ianfaircloud

Thanks so much for this update!! I will edit my blog post...

Doesn't Brandeis take people a little later? And maybe Tufts? I think up to February 15?? A quick Google on this would answer the question. Both of these programs offer some funding and admit at least a few people with full tuition remission.

Has anyone heard anything more about the UCSD admits? We have two posts, phone and email, with no comments.

Wow, I was away from my computer most of the day. And the results were ridiculous today. The Chicago thing isn't surprising to me, but the Michigan is very surprising. The WashU is earlier than I expected. UCSD is about on time. All of these posts look legitimate.

We're seeing quite a few acceptances in the late afternoon, Eastern time. But we've seen so many at other hours, so I don't think we can make anything of this. UNC sent out acceptances at 5 a.m. Eastern time. Last weekend, acceptances went out on a Sunday night. Hard to predict these things. It'd be like asking me to predict when I'll next brew some coffee. Maybe in the morning, but gee, I've been known to have coffee at all hours.

OKAY, I have some catching up to do. Has anyone heard anything more about the Michigan acceptance? That acceptance looks legitimate, based on the detailed comment. But I'm very surprised at the early timing. It's just not in line with their recent years of admissions. But maybe things have changed! So if anyone's heard anything about the Michigan acceptance, please post it!!!

This is stream-of-consciousness. Forgive me for imperfections: I'm hearing a theme among some posts on this forum, and that theme is self-doubt. People get rejected to two or three places -- or even just UNC -- and they start to wonder whether they are cut out for philosophy, whether their applications contained some fatal flaw, whether their faculty recommenders can be trusted, whether they should have submitted a writing sample on a different topic, whether they took the right advice, whether they wasted lots of time and money chasing an impossible dream. Here are three things to remember right now: 1) Think about your competition. Your file doesn't need to be perfect to be admitted to a top institution; if it did, then nobody would be admitted. Your competitors' files also contain imperfections. Admission committees don't shed their humanity when looking at your file. They don't get caught up in small details; they look for interesting candidates who have great potential. 2) Don't overestimate your influence. This may be a comfort; it also may be terrifying. But we've all heard that philosophy admissions is to some degree a crapshoot. Admissions aren't random, but there is certainly a degree of randomness, if that's what you choose to call it. What I mean is this: There's only so much that you can do to influence your chance of being admitted. Not all aspects of your file are quantifiables. Some committee members will weigh factors more heavily than others. If you've ever graded papers, you know that grades are influenced by the mood of the grader, by the grader's priorities at that time. Some (perhaps much) of what happens is out of your control. You give it a pretty good shot (maybe your best shot), and then you accept that luck does play a role. 3) It's early. Look, there are many, many hundreds of people who applied to graduate programs in philosophy, and only like 30 people have been admitted anywhere at this point in the game. It's February 7. It will be at least March 10 before the INITIAL ROUND of acceptances are sent from all of the top schools. At this point in the game, many of us are experiencing self-doubt. But many of those experiencing self-doubt are also letting small and relatively unimportant worries get in the way of perspective. My aim above is to give some perspective. In the big picture, you are up against many others like you. In the big picture, you do your best and accept the realities of an imperfect admissions process. It's not always a reflection on you or your abilities that you get rejected. Many of us -- including many very qualified people -- have tried philosophy admissions twice or three times. And meantime, take a look at the calendar. I applied to roughly 25 programs in philosophy, and I've actually heard from just one of these. We have many more to go. I hope this is comforting. If not, maybe it will encourage healthy discussion anyway...

Well, Boston College is a "university," which is not the same thing as a "college," by some uses of the words.

I would absolutely contact the department today. Everyone should have heard something from UNC at this point. They do notify people on their wait-list. They already notified rejections. So by elimination, you should have been notified.

It's very odd that only one person posted for UCSD. That person posted not on gradcafe but on who-got-in. I'm usually not skeptical of these things. But this one is very unusual. This would be a little early (but not too early) for UCSD. Still, I'm waiting to see more...

I'll upvote that.

IRVINE's up.

Since I've yet to receive any good news, I'm having one extra drink in your honor tonight.

I agree on all counts. I feel very badly about the people who were apparently mistreated, bullied, or harassed. I also feel sorry for the collateral damage. I know a guy at Colorado, and he's a good person. He didn't deserve to get thrown into the shit there. Here are two lessons for everyone. 1) ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS contact current students at the departments to which you've been admitted. Ask them for a frank evaluation of the department. In my experience, people are less willing to be frank over email (for OBVIOUS reasons-- e.g. the email may end up all over the Internet, as above). So ask these folks to TALK WITH YOU ON THE PHONE, or SKYPE, or off-the-record conversation via gmail chat or Google Hangouts. Better: VISIT the program to which you've been admitted. 2) ASSUME that your highly-confidential email will get leaked all over the Internet. If I were Forbes, I would feel completely humiliated by this particular leak.

Hahaha! Good attitude. There IS a real possibility that, in this case especially, no news is good news. So I think there's reason to be optimistic. There's definitely reason to drink tonight.

WHOOOAAAAAAAA

Oh, I must have overlooked that in the results postings. If that's the case, then as we all seem to agree, that's very unusual. I think your qualification is important: "the only results posted . . . have been rejections." I could engage in some serious speculation here, but I won't. However, I would not be surprised if many of the first-round admits to Baylor don't post their results on TGR. Yes, agreed. I see your point here.

My understanding is different (but not necessarily "correct"): Departments usually send out acceptances, then wait-lists, then rejections, in that order. Almost always the acceptances go first, but steps two and three are sometimes switched. I.e. Acceptances, rejections, wait-lists. Keep in mind a number of other things, among them: one, it may be that the responsibility of contacting people is divided among several members of faculty over many days; two, some departments don't send out wait-list notifications. On that latter point, some departments (notably UCLA, historically*) send out acceptances and hold off on rejections for weeks, gradually sending acceptances as needed. In effect, everyone is wait-listed until accepted or rejected. There's always another possibility. Something got lost along the way. Perhaps the department/university attempted to contact you. If acceptances, wait-lists, AND rejections have been sent out, and if you still haven't heard, I recommend that you contact the department. *So I'm told by a former student.

Lots of possibilities, for sure. If anyone has information particular to University of Chicago, please post it!

HAH! Very nice. But seriously...

Where are the results from University of Chicago? It's about a week after I thought we'd hear from that department. Does anyone have any connections with the school or know whether their internal timeline has shifted? As far as I know their admission deadline was about the same as in years past. I understand why UC Riverside is late, but University of Chicago is a surprise.

That's really great. Good to hear. Congratulations!

I was rejected. Though in my case, it was one of my top choices. I'm pretty desensitized to the pain that comes with rejection...

DUKE is posting wait-lists.

Well, I guess what I meant is that the first rounds of acceptances will taper off in about five weeks. But yes, absolutely we'll be watching results until April 15!! Actually, we may see some results even after that (despite the formal deadline of April 15).