Nicholassss

Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy

Just declined UW Madison. Will decline UCSD in the next few days.

Hi guys! I've mostly been obsessively watching the results page but finally decided to join you lovely people on the forum.
I got accepted to Princeton on Monday (2/25)! Planning to accept their offer, so I'm declining the other two offers I was considering (UNC and Arizona). Hope this helps someone!

True, not strictly a prerequisite, but the writing sample is so important that spending copious amounts of time on it may as well be. An excellent sample can overcome a (relatively) poor GPA or GRE, or sometimes, even undergraduate pedigree. The single advice repeated over and over again by professional philosophers is to make one's sample as professional and rigorous and well-argued as possible. Don't take my word for it, or tmck3053's, just do a little bit of asking around and internet 'research' and you'll find this to be true. It's lucky for tmck3053 that they got into a good program without having put in so many hours into their sample, but it's completely irrelevant and misleading to try and suggest that it's an effective option.
 
*Put as much work into your sample as you possibly can. This piece of advice should not be up for debate.*

Hey sure, of course. I thought it was clear that I wasn't trying to encourage anyone to spend less time on their sample, and that I think it's obvious that each individual should spend as much time on their sample as they are able to manage. I suppose I was unclear on these points. My concern was this: peoples' circumstances are different and their paths to grad school are many and varied and it's just the case that some people, depending on timing, circumstance, income, living situations, etc. (especially if they are non-US applicants and perhaps not on the same academic calendar) might not be able to spend anywhere near the amount of time on their sample that some people in this thread were able to. My point was only to say that those people ought not to feel discouraged, as I can imagine some might.

For context: I know a couple of people back home that almost shied away from applying for grad school in the US (and some that did) because of a perception that one needed to be able to dedicate hundreds of hours to one's sample in order to be even remotely competitive. Trusting that no one would, on my advice, put less work into their sample than they were able to, I simply thought it was helpful to point out to anyone having similar doubts that there are people in good programs that, for one reason or another, did not dedicate this amount of time to their sample.

It's that time in the application season--time to create a thread for declining offers/withdrawing applications. If you're declining an offer/withdrawing an app, post about it here.

An anecdote:
I have a terminal MA, and I would not be in a position to even think about doing a PhD if it were not for my cohort. My peers were exceedingly supportive of my work, and I of theirs. Our co-operation made us all better students and better philosophers, and therefore better applicants for PhD programs than we otherwise would have been.     

Hi, I'm just posting to suggest that it is somewhat important to reply (preferably politely) to emails that you receive from department faculty, directors of admissions, etc., particularly when they attempt to contact you multiple times. (The failure of response rate is so high that I am certain this is not some sort of problem with emails going to spam, etc.) First, it's just better to be kind and respectful and polite, and if someone emails you, you should respond.
Second, a more pragmatic argument: If you're beginning a PhD or MA in philosophy, you are entering an academic community in which it is important to be professional and respectful and polite at all times. Suppose you don't want to come to my PhD program, or you aren't sure what you are doing yet. It's a better idea to professionally, kindly respond, thanking the person for the offer and letting them know where you stand (e.g. "I haven't made up my mind" or "I am waiting to hear about potential other offers but am very excited about this one", or whatever).
Many of us have pretty good memories. Someday we might be hiring in your area, or (especially if we are faculty who are taking the time to write to you because you work in the same area as us) might be refereeing your work, or might be talking to you at conferences. Many of the subfields of philosophy are actually quite small. I can't tell you how many people never respond (at all) to offers, emails, etc., (and if you aren't ever responding to the offer, you are screwing your fellow students over, as we then have to wait until April 16th to make someone an offer in your place).
Sincerely, a frustrated faculty member.

I imagine I'll be turning down an offer from Brandeis in the coming week or so. Still need to figure a few things out before doing so, but will endeavor to do all that as quickly as possible.

Leiter should charge those top10-ranked or so for server maintenance.

I'm currently finishing up an MA from in a francophone Canadian department, and preparing to move to an American PhD this upcoming fall. So although my own experience is somewhat limited, I may have some insight into your questions. 
My department is "reputed" in the history of philosophy, if it enjoys any reputation at all. But my core interests are in issues of contemporary analytic philosophy. So I'm quite certain the reputation of my department played no role in deciding where I have or will be admitted. As for you, on the other hand, being associated with Jean Nicod or the Berlin School of Mind and Brain would certainly boost your chances, as these are indeed well-reputed schools (especially if the areas of analytic philosophy you wish to work in during your PhD are informed by research in the empirical/mind sciences). Still, I don't think you should worry too much about reputation.
 
What makes a successful applicant is not the quality of your previous education but rather the quality of your application. This may seem trivial, but to me it suggests you may be raising the wrong question (assuming that, your ultimate concern is to be admitted to an American PhD program). If what determines whether you are admitted to a PhD is the quality of your application, then an important factor in deciding between MA schools is whether these programs will give you the tools, and especially the guidance, to do well as an applicant. If it is not customary for MA students at Jean Nicod, for instance, to go on to a PhD in the states, that may be a problem.   
To be sure, whether a program prepares you well as a PhD applicant is not the only factor to be considered. You should definitely take into account the intrinsic qualities of the MA program, as well as the unique experience of studying abroad. But regarding the specific question 'whether that will help/hurt my chance", I would worry rather little about reputation, and quite a bit about the actual track record (or potential) of a program at preparing its master students for PhD applications.    
 
 
  

Hi Nom-Nom Chomsky and everyone, greetings!
I'm also interested in views of the States PhD program toward applicants with an Overseas MA/BA. But my worry would be that if the States program would be biased toward certain continental schools, whilst these schools do offer analytic courses in their BA/MA programs. Any comments would be appreciated. X

Hi Nicholassss,
I am a graduate student at UC Berkeley, and while I agree with others on this thread the Berkeley is different from the other universities on your list, I am happy to tell you more about those differences in a private email. Feel free to ask me specific questions here, or to email me at my username at berkeley.edu.
As for your specific areas of interest (semantics, pragmatics, syntax), we have some phenomenal syntax professors, namely Line Mikkelsen and Peter Jenks, who are both great teachers and excellent to work with. We also recently hired Amy Rose Deal, who does syntax and semantics, and is an enormous asset to our department. All three combine fieldwork and theoretical linguistics, and Line Mikkelsen also does a lot of corpus work. As for psycholinguistics, Professors Suzanne Gahl and Keith Johnson co-teach a brilliant psycholinguistics course and advise many students in that area. 
I'm happy to answer questions about any of the other subfields or professors at Berkeley as well!