brush

Based on what I've heard I don't think they get any funding. But the safe bet is to just ask the department via email or phone.

Yea that's a good idea. I'm still considering living alone myself but I haven't actually done any budget calculations yet to see what that'd be like. I like to spend a lot on food.

Same. If any of y'all want to rent a place together I'd be down. (Same goes to any FSU lurkers).

A rejection on april 13: Sure, they rejected me, but at least they made me wait about as long as they could. 0a/1w/5r (8 total)

@R614 @MentalEngineer @metaphysician I'll also be attending FSU! So what housing plans do you all have?

One thing I noticed is a lot of MA programs (e.g. VTech) offer lots of graduate level survey courses, whereas others offer mostly seminars on particular topics (e.g. FSU). I'm wondering which type of class will put me in a better position to make a good writing sample? I've never taken a graduate seminar before. Survey courses are nice in that they get you thinking about a lot of things and give you good background knowledge, but I'm afraid they don't go in depth enough on any topic to be able to write a novel paper on that topic.

I think it would be appropriate if only because English undergraduate degrees in philosophy teach you more then American ones since they are more focused. My main concern with the Bphil is the lack of funding and the fact that you probably won't be able to continue to the dphil afterwords.

I noticed that the 2016 acceptance thread has just as many views and twice as many posts as the 2015 acceptance thread. Are more people going on grad cafe these days or are we just particularly talkative this year?

I'd be interested in hearing your general impressions

A rejection from UW-Madison I found amusing: Solicited rejection. They didn't even review my application, because my SOP did not upload correctly. No email, no phone call, nothing. I guess I'll consider it a $100.00 donation to a failing university. The real question is whether I can write it off in my taxes...

I'm deciding between the MA programs of FSU, UF, VTech, and NIU. I have funding at two of these and am wait-listed for the other two. If I get funding at all of them, though, I'm not sure which I'd accept. FSU seems to be a tier above the others in terms of faculty, but it has the downsides of being primarily a PhD program. However, I'm told that the PhD and MA tracks are exactly the same for the MA portion of the program (i.e. the first two years) so I'm not sure whether this should even be a concern of mine. The Florida MAs have the best funding, and I'd also like living in Florida. However, VTech and NIU have a proven placement record and I'll be with a cohort of students applying to PhD programs. Another concern is that lots of FSU MA students transition into the PhD program, and I'm afraid my professors will be offended if instead of doing that I try to apply out of the program.

I feel you--that's why I didn't apply to MAs that don't fully fund a sizable group of incoming students. If poor ass public schools can fund their graduate students, Tufts and Brandeis sure as hell can.

At my university grad housing was basically a first come first server basis, so it would be important to get your housing application in soon. Of course you can call housing directly and they should be able to answer this question for you. I think it would be unethical to go to the open houses of schools you know you aren't attending if they are funding your visit. If it's a self-funded visit than I think its much less objectionable, though it will probably lead to some awkward situations. Declining offers sooner than later also helps everyone in the application process. Try to refund your airline tickets. You can usually at least get credit for future flights.

Yea I got the standard rejection email 3 hours ago

I also haven't received an email, though I'm suspecting its gonna be a USC 2.0.

If it's your first time applying, apply to some MAs as a backup plan.

Top or funded MA programs are very competitive and it'd be foolish to apply to only one program. I wouldn't say it's "more of a luck thing", but luck certainly plays a role. For example, different admission committees weigh different aspects of the application differently. Most schools don't have GRE cut-offs, but if they do its usually really low like a combined 300. That's not to say that your GRE isn't important though.

You can't know whether an idea is worth defending or not without actually exploring a defense of it. Generally, you should always explore both sides of an argument; and in fact, you should pay particular attention to the opposing side to help overcome biases you may have. That some philosophical positions shouldn't even be explored is totally in opposition to the spirit of philosophy.

What? He can't defend himself from an objection raised against him? I mean, we're in the philosophy forums after all.

One thing you could do is compare placement records of each school within your specialty only and see which is better.

I graduated from CU (undergrad) so if you have any particular questions I can give you my (biased) perspective. As for what you brought up: Boulder's obviously has lots of outdoor activities and the view of the flatirons is amazing. Boulder has its white rich neighborhoods, but its not totally without diversity. There's a sizable hispanic population here (you can see the exact demographics here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder,_Colorado#Demographics). For what its worth, while I was a student I volunteered in a local middle school tutoring first generation college bound students (many of which were hispanic). I expect you'll be pretty busy with your PhD program though so I'm not sure how much time you can reasonably expect to devote to such activities. For zoos and amusement parks you'll have to go to Denver (30ish minute drive). There's usually plenty to do in Boulder and its immediate surroundings though (mostly outdoor type activities). And I of course think the faculty are fantastic. edit: also weed is legal here

thats the spirit

there's plenty of literature on affirmative action, I don't think we need to repeat that debate here

Logical usage is being conflated with internet convention. The joke depends on each usage giving the same result. But they don't. Anyways its probably best that this conversation just dies and we go back to our miserable topic of rejections lol

The joke doesn't even make sense... The guy asked whether A or B. Answering "yes" to a question like this on the internet means--unlike in logic--that A and B, and this is the answer everyone intended here. However, this is different then answering "yes" to it being the case that A or B in the logical sense. Yet, you guys continue to conflate the two. In any case, the philosophical answer doesn't give ZoliK the information he was requesting anyways. He already knows A or B is true in the logical sense. He obviously wanted to know whether its true in virtue of both disjuncts being true, or just one being true.