smwinterfeldt

I'm in a very similar position, too. I'm finding it increasingly harder to justify accepting an offer from an unfunded program given the current state of the job market. The application process is expensive, but not as expensive as one year of tuition at a graduate program. The program that I got accepted to has a reconsideration process for funding every year, but I'm not sure if the better option would still be to just wait and re-apply.

According to my email exchange with the graduate coordinator there, wait-listers won't know until right before, on, or right after the deadline. A lot of people are holding out until the last minute to see if they get any other/better offers.

Long story short, I was accepted at SUNY Buffalo (though likely without funding for the first year) and waitlisted at Mizzou. If Mizzou were to admit me, I understand that it would likely be a funded position. I have my reservations about attending a program without funding given the current job market. But I also know that it's difficult to get into a PhD program, and I would hate to pass up this opportunity on off-chance that Mizzou might offer me an acceptance. Given my situation, is it possible to ask for an extension on the April 15th deadline?

So I've been pretty quiet on the forums for the past few weeks because all I've been hearing so far is rejections. That changed today. I was accepted to SUNY Buffalo and wait listed for funding. Unless I am accepted to either Rutgers or Missouri (with funding), I will likely accept Buffalo's offer. If anyone got accepted to Buffalo with funding and intends to turn it down, it would be greatly appreciated!

Got rejection letters from Syracuse and Indiana Bloomington today. The latter was particularly disappointing, but I'm trying to not give up as I still have 8 schools left to hear back from.

Yeah, I edited the post because I realized the false dichotomy I made. Either way, I'm still holding out hope.

So there's only been one posting for Indiana Bloomington (non-HPS), and so far I haven't seen anyone claim it. Anyone want to claim it or know anything about Indiana?

Congrats to those who were accepted to Boulder today! I hope it's not too late for the rest of us..

How long should we wait before we presume a rejection? UC Boulder released four of their acceptances today, and so far my inbox is empty. But it is only the first day.

I never knew that there was a gif that so accurately described the entire applications process.

I would also recommend breaking it up into smaller papers. Writing my thesis this way has helped me stay ahead of the curve in terms of the timeline that our department has set up for us. My thesis adviser had me write reading summaries of all of the research that I was doing. From there, it was just a matter of taking the summaries that I needed and throwing them into a 60+ page paper. It also helped that I decided to write a compressed version of my thesis to use as my writing sample, so the core parts of my thesis have already been pretty heavily polished. All I had to add was three sections in two different chapters. I likewise have heard the criticism that my writing is "a little verbose." But just about every professor comments on how clear it is. I tend to shun heavy use of logical symbols in my writing, and so I too write in a more narrative way. When too many logical symbols get thrown in, I find myself having to flip back a few pages every so often in order to recall the meanings of all of the variables, which I find distracting.

My experience has fallen in line with y'alls. I got my bachelor's from an unknown school in Tennesee. I did well in the program, but I was advised to apply for an MA as a bridge into a strong PhD program.

Has anyone heard from Vanderbilt yet? They were predicted to release on Monday. I'm also holding out hope for UNC and Indiana Bloomington, but I know those aren't expected quiet yet.

I also received a rejection from Northwestern a couple of days ago. They weren't a top choice, so I'm not devastated. But it would have been good to start this part of the process with an acceptance. Still have 10 schools to go, though!

Eek! My AoI was M&E. I haven't heard anything from NW yet. Maybe they started with another AoI?

I have yet to hear back from any schools either way, but my back-up plan throughout this entire process is to go into history. I'll likely get my teaching license and teach HS history. Maybe I'll eventually work up to the college level. But regardless, I'll probably stick with academia. The Marxist in me hates the corporate world too much.

My GRE scores were also lower than I would have liked: 160V 150Q. I also came from an relatively unknown undergrad institution. I was accepted to Kent State with these scores, and those are the scores I submitted to PhD programs for this round of applications. If you're looking for a MA program, Kent State has designed their program specifically for students who come from unknown undergrad institutions and need a bridge into a strong PhD program.

I'm having this problem with U Memphis right now, too. All of the other schools that I applied to show that my GRE scores have been received. The deadline has since passed. I've already called the office of admissions once, the day before the deadline, when my application showed that neither of my transcripts nor my GRE scores had been received. I was told to just be patient. But a couple of days ago I received another email saying my GRE scores were still missing, though my transcripts had been received. I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to call again. I know when I sent my scores, I did not select a department code (because Memphis wants you to send your scores directly to graduate admissions rather than the department). When I called last time, I was told that should not be a problem.

I'm in the middle of working on my thesis. So far, I'm ahead of the curve, but I still have a lot of reading and writing to do. I also work part-time. Once the semester starts back up, I'll also have two classes and a TA-ship to focus on. I'm hoping that should be a sufficient distraction.

I'll preface this by saying I know we have a forum specifically for discussing conference stuff, but that forum hasn't seen a post in over a month, and the whole point of this post is to get the word out to as many philosophy grad students as possible. Besides, conferences presentations are lines on CVs, and a better CV makes for a better application. http://philevents.org/event/show/18348 My department at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio is holding our 23rd annual graduate student conference on March 5th, 2016. The submission deadline for papers is January 18th, 2016. See the phil events link for more information. The conference and submission deadline are both a little earlier than they have been in past years, so be sure to submit your papers as soon as you can! Thank you!

This is the advice that I received when I met with my thesis committee this semester. You're making the people on the admissions committee, who already have a lot of applications to deal with, do extra work. As they're reading these lengthier SoPs, one of things that they are going to be considering is how it could've been cut down to meet the word or page limit. It might even come off as pretentious. You might come off as thinking that what you have to say to *so* important that you get to justify violating their specified word limit. All of my SoPs are between 500-700 words. But they will be short, sweet, and to the point, emphasizing my research interests, referencing my presentations, my teaching experience, and ending it with a simple, "Thank you for your consideration."

Hi everyone, I'm going to be applying to about 10 or so programs this year. Currently, UC Boulder is not among them, but I've heard they have (had?) a strong pluralistic program that would fit my research interests. I am aware that UC Boulder's program recently went through some upheaval, and I have not yet checked if they have re-opened the program for applications. But I have been cautioned against applying there because of the recent upheaval. My question is why should I be concerned that applying (and potentially attending) such a program might not be such a wise idea, if the department has restructured itself and re-opened for applications?

Hi everyone, newbie to the GradCafe forums! I'm currently half way through my M.A. at Kent State in NE Ohio, and I am looking to apply to PhD programs this fall for the 2016-17 year. My primary areas of interest are in epistemology and the history of philosophy, and I'm looking to expand into value theory and possibly mind and language. This is my first time on the GradCafe forums. Hopefully it will prove to be a useful resource.