Glasperlenspieler

Most programs send out acceptance first and then rejections a few days later (or even later). Waitlists (if a program offers them) sometimes come with the acceptances, sometimes with the rejections, sometimes in between. So if people have reported acceptances, it's possible that you're on a wait list and haven't been notified yet, but it's probably best to prepare yourself for a rejection.

Do they specify font and, if not, have you tried Garamond? To be clear, I don't necessarily think playing with font, size, and margins is a good call, but in my experience Garamond is a very common font in academic circles, is very nice looking, and will probably get you close to that 15 page mark if you're that close. I've seen people argue here that going over the page limits shows you're not someone who can follow directions and can irritate whoever is reading your app, I've also heard people claim that going over a little isn't going to matter. I tend to lean towards the latter camp, but it is good to remember that in academia little things can piss people off so ymmv

The process is likely going to vary substantially from program to program. A philosophy professor who has frequently served on the grad admissions committee at Rutgers recently did a write up of what the process looks like there. While it's a different discipline and other departments are likely to do things differently, I think it gives some useful insight into how your application might be read: http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1011404/28477892/1635443782310/Tips+for+applying+to+PhD+Programs+in+Philosophy2.pdf?token=DbN71X3m2lBFlti4y2w3rbeCk6o%3D

I'm not sure I have much to say in response other than expressing solidarity. I'm in the middle of dissertation writing and feeling very similarly. Feel free to DM me if you need someone to chat with.

Fair, but if you're applying to lots of places anyways and have the money for a couple more apps, then it may be worth it. Can't get in if you don't apply and there are lots of stories on these boards of people getting accepted at top programs and rejected at lower ranked programs. Admissions are weird. Plus, if you're coming in from a good MA with good stats, then a lot of it will be coming down to your writing sample. So, you just need to find a sympathetic reader.

I'm a bit surprised that Pitt is not on your list. Historically I would have placed them at the top of places to go to study Hegel, but it might be worth inquiring as to whether McDowell and Brandom are actively taking on new students. wrt Riverside, it's worth noting that their primary Hegel specialist (Andreja Novakovic) is now at Berkeley. So you might look there too. But with Pierre Keller and Alexandra Mary Newton, I suspect Riverside is still a very good place for Hegel and certainly one of the better places for German philosophy generally. Terry Pinkard (Georgetown), Robert Pippin (Chicago) and Fred Beiser (Syracuse) are all getting up there in age, but are certainly some of the top Hegel scholars around. Chicago also has a number of other people working on various areas of German Idealism. Not sure about Vanderbilt more generally, but Karen Ng is certainly someone to have on your radar. Columbia, UCSD, Boston, Northwestern all make lots of sense as would some Catholic unis I'm sure. Edit: typos

I agree that this is odd. On the one hand, I tend to think any tendency for a program to keep prospective students away from current grad students should be treated with suspicion. On the other hand, this could very easily be an oversight by the website design team or a university policy intended to protect student privacy. You might try emailing the Director of admissions and asking if they can put you in touch with some current graduate students with similar interests so you can ask them some questions.

According to the MA Handbook on NYU's website (found here), "M.A. students normally receive a partial tuition scholarship towards the 32 units required for the M.A." The amount varies depending on student and year. That means M.A. students will still be on the hook for some tuition and ALL of living expenses in NYC. Sorry, but that does not qualify as "a very generous scholarship package." Spending tens of thousands of dollars to get a masters degree in philosophy is generally not advisable. I suspect NYU, probably does give out a few full tuition scholarships, in which case maybe you were one of the lucky ones. Even then, I personally find it much wiser to attend a program that covers all tuition and provides a modest stipend. I think it's also probably generally preferable to be at a place where you won't be competing with PhD students for attention from professors. There are many such programs that fit the bill here: Georgia State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Northern Illinois, and Houston to name a few.

Yes, it's a longshot, but not because of any particular facts about your background or CV, but because it's a longshot for everyone. Getting into a good PhD program is tough. Getting hired in a tenure track position after that is even tougher. Those jobs are evaporating. The odds will always be slim. There's some truth in this, but it's a little more complicated than that. A handful of programs account for the majority of tenure track hires. Attending a program outside of that realm puts you at a disadvantage in an already unlikely prospect. This is not always perfectly correlated to common perceptions of prestige however. To get hired at Harvard, you're probably going to need a degree from an Ivy/Chicago/Stanford/Berkeley. However, not all of the most prestigious schools do a good job of consistently placing their students. Furthermore, there are some schools that do a better job of placing students at teaching oriented state schools than the Ivies et al do. Subfield also matters. Some schools are very good in particular subfields and do a good job of placing students in that particular subfield. But if you're at that school and not in that subfield.... Long story short, take a good long look at placement records. Also take a look at who was the advisor for successful students and what subfield they were in. If a school doesn't clearly articulate their placement record, that's usually not a good sign (and do note that many programs will only list their successful placements.... People who didn't get academic jobs, or left before graduating may not appear). Don't assume you will be the exception to a mediocre placement record. At the end of the day though, placement records are loose corollaries for what you need to succeed, namely attentive supportive advisors whose recommendations will carry weight and sufficient funding that you won't have to worry about money and can instead focus on producing the best work you can. That's not going to guarantee success, but without it you don't stand much of a chance. Lots of programs have grad student bios on their websites. If you do some research, you can start to get an idea of what sort of people are typically admitted.

It's worth noting that most professors have an are of expertise and knowledge that extends at least somewhat more widely than their publications/listed interests. One good way to get a feel for this would be to look at what dissertations they have advised/been on committees for. Another point is that rather than starting from faculty lists at various universities and then trying to find suitable professors from there, you might instead start with the research that you're already interested in. What books/articles have been important/interesting to you? Who wrote them and where are they teaching? Then check out the bibliographies of those pieces, look up the works that are cited, and figure out where they're teaching. If you keep doing this for a few iterations, you'll probably find that the bibliographies start to circle back. At this point, you should have a decent idea of who is publishing things of interest to you in your field and where they're teaching.

I'm inclined to agree with @EverBetter. If you have a strong writing sample and can clearly articulate a research agenda, PhD programs will be interested in that and not whether or not you wrote a thesis. The other thing to note is that Masters Theses are tricky to turn into writing samples. For one thing, they often end up in the awkward length of 50-100 pages which is much too long to be a writing sample but not yet a monograph. For that reason, you may be better off using your time to revise your strongest seminar paper that best shows your skills and interests and using that for your writing sample (try as much as possible to model it on articles in your field). If you do decide to write a thesis, it's probably best to make it such that it has a 20-30 page chapter that can easily enough stand on its own without the added context of the rest of the thesis. Otherwise you're left with the difficult task of condensing a much longer argument into a short space or trying to add the necessary context for a part of it. The other issue with a masters thesis is that you will typically complete it during the spring. But PhD applications are usually due over winter break. So, unless you are planning on taking a gap year, the masters thesis won't actually be done by the time you need to submit it as a writing sample. At the end of the day, you should listen to your advisors at the MA program. It's possible that there's a tacit expectation that strong students will write a thesis, in which case not writing one might alienate professors and/or reflect in your letters of recommendation. But if your advisors seem fine with you not completing a thesis, I think using the fall to polish a seminar paper into the best writing sample you can muster is probably a better use of your time.

I'm not a Discord user, but I do know there are certainly Discord groups for this purpose. You would just have to gen an invite. Twitter has lots of problems and one would be justified in wanting to stay away from it, but there is actually a really good community of philosophy undergrads, grad students, and professors, who frequently get into quite enlightening discussions about various aspects of philosophy.

I seriously doubt it will hurt you. I'm in a German Studies program in which several people have MAs from German institutions. Now, as you note, these are all German nationals, so that's a slightly different situation than yours. But at the end of the day, your application is going to be primarily evaluated on the quality of your writing sample and on how interesting the faculty finds your research interest. Your experience in France will mean that nobody will doubt your language competency, which is a good thing. What you will need to do is produce a strong writing sample and learn how to articulate your research interests in terms that are both interesting and identifiably a part of French studies as that is understood in the American context. But I don't see any reason why you can't achieve those goals in the program you're considering. You may even be able to use your statement of purpose to explain how your comparative studies in France have helped refine your research interests in such a way as to make X program in the US the most logical next step for you. These sorts of arguments are, on the whole, probably less important than your writing sample, but I do think they are good to have. Lastly, I'll just note that there are certainly language/literature PhD programs that admit American students with only a BA. So, since you have a BA in French (I gather), nobody will doubt your credentials because you have *more* education, especially if you can articulate a coherent scholarly narrative for your educational progression.

Is this quarters or semesters? My undergrad philosophy major was 19 courses on a quarter system iirc.

The full list of schools is here: https://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_April15_Resolution_Oct2020Revision.pdf They really shouldn't be pressuring you to make a decision before April 15th.