Cecinestpasunphilosophe

Congrats! Did you just find out now?

Accepting Stanford's offer now. I can't believe this entire process is over. It's been one hell of a ride.

Ann Arbor just offered me a spot off their waitlist, which I have declined. So if you're still on their list - they may be getting in touch with you soon!

Meno's Paradox for the 21st Century.

Perhaps. The entire application process is so opaque and mysterious, it very well could be the case that the only difference in my application that mattered to admissions committees was the writing sample I was able to improve over the summer. But seeing that I would be "master's-prepared" when starting my Ph.D. might have helped. Seeing the Latin and Greek reading list I will have completed by September might have helped (at least for my applications, given the emphasis on philology in a lot of ancient philosophy programs). The extra semester working (in one form or another) with most of the professors writing me letters might have helped. Who knows?

I think the MA definitely helped. Granted, Ancient Phil is a bit of a unique situation, and my MA was in Classics - but I also have friends who did MAs in Philosophy and have done very well this cycle. So, in my anecdotal experience, doing an MA seems like an excellent idea.

I was declined everywhere I applied last year, except for Fordham. Decided to try again, begged the grad director at my program to let me do a one-year MA, slaved over a new writing sample over the summer... and it worked out. I think it's definitely worth a shot.

I wish I thought I would go somewhere. I really feel torn between Chicago, Princeton, and Stanford at this point. And I have no idea how I'll manage to make up my mind by Friday.

I've come to characterize my complaints about the difficulties of making my decision as being of the form: "Look at my yacht! It's so large! I have so much cleaning to do!"

I'm a big fan of MySpace, personally.

Just withdrew my application from ND. No direct benefit, I know, but it will hopefully prove helpful down the road.

Just declined my Toronto admission. Hope this helps someone!

Which is why the rankings, especially area rankings, should always be taken with a shaker of salt. My favourite example of this is comparing the phil of religion PGR rankings from 2011 to 2015. In 2011, UNC-Chapel Hill was ranked 2nd (I think) in the English-speaking world for philosophy of religion. In the most recent ranking, it's nowhere to be found. Why? Because the Adams family moved from UNC to a 3-year position at Rutgers' new Centre for the Philosophy of Religion, which is also why (along with Zimmerman) Rutgers is currently in the PGR's second tier. Especially when dealing with smaller/less well-known AOIs, the PGR should only be used to point you towards those departments where big names in the field are to be found... and even then, if you've done your homework, you should be able to do that without the PGR's help :)

(in robot voice): "Too Catholic? Does not compute. Cannot do. Beep boop."

I'm glad you specified the robot voice. Otherwise, John McDowell would have been doing the voice-over in my head.

Happened to me. I emailed a couple weeks ago, and was promptly informed that the system had somehow forgotten to send me my rejection.

Waitlisted at Michigan! @dgswaim, I'm catching up!

Yeah, these late visits are really frustrating. I'll have two days after my Stanford visit to try and make an informed choice about my options - which is ridiculous. It also means that, between Berkeley and Stanford, I have a full month that's going to be spent stressing about these stupid visits. Which is upsetting. I'm waiting to hear back from the DGS at Princeton as to whether they'll be able to fund my visit or not. If they're able to do so, I'll probably go. Even if they're not able to do so, I'll still probably go... but I won't be happy about it

I'm glad to see you're warming up to Harvard, @gughok I think a large part of my decision is going to come down to how the campus visits go. Last year, I only made the decision to do an MA rather than accept the offer I had after spending a few days visiting the department, so I think I can trust my intuitions to one extent or another - but at the same time, it seems incredible that I'm deciding where I'm going to spend the next five/six years of my life (and, in many ways, how my life is going to unfold after) based on a couple of days hanging out at a department while its professors and grad students are trying to put their best foot forward. I mean, visits are surely better data for reflection than email conversations with current students, or whatever else one might have access to... but it still seems like such a small data set for making such an important decision!

To add my personal experience - the only department that accepted me last year rejected me this year, despite my application being vastly improved. This has led me to think that departments actually do hold grudges. So, if you reject Columbia this year, you may not have the chance to attend it next year. I don't know how much you actually would like to go to Columbia in the first place, but it's something to keep in mind.

Waitlisted at Princeton! And rejected by Yale twenty minutes later. I knew it was coming, but honestly universe, you can't even give me a couple of hours to enjoy the good news?

That one was a Kantian. Not sure if they're still sending out acceptances, though - it seems like POIs are contacting admitted applicants at their own discretion, frustratingly.

Thank you! Compared with what happened to me last year, this is an entirely-welcomed - and entirely-unexpected - peripeteia!

All three of the posted Stanford acceptances so far are people working in ancient - so you're probably entirely justified in holding out hope

STANFOOOOOOOOORD!!!! =D =D =D