Platonist

I am so sorry for starting a new thread about this. But I really want to know if it would indeed help to contact POI either before applying or during the review process. I have the feeling that many applicants have done so. But I have never done that. I do have a lot of professors whom I want to work with in the department of my interest, and that is why I applied to it. But I did not contact any one of them. If other applicants did so, I am apparently disadvantaged. My not doing this might be one of the reasons why I have not received any acceptance. What if I had contacted a POI and told him or her I really like the work he or she has been doing and want to work with her toward a PhD? No offense,but how many or what percentage of acceptances have contacted POIs prior to applying?

Many posts of acceptance say that the acceptance email comes for POI. I am really confused about this. Why POI (does it stand for "professor of interest"?)? Does POI play a part in the admissions process? If so, should we contact with a POI with whom you want to work before applying? Thanks.

I think the book will surely help if it is really good in quality. Is it a piece of solid scholarly work or is it an amateur writing? If the former, your chances will be enlarged by having it sent in.

Anybody who knows if Rochester and Wisconsin will have waitlists? The two schools have sent out acceptances, but no rejections and waitlists so far. Do they have waitlists?

Anyone who knows which PhD programs in philosophy besides Albany SUNY are still open for application? It seems that the application deadline of most of these programs has already expired. But are there any ones that accept application with financial aids? Thanks.

Yes, this makes good sense, Table. Thanks. I did not realize that they would keep your file for the whole year. I guess there may be thousands of applications for the graduate school each year.

Thanks for the info, Monadology (You must like Leibnizian metaphysics very much, by the way, as your username reveals). But if prior rejections have no any bearing on your chances of getting in this time, why did they bother to request such information anyway? They can simply read all applications without knowing who are the first-time applicants and who are not. So it is not entirely unreasonable to assume that previous rejections tend to have negative effects on your chances of admission. If this were true, it would be really frustrating and we would have to get in somewhere for the first time we applied.

I found that many people applied more than one time. But my concern is: how much chance would one be accepted by a school this year if she was rejected in a previous year by the same school? When I applied, I saw that most of schools request you to answer if this is the first time that you have applied to them. Why this question? The assumption is that if you applied before but did not get in, they would not "waste too much time" on evaluating your application and likely issue a rejection again. If this were assumption were wrong, what sense would it make for them to request such an information? And if this were the case, I would be really worried about the prospects of reapplying and being admitted by the these schools to which I applied this year for the first time. I would have to reapply to the schools to which I did not apply for the first time. That is really disappointing. Experience or thoughts?

OK, But you are already accepted, so the sharing is not going to hurt you anyway. ​ But, yes, I do understand. Thanks.

Is it a bit strange to be notified by call? What could one say to that person except "thank you, I am so happy, etc." ?

Thanks for your advice, Monadology and MattDest. But most of the schools to which I applied have released the offers and I did not receive any one from any of them. Many of them also released the wait-lists but I am not waitlisted. So it is reasonable to expect that I will receive rejections from these schools later. I have not heard from the remaining 2 schools yet, but I do not think there will be much hope either. So basically I am shut out of admissions this year. It is a great torture for me; I lost my sleep last night. But I do want to thank you guys for your good will. I want to learn from your writing sample and statement of purpose if possible. I think those of mine suck.

I am not getting in anywhere this year. Probably will reapply the next year. Could any admitted philosopher PM me with your anonymous writing sample or statement of purpose (please be sure to remove any personal information in them if you are concerned with confidentiality)? Thanks. I need your help and advice badly.

I see from the admissions results page that an acceptance email is from the professor whom the admitted person is interested in working with. I assume that the person has indicated who he or she would like to work with in his or her statement of purpose. Did everybody does the same? (I did not mention any specific professor who I want to work with in my sop, except the fit on a very general level. But this may be a mistake. Thoughts?)

There have been only two acceptances posted for Wisconsin-Madison so far. The two acceptances will be the first round of acceptance? Are more acceptances coming? How many guys here applied to this school?

Have not received any offer so far. Feel so sad. will stay off the gradcafe for a couple of days and only check my email. But congratulations to all the admits.

Congratulations to the person who is waitlisted by Duke. Could you please claim the waitlist? I really hope I will be waitlisted too.

Wow, really a personalized letter of acceptance! Obviously, you are their No. 1 choice candidate. Is there a specific philosopher at this university with whom you want to work, if you do not mind my asking? If so, did you mention it in your statement of purpose? Please PM me about these questions if you prefer. Thanks so much. Congratulations on the three (!) acceptances. You are a really really strong applicant. (Most likely born a philosopher.)

As long as Berkeley does not give out the waitlists, it is not completely unreasonable for us to hold some hope-because you may be put on their waitlist, which will or will not be made public. But if they release the waitlists along with the acceptances, then those of us who are not either of them surely have been rejected.

Yes, if they release only acceptances without waitlists and rejections, it would be possible that I am still waitlisted, as you say. But if they release both the acceptances and the waitlist at this point, those who are not among them might be automatically counted as being rejected, though the rejection notification will come much later. This is really painful. The sense and realization of hopelessness is so frustrating.

I was wondering how many acceptances and waitlists the PhD program typically provides in its first round of admission. Each program seems to have about 5 slots to fill in, and seems to release 5 acceptances and waillists in the first round (Cincinnati is an exception in that it released 10 to fill in 5 slots). If the program cannot fill in the slots from their picked students, it will release the second round acceptances. If this guess is correct, which I very much hope, then we can still have some hope for those programs that have released results. Getting an acceptance in the second round is still graceful.

I saw a second post of acceptance into UC-Berkeley!! no hope for me upset...

As long as it is an acceptance notification, I would not mind what time they are calling. Even if they call me at 3 am while I am sleeping, I would still be very happy and appreciate.

Some one has posted acceptance from UC Berkeley. I think more acceptances will come from this university on Monday. Yes, this week is going to explode. I predict that we will hear back from about 4 schools this week. Hope there will be good news. By the way, I checked many graduate programs in philosophy, and found surprisingly that there were almost always drop-outs. I am wondering why. They found them not good enough to continue or the program did it? The graduate program is so selective in admitting graduate students and the admitted ones should be the best among the good applicants. Why did this happen?

I am very open to alternative perspectives.

Yes, there are indeed many students in philosophy of science and mind. But I see many in other areas as well. I think the faculty do not like my writing sample-I am pretty sure they will disagree with what I present. I argue for something as a priori, but I find that the faculty are empiricists on that issue! That may be at least one of the reasons that I did not receive an offer. (By the way, for better or worse, it seems that philosophy today is too much influenced and overshadowed by science and empirical perspectives.)- sorry if I am a bit off topic of this thread.