philosopheme

So I can only write from personal experience here, but the advice I got (and followed with some success) was that it's more important to make it clear why your topic is of 'general philosophical interest/significance' than to be writing about a 'hot topic.' Of course, the two options aren't exclusive, and hopefully hot topics are hot topics because they're of general philosophical interest and significance! But for me, I stuck with a paper I was proud of from a class on paradoxen and the logic of truth, even though it was about a type of logic (dialetheism) that is considered kind of 'crackpot' in some (most?) circles. I thought it made a novel claim about the topic as it currently is, and had interesting-to-me implications for the future of the topic. So I wanted to stick with it, and the two things I tried to do were (i) make it very clear why I thought this paper was going to do and say interesting and new things about the topic in a way that people coming in with no background or with total skepticism should still be able to appreciate as significant, and (ii) try to make explicit (and immediate) connections between this kind of crazy logic and more mainstream topics in other areas of philosophy that I think are of 'general philosophical significance.' This was hard (but also fun) to fit into the paper as it was currently set up, but the result was that I got to keep the core of the paper I had already written with the argument/proof I had already labored over, but got to spin it in a way such that I didn't think it was going to be offputtingly niche to admissions committees. *I also made sure to focus on other interests of mine in my personal statement, doing everything I could to avoid being labeled 'the dialetheist guy' in admissions circles. Maybe if you're into some hot topics, it's especially important to bring up your interest/background in those issues in your personal statement, since they're relevant and popular. Maybe. *

I've heard some good reasons not to write an entirely new paper for your writing sample, but considering you have six+ months before applications are due, if you really don't think any of your papers are of the requisite quality (not length, but quality), maybe it's worth considering this option rather than just limiting your application process. But don't make this judgment alone! Ask your professors if they think that none of your papers are of high enough quality. Or, if you got feedback saying that some areas could/should be expanded, or if you had ideas of how to make papers longer, then maybe taking these few months to add some new sections are go more into depth would help turn a solid undergrad paper into a formidible writing sample. Additionally, if you go back and make changes to some of your papers that you wrote for classes you took with your letter-writers, showing them that you went back and took their suggestions and are engaged could really boost the quality of your letters, as an added bonus (although here it's maybe worth asking your letter-writers if you're interested in doing that: i had one point-blank tell me they could write me a much better letter if I revised a promising, yet underdeveleoped, term paper I wrote for one of her courses, and I had another point-blank tell me that they wouldn't have time to read anything, but that I shouldn't worry about the quality of my letter). All this to say, if you don't have the time/energy/desire to write a completely new ~20 page paper in six months, and you aren't proud of anything you already have as-is, then it probably is wiser to go into the revision process (with some faculty if possible) than only apply to MAs.

There are no uniform requirements for any part of the application. This means: -suggested length of writing sample differs from school to school. nobody advised me to worry about this, and I think my ~20 page sample was a fine length, even though it was above the max of a couple schools I applied to and towards the min of others. -due dates of applications vary from school to school. -some schools (Michigan, most california schools I think) require a second personal statement and/or a diversity statement. -NOT EVERY SCHOOL needs an official copy of your transcript. so before you buy 15 of them like I did, get a clear count of how many you actually need. and if you want a copy of mine, i still have like 6, will sell for half price -the applications ask for the emails of your letter-writers, and when you submit them, it contacts the letter-writers immediately. so, maybe save this part until after you've given your letter-writers everything they need. otherwise these important emails will get burried. There are no uniform regulations for visiting procedures, if you get accepted, but almost every school expects you to front the money for your travel, only to reimburse you later. this can be a problem if you don't have a few extra hundred dollars in your bank account. 'Waitlist' means different things at different schools. Some schools accept only as many people as they can fund, and waitlist others but invite them out to visit anyways. This is what some other schools call accepted without funding, and then have /another/ class that is waitlisted beneath them. Some other schools accept (with funding) more people than they can afford, banking on a few of the applicants to turn them down. Schools like NYU won't do this, but schools in the 20-50 range might. Sometimes, 'waitlist' isn't used at all, and instead you just don't hear back from a school until April 15 or later. Congrats, this means you were waitlisted! If you have more than one paper that you've polished and are proud of, find a way to link to it in your personal statement. A classmate of mine made a personal website with his writing sample and two other papers. This doesn't force anybody to read any more than they want to, but might help distinguish you from other applicants. As an added bonus, you get to see the IP addresses of people who visit your page, and can trace them to certain cities to know when you're in the mix! I didn't do this because I only had one paper I was proud of, but if you're debating between two or more writing samples, maybe this is a good path for you. Ask your professors where they think you should go. Or, if they say they don't feel comfortable answering that, ask them where they wish they were going! I got stonewalled when I asked the first question, since my interests are a weird combination of all of my advisors', but got a lot of great leads when asking the latter. Get off this forum right now. Read a book, go on a run, start an online chess game with me, whatever, but you don't need to be here right now. Maybe once you've submitted all your applications you can check here once a week, but it got to the point where I was having nightmares from checking this place right before bed. The only useful function of this site is that it helps you infer when you've been rejected from a school days (or sometimes weeks or months) before the school bothers to tell you.

godel escher bach...right?

YES YES YES congratulations!

sometimes i get excited about going to a concert for weeks on end. then that day i think maybe i want to do something else. then i do something else and i regret it. so i implimented a rule where, if i'm been excited about a concert for more than two weeks, i go to it, regardless of what pops up day-of. 9 times out of 10 i have fun and am glad i went.

PM me if you have any questions about living in Chapel Hill, and congrats!

Just accepted Stanford's offer/removed myself from Berkeley's official waitlist and from UConn's unofficial waitlist.

Just turned down Texas's offer. It wasn't easy. Good luck to all the UT waitlists!

If anybody has questions about UNC-Chapel Hill, I went there for undergrad. The two faculty I worked closely with are on their way out the door, going to UConn, so if you have questions about those faculty members, I'd have things to say! I could also speak generally about department climate and general living in Chapel Hill.

DAMMIT i always forget i applied to a school in new jersey, too. but, mostly, yeah this holds.

I knew that post would look weird! i'm happy to explain: 1. I feel uncomfortable making a final decision before I've heard back from every school. 2. I wrote my thesis/have done additional work in non-classical theories of logic, disquotational truth, and paradoxes, and additionally have interests in feminist ethics. this makes uconn potentially the best fit for my interests of any school i applied to. (my writing sample was about beall's semantic dialetheism) 3. My undergrad advisor is moving there. I don't want to continue working with the same advisor (and, from what i can understand, that's a near-universally bad idea), but his (romantic) partner [*edit: they're married, this isn't meant to be a gossipy/down-low thing. i just say 'partner' whenever possible. they're married.*] is moving with him, and her (research) partner from another school is moving there with her! I barely took classes with my advisor's partner, but am becoming way more interested in her area than when I was an undergrad, and was already heavily interested in her research partner's work, and would be stoked to work with him. 4. From what's on their website, their funding is way better than any other public school I have gotten into. 5. Personal reasons would make staying on the east coast really, really, really convenient. This was not the case when I applied, or else I probably would have applied to more than six schools on the east coast. 6. Given the tons of funding the department is getting, and the expansion of the department over the last couple years (which might not be finished?!), I would be really surprised if UConn wasn't much, much higher in the PGR by the time I'm graduating. (I'd have to be more critical of this point once I was actually making a decision if I got into UConn, but right now as a factor, I think it's safe to consider that a department that has doubled its size and poached at least four senior faculty from higher ranked schools is going to move up in the rankings) This isn't to say that I know for certain that I would choose UConn over any of those other schools. Or that it's likely, even. But I hope this is enough to show why, if my application is being considered there, I would like a chance to visit/consider it before deciding on another program. I'm not so wedded to my interests to where I'd pass up Stanford just because they don't have any dialetheists, or anything crazy like that. And, yeah, I've heard Storrs is a pretty awful place. Look at the list of schools I applied to and you'll see a familiar theme: I only applied to places that were either (i) in or near areas that are nice to live or (ii) in the state of connecticut

can anybody claim the uconn waitlist? i'm curious as to whether this was a solicited notification (it looks like the last two years you could solicit via email to find out if you were waitlisted). i'd love to hear something from them before april 19!

Sorry I couldn't post on here sooner, but was out of town without internet (and stresing) since Sunday. Claiming an official USC rejection (by mail, no less), and an offer from UMass.

Feel free to PM me if you are visiting UC-Berkeley or Stanford the first week of april. There's a two day layover between the visits, and I'm staying with my cousin in the bay area rather than fly back to the east coast and out again, and I'd be happy to explore the area if anybody's interested! And relatedly, when I got my waitlist email from Berkeley, they said that they would fly me out for the visit. I don't know how common this is. Apparently Berkeley has a reputation for underaccepting, which might explain why they do this to some (but not all, apparently) of their waitlisted applicants.