pro_Tonto

Just declined a WUSTL offer and a Georgetown waitlist. Hope that helps somebody!

Just declined a WUSTL offer and a Georgetown waitlist. Hope that helps somebody!

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: Second-tier ivy
Major(s)/Minor(s): Philosophy major, Government minor
Undergrad GPA: 3.8
Type of Grad: Oxford MPhil in Political Theory
Grad GPA: Distinction
GRE: 660v/750q/5.5aw - old format
Any Special Courses: Attended seminars in both philosophy and politics at Ox, noted this on my CV
Letters of Recommendation: Strong, probably not glowing
Research Experience: Mphil is a research degree, no publications
Teaching Experience: One summer course
Subfield/Research Interests: Political philosophy

RESULTS:
Acceptances($$ or no $$): Harvard $$, philosophy at Georgetown and WUSTL $$
Waitlists:
Rejections: Six other philosophy programs
Pending: Oxford
Going to: Likely Harvard
 
LESSONS LEARNED:
I applied to eight philosophy programs and two gov/politics programs - Harvard and Oxford - and to those two because I had specific reasons to believe the kind of political philosophy I'm interested in would be well looked after in those places. Even so, probably should have applied to politics at Princeton and maybe Stanford as well. I'm pretty confident that having a clear idea of who I'd like to work with, which came across in my SOP, helped me get into Harvard.
 
My results in government were significantly better in gov/politics than in philosophy, but the small sample size and fact that I used different writing samples for each makes it hard to draw lessons. Still, I'd venture that my gov writing sample, which was more polished but less 'innovative', would have been better to use for all my apps. In general, I think it's wise to choose polish over trying to break new ground. Of course best if you can manage to accomplish both. (Good luck.)
 
I definitely encourage students who do normative political theory/philosophy to hedge bets and apply to both philosophy and gov/politics departments, especially if they're coming from the oxford MPhil rather than the BPhil. That is, as long as they'd be happy ultimately ending up working and teaching in either kind of place.

SOP:
Don't want to share in its entirety, but it went roughly like this:
My interests are in X Y Z areas of moral and political philosophy. I worked with/learned from so and so and etc. while at undergrad and at Oxford, and wrote my thesis on X. Part of that thesis is the writing sample submitted with this application. I am also interested in these core areas of philosophy, which while not usually under the auspices of political theory I would hope to use in this and that way... I'm interested in School because I'd like to work with so and so. I know this because our interests are aligned in this and that way, and because I've learned a lot from This Particular Work, and because... 

Presumably a good sign for your application!

Presumably a good sign for your application!

I wonder if I'm the only one who consistently and inexcusably confuses Crispin Wright with Roger Crisp ... and sometimes also Caspar Hare.

Longtime lurker ... but I'm a sucker for a poll.
 
Voted 'Other' because I'm all about climbing the mountain
 
I have a lot of time for Scanlon and Kantian contractualism, but also have the sense that they're missing a big chunk of the normative world.