LennyBound

Good to know. I might also mention that the data displayed on Tufts' website concerning placement is not only misleading (e.g. since it does not include students who have been shut out during past application cycles, which in some years has been upwards of half), but is, in some places, simply incorrect (e.g. including placement of undergraduate students from Tufts within the chart alongside MA students, such as the Columbia and Northwestern placement from 2013-14). I contacted the DGS (Patrick Forber) almost a month ago, and he says that the website is currently "undergoing revision," and that the inaccurate placements should be corrected once that is done. For accurate placement data, I would recommend people consult the "2014 Guide to Graduate Programs in Philosophy" from the APA. Looking over the APA numbers, it would appear that while 90 students have entered the MA program at Tufts since 2009, only 25 have been admitted into PhD programs in philosophy. This means Tufts has an overall placement rate of 28 percent, substantially lower than the 100 percent their posted data has led some to infer.

Just declined an offer of admission for Missouri which also included a Kline fellowship. Hope this helps someone out!

Just declined an offer from UIUC. Not sure if they have a waitlist, but hopefully this helps someone.

Accepted off the wait-list at Indiana for their History and Philosophy of Science program.

I am also waitlisted at OSU. In my most recent e-mail to the DGS I was told that (1) the waitlist is not ranked, and (2) given the diversity of factors they consider when making offers they can't really make predictions on how it will move "before April." If you don't mind me asking what are your areas of interest? Also do you have any sense how long the waitlist is? They apparently want an incoming class of no more than six.

Can anyone claim the Indiana, History and Philosophy of Science acceptance? If so, what are the odds that you are going to accept their offer?

How is that attitude justified given the actual evidence?

Fair enough. The question would be precisely how strong one thinks the correlation is between placement and PGR ranking. I don't have any poll numbers, but I think it is generally overemphasized. http://www.philosophynews.com/post/2013/10/11/Graduate-School-Philosophy-Placement-The-Leiter-Report.aspx

As mentioned elsewhere on the forums, be careful drawing a strong correlation between PGR rankings and placement. http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/07/job-placement-2011-2014-comparing-placement-rank-to-pgr-rank.html "...the PGR aims to measure the collective reputation of a department's faculty, but faculty reputation does not necessarily predict the likelihood of placement by that department." http://www.philosophynews.com/post/2013/10/02/Will-I-get-a-Job-Graduate-School-Philosophy-Placement-Records.aspx "The Leiter Report at the Philosophical Gourmet... is extremely valuable in terms of knowing which departments rank best in this or that field of philosophy and which schools are best overall. However, it has very little to say about placement records."

Nice! Thanks for letting me know. :-)

I realize this is a shot in the dark, but is there anyone else here who is wait-listed or accepted at Indiana's History and Philosophy of Science program? I've exchanged a couple messages with "dullandwitlessboy," but haven't heard from anyone else. On the admission results page there are currently four wait-lists posted and no acceptances.

Accepted at University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign

I was at a Halloween costume party in Boston a few years ago and Chalmers showed up. He came straight from a conference at Harvard, and didn't have a costume on. I asked him what he was and without missing a beat he replied "my zombie twin."

Um, I think that may mean that you have been accepted. If so, congrats!

Did your wait-list e-mail specifically mention a waitlist for funding? Mine simply stated that I was on the "waiting list for admission." Also I did e-mail asking if the wait-list is ranked or not. If/when I hear back concerning this I'll post here.

I was also wait-listed at Indiana for their HPS program. You and I have similar questions (as well as interests). Looking over the forums from last year, it seems they told those on the wait-list what number they were. No such luck this year (so far anyway).

Wait-listed at Indiana, Bloomington for their History And Philosophy Of Science program. Edit: Looking over Gradcafe posts from last year, it seems that the wait-list was ranked. No mention of that in my e-mail.

I have word from a reliable source that given the large incoming class last year, Northwestern decided to admit around ten fewer students this cycle than usual. Just thought I'd pass that piece of information along for anyone interested.

“On this earth one pays dearly for every kind of mastery, and perhaps one pays too dearly for everything. For having a specialty one pays by also being the victim of this specialty.” ― Nietzsche, The Gay Science This thread is (primarily) a place for posts concerning three things: (1) announcing rejections to the community, (2) discussing reasons why one might want to leave academic philosophy, and (assuming one plans on doing so) (3) discussing one’s own personal plans moving forward. One’s own individual reasons for leaving academia can obviously vary, however I think there are three that are the most common: (1) the statistical unlikelihood of success, (2) that "success" isn’t as glamorous as one once thought, and (3) the diminishing returns of philosophical education. Reason #1: The Statistical Unlikelihood of Success The end goal of an academic career in any discipline is a tenured professorship. The problem, however, is that the odds of achieving such a position are quite slim. In order to visualize just how unlikely it really is, imagine a series of five sieves, one after the other. Sieve #1: Undergraduate Education Like it or not, one’s academic pedigree (both graduate and undergraduate) is extremely important for success in academia, especially in philosophy. Among the graduate students at well-ranked PhD programs in philosophy, approximately a third received their undergraduate degrees from just eight universities (Chicago, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale), and the majority of the remaining students come from undergraduate institutions with top 50 US News rankings [1]. While gaining admittance to an elite college for one’s undergraduate education obviously doesn’t guarantee that one will succeed in academia, it is quite clear that doing so confers quite a hefty advantage compared to those who attended schools lacking such reputations. Sieve #2: Graduate Admissions Graduate admissions in philosophy have become increasingly competitive in recent years, many schools accepting fewer than three percent of applicants. Moreover, the standards utilized by the particular admissions committees are almost entirely opaque to applicants, and, as a result, professors and students often refer to admission as being determined by a “roll of the dice” or a “spin of the wheel of fortune.” (I’ve personally heard them referred to this way by several well-known philosophers in casual conversation.) Regardless of the particular metrics used, the fact remains that the likelihood of getting accepted into a philosophy graduate program, even under the best of circumstances (i.e., perfect GPA, GRE scores, exemplary letters of recommendation, etc.), is extremely slim. Sieve #3: Obtaining the PhD The numbers concerning the attrition rates at various schools are (perhaps deliberately) not very easily accessible. In some programs, I've been told that it is sometimes above 50 percent. Moreover, this number includes not only those that spent a year or two in the program and then decided to leave, but also those that invested significantly more time (sometimes upwards of 7-8 years) before leaving to pursue divergently different careers. Moreover, the loss of those years is not insignificant. One can find oneself starting a career in the private sector upwards of a decade behind other members of one’s age cohort, often with large amounts of debt from undergraduate tuition and any partially or completely unfunded graduate programs one has attended. Sieve #4: Obtaining a Tenure-Track Job The academic job market for philosophy is quite dismal. There are some disagreements concerning the actual numbers, but from what I can tell the rough odds that one will find any job teaching philosophy is around 24 percent, and the likelihood that one will find a tenure-track job is approximately 17 percent [2] [3]. This is due in large part to universities eliminating tenured professorships in favor of cost-reducing adjunct labor. The transition has been dramatic. In 1960, only 10 percent of faculty were adjuncts, whereas now they are upwards of 75 percent [4]. However, even if you are able to find a tenure-track position that you are highly-qualified for, unless the school you received your PhD from is sufficiently well-ranked in the discipline, it is extremely unlikely that you will be offered the position. For illustration, during this past year’s round of hires, a total of 37 percent of all tenure-track philosophy positions were given to individuals with PhD’s from the top-5 Philosophical Gourmet programs [5]. Sieve #5: Achieving Tenure If you do somehow manage to obtain an assistant professorship position, you then have to make sure to fulfill whatever requirements are necessary for the probationary 5-7 years before actually obtaining tenure. These requirements usually consist of (1) publishing at least one monograph (which requires navigating the highly competitive and complex academic publishing business), (2) publishing multiple articles in sufficiently well-respected journals, (3) instructing a full load of courses every year, and (4) performing all of your necessary faculty service obligations. I am unable to find any statistics concerning how often individuals are denied tenure (if anyone can find some please post them below). Needless to say, it is a difficult process, and being denied not only means suffering all of the previously mentioned problems (i.e., starting a new career a decade or more behind your age cohort, etc.) but also carries with it a strong stigma of failure [6]. Reason #2: That "Success" Isn’t as Glamorous as One Once Thought There are obviously idealized conceptions of the life of a tenured professor which are dashed when one learns of the real difficulties and stresses of trying to make a living in academia [7]. However, even if one has no illusions about how difficult such a pursuit can be, there are various factors in the last few decades that have radically transformed the nature of academic employment that should give anyone considering seeking such employment pause. Three often mentioned concerns are: the increasing corporatization of academia [8], the academic incentive structure inclining one away from doing interdisciplinary work, and the politics of departmental tribalism [9]. Reason #3: Diminishing Returns of Philosophical Education The critical thinking skills gained from a philosophical education are extremely valuable. However, after a few basic survey courses that cover the general landscape of questions, positions, and arguments, additional philosophical training falls prey to diminishing returns. Knowing some informal fallacies and being able to apply ethical theories to real world moral dilemmas is important to be able to navigate the social and natural world effectively, whereas knowing how to espouse an esoteric interpretation of the Hegelian master-slave dialectic or talk at length about two-dimensional semantics is significantly less helpful. Put simply, the particular skills honed and topics discussed at the graduate level of academic philosophy are not only impractical and social limiting (since the community capable of understanding your insights concerning philosophical minutia shrinks as one’s interests become increasingly specialized), but can actually be actively harmful, since during this time one is failing to cultivate other skills that are relevant and transferable to “real world” concerns and the job market outside of academia. With all of that said, here are some (hopefully) helpful links for anyone who is considering transitioning out of academic philosophy. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/education/edlife/finding-life-after-academia-and-not-feeling-bad-about-it.html http://zacharyernst.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-i-jumped-out-of-ivory-tower.html http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846 http://chronicle.com/article/Just-Dont-Go-Part-2/44786 http://chronicle.com/article/The-Big-Lie-About-the-Life-of/63937/ http://100rsns.blogspot.com/p/complete-list-to-date.html http://dailynous.com/non-academic-hires-2013-14/ http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/tipsheets/non-academic-career-options-phds-and-mas http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/files/documents/1.24.14-AdjunctEforumReport.pdf http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/04/hiring-academic-pedigree-and-exclusion-is-going-for-pedigree-racist-and-classist-.html http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2011/10/sorry-cal-state-students-no-princeton.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Tower_%282014_film%29 Best of luck to everyone waiting to hear back from schools!

The Oxford Dictionary defines "presume" as "suppose that something is the case on the basis of probability." While it is true that all probabilistic inferences can be false, the fact that a particular program has sent out acceptances/wait-lists and one has yet to be contacted is still evidence against the hypothesis that one is going to be admitted. Is there another word that you think would better capture this fact? Perhaps likely, probable, or anticipated?

Should we also make an official "rejection thread"? Perhaps we should try to keep all of the depressing news compartmentalized from the good. Doing this will also enable us to print out a copy of the thread after admissions season is over and have a public burning of it.

I have an MA from Tufts, and I was completely shut out last year. I decided to give it one more try before completely moving on from philosophy.

Thanks! However, it's only a nomination for a university-wide fellowship. It's not guaranteed, but it's definitely a nice addition to the acceptance all the same.

Thanks. I was completely shut out last year, so getting an acceptance this early in the process was quite relieving.