fuzzyp

Does anyone know much about the MA in Philosophy here? It's ranked pretty well (top 25 global by Philosophical Gourmet 2014) but I haven't heard any firsthand reports. I'd love to hear from someone who's attended/attending!

No, not categorically. The issue at this point is that I haven't taken the GRE, and also that I probably have a tuition cap. I'd welcome any suggestions, though.

Hi all, Here's my situation. I received my BA in an unrelated discipline and my GPA was quite damaged in parts (I'll spare the details). After graduating, I developed a serious interest in political theory, especially to do with ancient thought and the history of political philosophy, right at the intersection of Philosophy, Political Science, and Classics. In order to be able to make the case for myself, I spent about a year and a half gathering upper-level credits (9 term-length courses, 6 in PSci, 3 in Phil) related to my interest, all with A or A+ results. Between the difficulty of finding an MA program that (1) might plausibly consider my "special case" (2) is not cost-prohibitive (ruling out most schools in the US) and (3) could reasonably house my interests, I only ended up applying to U of T (Political Science, Philosophy) and KU Leuven (Philosophy). I was a bit picky about location (avoiding Calgary and Ottawa). At this late late date, I'm becoming increasingly concerned I didn't dig deep enough. U of T is a longshot, and the more I review KU Leuven's course schedule, it looks like less of a match than I thought. I have all my materials ready to go. I'm wondering if anyone might have any last minute suggestions for programs that come to mind as a potential fit? I'm a bit more flexible on cost that I had originally planned, but haven't taken the GRE. Any thoughts would be really helpful. (Cross-posted to Philosophy)

Hi all, Here's my situation. I received my BA in an unrelated discipline and my GPA was quite damaged in parts (I'll spare the details). After graduating, I developed a serious interest in political theory, especially to do with ancient thought and the history of political philosophy, right at the intersection of Philosophy, Political Science, and Classics. In order to be able to make the case for myself, I spent about a year and a half gathering upper-level credits (9 term-length courses, 6 in PSci, 3 in Phil) related to my interest, all with A or A+ results. Between the difficulty of finding an MA program that (1) might plausibly consider my "special case" (2) is not cost-prohibitive (ruling out most schools in the US) and (3) could reasonably house my interests, I only ended up applying to U of T (Political Science, Philosophy) and KU Leuven (Philosophy). I was a bit picky about location (avoiding Calgary and Ottawa). At this late late date, I'm becoming increasingly concerned I didn't dig deep enough. U of T is a longshot, and the more I review KU Leuven's course schedule, it looks like less of a match than I thought. I have all my materials ready to go. I'm wondering if anyone might have any last minute suggestions for programs that come to mind as a potential fit? I'm a bit more flexible on cost that I had originally planned, but haven't taken the GRE. Any thoughts would be really helpful. (Cross-posted to Political Science)

Thanks for the advice. I ended up contacting the department I'm applying for and explained the situation -- that my writer was under the impression that they weren't compiling the letters until the end of the month. They urged me to have him get the letter in ASAP and this gave me the leverage I needed to insist he submit, which he did right away.

Some grad applicant anxiety here... One of my referees is so far a week late in submitting my reference letter. I'm depending on him for my applications, especially since I'm only applying to a few places. I've spoken with him in person, and he's been nonchalant about it, saying that the departments in question only start compiling the applications near the end of the month. On their websites, however, the departments ask that the reference letters be in at the application deadline. Should I be concerned, and pushing him to write them sooner than later? Or is this more or less normal? I'm not sure whether to "be cool" or keep on him.