kosmo

Wow, thanks for the super helpful replies, guys! I think the general gist of what's been said here - start off by erring on the side of formality, until told otherwise - is a good strategy. I'll do that. Thanks again!

I can relate to this - I've got two aunts (my mom's sisters) who're close to our family, but who are extremely unsupportive when it comes to my pursuing higher education. They think I'm in it for my personal 'fame and glory', when I could've just settled down and found a 'normal job' and take up the family's financial burden. I already help pay my family's mortgage, so I don't know where they're coming from. They keep telling my mom what a horrible daughter I am. It hurts, yes, especially when this is a major goal in our lives - one that at least gives us some meaning. Echoing the posters above, I guess in the end we just have to accept that not everyone will applaud our approve our life choices, and even those close to us, who know us reasonably well, can make mistakes sometimes. But that can't and won't stop us from doing what we truly believe is worthwhile!

Hi all, I'll be starting my Phd program in about two weeks. I realize I sound a bit silly asking this, but I'm wondering what the normal etiquette is in the US when it comes to addressing profs, especially those whom you're meeting for the first time. I come from a non-English speaking country where addressing our profs by their first name is a major faux pas, but I've heard from some people that it's different in the US especially when you're a grad student. Just wondering how I should approach this. Many thanks for any input!

Wow, this is super helpful! Thank you so much rig. I'll ask my friend to read what you wrote up there Thanks again!!!

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: Non-US/UK school from Asia Major(s)/Minor(s): Double majors in History and Politics Undergrad GPA: 3.67 (we have a different system, this would be equivalent to top 5% of grad class) Type of Grad: Research Masters (MPhil), also from non-US/UK school Grad GPA: No GPA GRE: 170V/162Q Any Special Courses: n/a Letters of Recommendation: 1 well known US Philosophy prof, 2 Political theory profs from home institution Research Experience: 6 months as paid Senior Research Assistant; Summer internship at think tank Teaching Experience: 2 years as paid Teaching Assistant Subfield/Research Interests: Political theory Other: 2 international conferences RESULTS: Acceptances($$ or no $$): 7 acceptances - 2 are Top-3 politics dept ($$), 1 is a top-40 politics dept ($$); 4 other philosophy depts ranging from PGR top 16 to 50 Waitlists: 0 Rejections: Loads, mostly philosophy departments Pending: 0 Going to: A top-3 politics dept in the US LESSONS LEARNED: ​- If you're from outside the English speaking world, like me, it's to your utmost advantage to have at least one US or UK prof writing a letter for you. Name recognition and reputation really matters. There are a number of ways that you can network with these profs - for me, my letter writer sat on my exam committee for my MPhil degree, and by a stroke of luck he also came to my home institution for a conference, so we had a chance to get to know each other and keep in touch. He knew my work, and this helped a lot. - I knew that it would be difficult to get into philosophy departments with a politics background, but since political theory is no longer big in most politics dept (save the top 3), I gave it a go anyway. And my initial suspicions were confirmed: I almost got entirely shut out of the top 50 philosophy schools. Luckily, because of a reminder from one of my profs, I decided to apply to 4 politics dept in the last minute. I got in 2 of them, both of which are top 3. If you're like me and interested in political philosophy/theory but don't have a strong and solid background in philosophy, you should probably apply more to politics than philosophy; the latter places a high premium on having the right background. - Always try for 'reach schools'. Always. When I did my application I felt like I was throwing money into the sea, because believe me, I had NEVER imagined that I'd get into top schools (my goal was just to get into ANY PhD program). It's a combination of luck and hard work (with much more emphasis on luck, I'd say), and sometimes you do go further than you ever dreamed you would. So always apply beyond what you think you can get. - Have a back up plan in mind: what is something that you could do for the coming year, and ideally something that you would find at least somewhat attractive, if you couldn't make it this cycle? For me, it was getting a teaching cert for teaching high school - not ideal, but at least I could have lived with it. Having this in mind really helped ease the pressure for me, which became especially terrible when I got my first rejection. SOP: A brief rundown of what I did: ​- introduce myself and emphasise my strong background in politics and theory ​- briefly introduce my MPhil research work, which led to a short discussion about my research interests ​- expand on my interests and mention what specific questions I'm interested i tackling - briefly mention my "real world" experience (think tanks, NGO volunteering, etc) that led me to become interested in these questions - conclude with a tailored paragraph on the reasons I'm interested in so-and-so school, mention profs whose work inspired me ​Something that I highly advise AGAINST is the idea of mentioning your weaknesses/any anomalies in your file in your SOP. For me, I had a crappy grade for one particular 100% exam based course that I took while on a study abroad program. It shouldn't have mattered a lot, if one looks at the rest of my transcript, but I obsessed over it so much that I decided to include a short paragraph (for some schools, not all) that explained why I screwed up that exam. I was shut out of all those schools for which I wrote such an SOP. My hunch is that, they will look at your grades, of course, but there's no need to draw unnecessary attention to something and make a big deal out of it, when the adcomm probably wouldn't have in the first place.

Much better than I'd ever hoped!

Hey thanks so much for all of your replies!! My friend has a MSc in Theology, and she was originally planning to continue her studies in Theology, until she realised the dim prospects of getting a job (other than in a seminary, which does not have the kind of open, intellectual environment that suits her) in her home country (she's not from the US/UK). As she has a strong undergrad background in philosophy, she was hoping to do something theological in a philosophy department. I realise now (from reading your comments) that there are only a handful of philosophy depts. open to this, and they might not be very competitive on the job market (unless it's ND/Georgetown, of course). At the same time, she's worried about the sort of 'lack of philosophical rigour' at theology depts/divinity schools that some of you have alluded to. I think she might change her mind about not going into a religion/theology dept or divinity school if the PhD placement records there were not primarily placing people in seminaries, but in academic departments (she's also open to working in the US). Is there any info that might be useful to this end? I have looked at the placement records at some of the religion and theology depts and it seems that they don't place a lot in the academia. Thanks again!!

I posted this elsewhere but it seems more relevant here, so I'll re-post: For what it's worth, I declined Vanderbilt through emails with the DGS back in mid-March, but I only received an official (electronic) offer letter from the grad school yesterday, which gave me the option of clicking 'attending' or 'not attending' (I clicked the 'not attending button'). It doesn't seem to me that Departments can dig into the wait list before this process actually took place, even though they've known since mid-March that I wasn't going to accept. After all, I was given the option to click 'attending', and if I really did that, they would be in a mess if they had already sent out an acceptance to another person. What I'm trying to say is, maybe some wait list movement is still around the corner; perhaps some departments were waiting for the admin process at the grad school to get cleared up. Best of luck to everyone!!

For what it's worth, I declined Vanderbilt through emails with the DGS back in mid-March, but I only received an official (electronic) offer letter from the grad school yesterday, which gave me the option of clicking 'attending' or 'not attending' (I clicked the 'not attending button'). It doesn't seem to me that Departments can dig into the wait list before this process actually took place, even though they've known since mid-March that I wasn't going to accept. After all, I was given the option to click 'attending', and if I really did that, they would be in a mess if they had already sent out an acceptance to another person. What I'm trying to say is, maybe some wait list movement is still around the corner. Best of luck to everyone!!

Hi all, I'm asking for a friend. What are some good Philosophy programs in the US/Canada for philosophical theology, Christian thought, etc? So far I've found Notre Dame and Georgetown, and that's about it. Many thanks!!

Question about safety - how safe is the campus and the areas surrounding it? Any particular streets or neighbourhoods to avoid? Thanks!

Thanks for this! I'll PM you real soon.

I know the Princeton visit is going on today. Anything to share, folks? I couldn't make it halfway cross the globe because of my job.

Thank you!! Got the official letter today. No word on departmental funding, nor there was any hint of future possibilities, except for a vague reference to college allocation and potential scholarships from some colleges. By the way, you mentioned that you already heard about your college allocation?

Congrats gibbom!!! I've just called the department and they told me I'm in too! For the DPhil in Politics (Theory). They also said that the offer emails for the DPhil are coming out today.

I'm interested in this - what 'gift' did you give him?

Thanks so much for letting me know!

Wow! Congratulations!!! No I haven't heard anything. Perhaps I'll call on Monday. Really can't stand the wait!

I see one acceptance on the results page. Is that yours?

Political theory. and you?

I posted this somewhere else but didn't get any replies so wanted to try my luck here. Has anyone heard back from Oxford? I applied to the DPhil in Politics and so far, no word. Thanks.

Hi, Has anyone received any news from Oxford regarding the DPhil in Politics (regardless what stream you're in)? It's driving me crazy because my partner has just been accepted to the History program there. Would appreciate any info. Thanks!

Declined Queen's (Canada). They have a waitlist, from what the DGS told me.

I emailed the graduate administrator and she said they have started notifying applicants. She also kindly let me know that I was not admitted. So I guess the posts about Stanford are legit.

I declined a funded offer from Vanderbilt yesterday. Will also decline Rice soon. hope this helps!