Dabaliga

I feel like faith and epistemology are both being talked about today, even earlier today they were too.  Also I feel like the faith is on one hand and epistemolgy are on the other hand too, but that it probably just because of my religious upbringing and how I just personally feel about it (its hard to tell).   However, only someone who is completely biased toward non-epistemology would deny out of hand the possiblity that faith and epistemology cannot both make it to the top where all the faith come in.  Plus my uncle has faith, but his parents both had epistemology so that, by itself, proves that one doesn't just need to believe what one's parents (or other relatives) are already teaching, or else why did he be so different? 

Just got an email from Texas informing me that I will very likely get an offer. I will accept if so, and promptly remove myself from the Wisconsin wait-list. The waiting is killing me though!

I'm rooting for you! 

Just got funding at Syracuse. Declining Baylor, taking myself off wait list at Boston University (I was in the "top tier" of their wait list, but said they don't have it ranked because of attempts to increase diversity in admissions), and taking myself off wait list at UIC.
 
Good luck to everyone in the frantic last couple days.

This is just obviously false. First, Loux's Metaphysics book as nothing to do with God or philosophy of religion for that matter. It is on the list because it is a well-known and commonly used in intro courses in metaphysics. Second, as Establishment has satirically noted, Van Inwagen's Material Beings has nothing to do with a Christian or theist agenda. Thirdly, Plantinga's Nature of Necessity is incredibly well-known as a seminal work in modal metaphysics (just look at how many times it is cited in metaphysics volumes/articles, without mention of its latter chapters that are explicitly theistic). While Plantinga's work on warrant has been very influential in epistemology, despite its ties to Plantinga's larger project of warrant with respect to theism and christian belief. 
 
 
Without any argument for why these authors shouldn't be on the list (other than the fact they are Christian), your post sounds just as silly as the following: 
 
Anyone who lists  Dretske, Ayer, Mackie (three very anti-religious philosophers) as the most important/central/fundamental writers on metaphysics (or anything other than mainstream anti-Christian apology) is exposing some extreme anti-Christian centrism and taking you on a ride. If you are only interested in anti-religiously-motivated metaphysics or anti-Christian apology/atheism, they might be a good place to start, but by no means do those philosophers accurately represent a "groundwork in analytic philosophy." It is a groundwork in anti-Christian philosophy and anti-Christian metaphysics/ethics.

Ah yes, van Inwagen's "Material Beings", a classic work of Christian dogmatic philosophical metaphysics which argues for the non-existence of ordinary things which has contributed to a much larger debate over ontological metaphysics with other Christian metaphysicians, such as Eli Hirsch, Ted Sider...

I just turned down funded offers from Arizona State and Iowa. Hope that helps somebody!

I'd like to toot UMSL's horn a bit as far as funding goes. The funding situation is decent - a full tuition waiver, and I think it's now up to ~$9k a year for most students. We didn't have an extensive placement record this year (only 2 applied to PhD programs, more applied to and all were accepted into law programs), but I had a pretty good showing and the other person got accepted into Marquette. 

Thank you! I really hope so. Good luck to you as well

This does help.  Thanks. 
 
Congratulations on your many offers.  For what it is worth, I suspect that Tufts was a great choice.  Good luck on your next go round.  I am sure the extra 2 years will pay off immensely.

I'm in agreement with the above recommendations for both Boston College and Boston University. At Boston College, you'll find philosophy professors who do work in philosophy of religion (e.g., Mckaughan) and apologetics (e.g., Kreeft). In addition, BC offers courses that are team taught by philosophy and theology professors, which might be ideal for someone with your interests. 
 
BU also has professors who do work in philosophical theology (e.g., Neville), philosophy of religion (e.g., Speight), and science and religion (e.g., Wildman). You also might check out the BU Institute for Philosophy and Religion: bu.edu/ipr.

Ok folks, I officially deposited for tufts today, so I declined all three of my Phd offers: Rochester, Iowa, and Tulane. Hope this helps someone!

I think it's time to start rushing people. 

Yes, same person. Sorry for any confusion. 

Well said and I agree.. I was not judging or trying to rush anyone. I was just curious if anyone had insider information on why one might sit on an offer one doesn't plan to accept (besides being cautious and allowing oneself time to process and weigh the options). It doesn't really matter though. You are right; under circumstances like these, a more stoic attitude is appropriate. We will all find out by April 15 (ish)--with plenty of time to prepare for the following school year. Am I preaching now?

In any case, I'm glad to hear good news. Thanks a gain for sharing.

Well said and I agree.. I was not judging or trying to rush anyone. I was just curious if anyone had insider information on why one might sit on an offer one doesn't plan to accept (besides being cautious and allowing oneself time to process and weigh the options). It doesn't really matter though. You are right; under circumstances like these, a more stoic attitude is appropriate. We will all find out by April 15 (ish)--with plenty of time to prepare for the following school year. Am I preaching now?

In any case, I'm glad to hear good news. Thanks a gain for sharing.

A friend of mine is declining Missouri and Oklahoma offers today (and Purdue and Iowa in the near future). If you're wait listed for either admission or funding at any of those four schools, keep an eye on your email!  

Can I turn down their offer of a rejection? 

Welp, here's hopin' for a fruitful week for all those out there (like myself) who are still waiting on applications. Come on you stragglers! 

If you are interested in Medical ethics and choose to attend SLU, you might check to see if Ronald Munson is teaching any courses across town at the U of Missouri-St. Louis.  He is a professor emeritus.  So, I'm not sure if he is teaching courses anymore, but he is, I think, a leading contributor to the medical ethics literature.  And even if he is no longer teaching, he might be willing to provide you with some assitance.

I contacted the Iowa department last week.  At that point they had only extended offers to those applicants to whom they were offering fellowships.  The director of graduate studies said they hadn't yet determined how many students they could accept this year with TA funding (and they don't admit people without funding).  They were planning to figure that out yesterday at a department meeting.  So, I think you should expect to hear from them today (but certainly within the next day or two) if you've been admitted.  If you are on the waitlist, I wouldn't be surprised if it took a bit longer for them to contact you.

I believe I will be declining, I hope this helps you!

In what possible world would a deluge of emails *speed* up the process? 
 
Imagine that a philosophy department in which everyone is already exhausted and overworked is now getting 20+ emails a day from precious little snowflakes demanding to know the status of their application, even though the deadline is two months away.
 
If you think about it, it probably takes more time to process rejections. Someone has to go through and enter in all of that information into a computer, so that they can send out a mass email to what is a very large list. So, someone has to match files to names, and then if you want them to say anything kind or specific, then they need even more information: "we received x applications for y spots, competition was fierce, etc. etc."
 
It’s both easier and more important to take care of admissions first, because they need to arrange for prospective flyouts, which is a lot of work. It makes sense that they would then turn to entering rejections into the system. Now some schools are able to do that relatively quickly. Some departments are constituted such that they can send out early rejections--others aren't, and there's a lot of possible reasons why. Schools differ with respect to teaching loads, the number of professors available to do service work, number of support staff, number of applications to sift through, and the bureaucratic hoops they have to jump through to make an official offer or rejection, among many other things.
 
In other words, be more charitable. They're not being disrespectful.