Duns Eith

The anonymity!

Yes!

Hey all, While philosophy has had a reputation of not making progress, there are also trends in philosophy where particular topics get developed quickly. What research do you think it is a current or upcoming trend that you've been focused on? Epistemic injustice Experimental Philosophy Critical Race Theory Effective altruism Grounding Formal Epistemology Non-naturalist normative realism [insert your interest that is getting popular here] (most of this list came from Leiter's philosophical "fads" post, but read nothing negative into it) I have had interest in Grounding and, to some extent, Early Modern Women (Cavendish, Conway, Elisabeth of the Palatinate, Mary Shepherd, etc.). A lot of my friends have been into Formal Epistemology. What about you?

Sorry to hear. You gonna apply next year?

It depends on how active they are. Your son should ask the grad students at those programs how often the profs of interest teach classes, take on dissertations adviser positions, etc.

This. Last year I was stuck on a waitlist and had to accept, what I took to be, a lower quality program's offer. I was next in line on that waitlist. Declining any that you can has a cascading effect.

Be frank about your situation for yourself: If the funding remained unchanged, would you turn down B? If B altered its funding, what would be sufficient for you to accept B over A? Do you really want to accept B, but just feel a strong sense of FOMO (fear of missing out)? Are the packages for A and B equally good all things considered, but B has financial room for improvement that could tip the scale? Advice from Eric Schwitzgebel: Don't expect too much wiggle room in negotiations about funding. But if a comparable department is offering you a better package than the school that would otherwise be your first choice, it can't hurt to politely mention that fact to the chair of the admissions committee. http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2007/10/applying-to-philosophy-phd-program-part.html With all that in mind, what do you think you'd want to communicate to the DGA?

Hey I just got this on PhilUpdates, and I thought I would pass it on to the broader audience. There are some here who might have struck out or who might have only un-funded offers. I’m writing to let you know about our MA program in Philosophy at Eastern Michigan University. If you have students interested in pursuing an MA in Philosophy in a pluralistic program with funding opportunities, I hope you will encourage them to apply. We have rolling admissions, so students can apply at any time to enter the program at the beginning of the upcoming semester. We have recently received new lines of funding that we can assign to incoming students beginning in Fall 2018. Students interested in such an opportunity would need to apply to the program by May 1, 2018. Currently in its fifth year, our young MA program has a lot to recommend it. Our faculty is pluralistic, giving students opportunities to engage in philosophical study in the Analytic, Continental, non-Western, and Feminist traditions. Students enroll in one of two tracks: Methodology or Social Justice. The Methodology Track allows students to explore questions about the nature of philosophy as a mode of inquiry, drawing from diverse philosophical traditions, with courses in Chinese Philosophy, Phenomenology, Comparative Philosophy, and Philosophy of Science. The Social Justice Track offers courses in Ethical Theory, Food Justice, Environmental Philosophy, Social Epistemology, Moral Psychology, and Feminist Philosophy. These courses examine a number of contemporary concerns, including the nature of just social structures, relations, and practices; theoretical and practical issues related to gender, race, class, and disability; challenges for individual and collective action; and conceptions of what it could mean to flourish in the midst of climate change and other forms of ecological upheaval. We are able to provide funding, in the form of Teaching Assistantships and Research Assistantships, to as many as eight graduate students. These Assistantships offer substantial tuition remissions and modest stipends to continuing and incoming students. These opportunities are available for Canadian and international students as well as for US students. The University also offers other funding opportunities for which students may apply. The email did not have a link, but it had a flyer. So, I think this link should be sufficient: https://www.emich.edu/historyphilosophy/philosophy/programs/graduate.php Oh, and the GRE is not required to apply.

Clarification: The PGR is not useless. I can see how someone might get that from my follow-up post. I think the PGR is very helpful, but the authors should be open and frank about legitimate criticisms. Instead of scholarly dispositions and honest acknowledgements of its limitations (in its method, or in its validity for assessing quality of program), we see Leiter's histrionic preoccupation with what people think of him and his persistent displays of winning over critics. The way he just posted his condescending Tweet exchange with a grad student reminds me of Mr. Orange Stubby Fingers's Twitter habits.

P.S. I forgot to mention another concern: that placement is highly correlated, but there are plenty of counter-examples, to the point that no one should make a decision between PhD offers by a mere difference of rank. The concrete data of these individual program placements should be considered while ignoring PGR ranking. This will give the applicant far more robust information.

Breaking news: philosophers from unranked programs in their specialties think the PGR is... ..."unreliable," "weird," "misleading." I gather a team of crack psychologists is working on a study to try to explain what's going on here. It is mysterious. http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2018/03/breaking-news-philosophers-from-unranked-programs-in-their-specialties-think-the-pgr-is.html Because no one could have legitimate concerns about methodology, bias, bootstrapping, data tossing, etc. Surely the best explanations for grievance is that critics are all sour grapes about PGR ranking, or that PGR ranking tracks some intelligence which would obviously recognize PGR's beauty and refinement. Leiter's arrogance is alone sufficient to justify the existence of a different blog that communicates useful data (faculty movement, say) without all the BS that BL spouts out.

Congrats!!!

Let's be honest: you got admitted to a grad school in philosophy -- be worried! Your attempts for securing a poor paying adjunct job or getting lottery ticket (tenure) are becoming a reality. Gimme heart reacts if you don't mind staring into the void.

Most PhD programs in philosophy explicitly stress quality of writing sample.

I recall someone in my cohort turning down NIU's full funding offer in favor of WMU. (I was surprised at the time, but some of his reasoning was about familiarity and desire to work with specific faculty at WMU in epistemology) He is legit by the way. He's at Northwestern now (ranked 32 in PGR as of the recent report).

I did an MA at Western Michigan. PM me if you want to ask any questions. I will be candid and straightforward.

I relied on this website quite a bit: http://www.philosophynews.com/post/2013/10/20/Graduate-School-in-Philosophy-Terminal-MA-Programs-In-Philosophy.aspx

Any you applied to?

Of the 18 schools I applied to last year, all of them said 5 or more years funding, except one which didn't say one way or another. And that one was what I got surprised by. Could you give me some examples? Are they ranked on PGR?

I didn't have a single case last year where I found out via portal before email or phone.

I would also warn: make sure you know how long your funding is guaranteed for (4, 5, 6 years?), how long grad students typically get funded (even if 5 is guaranteed, 6 might be common), and whether the scholarship matches the length of the base funding (perhaps 5 years, when the dept funds for 6, say). This might not be perfectly clear on their website. For example, I was given an offer "renewable up to 4 years", which meant a total of 4 years, not renewed 4 years for a total of 5. While this might be clear, on my scholarship it used the same verbiage "renewable up to 3 years, for a total of 4 years." Hence the ambiguity. Also, what PhD program only funds for 4 years? Moral of the story: When in doubt, ask. Don't get burned.

Right, no one going to UPenn or Temple needs to live at Chew and Broad, or under the el at Kensington. If you're going to Villanova, you're closer to Plymouth Meeting

Unless you can pay for the MA out of pocket (with parent's assistance, say), don't go for Tufts. Never go into debt for an MA in humanities. Never go into debt for philosophy. Sure, you can go into debt if you're not risk averse, but since a PhD at a top 20 school won't guarantee you will have a way to pay for your debts, you have no reason to believe that a better placement is sufficient reason to adopt all that debt. If you were choosing between a funded no-name MA with poor placement and an unfunded Tufts, I might go as far as say re-apply. Thankfully, NIU is well recognized for being all around good. If you've got the assistantship at Tufts, then obviously this warning won't apply =)

Should you cross us, we will kill you. Go now, and live whatever meaningless life you can.

By "no philosophy background", do you mean that you don't have any philosophy courses whatsoever? Some might have a requirement like critical thinking or intro to logic. Of course, they might make them entrance requirements you can fulfill in the first year of your program, but you might wanna look at their specific admissions requirements.