Schwarzwald

At this point, I'm honestly banking that some petty political squabble gets my application front and center. "We all hate Bob, so screw his top applicant." "But then we have to go with Mary's guy" "Oh crap, well who else is in the pile that's basically average, non-offensive, but somewhat handsome?" "Well, we got this Schwarzwald guy..."

- Misspelled "assistantship" as "assistanceship" in my essays for financial aid. - There's a gaping hole in my writing sample where I basically say a figure has the view that they literally wrote the book I'm analyzing to say they didn't. It'd be like if I'd said "Deep down, the story of Titanic is about staying together."

firing squad

IDK what's happening in this thread right now, I just need a place to whine and wait.

Plan B. MA in comparative humanities/history, study for the GRE, get a great application together, and reapply in 2 years. Plan C. MA in Poli Sci/Policy/Public Admin, reassess my options, decide in 2 years, probably a Ph.D in some sort of political field. Plan D. Ph.D in Rhetoric/Discourse Theory. Teach. Die. Plan E. Ph.D in English or Comp Lit. Teach. Die. Plan F. Ph.D in library science. Become university librarian. Plan G. M.A in systems administration. Work. Die. Plan H. M.A in graphic design/digital marketing. Work. Die. Plan I. 2nd Bachelors, Art History, then get a Ph.D in Art History. Teach Art History. Plan J. Get an MBA in business admin. Work. Die. Plan K. Take LSAT (my practice scores are perfect), Go to law school, live in the agony of the law profession. Die. Plan L. Die.

Hey all! So, I've basically constructed my statement of purpose solely on research taken from these forums. Mostly because I've been in limited contact with my professors over the holiday. I viewed the samples on the Splintered Mind blog. I've had a standing appointment with my chair to discuss my statement all week, the problem? Snow days...the...entire...first...week...of...school. Which would normally be great, but not in this situation. I feel as though waiting until Monday is pushing it entirely too close. I've already asked for an email correspondence; however, assuming that too gets pushed to Monday, I was wondering if you all could help me with some things... 1.) What's the rule on negativity? For instance, I did not start off as a philosophy major, I was in Mass Comm and then switched because I thought very poorly of the program. Should I mention that I switched at all? Is a previous major relevant at all? I'm curious because I have a string of bad grades early on in my academic career (3.0,2.5, 3.3 semesters). These grades were from mass comm classes (which is still my minor.) Should I explain them away, running the risk of basically saying "I did poorly because I didn't care about the classes." or should I just avoid mentioning them at all? My major GPA in philosophy is a 3.9 at my university, and a 3.7 if one is to take into consideration all classes considered university electives (which don't count toward the philosophy degree but are in the department.) 2.) I got sick last fall and did a botched withdrawal. My scholarships are set up in a manner that if you are struck ill, you must withdraw from all your classes so as to not have the illness affect your GPA. I withdrew from the majority of my classes, however, 2 of my professors stated that they'd worked with me, and they did. The problem? One of the teachers, while not holding the absences against me (since at my university 3 absences = automatic failure), wouldn't allow me to make-up work. I thought it'd be fine if I did well on the final, but I ended up getting a bad grade in that class. The other class came out fine. I replaced the bad grade with an A the next semester, (I got all A's that next semester), and so technically I have an "A" in the class, but my transcript still shows the original bad grade. The class was not a philosophy class, it was a language class. Should I explain? 3.) I have rough OCD, which is not allowing me to write personalized conclusive paragraphs for each university. This is because I know if I personalize for each, I will obsess every second of everyday after I submit my applications wondering if I confused the names of the universities and faculty. How important is personalizing the SOP? I'd much rather leave it generic for peace of mind. 4.) Would anyone be willing to do a quick read through of my SOP for any red flags? BG Info: Unknown undergrad institution. 3.53 GPA 3.9/3.7 Phil GPA 311 GRE Applying to masters programs in early modern history and continental.

Hey all, So I finally took the GRE yesterday. My quantitative score turned out well below average (although exactly as I predicted). At this point, I do not have enough time to retake the test. Instead, I was wondering if anyone knew of particular sub-fields in philosophy (perhaps History of Science, Phenomenology, Ethics) and funded M.A. programs that look past low quant scores? I know of some programs in similar fields, such as Anthropology, Public Policy, and History, that completely neglect the quantitative section, but I've heard mixed results for philosophy. I have a 3.9 Philosophy GPA, a 3.5 overall GPA, 167 verbal, and 3 strong letters, but I come from an unknown undergraduate institution.

Hey all, my name's William Phillips, and I'm a Fall 2016 applicant. I was wondering if anyone could answer some questions I have about the GPA regulated to classes in one's (BA) Major. First, at the moment my major GPA is a 3.903, I have one B+; however, that B+ is in a core class (History of Modern). Furthermore, I come from a non-elite school, and I assume most graduate committees will look at a B+ from a curriculum they don't particularly respect and see a red flag. Is this true, and would it be worth it to replace this grade? My overall GPA is also gravely low (3.5-3.6 dependent on my last semester). Will a non-perfect major GPA coupled with a low cumulative GPA be a nail in the coffin? Secondly, when calculating major GPAs, do the grad comittees compile their own numbers after looking over an applicant's transcript, or do they go by what the transcript lists as one's major GPA? I have many courses that can be counted as philosophy courses that are not recognized by my university as major GPA hours, and so they are not factored in.