PedagogodeLiberacion

That's what I thought. I felt that having a good variety of letter-writers from different philosophical areas would be better because it would showcase your overall abilities in philosophy and not just limited to a specific area. Thanks for the input!

In a similar vein to YoungFoucault's question, I was wondering what anybody thinks about whether a letter from a very distinguished professor in a field that is not strictly related to my interests is better than a professor who is well-known within my field of interest? With regards to who can write a better letter, I believe I have had sufficient contact with both and have a very good relationship with both.

Thank you both, I really appreciate the comments. I know it is always best to be on the side of caution but I wanted to know what others have experienced. Cheers.

Does anyone have any input on whether it is best for the writing sample to be mainly textual analysis (as in one interpreting the text rigorously) or that it have a lot of secondary sources? I ask because when I went to give a conference earlier this month, I was surprised at how many of my peers were using a bunch of secondary literature for their papers. This is definitely a habit I need to get into for the future but I was wondering if it has any effect on the writing sample?

Hey Johannes, I'm from Venezuela. That's great to hear that a fellow South American is at Columbia, congratulations! Yes, I've been interested in Habermas and Arendt primarily but I've been wanting to read more people like Marcuse, Horkheimer & Adorno. It is great to hear that Columbia has so many opportunities. I've definitely been interested in the program and, since it is one of my dream schools, I'll be applying for sure. Thanks for the information. Cheers!

Historical: Rousseau, Nietzsche, Spinoza Contemporary: Arendt, Deleuze, Baudrillard, Habermas, Ortega y Gasset

Wagner's Parsifal

Hey, I'll be applying to Columbia and I'm also an international student (I'm doing my BA). Since you were admitted to Columbia, I was wondering, if you're willing, I'd like to hear your experience/thoughts on the program. Cheers!

Hegel (for European Philosophy) and Plantinga (for Analytic Philosophy)

I'm an international student that will be applying for Fall 2015. The programs that I've looked into that have some type of funding (whether PhD or MA) are Stony Brook, Columbia, Loyola Chicago, Villanova, University of Oregon, Fordham, DePaul, Texas A&M, Miami University, Boston College. I hope this helps your friend in some way.

I'm an international student from South America and I've been doing my B.A. here in the U.S. and I'm hoping to continue my studies here for PhD & MA. This is my first time using this forum and I'll be applying for Fall 2015. Undergraduate: I will be graduating from a large, pluralistic department. I started off with Psychology as my major but was thoroughly disappointed when I took upper-level classes and realized that it was too empirically oriented for my taste. So, I decided to do Philosophy as my second major. So far, my overall GPA is a 3.8 but in Philosophy is a 4.0. Since I'm basically done with all of my Philosophy coursework, I'll have to struggle through these next couple of semesters taking core classes. I have yet to take the GRE but I will be taking it in October so I'll have enough to prepare and hopefully not have to retake it. I've published two essays in an undergraduate journal and attended one conference. I'll be working with a fairly well-known professor for my honors thesis until next year so I hope I'll be able to use that as my writing sample. Interests: Social & Political Philosophy [whether it is Continental (Critical Theory: Arendt, Habermas, Marcuse) or earlier (Rousseau, Locke, Hegel)], some Post-Structuralism that overlaps with Social & Political Philosophy (Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault), Latin American Philosophy (Ortega y Gasset, De Unamuno), Philosophy of Education (Dewey, Freire), Philosophy of Literature (I've been interested in the relationship between Latin American literature and philosophy), Aesthetics (I've been reading some Baudrillard and it has been pretty enthralling).