sar1906
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Posts posted by sar1906
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I heard from them about two weeks ago (the letter is dated 2/24). It's not funded, but occasionally MA students get work as graders. Financially it's pretty viable, however.
OK. What are your areas of interest and have you looked at the placement for each program?
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Hello,
I was wondering if anyone had any "insider info" on the programs at University of New Mexico and Boston College. I got into both MA programs and am leaning towards UNM, but would appreciate any advice (I plan on speaking to graduate students and professors from both departments as well, obviously).
When did you hear from UNM? Is it a funded position?
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Yeah, I take it as (slightly) positive news. I think she wouldn't have invited me in if she were going to tell me something negative, because there would be no need to and she offered completely of her own initiative. So hopefully I'll at least know my position on the wait list by the end of next week. Hopefully.
I mean, it sounds like she genuinely doesn't know, which means you'll just have to check and see when the time comes.
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S/he said s/he doesn't expect it will budge *before* the end of next week (the week ending March 20th). S/he said come in Thursday or Friday (March 19th or 20th) and s/he will "fill me in."
Gotcha. Well it sounds like it could go either way. Depends on how much movement there is on the wait-list.
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I emailed one of the schools I applied to and was told I was just put on the wait list. The director of graduate admissions said s/he doesn't expect the wait list to budge substantially before the end of next week, and s/he said I should swing by then and s/he would "fill me in" (I live very close to the school and am currently a masters student there in philosophy applying for the PhD. I appreciated the offer to fill me in, but I'm slightly confused. Is this a positive sign or a negative sign. From what s/he said the wait list will budge significantly by the end of next week, so does that mean I may get an acceptance, or just that I won't get an acceptance by then, but they'll have a better idea of where I stand and will talk to me about it?
You wrote s/he DOESN'T expect it will budge, and then "from what s/he said the wait list WILL budge." Which is it? If she doesn't expect it will budge then she doesn't expect they will be able to extend you an offer, but you can stop by to double-check.
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We should start a Nietzsche addict group- Nietzschians Anonymous. Except we don't want to stop
It took me almost four years after reading Nietzsche until I could read Kant. What did reading Nietzsche do to you?
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So you're thinking about re-applying to get into a higher-ranked program? Could you live with yourself if you abandon this position and end up getting shut-out next year?
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This. I know I'm very competitive with my scores and GPA. However, I have to imagine that if a school gets 300 applications, there's a top 50 or so that are roughly equivalent. If the school only has, say, 5 spots, then that means one of those highly-competitive applicants only has a 10% chance of being accepted.
No gambler I know would play those odds, so I can't be too upset at my responses so far. I'm spending my days working on several "Plan B's"--most of which entail applying again next year.
Definitely. When I asked the DGS from one of the SPEP schools, he basically said, "I don't why. We easily could have selected you, but we didn't."
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I'm in! I'm in! Received an offer of admission from Boston College in the mail today. After having resolved to begin planning my apps for next year. I can't believe it!
Not sure about financial aid situation yet, I'll figure it out when I can think straight.
Time for celebratory wine!!!
Congrats! Was that off the wait list? I could have sworn someone said they emailed the DGS and received the response that they had sent out all notifications. Maybe that was BU?
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To the individual accepted to Memphis with funding. Were you originally on a funding wait-list and what is the package like?
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The University of Oregon Philosophy program's Colin Koopman works on Foucaul. Emory, Penn State, and Vanderbilt. John Protevi at LSU.
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Thanks @sar1906!uality of t
No M. A.
I only have a bachelor in Philosophy (Master degree in something unrelated). I'm essentially getting back to Philosophy after a somewhat involuntary time away from an academic engagement with it. The thing is, beyond universities' websites, I've been having a hard time finding up to date info on programs which cater to the more continentally inclined. Most rankings and reviews seem to focus on analytical philosophy.
Cool. So you've been accepted or you are finding out for next admissions season? Have you visited? I think a major consideration for thinking about the quality of the program is the placement rankings, which you should be able to find on the department website. How fixed are you in terms of research interests? Emory might provide a slightly more diverse philosophical climate if you are interested in branching out a bit.
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I definitely associate DePaul with the heavier continental work, especially German Idealism and Heidegger, whereas I associate Emory strongly with American philosophy in addition to its various other areas of specialty. I don't think you can go wrong at either. Are you going in with a M.A.?
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Update just posted. Rejected from Fordham.
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To what extent has AOI been directly considered as a criterion for graduate admissions? We all know that there needs to be a good research fit between the prospective student and the program, but is that all there is to it? What do we really mean by "good research fit?" After considering some of the notifications received by myself and others this season, it seems to me that AOI plays a much greater role in the admissions process than realized. Take for example notifications received by three applicants, 1, 2, and 3, from three strong SPEP programs, Emory (E), Vanderbilt (V), and Penn State (PS):
Accepted (+), Rejected (-)
1: +V, -E, -PS
2: -V, +E, -PS
3: -V, -E, +PS
We see that each applicant was accepted to a program that rejected the other two. This notification pattern is simply unheard of in the biological sciences and, I presume, many other more quantitative disciplines.
We might chalk it up to the idiosyncratic preferences of each program, the black box of philosophy graduate admissions, God's mysterious ways and so on, but that would simply take us back to pre-Grad Cafe speculative admissions preparation. So how do we understand this? How about AOI? The admissions committees are not simply looking for high GRE scores, quality writing samples, strong GPAs and glowing letters of recommendation (best student I ever heard and so on). They're not even looking for a "good research fit." Would faculty really want an incoming graduate student to work on the same topics they are? Admissions committees are looking for students whose research interests not only "fit," but complement, fill in and expand their own. Philosophy faculty admit students whose areas of interest could potentially make new connections, fill in gaps, and expand departmental research. Anyway, I'll stop there. Any thoughts? I'm curious what PGR applicants think.
TLDR: AOI is a much more important criteria than previously realized. Consider not only AOI "fit" with program research, but how they might expand, fill in gaps, and make new connections between faculty research interests.
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Good, good. OK, so how about some warning signs that would cause you to hesitate joining the program?
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1. Ask people to tell you which questions they would ask, if they were in your position.
2. Ask people how to read the placement record. Ask a lot of details about the placement. Ask whether one or two professors tend to generate the most job offers. Ask whether one or two areas of interest do particularly well or poorly in placement.
3. What percent of students do well, poorly, drop out, etc.? Craft this question tactfully.
4. What do you think of the program? Why did you choose this program?
5. What are the drawbacks to choosing this program?
6. Do students work together a lot? Do they hang out together? Do they share work with each other? Do they review each other's work? Do they compete with each other? Does the program feel big or small? How much do you interact with undergraduate students? What's the quality of the undergraduate population?
7. Are there weak students in the program? (Do not name them. It's a yes or no question.)
8. Are there weak professors? (This question must be asked over the phone/Facetime/in person.) Which ones are weaker? Who works the most with students? Who works the least? (You ought to get very, very clear answers here. Do not accept vague answers. If you have to, ask about every single professor in the department with whom you may work.)
9. What's the trajectory of the department? New hires soon? New retirements? Program improving? In decline? (It's a question of speculation, but that's OK. People are surprisingly good at predicting these things.)
10. Is there department infighting? Do you hear bad things about professors from other professors? Is there department tension? Does the department get along with the administration? Is the department supported by the rest of the school?
Note: These are questions for grad students. They sound sort of abrasive, but you may invest a lot in the program. You deserve to have this information. I can't overstate the importance of checking out every professor. Get a clear indication about every single professor with whom you may work. Ask them how they were tenured. Were they tenured 30 years ago? Was it a mistake to give them tenure? Do they mostly take up space? You should figure this out!
Could have sworn I replied to this...Anyway, great list. It's given me a lot to work with. Thanks!
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Things are looking more and more dreary for this year. Eight presumed rejections out of fourteen, the remaining six seem more competitive (Emory, Duquesne) or not a great fit (Fordham, Boston College) for the most part. The only two I am moderately optimistic about is Loyola Chicago and University of New Mexico. But given the other results I don't think I'll be accepted anywhere.
Point being: does anyone have any ideas for gap years? I'm not particularly flush, so just vacationing to Europe or something is not an option. I've been thinking more about volunteer organizations like AmeriCorps. Anyone have experience with something like this, or know anything similar?
Another option is teaching English abroad. IMO a solid gap-year option, gives you the opportunity to broaden your perspectives a bit living in a foreign culture, immersing yourself in a foreign language, and also (generally) allows plenty of time for working on next year's application.
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That's right. Last year I was wait-listed at Purdue. At Purdue that year, the admissions was organized by AOI. I was in the 'continental' category (at the top of the wait list). I would only get an offer from them if the person who currently had an offer and was their 'continental' candidate turned it down. If someone with an offer with a different AOI (say philosophy of religion) turned their offer down, I wouldn't get an offer. Instead, the first person on the wait-list in the 'philosophy of religion' category would get the offer.
I have also heard second-hand that sometimes AOIs from previous years matter. If the last class at a program was really heavy on phil of mind, they might emphasize other AOIs because otherwise the phil mind faculty will have a lot of advisees (which is bad for the faculty and advisees).
The only trend I have seen as far as rank is that people who get into more than one top program are pretty reliably going get get into a few more. But even the all-stars don't get in everywhere, and will get rejections from lower ranked programs.
I see. Makes sense. So it seems that once applicants reach a certain minimal standard of quality in their letters, GPA, writing sample, etc., they just need a lot of luck.
- Monadology and Hcarp
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I wouldn't infer anything from this. Lots of people who get into well ranked programs get rejected from lower ranked programs. I've heard of someone who got into Harvard and was rejected from every other program they applied to. Plus, while fit helps and is important, it might just be that they preferred someone else with the same interests and didn't want two incoming people overlapping two much with interests (and the reason for the preference could be any number of reasons that might not even have to do much with the quality of your application).
tl;dr the admissions process is really chaotic and basically impossible to predict. The evidentiary (evidential?) weight of rejections, wait-lists and acceptances is minimal.
How does that work??! They decide partially based on AOI? My initial field was biochemistry and it follows the expected pattern of acceptance by rank.
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Wait listed to the University of Oregon. Nice and realistic e-mail from Scott Pratt.
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Has anyone heard anything from any of the SPEP schools besides Penn, Vanderbilt, and Stony Brook?
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Thanks for all of the feedback and keep it coming! Many good questions here.
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For anyone who has already been through the interview and visitation processes, what are some important questions you asked/wish you had asked? Questions for graduate students? Professors? What did you wish you had known before you started? For example:
For older graduate students:
How would you describe the political climate of the program? How do faculty resolve their disagreements? Are those disagreements primarily philosophical?
What is the average length of time to completion of the Ph. D.?
What are some of the approaches of some of the faculty when working with graduate students? Hands-on? Laid-back? Micro-managing?
How does the job market look from your position?
For faculty:
How would you describe the overall philosophical atmosphere of the department?
What advice do you have for prospective graduate students?
I'm sure there must be some current students around. I know this would help me and hopefully other prospective students.
UNM? BC?
in Philosophy
Posted
Definitely. As far as pedigree goes, it speaks to the public image of the program, but the public image is one thing, while the concrete life of the program is another completely. Looking at the placement records of each program would help clarify the differences. Are you looking to continue on to a PhD?