Lyzl

Yes, I see where you're coming from juillet. I think it will come down to my visit to the Toronto school and continued reflection on the two experiences. There are many things that cause me concern about going to the top school (lack of supervision, risk of complications going to a new country, tight deadline for Ph.D. applications) whereas the Toronto school has been very welcoming and interested in their correspondance.

That sounds right to me, thank you for the input. I'm going to be visting B campus next week which will help solidify the decision. Here's hoping it goes well!

I have three offers I'm considering for a masters in philosophy: A is essentially the top school in the world for my sub-field (or tied). It's one-year, in Europe where I'd love to live, and I would have the ability to improve my french and potentially german (I study french and german philosophers). The tuition is essentially nothing but there's no funding, so the estimate from a friend who went there is $15-18k in living expenses. B is a good school for my sub-field, perhaps the best for my interests in Canada (where I live). Its in Toronto though, which is very expensive to live in. Although the funding is very strong, the tuition and living expenses mean I'll be breaking even. I love Toronto as a city and would be happy to live there, and my potential advisors come with highly positive reviews. C is my undergrad school and has one person in my sub-field available for supervising. They are as strong as anyone in B, if not even better as I know we get along very well. I'd like to move out of C as it is my hometown. If I continue living with my parents, I could save as much as $15-20k by accepting this school. Any advice would be appreciated, as you can imagine, I find all three offers are very tempting. I plan to pursue a Ph.D. at the strongest school I can get into in my sub-field, I am pretty dedicated to my sub-field and don't see myself changing it too drastically.

Not a 'big deal' post here, but I just recieved an email acceptance from the University of Guelph for their Masters program. I am very happy to attend there, but I'm also excited to see how my other apps go. So far 1a/0w/0r out of 6. There is also a Ph.D. acceptence announced, so I get the feeling they are sending out all the emails now.

One thing that others here haven't mentioned is Canadian MA programs. Some Canadian MA programs are competitive in getting students in ranked Ph.Ds (though not of the same tier as Tufts and the like), and are often easier to get funded. Simon Fraser (Vancouver), Ryerson (Toronto), and Concordia (Montreal) for Continental work are all options.

I have been experimenting with multiple citation styles for my more recent philosophy papers and have noticed a bit of disparity on the ones used in writing samples I've found scattered around the internet. What style do you use and perhaps link a paper in that style? My personal preference thus far is the somewhat informal footnoted Chicago variation (maybe it's just Chicago?) as seen here: http://fitelson.org/epistemology/lewis.pdf

I do, two semesters left until application time though. Getting a bad impression, especially one I don't really know how to recover from, really shocked my system though.

I just finished my first semester of my second bachelor's. I know philosophy is what I want to do now and therefore choose to take a second degree in it and get into a master's/phd. I did fantastic this semester scoring essentially the highest mark in four of my classes and greatly impressing two profs. I felt at home in the discipline. My fifth course screwed me though. The prof is the most famous philosophy prof at my school and I admire his work. A letter from him is like gold. Hes in the exact specialty I want. And I got a B in his course. I have no idea what happened, I worked hard, tried writing ambitiously and writing safe, studied with the strongest students, and had all my papers edited by friends taking his grad courses. I got a B or B+ in everything in that course, and it was always well justified in his comments. I have never felt so blindsided by a course before, and while the course wasn't in my exact specialty, the prof was, to lose him as a reccomendation is a huge blow.