SamStone

Yea, I'm in the same boat: I've been checking my e-mail constantly. Think its late enough in the day to stop hoping for something?

CONGRATS!

*crickets chirp* so....the new x-files episode was funny last night...

...so what are the chances we'll really hear from Berkeley tomorrow? Have they been relatively consistent in the past?

HI! I see that three of us are posting on here...anyone else from the dept?

It wasn't in my top 3, but I definitely had hopes for that application.

Today marks my first notification: a rejection from Northwestern.

Agh! I don't want to think seriously about a back up plan. But if I get shut out, I'd begin planning to apply again in the fall. I have a business idea that would take me totally out of academic work, but not totally out my philosophical background. The business relates to publishing, which I have some experience with so I don't think it'd be too much of a long shot, but it would take serious dedication to get off the ground. So I guess I would start some of the preliminary work getting that idea going, and wait to see if I got shut out again.

Yea, I was thinking the same thing as dgswaim. You can get a lot of random hits on academia. On my account I've gotten more page visits from cities that I don't know any one in. I don't really know why that happens, but I'm guessing its just people scanning around on the site. I do that sometimes. And even if it was someone from Vandy, I'm not really sure you can glean much from that knowledge... Though, I guess if I had to wager a guess, I'd assume it wouldn't be a bad thing that someone saw your app and wanted to look you up.

I'd agree with thatsjustsemantics' on the answers to your three questions. I'll also add that I'd definitely check into the funding possibilities at these schools before applying. Previously, I applied to CGU, was accepted, and found that the funding they offered was minimal in comparison to the cost of tuition. Same goes for SFSU (but they had some sort of 'in-state' tuition deal). Both schools do offer funding—and, of course, I do no know your financial situation—but in my case, the funding was not enough to accept the offer. Have you considered applying to Georgia State's MA or UW-Milwaukee's MA? From what I have heard: both programs offer great funding, and it would be possible at both to focus on issue within, or the historical figures involved in, continental philosophy.

It definitely feels weird just waiting after all that work... However, I did just get back from a great trip out of town with my wife before the next semester starts. We went to the beach, and it was so nice to not think about applications, my thesis, etc. for a week. Now that I'm home I plan to do some extra reading before courses start up again. I've started reading the biography Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life by Eland and Jennings, which has already been somewhat encouraging during the application process: despite his brilliance, Benjamin seemed to face so many rejections and struggled to find his place in a university (not that I expect to be rejected..but that is always a possibility). I'm also reading Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, which has been really fun. I'll probably read a few other other books that I don't get to engage with at school, but haven't quite planned out a reading list. I'm really just relieved to get a chance to relax this semester.

I wouldn't do it.

ALL OF MY APPLICATIONS HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED! wow. I never thought that was going to be over. I have been thinking about this day since last may Good luck with everyone else finishing!

Hey everyone, I'm curious if anyone has any idea about what to input on UC-Berkeley's application, where it asks for GPA. They list it as "0.0-4.5"...but in my experience, gpa only goes up to 4.0. Am I supposed to calculate my GPA based on a different standard, or what is a 4.5 scale?

I think that with an SoP it is important to keep in mind that there are lots of different opinions on what a good SOP looks like. Typically, the idea is to give the adcom a good idea of not only what what your primary and secondary interests are, but to also provide a picture of how/why those are your interest. That is, I think it is important not only to list and describe your interests, but to also provide the philosophical motivation behind your interest. And, regarding the amount of detail per interest, one professor gave me this advice: don't even mention that you are interested in a specific topic unless you can say one intelligible thing about it in your SoP. In other words, if it is worth saying you are interested in a topic, it's worth the extra sentence or two telling the school what makes that topic interesting to you. And if you are describing your interest in a sentence or two, and also providing some sense of your personal motivation or investment in that topic, I doubt it would come off as 'too narrow'. And oppositely, it shouldn't read as too general if your presentation of the ideas is interesting.

I agree, 12000 words seems to be a stretch. Unless you are also indicating a section of the paper that you hope them to read...since most adcoms won't actually read the whole thing?

Just FYI: Since you originally posted your question, and since I am having a similar question, I emailed some departments about this. Most of them said something to the effect of "go ahead and submit the paper." A couple of the programs told me that it might be a good idea to indicate a section that can be skipped if some of the members of the admission committee does not want to read more than the requested limit. However, one program told me to upload my full writing sample, and that they are "quite happy to read slightly longer papers" (and my paper is just over 7500 words, while they ask for "roughly 6000 words"). So, in case you haven't already, I definitely recommend just emailing the department and seeing how they feel about it.

which programs request writing samples that short?!

Does it seem important, helpful, or worthwhile to include an abstract with your writing sample even if the departments do ask for one? And, if it is not necessarily important or helpful—does it seem like it would actually hurt to include one when they are not requested? How about cover pages?

Reading the responses, i'm now wondering about a more general issue. I have been told by most people that in your application, the two most important pieces are you writing sample and you letters of recommendation. But if, as the two above posters have suggested, that reading letters about yourself would be not helpful or uninteresting since they are "overly hyped" or that the statements about your ability are "just BS"; then, why are these letters so important in your application? Given that most (maybe all) professors on an admissions committee have also written such letters, they would know that the letters they are reading are sensationalized. I realize that the features of your work that the letters are describing are not necessarily completely false, but I'm curious about how (or through what filter) the exaggeration in letters might be read or judged by admissions committee.

I am also in this situation. For the programs that request shorter papers, I plan to make a note at the beginning of the paper indicating something like: "I have submitted a full version of my essay, but because of the length requirements I recommend that the admission committee skip sections 2.2-2.5 and sections 4.1-4.2. These sections are important for the argument I am building, but can be skipped for reasons X, Y, Z" However, I don't know if that is really the best idea. So, like you, I am curious what others might think about this...

ha, i don't know. Here is something I heard (though it may not be true): A friend who knows people at Stanford told me that the philosophy dept. just set their deadline fall to in line with the Stanford's general graduate school due date, and that the profs probably don't even realize its early—apparently they don't begin looking at the apps until January. Again, maybe that's not true. But if it is, I wish they would push the date back! Congrats! I'm making the final edits on my writing sample this afternoon and may submit mine tonight. But I've been working on this paper for long enough, that I'll probably never know when I've really made the "last edit"...oh well. Next up for me on Dec. 15: Georgetown, University of Chicago (philosophy), and University of Chicago (Committee on Social Thought). Though, I may end up just submitting my apps to those schools along with my app. for Stanford—that way, I'll get all my December anxiety out of the way.

Hey all, Just wondering how everyone is doing during the final stretch before application deadlines begin arriving. Stanford's is, I think (?), the first deadline: Dec 8—a week away. Anyone else applying to Stanford? Is this process stressful enough??!

While Pippin is interested in Hegel's aesthetics, I don't know that it would really be correct to characterize him as almost exclusively interested Hegel's aesthetics. (Though it is true that aesthetics is not his primary subject matter.) He has 2 books on cinema: one on film noir and one on hollywood westerns. He also worked on literature (as you mention): he has a book on Henry James and essays on Proust and J.M. Coetzee. And has written directly about painting and Michael Fried. Also, his book Persistence of Subjectivity which deals quite a bit with aesthetics throughout. So I don't see any general, or overall, reason why someone who is interested in German Romanticism and aesthetics would not want to study at U-Chicago. Besides Pippin, they have Conant, who has taught several different courses on aesthetics. And, for Romanticism they have Robert Richards—whose Romantic Conception of Life deals with science, philosophy, and Romantic aesthetics via Goethe. (But, yes, it does depend on what the OP has in mind with aesthetics.)