Jump to content

SmugSnugInARug

Members
  • Posts

    44
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by SmugSnugInARug

  1. That’s incorrect. First off, the ‘cash cow’ bit is only mildly true, but not any more than any other unfunded MA programs. Which, granted, should all be free, but to lay that at the feet of U. Chicago is to blame an instance for a trend. Additionally, as someone who DID pay (and still is paying) for MAPH, its worth it. Seriously. Secondly, the resources provided to U. Chi MA students are incredible, I still get weekly emails of potential jobs. Not only do you get the full support of the MAPH/MAPSS faculty, but you also get the immense resources of U. Chicago itself, which is a massive global network. As for direct attention for MA students: it varies mostly by professor, but the vast majority of them are extremely helpful and do actually have time for MA students. I met with most of my professors regularly, including people like Marion and Pippin. And, if that attention isn’t enough, you have 1. A post-doc, in your general area, who has been hired literally to help your small group (6-10) succeed. Plus, and I cannot stress this enough, the community formed by each cohort is incredible. I’m still incredibly close with many of the people from my year, and at my current job, 6 of the 18 people who work in my department are MAPH alums. Placement rate into PhDs in Philosophy is also NOT poor. Of the 11 philosophy students in my year, 7 decided to apply in the year following the MA program. One is at Riverside, one is at U. Chi (in Social Thought), one is somewhere in Tennessee, one is at Western Ontario, and three of us didn‘t get it (But I have gotten in since to Duquesne). 4 out of 7 is not a bad placement rate. The issue is, in part, that the numbers get skewed because of the varying sizes of philosophy students in each class. Now, I will admit, there is some tension between MAPH and the philosophy department, but this is mostly for two reasons: 1) MAPH students are often much more interested in continental philosophy and the history of philosophy than analytic. (I think my year was 7/4 Continental/Analytic.) Obviously this causes some tensions between the two departments, as some of the Phil. faculty are less than helpful as a result. However, the Divinity School just does Continental stuff, so for those students who wish to pursue that, there isn’t actually any issues on the ground. 2) Some of the older Philosophy faculty look down on students getting MAs, basically assuming that if you didn’t get in to the PhD you are an idiot and will never get in anywhere. There’s not a whole lot you can do about this other than to just ignore those professors, which is super easy. On a day to day level, those problems really don’t exist though. The vast majority of the faculty are not like this though.
  2. Yes, that reputation as a cash cow is certainly true, but that’s also a reputation that most largely unfunded MAs have. However, I was largely speaking about the reputation of those programs re: quality of education, value of degree compared to other institutions (both for getting hired and for acceptance into other degree granting programs). Because the reality is when you walk away from a program, other people don’t see your financial situation, they see your degree. And the op was asking about the reputation of the institution, not about evaluating the financial elements of it.
  3. So, MAPH and MAPSS are quite different. MAPH is primarily filled with students in the following fields: art history, philosophy, English literature, linguistics, political science (theory), classics, music, cinema studies. MAPSS is much more social science oriented: anthropology, sociology, history, political science, communications, etc. If you are more focused on the social science part of things, MAPSS seems far more to fit your stated interests. Both programs are well respected by academia, largely because of U. Chicago’s reputation. Just be honest with MAPSS, you have a background in pol. sci, but want to transition to history. Your background sounds just like why interdisciplinary MAs exist.
  4. Thank you! Yeah, they have been incredibly responsive and the people seem just really respectful of the difficulties that applicants are going through in the process. I’m really glad you’ve been successful this cycle, its heartwarming to see people in this forum do well.
  5. I have accepted my offer at Duquesne University, with a final score 2a/1w/4r. AOI - Phil. Music, Plato, Deleuze, Aesthetics. Extremely excited to work at a program with like 4 scholars who all work on large portions of my interests. Basically been my top choice since I started applying.
  6. Just declined Western Ontario's Theory and Criticism PhD. (I know its not strictly philosophy, but its where a lot of people do Continental work, so just posting it here.)
  7. Also accepted to the Western Ontario Theory & Criticism PhD. I will be declining the offer.
  8. I think its worth putting out a word of warning about this kind of conversation regarding the question of mental health. Graduate programs are extremely stressful environments and philosophy is no exception. Unfortunately, the mental health of graduate students faces a few serious challenges: 1. First there is a the problem of over-identification with one's discipline. As the work/leisure distinction has collapsed over the past few decades (see, for example, the Google model & playbor), it can be hard to separate one's personal work from free time. Strangely enough, philosophy was a discipline that precisely began in leisure time, and yet with the professionalization of philosophy (and the subsequent corporatization of the academy), philosopher students are often trapped in the bind of over-identifying too much with their profession and as a result it makes it extremely difficult to maintain the work/leisure division that is necessary for mental health. 2. One of the byproducts of this is that many philosophy students derive their 'self-worth' from their perceived academic standing in their peer groups. As the divide between work/leisure collapses philosophy students consistently treat their social time with other students as in this nebulous space, often feeling a need to overstate how much work they are actually doing or accomplishing. This is particularly common when students inevitably compare themselves to others in the field/profession and as a mode of compensation they often self-describe in ideal terms (which are usually unsustainable amounts of work). [Here contemporary articles that draw on Lacan's Mirror Stage and Imago re: instagram/social media would be helpful.] Of course, because this is intellectual labor, down time is extremely necessary. As the environment spirals into students comparing themselves with others purported clams about the amount of work they accomplish, it benefits absolutely no-one. 3. As a result of this kind of setting, answering the question about how much effort and time people spend on their work each week becomes a question loaded with psychological stakes that I'm sure the author of this question didn't intent to invoke. It is not a neutral question and the answers we give to it are not neutral. They are directly related to the mental health of our fellow cohorts, our fellow students, and even our potential fellow co-workers or interlocutors. In a certain way my answer to the original question is something like this: With respect to time management, I would echo @hector549, make sure you are not treating work as the sole criterion for how to organize your time. Make sure you organize your life, with clear distinctions between leisure and labor. I work full-time as an adjunct professor, but I still manage to take my dog to the park every day for an hour or so. And if you want to read three other books that have nothing to do with classes you are taking, or prepare ahead of time for something, go ahead and do that, but recognize that you are doing so on your own leisure time. Not on your work time. And you need to be very careful to separate the two.
  9. Removed myself from the waitlist at Villanova. Hope it helps someone! (AOI: aesthetics, contemporary continental, Plato)
  10. Accepted to Duquesne off the waitlist! So excited! Going to accept.
  11. @HomoLudens Did he explain to you the difference between the waitlists?
  12. @charliekkk My initial email from the department made mention of it.
  13. @ringoandme Thanks for the update! Good luck with your applications this round!
  14. Waitlisted at Duquesne. The person I spoke with mentioned that the waitlist was divided into two fields of interest (I'm assuming either Ancient/Contemporary or Catholic/Non-Catholic), so I am sharing the top of the list with another person.
  15. I don't have a whole lot of insight into it, other than that it has a well deserved reputation for the need to be self-funded. However, I know that there are people working diligently to try to transform this aspect of the program. As to hold long this will take to be successful, only time will tell.
  16. *insert obligatory remark about unfunded MAs* It is very heavily oriented towards the history of philosophy and phenomenology. If you are interested in philosophy of mind work connected to either Husserlian phenomenology or more historical work, it would be a strong choice. There are also a few (and ever increasing) analytically-oriented professors who do that kind of work. Re: philosophy of science, I don't know anybody there who does it. Science is not BC's focus.
  17. Hi everyone, I'm applying to several continental-oriented programs. My primary interests are ancient philosophy (Plato, Pre-Socratics) and contemporary continental philosophy (Aesthetics, Political Philosophy). I hold two MAs (Philosophy & Humanities) and I work as an adjunct full-time. My writing samples are on delimiting historical periods in aesthetics and a reading of Aristotle's Parva Naturalia. After a couple rounds of applications (that ended in MA programs), I've got a pretty narrow list of places I'm applying to. (Stony Brook, DePaul, Western, etc.) I've finished all my applications at this point. While I'm not looking forward to the worst part of the process (waiting for rejections to flood in) I'm willing to pass some of the time by addressing any questions anyone might have about Boston College or UChicago's MAPH program.
  18. Hey _deat (and anyone else interested), I attended Boston College's MA program quite recently, if anyone has any questions about the program/community/etc.
  19. @RedThunderAudio Enchanté Humoral Coolant
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use