dgswaim

I wonder if he's in New Jersey and Hawaii at the same time...? Talk about transcendental metaphysics.

This is stream-of-consciousness.  Forgive me for imperfections:
 
I'm hearing a theme among some posts on this forum, and that theme is self-doubt.  People get rejected to two or three places -- or even just UNC -- and they start to wonder whether they are cut out for philosophy, whether their applications contained some fatal flaw, whether their faculty recommenders can be trusted, whether they should have submitted a writing sample on a different topic, whether they took the right advice, whether they wasted lots of time and money chasing an impossible dream.

Here are three things to remember right now:

1) Think about your competition.  Your file doesn't need to be perfect to be admitted to a top institution; if it did, then nobody would be admitted.  Your competitors' files also contain imperfections.  Admission committees don't shed their humanity when looking at your file.  They don't get caught up in small details; they look for interesting candidates who have great potential.


2) Don't overestimate your influence.  This may be a comfort; it also may be terrifying.  But we've all heard that philosophy admissions is to some degree a crapshoot.  Admissions aren't random, but there is certainly a degree of randomness, if that's what you choose to call it.  What I mean is this: There's only so much that you can do to influence your chance of being admitted.  Not all aspects of your file are quantifiables.  Some committee members will weigh factors more heavily than others.  If you've ever graded papers, you know that grades are influenced by the mood of the grader, by the grader's priorities at that time.  Some (perhaps much) of what happens is out of your control.  You give it a pretty good shot (maybe your best shot), and then you accept that luck does play a role.

3) It's early.  Look, there are many, many hundreds of people who applied to graduate programs in philosophy, and only like 30 people have been admitted anywhere at this point in the game.  It's February 7.  It will be at least March 10 before the INITIAL ROUND of acceptances are sent from all of the top schools.

At this point in the game, many of us are experiencing self-doubt.  But many of those experiencing self-doubt are also letting small and relatively unimportant worries get in the way of perspective.  My aim above is to give some perspective.  In the big picture, you are up against many others like you.  In the big picture, you do your best and accept the realities of an imperfect admissions process.  It's not always a reflection on you or your abilities that you get rejected.  Many of us -- including many very qualified people -- have tried philosophy admissions twice or three times.

And meantime, take a look at the calendar.  I applied to roughly 25 programs in philosophy, and I've actually heard from just one of these.  We have many more to go.
 
I hope this is comforting.  If not, maybe it will encourage healthy discussion anyway...

I wonder if he's in New Jersey and Hawaii at the same time...? Talk about transcendental metaphysics.

He does, however, say that he's from Hawaii... so it's almost certain that it's the same guy.

Why would anyone not drink?

Why would anyone not drink?

I don't understand not drinking. Strikes me as illogical.

It is clear that I'm being sarcastic, is it not? I assure you that I am.

Why would anyone not drink?