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mattyod86

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Everything posted by mattyod86

  1. I haven't posted much on here, but I've benefited ALLOT from other peoples posts so I'll try give a little back. I applied to to six phd programs and was accepted into 1 in the top 40, rejected from the rest. If I had to go through the process again, I'd probably apply to a couple more. People here have already mentioned researching the departments. If I were applying this year I'd contact the departments directly and ask about immanent faculty changes; I applied to two programs only to find out later that the faculty members that attracted me to these programs were on their way out the door. As it turns out I didn't get into either, but, I might have had a better shot at one of the schools (UConn) where the outgoing faculty members were headed, however, I missed this opportunity because of inadequate research on my end. Another thing that I wasn't that clued in about when applying was funding levels. Ian Faircloud's blog has a list of some of the fellowship/TAship amounts which is a useful starting point. If like me, you are applying from outside of the USA the financial side of things is particularly important because F1 student visas are quite restrictive, so, you want to make sure you can live off your stipend. Also, international students have to be able to prove that they can support themselves for the duration of their stay, I am not 100% certain but from what I can tell there are numerous top 50 and even some top 25/20 pgr schools that do not give substantial enough funding to satisfy this requirement. The last thing I want to mention is the writing sample. I was advised to use an old piece and rework it, I used a totally new one which might have made life a little harder than it needed to be. Also, my topic was a bit narrow I think, it was about a particular argument against a particular kind of fictionalist approach to ontology. If I were reapplying I would try and do a sample that any philosopher could pick up, read, and be interested in. I discussed this with my supervisor last month when it was looking like I might be shut out of admissions and he agreed. People might disagree, but in my view the best approach to the writing sample is to keep it simple and avoid anything that looks like the latest philosophical fad. Anyway, best of luck to all those applying next time around, p.s. Try submit your apps a day or two in advance because those online systems have a habit of getting sluggish and even crashing when it comes to the app deadline, five or six hours in front of a pc repeatedly clicking 'submit payment' is something you can do without!
  2. A nominalist might say that the general term 'being courageous' just stands for the collection of all courageous things (or the 'extension' of the term 'courageous'). The problem with that is that accidentally co-extensive terms would end up being identical (e.g. 'creature with a heart' might end up meaning the same as 'creature with a kidney'). The possible worlds business you described is supposed to overcome this problem, because, when we consider the extension of a term across all possible worlds there will be no cases of terms which are accidentally co-extensive (i.e. there will be a possible world containing creature's with hearts but lacking kidneys). A very different approach is to think of properties as particulars (or 'tropes') and explain the fact that a multiplicity of particulars can be brought together under a general term by an appeal to a similarity relation between the particulars; the relation in turn is an 'internal one' (i.e. not another universal).
  3. ill claim a Hopkins waitlist (having already been rejected from Brown, Northwestern, MIT and UNC) came by e-mail, it also said that the initial acceptances were very conservative and that the likelihood that the waitlist would be dipped into was higher than previous years. Mail also included funding info...
  4. ill claim a Hopkins waitlist (having already been rejected from Brown, Northwestern, MIT and UNC) came by e-mail, it also said that the initial acceptances were very conservative and that the likelihood that the waitlist would be dipped into was higher than previous years. Mail also included funding info...
  5. dont sweat it, Warwick isn't all that according to this reputable source
  6. my application reads incomplete too (phil. app) Same situation with me, my app says incomplete but its been submitted now and I don't think it will matter, what you think about living in Baltimore?
  7. thanks for the suggestion! Sounds like a good service but I've put in my apps now so its in the lap of the gods. Might consider it if I get stonewalled this year! lol
  8. yea it seems great, I wish I'd found it before I'd done the apps!!
  9. Well we'll see about that! My attitude was that a move to the States would be a big upheaval that I'd only undertake if the opportunity (far) exceeded what I can do at home. I think if I could go back I'd apply to a few schools that might be a bit easier to get into. The whole thing has been a steep learning curve (particularly when no-one around you really knows anything about the whole process!). I only found out about the GRE in late October when I decided to apply! I do know thought that a couple of people from my school got into top 10 programs last year so I guess being a foreign applicant doesn't disadvantage you too much...
  10. Northwestern, Toronto (MA), J.Hopkins, Brown, Cornell, MIT. I was going to apply to Miami but missed the deadline! regret it now looks like a cool place to live!
  11. Our highest grade is a I.I which is 70% or higher, but I cant help but feel that an American academic might look at a 70 and think of it as mediocre! Where are you applying just out of interest?
  12. Just wondering if anybody else is applying from outside of the U.S, particularly from countries which do not use the 4 point GPA system? I'm applying from Ireland (where we don't get a numerical GPA) and it's quite difficult to tell whether your application is competitive or not...
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