PhiPhiPhi

Oh jeez no. I'm a huge fan of Wittgenstein, but the Tractaus is whatever. Hell, I'm a verificationist and I think later Wittgenstein is still better. On Certainty is objectively best Wittgenstein. Also since when is the Vienna Circle continental? It's the traditional analytic philosophy! I've never heard anyone claim this before so I'm curious - why?

In response to one of the earlier posts, I posted this: Apart from what I say here, I'd emphasise that sooner is better than later, although not necessary by any means. You should aim for the third semester I'd say.

Oh hell no. Later Wittgenstein is basically right about everything; he stays with us.

Yup, Hallie is awesome! Let me know if you have any questions about advisors, etc.

Do not expect a (decent) job if you come out of a non-top 15 program without any publications. Getting one is the threshold that makes you competitive, whereas any more will just make it more likely for you to land a good job. However the publication needs to be in a good journal, say the LeiterReports Top20 general journals, or one of the 4 or so best journals in your sub area.

I know that at least some grad students have done NDPR before, because graduate students from my progam have in the past (although those were exceptional students). But in general I completely agree that it's a complete long shot.

I'd be willing to answer anyone's questions. I'm a PhD student already who's just hanging out here because I feel bad for you guys and I have some friends applying. I think this is going to differ based on school. Some people (especially those coming from MA programs) apply to certain schools with the intent of working with a specific person (I myself did this). Other times people pick their advisors as they take classes. At my school (UConn) you have to have an advisor and a second committee member picked by your fourth semester. But I've heard from people at other schools (where a strict 5 year plan isn't enforced) where one can take longer, say up to the third year. In general though, I imagine you'll pick someone around your third semester, once you've had a bit of time with the department. Typically, yes. You might refer to any of your committee members as your advisors, and the principal one as your 'chair', but typically people take 'advisor' and 'chair' to be synonymous in this respect. Absolutely not. You'll work principally with your advisor, but expect to still be involved with other professors, especially the other ones on your committee. Sometimes people's foremost influences aren't their advisors (e.g. Davidson). Typically three are required, yeah. If there aren't three people qualified in your department to work on what you want, you may get an external. Many people have more than three advisors though. I'll likely have four when all is said and done, but I wouldn't recommend more than 5. I came to my program looking to work with someone in particular. They didn't actually end up being my advisor (for a lot of reasons), and instead I chose someone else. I took a course with them and became really interested in the material and so it just happened naturally from there. If you have specific questions from here I could go further I guess. Anyways, think that answers all of them so far.

Those don't typically go together..

I think that would seem desperate. There have been reports of other people getting contacted and requested to upload another sample. I'd say that if the department wants another sample, they'll request one.

ZBlaesi - shame to hear that despite those you've gotten no luck. The only time I've met Sharon she was extremely nice, so I imagine she did good by you. I would question Wright's letter though, he is...sometimes sketchy regarding these and other things. An anecdote that may make you feel better: in undergrad I had a very, very smart grad student as my TA; probably the smartest grad I've. He had an MA in philosophy and an MS maths before applying to philosophy PhD programs, and was absurdly clever. Now he has a fancy NSF grant (in a philosophy department no less!) and is exceptional. While I was applying, I asked him about his experience. He apparently only got into two programs, both towards the bottom of the PGR. Later on in his career while he was at professional conferences he asked people about his application at other schools, and they told him that most of the time he got rejected simply because the people on the committee weren't interested in his AOS, or the person who specialises in that on the faculty already had a PhD student. Admissions are in an important sense really just up to chance.

I don't think this is quite accurate. If you're planning your career out and placing that as first priority, your decision should always be based on how well the department as a whole fits you. If a school is ranked very highly but has no one you can see yourself working with (i.e. no one working in your areas of interest), then you should definitely consider a different school. I personally turned down an offer at a much higher ranked school (in the 20s) due to a supremely better fit at the bottom of the PGR, and have come to realise I shouldn't have ever even considered the other school. Geographic location is an important consideration, but it's definitely not as major as to determine where you go.

I've heard through the grapevine that Prinz is regarded as a bad letter writer by many people, because he speaks glowingly of basically everyone, including what are generally regarded as mediocre job candidates. I've heard this from people on hiring committees at multiple different schools.

From a quick glance, what you submitted doesn't look bad. Sometimes you just have shit luck, regardless of possible qualifications. The thing I'd worry most about is your letters. Are you sure that your letter writers wrote you great letters? Did they reach out to people to help you along with applications? These types of connections are the most important part of an application (in my opinion), and will continue to be important throughout your career.

Ah well, that makes sense then. Well good luck with that.

I'm surprised you're applying to the same program that you did undergrad at. That's generally frowned down upon. Did someone at NYU encourage you to apply at home?