Coggy

Nothing I said was inconsistent with your remark. Also, I was assuming that one wouldn't apply to a department that had nobody working in one's areas of interest. Obviously, even if one really loves NY, someone who is interested in analytic philosophy of language probably shouldn't apply to the New School.

I know two people who have recently (within the past 2 years) received a PhD from CUNY. One major problem a few years back was that no faculty member was willing to serve as the placement director. Also, it is true that Prinz is extremely popular. This is actually an issue as he apparently has a problem with turning down potential advisees. This, of course, means that each advisee gets less attention than they probably deserve. Also, a careful study of placement records actually reveals that outside the top 10 Leiter-ranked programs, ranking isn't strongly correlated with placement. For instance, UConn and Madison have better placement records than many of the departments are ranked significantly higher. Some departments just place more emphasis on placement than others, and this just isn't something that the Leiter rankings measure. If one focuses on the departments outside of the top 10, the desirability of a department's placement record largely depends on how desirable you find the geographical location of the department. So, if you have a taste for desert landscapes, you should aim to land at Arizona.

Really, the maturity and sophistication of MY responses? Wait, you mean pointing you and interested others in the right direction to more effectively bring about your desired result? And I know you're not referring to the overly pompous and hostile response that the aforementioned post elicited from you. A hostile response, I might add, which ended up being without grounds. Also, I like how you infer that I'm a member of the department. I said no such thing. I hope this Masshole attitude of yours really gets you far in life–– your reasoning abilities sure as hell won't.

For the most part, the department tried to take care of the few bad apples. Unfortunately, getting rid of tenured faculty is not nearly as easy as one might expect–– even in a case like this.

Apology accepted.

Simply put, you believe wrongly. Whatever. If you want to waste your time by barking up the wrong tree, by all means. You want to reject sensible advice about the most effective means to get reimbursed? Have fun with that. And who exactly is the "relevant faculty"? Because, as far as I know (which is significantly more than you, believe it or not) nobody is currently working on this most pressing of issues. This is because the philosophy department doesn't have your $20. Regardless, if you're still convinced that the department is responsible for keeping you up at night, then one reasonable way to "apply external pressure" is to flood the graduate school with emails explaining how outraged you are that you're $20 poorer. The graduate school might then get the philosophy department to cough up your dough. So, regardless of who has the power to reimburse you, contacting the graduate school wouldn't be a bad idea. But keep putting "pressure" on the philosophy department in your own special way. It'll get you far, I'm sure. And while you're at it, continue to adopt an overly hostile tone toward those who offer advice. It'll work wonders in your professional life.

As someone who has first-hand information about what's going on in the Boulder's philosophy department, contacting the philosophy department secretary is an exercise in futility. Before pointing fingers at individuals or groups of individuals for not doing enough to reimburse you, you really should first get straight on who you should be contacting. Presumably, you applied through the graduate school–– not the department. The department has relatively little say, if any, on who gets reimbursed for what and when. All of this is handled by the graduate school–– again, not the philosophy department. You want to apply some external pressure? Then apply pressure to the graduate school and the dean of graduate studies–– once more, not the philosophy department.