psm1580b

Wow! Good luck!

Congratulations Chicago admittances! I'm sad I'm not on that list--but there will be other schools

Can you give me an example of a sort of paradigm case that would help me understand what you are pointing towards?

There's a couple ways of thinking about this, but it sounds like a general question about skepticism to me. The former part being something akin to Kant's phenomenal world, and the latter being the noumenal world or [the thing in itself], except that in Kant's view, we have no direct access to the thing in itself. Another interpretation is one of epistemic skepticism of an external world, that is, how do we know that what we are perceiving is what there is? One view that I like is Hindu realism, which postulates four knowledge-sources (the primary being perception), which are then certified by our interaction with the external world itself. That is, they are sources of knowledge because if they were not, we would not be able to interact with the external world. There's also the debate between realists and anti-realists in philosophy of science. That one I find particularly fascinating in terms of whether our inferences from observation are justified. Honestly, there are so many different ways to look at and dissect this idea--that's what I love about philosophy.

Well, lets get through this weekend of nervous waiting together. Go eat something. And maybe take a walk.

*waves hand* neither do you

*waves hand* You don't want to go to Indiana...

It's spelt H-E-G-E-L, right?

Congratulations! That is awesome!

It looks like Irvine released a few different department's acceptances today, including LPS (HPS is within their Logic and Philosophy of Science department, separate from philosophy). There was one HPS post from Irvine today. And my email is sadly empty.

On it.

I had a University reach out to me this morning and tell me that one of my letters hadn't arrived. It was an email mix up since the person has since retired. I fixed the problem but I'm thinking.... maybe this is a good sign? I mean, would they even care to reach out if they weren't remotely interested?

I was also waitlisted at Indiana HPS yesterday.

Wow. I just realized that the school that waitlisted me didn't even get my third letter yet. I pinged my recommender again, but it's well over 3 weeks late. Oops. Interesting to me because last year I was so paranoid about dates and times and having everything in way ahead of time.

What they said^ but I should add that I was referring to ND HPS. I don't know exactly what program you applied to at ND.

Presumed rejection, I should have made that clear. I figured since their invitations went out, if I was going to be offered--I would have been invited. After applying last year, I know many schools will only release acceptances/waitlists initially, and will wait months before notifying rejected applicants.

Waitlisted at Indiana HPS. I guess they don't admit unless they can fund or something. I was excited to see an email from my POI. Last year I was rejected from 15 schools, so this feels amazing.

I would think long and hard about identifying a Plan B. I didn't, and now I'm an adjunct. Although I love teaching, and it's great, the lack of stability and permanence is frustrating. So I think my Plan B for this year is to continue being an adjunct. My hopes are not high--I thought I was a strong candidate last year and, despite making a few chances, really could not put as much of my heart into applications this year. At least, it certainly felt that way.

Hey all, It's my second year here, actually. Which, I have to say, in terms of stress--that's the way to go. This year's applications were night-and-day less stressful than last years. For instance: I'm sleeping, eating, not smoking, and even still employed. This is the first time I've looked at grad cafe since last March--Imagine that! So yes, I highly recommend the year-two plan. You'll sleep better. Good luck! Best, Socratease

Whelp. I'm basically shut-out. The schools I haven't heard from have already released acceptances and waitlists so its time to continue work on my plan b's. I fully plan on re-applying next year with some major changes in tactics. For me, those include using a different writing sample and applying to a different (but overlapping) set of schools. Primarily, I want to use a paper which is actually related to the field I want to study, as opposed to my MA thesis which is interesting in its own right, but is entirely passionless. There's no "voice," if you will, unlike my other paper. Now, we've all been told enough times that app committees don't care what the subject matter is, and I think that's generally true, but I think in this case it will be beneficial. Best of luck to everyone else and congratulations to all those who made it! I'm sure I'll see you in a year or two...

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.

Rejected from UCLA (finally). That makes 8/15. Please send all care packages to: I Wanted a PhD but now I Just Want More Wine c/o: The person sobbing in the corner A big wet city, Ca 99999

Maybe I should take the initative and reject JHU before they reject me.

I'm having a drink right now. *liftsglass*

Rejected from UW. I have to be honest, this is getting a bit old...