Platonist

Oh, so sorry, I am so silly: did not see the dates!! But there are indeed acceptances and waitlists, so the rejections are forthcoming. Now I assume I am rejected at Duke. So disappointed.

Check the results page of TGC. Entering "philosophy Duke" in the search field, you will see many posts of Duke rejections. Try this: http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=philosophy+duke

Thanks, Vineyard. Hope you are waitlisted at this school. I am in a similar situation with Duke. I am very tempted to assume that I will be or am being waitlisted. Stay positive!

Thanks, Vineyard. But there are people whose status of rejection has been updated on the website, why was ours not updated? I hope our application is still under consideration and thus could be viewed as on the extended waitlist.

Do not mean to be offensive, but want to add that it could be the case that they are behind the updating, especially when your last name is quite late in the alphabet. But if your last name is very early, it is quite reasonable to assume that you are on the waitlist. I do hope it is the latter case.

Did everybody check the online status of your application to Duke? I want to know if the website has been updated for *every* applicant, because the status of my application seems not updated and it says "no notifications." I have not received acceptance, waitlist, or rejection. It is a bit weird. I have no idea what happened.Thanks.

Could anyone tell me about the Duke rejections? From the results page, I saw that the rejections were made available on the website. But I just logged in to my Duke application account (the SSIS website account), and found nothing about decisions about my application: no acceptances, no waitlist, no rejections. It merely says "no notifications". What does this mean? Are they behind the updates of rejections or do they forget to update the rejection decision toward my application? Thanks.

Congratulations. Could you give more information about the notification of Duke waitlist? How did you get the notification (email, website, or other means)？ Thanks.

Yes, it indeed makes me feel much better. It is sort of a surprise that your writing sample relying on a priori arguments helped you to get into Duke and WUSTL. As far as I know, these two programs are dominated by ethical naturalism and the empirical approach respectively, as philosophers there tend to draw on insights from empirical sciences such as neuroscience, cognitive psychology, etc. Of course, our understanding of a priori principles for morality may be different. I would take Kant as a paradigmatic example for a priori moral principles. But I do not think you are a Kantian. Otherwise I would be really shocked Duke and WUSTL would take a Kantian student into their program. Thanks, Gnothi.

OK, Gnothi, you are probably right, and that would be a good news for me too. I really hope my writing sample will not cost my chance. Congratulations on your multiple, high end, acceptances!

I basically agree with your second point. I tend to believe that there are not "toxic" topics, but only "toxic" arguments, so to speak. About the first point, I am not so sure if it is right. To my knowledge, many philosophers in epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of mind, among others are hostile to the a priority line of thinking, under the increasing influence of broad naturalism. But I do know that it is not the case in metaphysics, logic, and philosophy of mathematics. In the latter three areas, a priority still be favored. Unfortunately, I neither applied to NYU (and thus there will be no chance for my writing sample to be read by Kit Fine), nor did I write the sample in metaphysics, logic, or philosophy of maths. So, I guess the unorthodox position that I take may not help me to get in, if it is not a decisive reason for my being rejected.

Actually I raised this issue in a thread a while ago, as I was worried about my writing sample. My writing sample is an attempt to argue against a contemporary tower figure (no less influential than John McDowell or Thomas Nagel) in this field, and the position I take is not going to be liked by most of philosophers (I argue that something should be justified a priori, instead of a posteriori, which most of philosophers would be uncomfortable with.) That probably plays a part in my not receiving an offer. So I am almost in the same boat with zblaesi. Some of my letter writers are pretty well-known philosophers and presumably their letters are good, if not stellar. But on the other hand, I am not so sure if a good writing sample will necessarily be a defense of the position of POI.But it is pretty safe to say that a sample arguing against POI's position will cost your chance of getting in.

Thanks, Occam's Razorburn. Yes, philosophe (who is accepted to Rochester) says the same thing, that is, they have only 2 spots for PhD students this year. If this is the case, I will have no chance. It is quite reasonable to expect that 2 people out of 6-8 acceptances will accept the offer. PS: sorry for posting the same thing twice. I do not know how to delete one of them.

Thanks, Occam's Razorburn. Yes, philosophe (who is accepted to Rochester) says the same thing, that is, they have only 2 spots for PhD students this year. If this is the case, I will have no chance. It is quite reasonable to expect that 2 people out of 6-8 acceptances will accept the offer.

Hi Occam's Razor: I saw in your signature that you turned down the offer to Rochester. When did you do this? PS: I thought your rejection of Rochester might help me, but may not, because you and I have different areas of interest. So if you release a spot, they will look for a person of your AOI to fill it in. It is disappointing.

Thanks for the info, philosophe. It is so frustrating to learn that they will take only 2 PhD students this year. They have sent out about 4 or 5 acceptances. So they do not need a waitlist at all. It is pretty safe that 2 out of 5 acceptances will accept the offer. Congrats to your acceptance!!!

Any word on if and when Rochester release wait-list? Seems that it will have a tiny body of graduate students.

I am asking this because I am not sure what should be counted as good fit. I noticed that one of your AOI is social and political philosophy. This is a quite common area and should be a good fit for that program that offers you acceptance. But your other interests (Marxism, critical race theory, heuristics) seem unusual, and few philosophy programs here in the US offer training in these areas. But you still get an offer from Binghamton, SUNY (if I am not wrong). So I am confused about it. To what extent a fit should be called good? Any thoughts from anyone are welcome.

congrats on your acceptance! Do you think the program is a good fit for your interests? Most of your interests sound a bit unusual (Marxism, critical race theory, heuristics, etc.), does that program have people in these subfields?

Entirely agree. GRE measures NOT the abilities to be used for success in graduate programs, but the skills of test taking and the quality and quantity of preparation for it. It is ridiculous for us to devote so much time and money on it merely to get a good score, without any improvement on our analytic or philosophical abilities. Fortunately, many truly great and wise admissions committee do not give GRE much weight, but many frustratingly use it as a tool of cut-off. Besides Rutgers mentioned above, WUSTL might possibly make GRE cutoffs too.

Everybody knows that fit plays an important role in admission. But what exactly counts as a good fit? Suppose I am interested *only* in medical ethics, and there is *only" one professor in my department of interest who specializes in medical ethics and who takes PhD student (that is, the department is not very strong in medical ethics). I want to work with her. Would this be a good fit? (Of course, if a person has also interest in other areas of philosophy besides his primary interest in medical ethics, he would be a better fit than mine. But let's put aside this.)

How did you know this? Did the chair email you saying this? (Very unlikely I think, because it would be very premature and unprofessional for the chair to do this before a decision has been made.) Or did you call the chair and learn this?

Ian: Wisconsin has not sent out wailtlist yet. Virginia and Rochester have not either. But the wailtists from the three are expected to go out relatively soon.

It seems that Virginia, Wisconsin, and Rochester have not sent out waitlist yet. But it might be reasonable to expect the waitlists are out soon, especially Virginia.

Thanks for the inputs, magog. I am very worried because I did not do it and I may be disadvantaged. Sorry, I started a new thread on this issue. Thanks again.