thehegeldialectic

This any different during the Ph.D. as opposed to the MA?

Sometimes it's just a dice roll.

No, Kirkland emailed me more or less the same information, but you seem to have gotten a better estimate of the numbers from him.

Let's not be too hasty here. Some things are.

I would agree, and add that the fit of a department isn't always easy to figure out.

How necessary do you guys think it is to visit? I have two first-round offers on the table, but since I'll have to be traveling down to hunt for houses and for my wife to interview for jobs, this might become somewhat expensive. What are the advantages and disadvantages of visiting?

Me too. Did you perhaps get an interview before getting on the waitlist?

I see your Derrida, and I'll raise you. The grad cafe results ruin everything, all the while leaving everything intact. It does not touch anyone in particular; "I" am not threatened by it, but spared, left aside. It is in this way that I am threatened, it is in this way that the grad cafe results threaten in me that which is exterior to me -- an other than I who passively become other. There is no reaching the grad cafe results. Out of reach is he whom it threatens, whether from afar or close up, it is impossible to say: the infiniteness of the threat has in some way broken every limit. We are on the edge of the grad school cafe results without being able to situate it in the future: it is rather always already past, and yet we are on the edge or under threat, all formulations which would imply the future--that which is yet to come -- if the grad cafe results were not that which do not come, that which has put a stop to every arrival. To think the grad cafe results (if this is possible, and it is not possible insomuch as we suspect that the grad cafe results are thought) is to have no longer any future in which to think. -Maurice Blanchot, The Writing of the Grad Cafe Results.

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Heard back from DePaul today. They've made seven offers and have 10-12 people on the waitlist. However, they interviewed some of these people already (and didn't interview me), and they will go with the ones they interviewed before interviewing the rest. So I was told it looks unlikely, but is still possible. So right now, things look like they are definitely steering towards Villanova.

I think you have a really naive picture of what the workforce is actually like. I worked a manual labor job every day from eight to six for two years. I woke up at 5AM every morning just so I could study philosophy for an hour before leaving for work. I would then spend the entire weekend studying. I learned not to waste a single hour, which is what made me so successful as a graduate student. I don't find it worrying. I do find it worrying that you find this worrying. If you are pursuing a job in academia and have no passion for what you're doing, or could find it meaningful to do something else, then go do that. Academia is hard work, pays very little, and you would be making a whole lot more money somewhere else.

Yes, incredibly so, but when you enjoy what you're doing, it's no so bad. Grad school is a blast, if you like studying philosophy. You are around a ton of people who have a similar education, interests, and background and are all learning together. There's also less formality with professors who will go out drinking with you, talk about mutual interests together, etc. You will be reading a ton. You will have to learn how to quickly master all of the secondary literature on a topic in the span of a semester. You will have to read extremely closely and often in the original language. As for writing, you will basically be having to produce three 20 page papers of the same quality as your writing sample at the end of every semester. So if you are still writing undergraduate essays, you should take some time to look at the stuff in journals and try to learn to write in that style.

I was following you until this part. What movie is this from?

Yeah, I looked beyond academia and found long hours doing something I don't care about for little pay. I chose to return to doing something meaningful.

I was also accepted into the NSSR MA last round of admissions. I reached similar conclusions to the other commenters after researching them. They basically accept everyone, it's a ton of money, and you will almost never talk to any professors ever. Even if you are a Ph.D. student writing a dissertation, you have to make huge appointments in advance. So this problem at NSSR even exists at the level of their Ph.D. program. If you take out debt to get an M.A., go somewhere where you aren't a cash cow. Talk to students and find out if the class distinction between MA's and Ph.D.'s is noticeable. At my own MA program, for example (Duquesne), the professors treat MA's and PhD's the same, and there's not really a noticeable distinction between them (so much so as you don't really know who is who). Otherwise, you might not get placed out of the MA into a PhD. There are also terminal MA's that pay you, although the work tends to be a lot more severe when it comes to grading (from what I've heard), but something like this can definitely get you placed.

Well, if you really want this, it might be a good idea to look into a terminal M.A., if you don't have an M.A. already. It's becoming more and more standard for people to get M.A.'s before Ph.D. nowadays.

Villanova is in the bougie suburbs outside of Philly, though.

That's a good program. I believe they have pretty decent placement, too.

Yeah for sure. I just don't think my wife wants to live in Chicago, so there's that. Villanova is pretty top tier, too, so if it's not a big difference, I might go with the better living situation. But this all remains to be seen.

I disagree. Why should someone find something rewarding or fulfilling just because someone else does? Some people only want to do one thing with their lives. These people tend to succeed. So I would say: don't ever settle for less. (Of course, it's definitely possible to pursue philosophy in a different department, such as theology, comparative literature, or French/German studies).

Maybe he's not counting the first person.

It's actually DePaul.

1. What expectations do professors generally have of graduate students in their courses? Although they will often explain things, they will also expect you to have a certain amount of background knowledge about the history of philosophy, the names and basic ideas of major figures, etc. Sometimes, professors are careful not to assume knowledge, but most of the time they will expect you to go teach yourself if you aren't familiar with something. However, the biggest expectation is that you are able to write a 15-25 page paper of near-publishable quality at the end of each semester, one that makes a strong and consistent viable argument and contributes to the field in an important and unique way. Also, if you are enrolled in three classes, you will have to write three of these. 2. What challenges should we expect to face in our courses during our first semester? If you aren't already in the habit of writing strong, organized, well-researched papers of significant length, you will have to learn rather quickly. Time management will be the biggest factor. It's a good idea to already have a topic in mind for your paper at the beginning of the semester, so that you can start researching. You also need to be able to know when you've found a problem. Often, looking at secondary literature helps here. It's also important to know whether a topic is of a manageable length. Often, the best papers make a very small and modest point. 3. What mental skills do we need to develop in order to excel (get A’s) in grad school courses (possibly making careful distinctions, reading quickly, etc.)? Learn to read extremely slowly, pay close attention to the exact meaning of every word being used in its original language, know how to research a topic (that is, how to hunt down all the existing literature on something). But the grades all basically come down to your term papers. If you can make solid arguments that engage with the contemporary literature (basically, something that looks like what you would read in a philosophy journal), you will get A's.

Went ahead and sent an email.

Way better than some schools. I heard someone got a rejection letter that told them to stop applying.