MVSCZAR

I really can't stand this chicken little bullshit back and forth. On the one hand, it isn't the end of the world that you used a masculine pronoun. No rational person would say this is an example of overt I discrimination. We get it, you meant well. But even as someone who is exceptionally tolerant of that and who refuses to use feminine pronouns as universals (prefering one, you, or they), your use of "he" was a little too obvious and sounded bad and exclusionary. Now we know you didn't mean it that way. Great. You're not a misogynist or a jerk or anything for using it. Just a bad writer, at least in that post. Nobody is faulting you for that nor should they. But your response is annoying and self righteous, because it does sound bad, and a *suggestion* to change a pronoun isn't some great affront to your Liberty. It isn't in itself some massive arrest of the /freedoms which built our wonderfully liberated western civilization./ It's an editing suggestion. That's all it is. Your rights aren't being stripped. This isn't some liberal plot to delegitimize dissent (and those do exist. There IS a problem with PC culture, but this is different.). It's not a slippery slope towards totalitarianism and against rationality and reason and common sense. You're not a martyr for using "him", "he", etc. 
 
@gughok gave you an excellent response. You don't have to take his suggestions. Nobody is forcing you to. Also, I worked for an academic journal as an editor, and we never sent a paper back or suggested someone use a different pronoun. I think that thats's a total exaggeration, and I don't know what the point is of pretending that that actually happens in most reputable journals. I suppose it does and should within certain AOIs, but it's not done across the board. But again, your problem is only tangentially political and primarily stylistic, and the writing we got was often by much better stylists. 
 
Also, you're posting this in a thread filled with a bunch of tense and anxious wanna-be philosophers with intellectual blue balls, myself included. What do you expect to happen? 
 
I'm not going to make any claim about you or your character or intentions, and I'll defend you against any accusations against your character. But, if you're wanting to have an actual discussion, we should have it, so long as you don't pretend that this is something it isn't. And also, so long as you don't hide behind that Orwellian nightmare bullshit. This isn't that conversation. That's too easy. 

I have a few reservations about Vanderbilt. First of all, it's in Tennessee, which is god awful for women's rights. Sure, if I don't get myself into "trouble", I'll be fine, but why risk it? Then, they don't really have a Plato scholar, which is super unfortunate. I'm kind of sad about that. And then a whole host of reasons why the south is terrible, but that might just be northern prejudice. I'll try to iron all of these out by the time I get back from my visit. 

I'll be interested to see how your viewpoints have changed or maintained after visiting. Honestly, I think their grad students are pretty happy.... but I would nto go to a school without a Plato scholar if that's what you wanna study. Especially with so many choices. That'd be silly. However, I have also heard villanova is pretty good for women. Idk about the others. Good luck

I have a few reservations about Vanderbilt. First of all, it's in Tennessee, which is god awful for women's rights. Sure, if I don't get myself into "trouble", I'll be fine, but why risk it? Then, they don't really have a Plato scholar, which is super unfortunate. I'm kind of sad about that. And then a whole host of reasons why the south is terrible, but that might just be northern prejudice. I'll try to iron all of these out by the time I get back from my visit. 

A lot of my information is hear-say but someone I know presented at a conference at that school (I'm trying not to spread rumors, but I am failing horribly) and was being recruited hard by everyone there.... but apparently female students told her not to come and that it was a rough environment for women. I would definitely consider directly asking the students their about their experiences of gender and the climate of the department. I would encourage this for any student about any program though. (:

Forgot that today was Friday, accidentally ate meat at dinner. Accordingly, there was an e-mail from Notre Dame waiting for me at home telling me I was a bad Catholic, God was displeased, and so I couldn't be in their program. Ah well. 
Come on UConn. 

Same. I sort of wish I could accept all of them (and also all of their money). Everyone is so nice.  

All these analytics freaking out about NYU  acceptances and I'm a continental native NYer like: 

Good point. I should probably tell Toronto I'm a commie so they can get me off of that waitlist. 

Omg yes! I was gonna do some calling but, last week, I was getting calls from someone in NH and started to hate Bernie because of the amount of times my heart almost exploded. 
 
Also, I just got a call from some (646) 666-4284, and the call dropped when I picked up. So I looked it up and saw that the owner lives around Morningside Heights and I was like "homygawd Columbia." And then I called and it's like some fucking lawyer or something. Argh. 666 is damn right. 

All these analytics freaking out about NYU  acceptances and I'm a continental native NYer like: 

(1) I used the same writing sample for all of my applications. My paper is somewhat long (40+ pages), so I directed them to read 20ish pages total. Some schools wanted even shorter Writing Samples but, oddly enough, those seem to be the schools I was most successful with. 
(2) I can't really help here. The GRE is a joke and can't really measure much except how well you can take tests, which is certainly a positive trait, anyway. I'm not even sure how much it really matters so long as you don't bomb it. 
(3) Honestly, I have no idea. Coincidentally, all my rejections (so far) come from schools to which another classmate also applied. 
(4) I don't have an MA, so I don't know. But I'm not sure if my school qualifies as "no-name" or not. 
(5) Meh. Half and halfsies. I basically said what I want to do, which happens to be both specific and vague. I used the same SOP for all of my applications and changed one or two sentences to make it seem more "personalized." But I didn't mention people I wanted to work with or anything. 
(6) I don't think it's a good idea to seem like a brown noser. That's also one of the reasons why I didn't mention POIs in my SOP, but that's just me. I also wouldn't know how to go about contacting them. I did go to some conferences and asked questions, and only accidentally started talking to people who ended up working in departments I was interested in. 
 
I don't mind sharing all of my documents and stuff if anyone wants to see them. 

10 points to Gryffindor!! 

Why are you showing me a map of the US? I don't get it... 

You Kant be stopped!!!

Why are you showing me a map of the US? I don't get it... 

Waitlisted at Western!!!
Oh god I want this so bad.... 
This came via email letting me know that, sadly, they're only able to fund very few international students, but I'm on their waitlist so we'll see.

All the people in this thread talking about their long-term relationships... Keep rubbing it in, guys. 
 
For me, location and fit are more important than ranking, at this point. My whole life, I've heard how important prestige is to getting ahead, etc. etc. But I got this far going to a public university that's just half a step "up" from a community college, and I feel great about it. Plus, it's all about what you publish, and I want to be around people who aren't gonna be like, "Ew, that's not rigorous enough." or something if I decide to use The Cloud of Unknowing and Gerard Manley Hopkins in a paper. Location is really important because I'm all on that Socrates thing. You know, in the Phaedrus when Phaedrus is like, Socrates, come to the babbling brook with me (or whatever), and Socrates says something like, "I really prefer doing my philosophizing in Athens. Trees can't teach me what people can." Or something. I feel that way about big cities (NYC in particular). It's not like I haven't been abroad for large chunks of time, but I feed off of this city in an unhealthy way. Plus, 24/7 public transportation and $$ reasons are making me want to stay. 

If Nat had called CUNY central, they would have said all the applications are being considered for next year instead. CUNY central is a Kafkaesque nightmare. 

I really can't stand this chicken little bullshit back and forth. On the one hand, it isn't the end of the world that you used a masculine pronoun. No rational person would say this is an example of overt I discrimination. We get it, you meant well. But even as someone who is exceptionally tolerant of that and who refuses to use feminine pronouns as universals (prefering one, you, or they), your use of "he" was a little too obvious and sounded bad and exclusionary. Now we know you didn't mean it that way. Great. You're not a misogynist or a jerk or anything for using it. Just a bad writer, at least in that post. Nobody is faulting you for that nor should they. But your response is annoying and self righteous, because it does sound bad, and a *suggestion* to change a pronoun isn't some great affront to your Liberty. It isn't in itself some massive arrest of the /freedoms which built our wonderfully liberated western civilization./ It's an editing suggestion. That's all it is. Your rights aren't being stripped. This isn't some liberal plot to delegitimize dissent (and those do exist. There IS a problem with PC culture, but this is different.). It's not a slippery slope towards totalitarianism and against rationality and reason and common sense. You're not a martyr for using "him", "he", etc. 
 
@gughok gave you an excellent response. You don't have to take his suggestions. Nobody is forcing you to. Also, I worked for an academic journal as an editor, and we never sent a paper back or suggested someone use a different pronoun. I think that thats's a total exaggeration, and I don't know what the point is of pretending that that actually happens in most reputable journals. I suppose it does and should within certain AOIs, but it's not done across the board. But again, your problem is only tangentially political and primarily stylistic, and the writing we got was often by much better stylists. 
 
Also, you're posting this in a thread filled with a bunch of tense and anxious wanna-be philosophers with intellectual blue balls, myself included. What do you expect to happen? 
 
I'm not going to make any claim about you or your character or intentions, and I'll defend you against any accusations against your character. But, if you're wanting to have an actual discussion, we should have it, so long as you don't pretend that this is something it isn't. And also, so long as you don't hide behind that Orwellian nightmare bullshit. This isn't that conversation. That's too easy. 

I really can't stand this chicken little bullshit back and forth. On the one hand, it isn't the end of the world that you used a masculine pronoun. No rational person would say this is an example of overt I discrimination. We get it, you meant well. But even as someone who is exceptionally tolerant of that and who refuses to use feminine pronouns as universals (prefering one, you, or they), your use of "he" was a little too obvious and sounded bad and exclusionary. Now we know you didn't mean it that way. Great. You're not a misogynist or a jerk or anything for using it. Just a bad writer, at least in that post. Nobody is faulting you for that nor should they. But your response is annoying and self righteous, because it does sound bad, and a *suggestion* to change a pronoun isn't some great affront to your Liberty. It isn't in itself some massive arrest of the /freedoms which built our wonderfully liberated western civilization./ It's an editing suggestion. That's all it is. Your rights aren't being stripped. This isn't some liberal plot to delegitimize dissent (and those do exist. There IS a problem with PC culture, but this is different.). It's not a slippery slope towards totalitarianism and against rationality and reason and common sense. You're not a martyr for using "him", "he", etc. 
 
@gughok gave you an excellent response. You don't have to take his suggestions. Nobody is forcing you to. Also, I worked for an academic journal as an editor, and we never sent a paper back or suggested someone use a different pronoun. I think that thats's a total exaggeration, and I don't know what the point is of pretending that that actually happens in most reputable journals. I suppose it does and should within certain AOIs, but it's not done across the board. But again, your problem is only tangentially political and primarily stylistic, and the writing we got was often by much better stylists. 
 
Also, you're posting this in a thread filled with a bunch of tense and anxious wanna-be philosophers with intellectual blue balls, myself included. What do you expect to happen? 
 
I'm not going to make any claim about you or your character or intentions, and I'll defend you against any accusations against your character. But, if you're wanting to have an actual discussion, we should have it, so long as you don't pretend that this is something it isn't. And also, so long as you don't hide behind that Orwellian nightmare bullshit. This isn't that conversation. That's too easy. 

They're like, "Oh shit. I forgot about those applications I have to look at." 

They're like, "Oh shit. I forgot about those applications I have to look at." 

They're like, "Oh shit. I forgot about those applications I have to look at."