Thanks for all the advice given so far!
I do agree with a majority of you that grades are really important for PhD admissions (which is why I am so worried). Since I can't do anything about them, I'm going to have to do prove my philosophical strengths in the other parts of the application.
Ianfaircloud, thanks for the blog post about addressing weaknesses in an application. It's really useful. I hope others read it. I will share it to those I know with weak spots in their apps.
I'm not done courses, but so far it's 3.67 on a 4.0 scale. I am hoping that when I finish theses courses this semester that I can raise that a bit. But, I don't think it matters much considering the B's.
You must have had an awesome application apart from the B+ if you got into all of those schools and now you're at Arizona. Congrats. I hope I get to see a similar fate.
Thanks for all of your advice so far. Really useful.
I do have a big worry about the B-range grades. If I apply to a school that cuts students based on their grades or GPA, then I might not make it past the first rounds, which means they won't get a chance to see read my writing sample and the rest of the application. Unless, I'm completely wrong about how most departments work? I'm referring to departments that get over 200+ applications. They have to cut it somehow, and I guess GPA and GRE are the first places to make such a cut. Yeah, the randomness is the annoying part of applications, but can also work in favor of an applications.
But, you do have excellent MA grades, so that might work for you during the PhD app season. However, I do agree that it'd be nice not to have to do the extra work, and hopefully PhD committees can see past the early mistakes.
Interesting. I have a general idea as to why some profs favor the writing sample, but can you tell me why the prof you admire thinks so?