MentalEngineer

Station Eleven was incredible! Have you read that yet? Edit: I think these may be the same book under different titles. It's still an incredible book.

The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu Arkwright, by Allen Steele Rebel of the Sands, by Alwyn Hamilton Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders These and other diversions are in service of trying extremely hard not to read One: Being an Investigation into the Unity of Reality and of its Parts, including the Singular Object which is Nothingness, by Graham Priest.

Likewise. Having been in the same position w/r/t finishing my writing sample at the deadline, I can tell you that taking the time to write a fresh piece makes an immense difference. Plus it's much better practice for doing self-directed research and writing than the first attempt probably was. My writing sample feels like (and felt like to write) real philosophical work, as opposed to just whatever argument I thought I could make stick about whatever we were reading for class.

@brush, @Schwarzwald - I should have mentioned this earlier, so very sorry! I talked to a bunch of MA students while at FSU, and the common view seems to be that FSU is an exception to the MA at a PhD program rule. The treatment in terms of resources and training is identical, the grad students don't distinguish between those who are doing an MA and a PhD, and there's no stigma attached to applying out or pressure not to do so. There's one incoming MA student who did her undergrad there as well and told me she chose it specifically because she'd seen how well the department treats the MA students. I think they even fund at the same level (which is close to double what most terminal MAs offer). I do still worry about the lack of placement info, though.

Generally, I would say to keep your declines/withdrawals short and sweet. Say you're not going, say something nice about a part of the program that impressed you or how close the decision was, and wish them the best. You can always say more if they ask, though you should think carefully about how candid you want to be.

Committed for a philosophy PhD last Thursday!

I had like three dozen early adopter friends on there! We had a blast for six whole weeks!

Look into the Internet Engineering Task Force's RFC 1149, RFC 2549, and RFC 6214. IP over Avian Carrier (IPoAC) is now fully specified, IPv6 compliant, and includes instructions for maximal quality of service. We just need to get someone to build us the netcode on top of it. And the website on top of the netcode. And a functional IPoAC network.

Google+, everyone! We can add each other to circles and have group video chats! It'll be great. Where's everybody going?

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...)

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.

There actually were boats, although they were optional. I did get my first sunburn in years, which was a perverse sort of selling point.

Congrats! I really liked it there. If FSU hadn't blown me away we'd have been classmates!

I fully deserve and will gladly accept downvotes for it, but my current rant is this: FSU is too fucking awesome, I want to start now now now, and instead I have to wait four more months. In Milwaukee, where for some Godforsaken reason it's snowing. In April. For an entire week.

You're on the list for an answer and will receive it when I've slept off this weekend.

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.

I'll make a blanket offer for anyone who got into the MA program and/or is waitlisted at FSU and isn't able to visit. Having gotten the list of visitors on Friday, I know there are several of you. If there's information you'd like from someone who is visiting, just PM me to let me know and I'll happily provide it. Specific questions would be helpful, but I can also just give general impressions.

That Gricean implicature though.

It's actually not restricted to philosophy. It's an agreement between 400+ members of the Council of Graduate Schools. The history of that would still be interesting to learn.

It's California. You know, it's different there. Laid back, free from The Man telling you to hurry... Just be cool, man. Be cool I want to murder them. I just want my rejection!

Yeah, that. All it means is that if you haven't accepted by the 15th, your offer can be pulled. If you're getting in off a waitlist, it's certainly reasonable to at least ask for a bit more time. And the 15th is on a Friday this year, so I would hope programs would at least give you the weekend without much fuss.

Just sent out solicitations for my four limbo programs. Time to drown the cuddly bunnies, as it were.

I would try emailing some current FSU PhD students who came through the MA and asking if they felt any pressure in this direction. I suspect nobody would be surprised by your wanting to "climb the ladder," so to speak. You might also ask them how they felt about the level of attention from faculty, and whether any of them tried to get into other PhD programs and couldn't do it, or whether they stayed at FSU out of inertia, or whatever. ETA: If you're sure you want a terminal MA, you're probably better off in a terminal MA program. The good ones are usually built to provide structured assistance with taking the next step into PhD admissions.

Funnily enough, I had the polar opposite experience. My original advisor was definitely one of the scary sort; we spent most of our meetings talking about what I needed to have done, how much time I ought to be spending each week on reading and writing, and talking about what the minimum standards for professional competence in those areas were. I produced half a writing sample, later abandoned, and one terrible conference abstract in almost three semesters of working with this person. I left our meetings cranky, unmotivated to write, and frankly less interested in doing philosophy at all. I almost suspect that this last result was the primary aim of our meetings. My second advisor, though in possession of numerous weak points, produced totally different effects. In these meetings, the focus was simply on talking about philosophy, about things that interested me and that I wanted to work on. Through argument and discussion, we honed in on some questions I just could not let go of, some people with positions worth reading, and off I went. I left our meetings with a sense of positions in the literature, a nascent view of my own, and the urge to get that view out of my head and onto the page, where I could wrestle it into even better shape for the next encounter. All through just shooting the shit. So YMMV, I guess.

Different vent: why did it take Maryland an extra week to send my rejection email after changing my status in the application system?