought that you needed many more than to get a good job, but I must be wrong. Is having a high number of publications a fool's goal in grad school? Is there an upper bound for how many to go for (as in , will people just take you less seriously if all you did was try to crank out 20 publications in your PhD program)? Is it publicly annoying, or are there unwritten rules against people going for more than a few by the time they finish?

Does anyone know roughly when we can expect to hear of admissions decisions from Oxford regarding their BPhils? It's not listed on faircloud's blog.

How many rounds of acceptances are there for most top 20 schools? If a school hasn't sent you an official rejection, do you have any hope of being accepted in mid-March and beyond?

I'm writing up my last personal statement for the Oxford B.Phil program and was curious if there were conventions against dropping names for people you'd be interested in working with down the line in a D.Phil. I remember reading somewhere a while ago that it was harder in the U.K. to meet professors you're interested in working with (you typically have to be introduced?) but this could be total bullshit and/or a fabricated memory so I wanted to make sure (I've never actually been to the U.K.). The last thing I want to do though is piss off someone by dropping a name in a way that seems crude in the U.K. albeit more normal in the U.S.A.

I would have definitely missed it if you hadn't made the post. Thanks.

Loric, do you mean one should write down a paragraph and then revise it (and many others) much later in time (as opposed to immediately agonizing over making it perfect)? Can you break down in more detail what your process looks like?

This is a very weird and vague soft question for people on the forum. How long does it typically take you to write a paragraph of high quality content? When I was an undergraduate, I had this perception that I could write at lightning speed and everything I had to say was medium to high quality. Now I feel like it takes me an hour (literally) to write just a single paragraph that's high in quality and content (say a paragraph in a writing sample or even personal statement). I suppose that's still good. If one spent 5 hours a day on research, one could knock out at least a page or two. If that's the case, one could have an entire book within a year.

"Applicants to the Philosophy Program are required to list only relevant texts and authors in this section" -- yes, this section is completely unclear to me. What are you all taking this to mean and how are you filling it out?

Is it tacky or good form to footnote publications which I (either directly or indirectly) discuss in my personal statement? For example, if I talk about why I'd like to work with Professor X given his work in Y, would it be appropriate to footnote Y with the actual publication I had in mind?

I'm last minute personalizing statements for some schools and have realized that a lot of the professors that I want to display interest in are old (i.e., 70's+). Is it bad to talk about these professors in my personal statement? These are NOT emiretus/retired professors (that is, they're still teaching classes and are publishing). Basically, does it make me look stupid to talk about how the works of old professors encouraged me to apply to XYZ university since those professors might not even be taking students? Also, assume it's too late for me to personally inquire to these professors whether or not they are in, in fact, taking students

How important is it to put a paragraph about specific professors you'd be interested in working under in your personal statement? Is it typically a bad idea to not include such a paragraph at all? Furthermore, is it generally a bad idea to talk about your interest in non-departmental philosophers in personal statements (for example, talking about how your research interests involve the works of a professor at some other school)?

Your answer was very helpful. I guess the last remaining question is if someone is admitted into a BPhil program, is it all but guaranteed that they can continue onto the DPhil (with funding assuming they had it to begin with) provided that they aren't terrible? Or does is it basically mean you have to restart the whole process again (i.e., one should think of the BPhil as basically like a Masters Program)?

If everything else in an application is submitted, but letters of recommendation come in late -- is this a deal breaker for schools? I'm thinking of applications like UChicago -- which are due in a few days (I just now realized).

I'm an American with a BA in Philosophy. I've almost completed a Master's degree in mathematics and am now applying to Philosophy PhD programs in the US. Question 1: Do Americans wanting to apply to Oxford typically apply straight to DPhil programs, or to the BPhil programs first? If the former, is one stuck with one's research proposal, or can one modify it over time like they might be able to in PhD programs? Question 2: Are BPhil's even funded (i.e., can one obtain a BPhil at a place like Oxford without going into any debt)?