Duns Eith

It is inevitable and it is good to keep this experience close to heart: it keeps you humble, and you can recall times like these when you've overcome major hurdles in understanding (namely, you can be grateful and glad for how far you've come). Also, if you lose this feeling, get worried that you aren't reading widely enough (or you're likely reading authors who confirm your views more often than not). While you have this feeling, take note what your methods are to solve the problem. Seriously, think about the steps you're following to grasp it. Are you writing things down? Are you journaling? Are you just getting frustrated and trying again? Are you looking at secondary literature to get another perspective on the text? I ask because many of these should be clearly set out in your mind as strategies that actually help you, that you can tell others to do, and for which you may remember and renew when you are feeling like you haven't had innovation or challenge lately. Undergrads will want this advice too.

This is very cool. I wish I had time for many of these.

Post script: It might seem that the application season is already getting behind us, but notice that many programs for the MA accept apps in January and February. I went to Western Mich for their MA, and had a great experience there. Let me know if you have questions about their program. I think they have an app due end of Jan or early Feb

You may want to consider an MA program in philosophy first. https://fundedphilma.weebly.com/ There are funded spots at most of these. How are they funded? Well, they typically cover most or all tuition, plus a stipend to offset cost of living, in exchange for TA'ing (for first year MA students) and teaching (for second year MA students). This can be a great way to develop professionally, get into the academic scene, confirm what kind of grit you have for your passion (or the lack thereof), network and get letters of recommendation, and perhaps most importantly 'extend your reach' for top PhD programs. The majority of grad students at PhD programs earned an MA first. On this note, I would strongly urge you to think of grad school as an internship + apprenticeship, and that you should not be paying your way but rather earning your keep. If you have no funded offers, try applying again or take it as evidence that you should go into something else. If they don't fund you, they literally don't think you're worthy of their investment when compared to the other applicants. It's competitive.

Just to be clear this is not an endorsement for the UB program for accomplishing your goals, but that they would likely be competent to give direction for your goals.

UB has a PhD program and hence plenty of people who have insight to your question, right in your own backyard. Have you asked any professors in the Philosophy department at UB? Cohen, who teaches in both philosophy and Jewish studies department, might be worth considering meeting. He's very continental. Lawler works in continental. Williams is the dept chair. There are currently grad level courses on Nietzsche, on Hegel, and on pragmatists. Current grad students are working lots of the authors you named.

"This site summarizes the results of the 2020 PhilPapers Survey, which surveyed the philosophical views of 1785 English-speaking philosophers from around the world on 100 philosophical questions. The 2020 PhilPapers Survey was a follow-up to the 2009 PhilPapers Survey. The 2020 survey increased the number of the questions from 30 to 100 and expanded the target population. It also collected longitudinal information on how philosophers' views have changed since 2009." https://survey2020.philpeople.org/ https://philarchive.org/archive/BOUPOP-3 What's also interesting is that there are comparisons made for how opinions have changed

Just commenting to say that this is a great project, and I remember doing this manually for 20 programs myself back 5 years ago. Not fun. I am glad this is a community effort.

This is something I had no idea would be true. This, as with other programs, (I think U Chicago comes to mind?) do see the program as cash-cow in function. The fact that they have a scholarship converts my advice from a strict prohibition to a "probably a bad idea." Where probably is almost solely determined by the likelihood of that scholarship.

Funding is on a scale. Even among the programs that are "fully funded", some offer tiny stipends and full tuition remission, others give majority tuition remission and hefty stipends. These are probably the underlying concerns: Don't go to any program that makes you foot the entire bill, unless you can do so without taking out student loans. Don't go to a program that won't give you TA/GA experience, but gives it to PhD students. Don't go to a program where, in order to survive, you must work another job in addition or take out over $2000 in student loans each semester. This isn't about whether borrowing money is bad or stupid, but rather the cost-benefit analysis. Don't absorb the cost for the benefit, unless absorbing will not be a burden.

I want to take this back. Your GPA may be lower than average, but not wrecked and certainly not an outright defeater for applications. Most schools admit all-things-considered, even if there are some arbitrary "cut offs" (GPA, GRE, etc.) at some schools. I want to take this back as well. Sort of. If you have a PhD in hand and at a good school even while adjuncting, your pay might be very well above $30k. Not tenure-track, not permanent instructor, etc. Just adjunct. For example, making $4,000 per class, 4 classes per semester, not including one in the summer, you'd make about $32k ($4,000x4x2 = $32,000), and some institutions pay above that and benefits since you're teaching more than 3 per semester.

P.S. you didn't mention anything about what other MA you could do instead. Theology? Literature? Computer science? P.P.S. if you're from the UK, you'll definitely get more subscribers than from the US, because everyone thinks a UK accent is intelligent.

First off, I am sorry that you have needed to pay even a cent for an MA in humanities. I would strongly advise against anyone who considers such a route of entering any grad school for humanities, without funding. It makes so little financial sense. Second, your GPA is definitely wrecked. Most people I know working on an MA in philosophy had about a 3.7 or higher before moving to PhD. Maybe they were not normal. Maybe the programs are not typical (maybe there's grad inflation). Third, if I am honest, whatever you want to do in philosophy almost certainly can be done without credentials and without all the suffering. There are no jobs, practically speaking, for teaching gigs that pay more than $30k a year. If you are able to do what you want without going the PhD route or get an MA in philosophy, then do that. Be creative. If you just want to be smarter and blog, then move to a city with a good library (or library system) and let philosophy be a hobby more than a jobby. If you want social connections, there are plenty of groups online interested in discussion and many have podcasters or Zoom reading groups. If you want to educate and provide resources to inform students interested in the subject, create a YouTube channel or Twitch and give it a go. The university system is broken.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2026228?seq=1 Maybe it is not worth it to be as ethical as possible "I don't know whether there are any moral saints. But if there are, I am glad that neither I nor those about whom I care most are among them. By moral saint I mean a person whose every action is as morally good as possible, a person, that is, who is as morally worthy as can be. Though I shall in a moment acknowledge the variety of types of person that might be thought to satisfy this description, it seems to me that none of these types serve as unequivocally compelling personal ideals. In other words, I believe that moral perfection, in the sense of moral saintliness, does not constitute a model of personal well-being toward which it would be particularly rational or good or desirable for a human being to strive." "Moral Saints," by Susan Wolf

That would be about half of a normal admission year, I believe. COVID has had long-term effects on universities. Many of them are still reeling from budget cuts. Miami's grad student stipend is quite high, so I wouldn't be surprised if they cut back the number of lines were to be taken.