alethicethic

Declined UNC Chapel Hill.

UCLA. Sorry to all of you who are still waiting, but I accepted my offer today.

Congratulations! Both SFSU and CSULA are part of the CSU system, so both are free for low-income California residents. So, I'd recommend establishing residency in your first year, such that in your second year at least, tuition is free. SFSU has quite a few teaching positions available, and a ton of scholarships that philosophy students are typically competitive for. It's also a very friendly and supportive department with great placement. I highly recommend it.

Posted this on the other thread...why are there two threads??? Anyway, I just declined offers from Davis, Riverside, Duke, WUSTL, and Utah. I hope that helps some folks.

Just declined at the following schools: Davis, Riverside, Duke, WUSTL, Utah. Hope that helps!

Seconded. Both very, very cool programs.

If you have interests in logic, I'd recommend checking out SFSU. Bas van Fraassen teaches an awesome logic workshop every semester, with varying topics. Students can also cross-enroll one class per semester at Berkeley, so you can take advanced logic and math classes over there.

Moral psychology, mostly, but with broad interests in moral and political. I didn't, but my impression was that they are still admitting people. Good luck!

Claiming the UCLA call!

OMG, Michigan. I want to send them Bobonich's letter to show them how it's done. Sheesh.

Fair enough. Which translation do you like? Zhuangzi can be a real PITA to translate. Biggest headache of my first-year classical course (we finished with Zhuangzi.) So many hapax legomena...

Arizona used to publish their required comp readings, I don't know if they still do, but that might be helpful. About the recommended reading list: it's a little odd to read the ethics list in that order. So, to appreciate the contributions of Rawls and MacIntyre, it might be useful to see why people wanted to divorce normative from metaethics (so, one might read Ayer first, not last.) It's also heavily weighted toward contemporary ethics. You could do worse than to just focus on reading Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Sidgwick. I really like the Moral Discourse and Practice reader, and George Sher's compilation Moral Philosophy. The nice thing about the latter is that it excerpts the classics. If anyone is interested in reading more about Chinese philosophy, I recommend the Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Ivanhoe and Van Norden, along with Van Norden's Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy as a guide to getting started.

I'm looking forward to meeting all of you at the Duke visit next week!

Accepted to Utah! Phone call from Cynthia Stark.

Maybe your names are later in the alphabet?

Um, shouldn't that be 古来征战几人回？（古來征戰幾人回）。Because to (largely) follow your translation, it currently reads something like, "since time began, when it comes to sages, how many have come back?" Which is cool. I like the idea of sages coming back (appropriate for philosophers?), but the quote is about a war campaign. Or maybe change the English translation, if you really wanted 圣贤 (sage) there in its place. Sorry to hijack the thread.

I caution against using the PGR as a heuristic for job placement. Some people are crunching the numbers, but I've not seen anything solid yet. PGR is one thing: a survey of the opinions of selected groups of academic philosophers regarding the research of various sets of faculty. It's useful, but limited. Take it, and leave it, at that.

Yep, rejected from Yale, too!

Wait-listed at UBC!

I wouldn't say I'm happy per se (otherwise, why would I have applied to the school?), but I'm trying to at least express a good attitude when claiming my rejections. It's a little easier for me, because I've already been accepted to schools that are amazing fits, so I'm trying to keep it in perspective.

Brown rejections are out!

I run, meditate, write in a journal, keep up with friends and family, and restrain the caffeine to a medium buzz. It's good to practice good habits now, because it only gets harder from here.

A lot of programs look at your most recent work. My sense is that if you have a few years of overall "adjusting to college" for whatever reason, it doesn't matter too much. If you have a strong philosophy GPA, you should be fine. You should look closely at the placement of the MA programs to see who is sending students on to schools that you might like to go to.

I am fully aware that there may not be a job at the other end of a PhD. But, since a university is going to pay me to do one, I don't see why I shouldn't spend the next 5-odd years of my life doing exactly what I love. Studying philosophy is awesome, and it makes me a better person. I can always get a job doing something else, but I'd still be glad I spent 5 more years doing philosophy.

First, congratulations! Second, while I'm very happy that you enjoyed the Arizona visit, shouldn't you wait until at least some of those other schools send out acceptances? I mean, are you withdrawing your applications from Rutgers, Michigan, Harvard, and so on? It just seems a bit premature.