panpsychist

Amy is one of the sharpest persons I've ever seen.

Most of what you mentioned aren't extracurricular (and I see that you did put quotation marks). Without knowing any of the details, on the face of it it would surely look like you have a pretty strong case there, especially with publications and invited talks. At this point, I think you could safely assume that your application wouldn't be thrown into the trash bin automatically. But of course essentially it's about the quality of your writing sample and how strong your letters are.

Congrats! I did my master's there, and I loved the department. Who, if you don't mind me asking, are you thinking of working with?

One thing worth pointing out, though I fear it's already kind of a cliche, is that {RANKED PROGRAMS} isn't extensionally equivalent to {PROGRAMS WORTH ATTENDING}. In fact, it could be argue that the two don't even overlap that much. Also keep in mind that there are programs that, over the years, have chosen not to be Leiter-ranked.

Completely agree. Having applied twice (MA programs, and then PhD programs) myself and talked extensively with people who have served on admission committees, I've come to know in many cases your SoP will most likely only be read after they start to seriously consider you as a competitive candidate. Then, what they're most interested in is figuring out if you are a good fit for the program, e.g. if they can see someone potentially supervising you, if they think the program is gonna prepare you for a successful career path, etc.

Where are you going eventually? Have you made a decision yet?

Thanks!

May I ask what your AOIs are?

Not sure whether it's bad taste or not but I fail to see why this piece of information should matter to the former program.

What are your AOIs by the way?

I really hope you decline the Ohio State offer too, lol.

Oh dear I hope you decline the OSU offer because...

I'm sure Indiana would be great for you! Both O'Connor and Cao do some fascinating stuff there!

Fingers crossed! But you already have to acceptances and a bunch of good waitlists! So that's cool!

I was also wait-listed at Maryland. Email from Dan Moller this morning. Apparently their wait list is rather long and they seemed to have ordered us according to our AOI. I was told explicitly that I was on the "philosophy of mind waiting list".