dgswaim

Greetings, GradCafe,
My name is Nick Zautra. I am a doctoral student in History and Philosophy of Science and Cognitive Science at Indiana University Bloomington.
I host and produce a new weekly philosophy of science podcast from IUB called SCI PHI which interviews prominent and up-and-coming philosophers of science who engage with scientists in interesting ways. 
SCI PHI interviews focus on the origin stories of how people found their way into philosophy of science, how they became successful, what current projects they are excited about, and anything else they would like to discuss; for example, the state of the field, major problems in the sciences and in philosophy, and the future of philosophy of science.
  Given the podcast's in-depth look at different academic programs over the years, including information often relevant to particular graduate programs, how to succeed in graduate programs, and how successful philosophers of science have found jobs in the field, it may be of interest to fellow users of Grad Cafe.   Episodes are available at visit www.sciphipod.com, and on iTunes.
If you know of a guest speaker in philosophy of science you would like to hear from, please let me know.

All the best,

Nick

There's definitely less traffic this year compared to last, and last year there was less traffic than when I applied to MA programs in the 2014 cycle. 

This only holds if each trial is independent of the others, which doesn't seem likely. 

There was a chap on here during the 2014 (don't remember his handle) admissions cycle that submitted 10 applications, all to the top 10 PGR programs. He was admitted to all 10.

There was a chap on here during the 2014 (don't remember his handle) admissions cycle that submitted 10 applications, all to the top 10 PGR programs. He was admitted to all 10.

Sure, but this is all relative to the epistemic situation of the applicant. If I'm an applicant and I want to perform a calculation of my odds of being admitted, then it might be reasonable to make some simplifying assumptions about the process given my limited knowledge of what precisely is being considered. That said, we all certainly know enough about the admissions process in general to be reasonably certain that ceteris peribus clauses like these don't accurately capture what's happening. 

Sure, but this is all relative to the epistemic situation of the applicant. If I'm an applicant and I want to perform a calculation of my odds of being admitted, then it might be reasonable to make some simplifying assumptions about the process given my limited knowledge of what precisely is being considered. That said, we all certainly know enough about the admissions process in general to be reasonably certain that ceteris peribus clauses like these don't accurately capture what's happening. 

I don't need to know what criteria condition the probability of admission, however labyrinthine. I merely need to know that these criteria are in play, whatever they are. This is enough to see that admissions is not like a lottery.

Sure, but this is all relative to the epistemic situation of the applicant. If I'm an applicant and I want to perform a calculation of my odds of being admitted, then it might be reasonable to make some simplifying assumptions about the process given my limited knowledge of what precisely is being considered. That said, we all certainly know enough about the admissions process in general to be reasonably certain that ceteris peribus clauses like these don't accurately capture what's happening. 

I don't need to know what criteria condition the probability of admission, however labyrinthine. I merely need to know that these criteria are in play, whatever they are. This is enough to see that admissions is not like a lottery.

I don't need to know what criteria condition the probability of admission, however labyrinthine. I merely need to know that these criteria are in play, whatever they are. This is enough to see that admissions is not like a lottery.

So you're saying I should buy lots of lottery tickets. Got it. Will do.

There are a lot of problems with thinking about "chances" in terms of raw probability calculus. For instance, a 6% admission rate does not imply that some person s has a 6/100 chance of being admitted. That would be true if admissions just involved random selections of 6 individuals from a 100 person sample space, which is not the case. S's likelihood of being admitted is conditioned by the results for applicants whose pool of applications overlap with that of s, whether or not schools divide applicants by area, whether s's advisor is taking new students, considerations of diversity and general department make-up, etc. 

This only holds if each trial is independent of the others, which doesn't seem likely. 

This only holds if each trial is independent of the others, which doesn't seem likely. 

I didn't get an email, but when I just checked my status at Florida State it says I'm accepted.
So, you know, 1. WOO HOO!, but also 2. If anyone applied to FSU, maybe check your status on the website.

This only holds if each trial is independent of the others, which doesn't seem likely. 

My entire cohort (which is just 4 people, granted) started out on the waiting list. Probably 75 percent of folks across all the cohorts were wait-listees to start. I can affirm that nobody cares.

I had received an informal rejection. I had emailed the DGS about my status, and he told me that since I hadn't heard back, I would not be receiving an offer. I received an offer on April 13th lol.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about Cincinnati, Utah, or Notre Dame. I visited all three last year and might have info that could be helpful to you in making decisions!

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about Cincinnati, Utah, or Notre Dame. I visited all three last year and might have info that could be helpful to you in making decisions!

Every time you see an email notification though... :'(

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about Cincinnati, Utah, or Notre Dame. I visited all three last year and might have info that could be helpful to you in making decisions!

I can relate. However, I don't resist. 

There's definitely less traffic this year compared to last, and last year there was less traffic than when I applied to MA programs in the 2014 cycle.