The Pedanticist

Did you get funding through HKU or was it external?

I'm great. Got my PS edited by five people, writing sample edited by two others, all of test scores and official and unofficial transcripts sent. I also talked with a professor there on the phone earlier this week. Hopefully I'll get an offer, but I'm rather doubtful. Anyone have any ideas what the cutoff scores are there? How about you?

I was talking with one POI that said that he had placed three students he was advising for in one month! The school had like 6 placements in total that month.

Interesting read about the increasing number of comm jobs. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/22/new-data-show-communication-faculty-jobs-are

I think I've figured out how to add some of my personal experiences without appearing to be gushy. Which area are you interested in? Was it just me, or was it odd that it asks you to specify 5 scholars you want to work with on the school application? Best of luck.

I always have this moral dilemma when people ask me this type of question: If I say yes then I'm hurting my own job chances (even by such a small measure). If I say no then I feel like I may be both holding someone back for the wrong reasons and hurting the discipline by not encouraging another voice. Regardless, I'm much less worried about getting a job in comm than in philosophy. In philosophy 5 schools control 50% of all placements.

I'm a bit confused about the instructions online for the USC SOP's. It says It doesn't seem that they want much personal detail in the SOP. Am I right in thinking this?

I know of some applications where you're asked what your highest score in each section is, but that isn't the official ETS report.

And with my graphic design background I could totally get 170s and a 6... Jking.

Got it. Thanks!

Also, where and how do you talk about your conversations with professors? Specifically, when I've talked with prof X and he's said he would like to work with me. Since he won't be on the Adcomm I want them to know about our mutual interest in working together without being over the top.

My quant score is below the 50 percentile so I'm pretty sure that they will see it as a negative. Thankfully, I'm retaking it and everything suggests I will do considerably better, but for my one application I'll have to keep it.

Should one in the SOP discuss any part of the application that might be weak? I mean specifically my GRE Quantitative score which is low, but I have A's in statistics classes and am in the process of publishing a quan communication paper.

This may not even matter with the PGR on the ropes these days. But I do completely understand its part of the reason I'm applying to programs outside of philosophy proper (with at least seemingly a great deal of success).

Some programs require both a pdf and an official one. Others do not require an official copy. Each website should tell you. I think I read a while back about people having trouble doing the pdf versions since the file sizes would be too large to upload. I think there also was a thread about how to make the files small enough. Maybe some else remembers? Or you might do a google search.

I'm considering it. The main problem is that the person I would likely work with is Alan Gross and he's getting extremely close to retirement. It looks like your friend and myself will be applying to all of the same places. What area of rhetoric is she interested in?

Yes. I talked with a prospective POI and they seemed to think that was the only area where my application could be improved. Here I come November.

How do you ask about job placement without it coming off wrong? One of my professors said that he thinks it comes off wrong if you straight up ask for job placement data.

Yeah I thought it was odd when my friend told me about it. It might have been that they had a great deal of applicants from the East and West Coasts and not many from the Midwest and were wanting a bit of diversity in that specific recruiting class. I'm not very confidant that it happens very often.

I was just saying that it was a bit ironic to refer to white people as "white folk" in a thread related to diversity in philosophy. I highly doubt that you were attempting to denigrate another set of races/cultures/gender. I just think it is worth pointing out that the term if applied to any other race/culture/gender would be derogatory in some parts of the country. I personally am opposed to using any term about a culture/race /gender that couldn't be used for another race/culture/gender or isn't specifically used widely by that group for itself. In addition, the idea that there are URM's and "white folk" leaves out a lot of minorities such as women, LGBT's and other white cultures. I apologize if you felt personally attacked that was certainly not my goal. I'm just passionate about the issue of diversity in philosophy. I'm considered a URM by many schools because of my socio-economic status and because of the culture that my parents were/are a part of. I have no idea whether it will help me with my application or not. But since I am actively involved in promoting diversity (by starting a scholarship and hosting panels on the subject) I hope that will be a positive not only on my application but in promoting diversity in philosophy in general. I know a guy who got into Georgetown and someone on the adcomm told him that the reason he stood out from the others with similar stats was that he was from the Midwest.

I think its a bit ironic that this thread is about URM's but that you refer to whites as "white folk". As if someone could say "black folk" or "red folk" and it not be racist. It's also worth pointing out that there are plenty of URM's who are white as well. Indeed, most programs consider me a URM because of the community where I come from even though I'm white. (Heck, I even know of some schools who consider Midwesterner's a minority in "good" philosophy.)

I guess I assumed that someone had inside knowledge. In philosophy everyone assumed for a long time that there were cutoffs, but we found out that a very few (maybe less than 5) actually did. Is it possible that everyone is assuming this without it actually being true? I know several of the admission committee members I've talked with have specifically said that they don't have cutoffs.

That's what I'm doing. However, with my thesis each of the last three chapters is really a separate argument in support of the initial thesis. I'll likely add a couple pages at the beginning, but it shouldn't require too much work. I assume that it won't be viewed too negatively considering it was accepted to a conference.

Thanks! I did BA's in philosophy and communication separately. My MA is a lot of philosophy (including work on hermeneutics) , some Comm (mostly quantitative) and history of rhetoric/philosophy. My thesis is specifically in analytic epistemology though, so that may hurt me a bit. I do research/teach in a comm department currently and the profs at the department have given me invaluable advice about where to look. I didn't really think I would apply to Comm/Rhetoric programs until recently. Interesting that you are working in religious studies. In philosophy, the two areas I work in are epistemology and philosophy of religion.

Anyone know what the cutoff scores might be and where? I'm somewhat new to the comm applications.