gughok

Unfortunately, moving the deadline back those two weeks would most likely just move everything else back by the same. Departments will inevitably take as long as they can to arrange the visits, and students will similarly take their time to make their decisions. It's a self-bootstrapping problem.

I tend toward existing as non being on Facebook but I appreciate every opportunity to exist more actively.

Revival? It never really had a first vival.

In at California State University, Long Beach, and now I've heard back from every school. Phew.

I mostly complain a lot about students and post cat pictures. So yeah, please do.

As we approach the end of the admissions season, I just wanted to note that I'm happy to FB with anyone that wants to keep in touch. A lot of my favorite Facebookers are folks that I've met through TGC over the years. Just PM me!
If anyone else wants to make themselves available for social networking stuff, make it known here!

Yeah, it's time to start doing the thing. I rarely post anything but minimally comprehensible philosophy jokes, so I'm an ideal Facebook friend.

Everyone in the last several years at UWM who's been shut out has gotten multiple offers the next year. (Except the one kid who actually took the NYU bioethics offer, but we don't talk about him...)

@philosophe's observation is sort of a case in point for the term's obsolescence: by using exclusively male pronouns, you've alienated female readers and implicitly (or, some would argue, pretty explicitly) denied them membership among "outstanding applicants". This can be demeaning, insulting, and even offensive. You may reply that the female pronoun is no better, but the fact is that there is an asymmetry in that women have historically experienced discrimination, derogation, and disadvantage by the will of men, while the opposite is not (generally) the case. As a result, women are conditioned be cognizant to the prejudice they face, while men are usually oblivious to it unless they're educated to see it. In a different context, many women I've spoken to have expressed that reading or listening to recitations of the bible is a very ostracizing experience, since the devout are often referred to in translations with the male pronoun. It can be disheartening to hear the ideal worshipper described exclusively as male, even if this isn't an explicit statement. Similarly, one might write of the post of President and describe presidential duties using the only he/him/his, and this would be discouraging, either subconsciously or quite overtly, to women who read the description. And so on, in every situation imaginable. Thus it's best to refrain from using the male pronoun indiscriminately.
And it would not come off as contrived to use "they". The claim that it is an unnatural term to use is propagated by prescriptivist grammarians who don't adhere to the principles of descriptive linguistics. Historically that pronoun has long been employed precisely as a generic referent, and it would be fighting an uphill battle to remove it from use. So either they/them/their or she/her/hers, but not he/him/his. I prefer the female pronouns in extended prose because I think it reads better, but that's just me.
Note: I am not a woman. If you are a woman and I've misrepresented things, please do correct me. Likewise if you're a man/other who knows better than I.

I defended and was approved on my masters thesis yesterday DO YOU GUYS KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? I am a Master of Arts, holla.
...A Master of Arts without a PhD acceptance waiting in the wings, I make bad life choices. Here's hoping for good news from NSSR and BU in the next week!

Unfortunately, moving the deadline back those two weeks would most likely just move everything else back by the same. Departments will inevitably take as long as they can to arrange the visits, and students will similarly take their time to make their decisions. It's a self-bootstrapping problem.

It's all over for me, folks. I've declined offers from Syracuse and Rochester. This is the weirdest mix of emotions I have ever felt.

Oh I'm sorry! I didn't realize. How is UC Boulder vs. WUSTL going? A magnificent battle of pros and cons, I imagine.
 
I made a few posts about my presumed and official rejections which were interpreted by some as being profoundly ungrateful about Harvard, and they responded with corresponding reproach. I've taken steps to clarify myself but I would understand if I'm still held in resent by a few.
@Cecinestpasunphilosophe receiving the official admissions package helped. Now I have a folder with the Harvard seal on it. I've never been so in awe of a piece of paper. I definitely agree about the visits, they're going to make a huge difference. It's a little inconvenient, therefore, that the Harvard visit isn't until April 11-12. That's really really late, and for the sake of both my sanity and that of the people on waitlists, I'd rather have the visit sooner. What can you do, eh? Anyway, you look to have a pretty awesome record this season. Will you be visiting Princeton?

Removed myself from Brown and Cornell wait-lists. I had good positions on them, so I hope this helps somebody sooner or later!!  
Also, I really hope to get into either Yale or Stanford...

Just declined ASU HPS. I feel gross.

I've decided on FSU out of my 3 acceptances, so if anyone is waiting on Cincinnati (seems unlikely, but maybe?) a spot will be opening soon.

Removed myself from Mizzou and FSU waiting lists.

I've plucked up the courage and declined Toronto's MA. I hope that'll translate to good news for someone else.

I've plucked up the courage and declined Toronto's MA. I hope that'll translate to good news for someone else.

I've plucked up the courage and declined Toronto's MA. I hope that'll translate to good news for someone else.

I took three semesters of German as an undergraduate. Still can't read philosophy in German (haven't done any German in a year) but I have the basic foundation to build off of. I'm planning on working through April Wilson's German Quickly book this summer. I'm pretty poor with languages though (my work ethic could be better in this area too); I know some philosophers who have taught themselves German.
But I think that, in general, the language learning infrastructure (in America) is terrible. We are required generally to take a few semesters of language classes in college and high school. But why so late? Isn't the best time to learn languages when we are in elementary school? And, when we do take language classes in college they are 4 days a week for an hour a day. Obviously that's not the most efficient way to learn a language. Seems like the best way to learn a language would be to live immersed in it for a few weeks—I imagine 8 weeks of German immersion (where you can't use English) in the summer would be more beneficial than 3 semesters of German classes. The problem, of course, is that the immersion style programs are so rare and expensive. I got accepted into Middlebury's language school for the summer (by the way, they have other languages as well), with a grant that covers half the tuition, but I still don't have quite enough to go. But that does seem to be the most efficient way to learn. Would be interested in hearing others' experiences.
 
Edit: One other thing. They say, in philosophy only reading knowledge is important. It's true that reading knowledge in German, for example, is a must if you're doing Kant. I'm skeptical that it's all that helpful to divorce language-for-reading from language-for-living. So yeah, I bet there are a lot of philosophers that can read, say, Kant in his original language, but couldn't speak or live in a German environment. But I'm just skeptical that their reading of German is really authentic when it's divorced from knowledge of living in German. But maybe I'm making a lot of unwarranted language assumptions. Would be interested in hearing others' views on this.

Heck, some departments don't even have a language requirement anymore. 

You're right. It does sound pedantic.

If you ended up in North America to do your PhD, you'd have more time to cultivate your philosophical interests by taking grad courses in your program.  I think that this is extremely important for those of us who are not from English-speaking countries.  We might also need time to make our English totally fluent.

The norm in Canada is to have a Master's degree before doing the PhD. Some of the top Canadian programs (Toronto, McGill, UBC, UWO) will accept PhD students straight from the undergrad, but not many (I think Toronto is the real exception). As a result, Canadian programs are shorter than their American counterparts (but longer than in the UK/Europe): you take courses for two years (one in some places), and then write your dissertation for the next 2-3 years. A Canadian PhD is a four-year affair, although programs usually fund for five years, and I think the average time to completion is six years. As an international applicant, however, those deadlines matter a lot (because of your VISA restrictions). You'll probably have to finish in five. To my knowledge, all of the English-language programs fully fund their students, but none of the French programs do. Most programs can only accept one or two international students a year, however. (Toronto might be the exception here, I'm not sure.)
 
In the UK,  a PhD is strictly a research affair. You get three years to write your dissertation (although a fourth year is not uncommon). That's it. When applying, you have to submit a full proposal, and when you get there you have to work on it. There's no coursework. Consequently, you must have an MA to get into the PhD programs. There is no application fee. Oxford and Cambridge are exceptions in most of these respects, and the way they work is really weird. You'd have to ask someone from there exactly how things are. Funding is very, very hard to come by for a UK PhD.
 
In the US, the norm is for people to apply to PhD programs straight from their undergraduate degrees. All of the reputable programs fund their students, though not always especially well. Students take two to four years of coursework (usually two), and work on their dissertations for the rest of their time. Average time to completion is something like seven years.