PhiPhiPhi

The recommended reading list on reddit is pretty decent, you can find it here: http://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/wiki/readinglist , just look at the particular sections for logic and philosophy of math. It's not very detailed though, and I'm not an expert in those areas and don't really know if it's extensive enough.

Sorry to hear. I think everyone around here (even those, like I, not applying) really appreciates the work you've put in. Best of luck in the future.

If both of the people you're interested in working with at WMU won't be there, I absolutely would avoid going there. It's my experience that professors rarely have enough time during sabbatical for new students, and so they shouldn't count in your considerations whatsoever. Taking your interest in them out, the choice seems clear to me.

Madison really isn't that cold. It's a bit much for non-Midwesterners, but it's not unbearable for anyone with some cold resistance. FWIW: I think UT is a better fit given your considerations listed, but UW is a better program. It's a good choice to have. Good luck!

Just a heads up - Leiter reported Cornell as having a lot of potential losses this season. Link here: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/prospective-phd-students-considering-cornell.html

I don't know how far you're moving, but I want to throw out the possibility of getting a POD (or UHaul box, or whatever other alternatives there are). I used one to move cross country and found it to be slightly cheaper and significantly easier than a moving truck.

Is it just not listed in your signature?

Huh? I mean there's lots of schools out there I'd consider better than UConn, should I list them all?

UConn has accepted two people from NIU, although neither of those people has yet to accept their offer (which presumably means that they have equal or better offers on the table).

They just picked up GIllian Russell, which is really cool. Also Bill Lycan is the man. If anyone ends up accepting an offer at UConn, shoot me a PM!

Bastards didn't accept my paper, so no! But more seriously, congrats to you (and all others) on your conference acceptances.

That's an excellent program (I hear). Congrats!

I'm actually going to agree with this. Staying at your MA program despite just a wait-list would be okay only if you've picked out a couple of people who are really excited to work with you and willing to stick up for you for the next 5 years. If you don't have at least 2 of those people, you should get out of there.

As Monadology pointed out - McGinn has produced shit for the past decade, at least. It's similar to the case of Nagel - if I were to tell someone who has only read Mind and Cosmos that Nagel was one of the best philosophers of the 20th century, they'd probably look at me as if I were crazy.

Are you Edward Feser?

He's not crazier than most people think - antirealism's just a lot more plausible than most people think

Between 2-4 weeks is good. I'd say 3: spend the first week settling in, the second week hanging out with your new colleagues and the third doing absolutely nothing - you won't get another chance for a long time.

McGinn was a surprisingly relevant and good philosopher in the 80s. As for my vote: Worst philosopher ever? No idea. Most overrated ever: definitely Quine.

What country?

As someone who moved really, really close to the start date, I recommend that people move earlier. I know that you want to hang out with your friends, make money, etc., but it's much, much easier to start a new career if you give yourself time to adjust.

Madison used to have huge classes, e.g. 10. Is that still the case?

They could be grouped in unordered quintuples, i.e. top 5, then next top 5, then next top 5.

Not a bad choice if you're already littered with student loans. Also a general note to everyone: no shame in trying again. I got shutout my first time as well.

There's always next year?

The UConn Logic Group is a truly interdisciplinary group. It meets every other week and has members primarily from philosophy, math and linguistics (but also from law, psychology). Damir said that there really isn't another group like it anywhere in the US - Notre Dame and Berkeley have things that are advertised as such, but there's very little actual connection between the groups. Here there's a lot of connection between the departments, including students (and professors) taking courses in other departments (eg Damir's reverse math seminar is half philosophy, half math). Without knowing what you're interested in it's tough for me to say whether here would've been a good fit for you. Most of the work in the philosophy department is in philosophical logic and philosophy of logic, but there are some people doing straight mathematical logic. Also philosophy of math is pretty good here - there's a course going on right now in neologicism that I hear is really interesting, and another one being taught on the brand new translation of Frege's Basic Laws next year.