dgswaim

Anyone decline Penn yet? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

The two that I'm really primarily waiting to hear from at this point are Penn and Indiana HPS. If either or both were to admit me there's a good chance I'd turn down Utah, although I can't be certain. Penn, Indiana HPS, Cincinnati, and Utah are all really good fits for the stuff that I do and all four have people I'd really love to work with. Utah and Cincinnati are basically a draw at this point, and then with Penn and Indy it's basically just a question of whether I let "prestige" count in some significant way in their favor. I wish I could say something more concrete than that. Things are still pretty up in the air for me. I'm probably going to go visit Utah at the end of the month, so hopefully that will give me some useful info. I hope you get admitted regardless of whatever decision I make, though! Utah has some pretty cool people.

Admitted to Utah off of the waiting list!

For philosophy of biology/philosophy of science/HPS stuff, I try to at least skim the abstracts of the papers in recent volumes of the relevant journals (Phil. Sci., BJPS, Studies C, HOPOS, etc.).

Woah.

The philosophy of biology rankings are an absolute mess. Wisconsin is the best place in the world to do philosophy of biology? Please. Sure, they have Elliott Sober.... but they only have Elliott Sober. He's the only person doing philosophy of biology there, and most of his stuff isn't really at the cutting edge of the field anymore. Columbia is pretty highly ranked in phil bio just because they have Phil Kitcher, and Kitcher hardly does any phil bio anymore (and he's about 30 seconds from retiring). The best place for phil bio is probably UC Davis (and most of the folks in the field that I know of would agree). They're ranked in group 3 on the PGR. Utah should be much higher (again, group 3). Cincinnati dropped out of the phil bio ranking altogether in the most recent addition of the PGR, which is totally inexplicable given that everyone I know in phil bio agrees it's one of the best places in the country to do phil bio (they've got 3 leading figures in the field). But these places have one thing going against them: they're not generally prestigious institutions.

I hate schools that do that shit. What's even worse is that they usually don't tell you they're doing it unless you ask. Why not just let people know what the deal is? It's not that hard to send out a bulk email. A little information goes a long way in this shitty, shitty process.

Rejected by Maryland, officially.

This seems to suppose that the PGR specialty rankings move in a broadly rational manner.

So, Hilary Putnam dying really fucking sucks.

But Maryland has one thing nobody else does: Lindley Darden!!!

I wonder if they still have more to send. Hmmm.

SLU.

Removed myself from the WL at Saint Louis. Hope that helps somebody!

Anyone out there claiming the two Maryland wait lists? Any information to give?

Maybe I should restate. I don't think lack of pedigree counts against you very much as long as your application is strong in other ways. Edit: I can draw some anecdotal evidence (super reliable, I know) from my own case. I was a hair's breadth from being admitted to ND (HPS), and I'm still in the running at Indiana (HPS) (two very top-notch HPS programs). I've been admitted and wait listed at some of the best places for my particular specialty (phil bio). I have a BA from a good, but unknown SLAC, and an MA from a place that's mainly known for producing Heidegger and Derrida scholars.

I actually don't think pedigree counts for much.

I'm not sure how to take this. I mean, it's plausibly true that it's very important not to score below, say, a 315 or 310 or something. But beyond that it's far from clear that the GRE is "VERY" important. It seems there are many counterexamples to this.

Mine aren't anything to write home about (165 verbal; 154 quant; 5.0 AW). I seem to be doing ok. The fact that I've done quite a bit of advanced logic and math perhaps makes up for my relatively poor quant score.

I wish this thread were more active.

This is a philosophy forum..................

Also WL-ed at Mizzou. The first-order sentence "For any x there exists a y such that if x is a PhD program in philosophy and y is an applicant and y=dgswaim, then y has been Wait Listed at x" is starting to look like an analytic truth.

You're saying this to a philosopher of biology... so.... guess I'll go home........