PhD applicant

I hope that everyone like ModalFictionalist who appear to get into everywhere aren't just accumulating those acceptances, but are turning some down to help out the rest of us. LOL.

You sound a little too mentally healthy to be a philosopher...

First of all, I don't disagree with anything this author says in his article. However, my experiences are not quite as he describes, The professors at my undergrad were straight up with anyone who claimed to want to be a philosopher: "there are no jobs, you probably won't get one, getting into a grad school is tough, P.S. double major in something else" I have always been greatful to them for their honesty, and it is a universal, department wide attitude towards students, although some professors simply keep their mouths shut and don't bother starting that conversation with students, but most of them speak the truth, for our own benefit. Also, personally, I am none of the options he lists at the bottom of his article, the only types that bother: I am not wealthy or connected, nor do I have a spouse to leech off of, or a pre-existing job in the profession. He would classify me as the type who is pursuing this career at "enormous personal risk" because I won't listen to people who try to tell me the truth. He just isn't right, in my case. I have been informed, and I fully believe what I have been told. But his mindset leaves no room for people who want to do what they love and couldn't care less if that makes them a starving gypsy. I didn't go into this for a job; I went into it to be happy. So for the dude who wrote the article, all I have for him is a big fat raspberry.

Forgot to put on my list: checking my email everyday with increasing amounts of freaking the hell out.

Heads up: this site has a list already of schools by order of most students fully funded (I believe that's how this list is generated), anyhow, check it out and make sure it isn't already doing some of the stuff you're talking about... http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/philosophy/rank/funding Looks like you can look at each school: http://graduate-school.phds.org/university/princeton/program/ranking/philosophy/7485 For example, there is a location on this page for percentage of first year graduate funding in philosophy at Princeton University. You could probably look at every school and get the stats for the list you want to build here without waiting for anyone to submit to you anything.

Reading all kinds of junk on this website that I have no way of ever having benefited from. I just now ate two twinkies; that is, eating poorly. Watching a lot of cartoons and foreign TV on Hulu, because my comfort shows are on hiatus and it's making me angry. Although, Sherlock season 3 came out over the break so that helped a little bit... and Almost Human just started back up a couple weeks ago, so I'm getting by I guess. Playing video games on the internet, killing the same guy over and over and over and over... Going for walks in the middle of the night. Talking to myself during any and all of the above activities. Sure I read some philosophy books too... but I would not recommend the above suggested reading, because I came across an equally volatile controversy in another subject a few weeks ago and because my brain isn't operating intelligently at this time, I became totally belligerent about it. I suggest non-controversy readings - not dealing with current topics, until we all get our brains back. -from personal experience. That and Scientology books are hit and miss: if they don't mention the espionage carried out against the government, for example, then they are probably biased. I usually just direct people to the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet" if they feel the need to know what Scientology is about. 22 minutes is faster than a book. Think about exercising... LOL

RE: the GRE scores mentioned above... I just checked 23 pages of accepts and rejects for my top choice school over the past month or two and I was appalled at a lot of the numbers admitted. I'm talking 150s and even poor written. But this was variable by department, since my top choice hasn't sent out phil yet, I don't know how much they follow suit there. I will say that many of the rejects had better GRE scores, while the majority probably had worse. Also, funny that a lot of people with a 3.0 written were shocked and disappointed they didn't get into a top school... ?? LOL, at least I did a little research before I applied.

Don't you guys think there might be somebody at the institutions that keep that information unpublished for a reason that might get bothered by this, I mean, in a legal sort of way? That's my only real concern about it. I'd hate for, say, faircloud to get into deep shit over it if he starts up something like that.

I currently have a blog through google's blogger.com, and it's nice and ad-free for a free blog. I like it, it's easy to use and keeps good stats. Recently I fiddled around with tumblr, Yahoo's blogging site. It also looked nice but didn't seem as versatile as blogger. I'm thinking about starting up a new blog if/when I get accepted to grad school to help with my online visibility. I just looked at some of the themes at wordpress (because of ianfaircloud's blog) and they seem really nice, so I was just wondering if anyone has any input about ad-free platforms, good visibility, etc. I know blogger puts all posts directly into google, which is nice, but sometimes other blog sites have nicer themes, like some of the nice themes at wordpress. So if ianfaircloud could mention if those themes are also ad-free, added to google/etc search engines free, etc. and any other comments about nice blogging platforms. I think I want to try something other than blogger for my personal blog (my current one is more of a cyber-business type which makes google convenient, but if I make a personal blog I want to make a personal choice about what fits and doesn't irk my moral sensibilities).

At least you know what it says. I opted not to have access, thinking it best to trust my choice of letter writers. And I haven't asked them what they wrote either. So all I can do is think "How awesome do they think I am next to how awesome yours think you are?" Totally pointless and unhelpful things to think about.

LOL, I'm not being sarcastic, there's something funny about this.

I was just chatting with one of my letter writers today, making jokes about getting shutout and he said "don't worry, you'll get in," and I was like, "ha, ha." Now I'm wondering if the letter writers know more about how this shit works than I do. Or if they are just as delusional as I am. Then I started thinking about what the hell is a good letter anyways? How do I know what mine look like next to yours? This is annoying the hell out of me. Is a generic but somewhat approving letter from a famous philosopher going to outweigh a non-generic abnormally detailed over-zealous letter from a nobody philosopher? How do these things work?

Do you mind me asking then, in light of your tag which suggests you have pretty good stats/CV, what do you think might cause a department to reject you, personally? Because I'm sure you feel the way the rest of us do "I'm so awesome how could they fail to recognize it?" But still, the fail does happen. And I'm having a lot of conversations with myself as I walk around where I'm pretending I'm a member of the admissions committee and trash talking my CV or writing sample to the other members "This applicant is not good enough for X,Y,Z reasons" and at other times "Cleary this is an exceptional candidate for X,Y,Z reasons"... I know it's impossible to predict what makes them pass on you, I doubt they draw our names out of a hat or something like that, but I hope if I get rejected the reasons are perfectly reasonable at a level I would totally understand if I were in their shoes. Hopefully, it's because the other applicants are far more awesome than I am. That's what I prefer. But when I look at your tag I'm thinking "Really? out awesome that?" You would need a kick-ass writing sample or something. I just don't see it. Would you just seethe with injustice or what - because, frankly, your tag tells me you have better stats than me, that's all. And I would get it if you got chosen over me, but if I got in to some school X and you didn't, I would be confused and really want to know the explanation or see your sample or something. Sorry, I usually don't post on here, I think I had too many carbonated beverages just now.

Just some general stories for time wasting conversation; I have noticed this phenomenon in many online settings. Yesterday I was wasting some of my life playing an online game and the inevitable 'ugly' came out from a few players who had decided they owned a portion of the gaming world. They began with snide remarks that others should leave their turf, required turf to complete a quest, which meant the players who leave would have to give up on their quest. So no one left. Then the player snobs started mocking the 'noobs' who wouldn't leave. Then if anyone asked them what the problem was they would gang up and find ways to hurl insults past the filters. Any comments I made about playing nice were met with even worse responses by even their victims, who ganged up on me in order not to be singled out as victims. It was all very annoying, but I've seen it before. What I find most shocking is that I know these people would never act like this if they were in person around people who they considered respectable. The internet sometimes affords people the anonimity to become the repugnant douche-bag they always dreamt of. Many years ago I had an addiction to message boards and would spend hours and hours on up to ten boards at a time holding a couple dozen simultaneous discussions. (A bad addiction I'm glad I got over.) I came across a lot of similar random beligerent gang attack/cyber bullying/status attempts in those forums as well, especially amongst the regulars. Again, I am fairly certain they don't do these things in public because they were generally excellent writers and seemed well educated, but still took advantage of the odd opportunities that sometimes arose to gang attack anyone who didn't quite fit in (or the occasional newb), thereby achieving even greater status and forming bonds amongst themselves in the process. Good for them, I think. At least they know what makes them feel good. Sometimes I wonder if these people even remember doing these things. It's clear that they aren't thinking of the people on the other end of their insults, so there is an obvious lack of compassion or concern. On the other hand, there are occasional persons who get so out of hand it almost seems necessary to haze them... But I don't know if, even in those cases, I would consider it acceptable. Recently I read a thread on this forum that appeared to be a legitimate question but the very first reply (from a frequent poster) was so volatile and beligerent I couldn't understand what on earth was happening. In efforts to clear the air and provide a forum for directed hate venting and leaving that crap out of other threads, I humbly invite you all to dispense it here, if you feel so badly the need to clear your bowels. Or, possibly, rationally discuss the topic here, if you like. Either way, I will quietly watch what happens with interest.

Celebrate: hug all my teachers and take everyone out to dinner that did anything that made my application look good Mourn(ish): go to Vegas and try to make something to pay off my student loans OR become a homeless gypsy (maybe)