thehegeldialectic

I would recommend that you ignore anything that the Leiter report says about where to study. Instead, check out this list on the SPEP: http://www.spep.org/resources/graduate-programs/ I would also recommend against any schools that lean heavily analytic, as you might be forced to take a ton of classes with little or no relevance for your interests, just to study under the one Kierkegaard or Heidegger person. Boston College is indeed a great place for phenomenology and existentialism! Some other great places include: Duquesne Villanova Emory DePaul Loyola Chicago Northwestern University of New Mexico University of Oregon University of South Florida Washington University in St. Louis Vanderbilt SUNY Stony Brook Fordham New School for Social Research Those are just some off the top of my head.

This advice gets repeated often on the internet, but I don't think it's actually true. While it might not look impressive to have, say, ten pay-to-publish articles, I have never seen any evidence that publishing in a mid-tier journal can actually damage your career. But generally speaking, my point is that there are plenty of, in my view, perfectly fine programs that aren't considered "top tier," these so-called "top tier" programs are often difficult to get into given the enormous amount of applications, and there are plenty of other great schools where famous philosophers are doing groundbreaking work, so why not focus on these programs? Besides this, the Leiter reports are in my view largely subjective, arbitrary, and for some reason the University of Chicago (Brian Leiter's school) always makes top 10 ...

Are you talking about the top fifteen philosophy programs, or the top fifteen in your area of specialty? For example, if you were applying to the top 15 Hegel programs (i.e. all of them), you would have a pretty decent shot of getting into one of them. But if you are talking about the top fifteen programs in the nation (or in a really big field), I would say it's probably better to steer clear of these. I hate to discourage you, but the reality is that you will be competing against hundreds and hundreds of applicants at these top schools. Many of these will be ivy-league undergraduates with a 4.0, near-perfect GRE scores, fluent German or Ancient Greek, famous letter writers, and a significant amount of graduate coursework because their undergraduate department offered linked courses.Some of them may have even published a paper, others have presented at conferences. So when you're going up against students with a B.A. who already have graduate level coursework, it's going to make you stand out less. So what can you do? I would focus on narrowing your focus towards the reputation of particular professors rather than programs. As for your particular worries: 1) I would worry about your undergrad GPA the least. The purpose of the M.A. is to show improvement. You've got it. 2) My GREs - It's not bad, but could be higher. While it might cause you problems when applying to schools with thousands of applicants, it's perfectly fine for getting into somewhere in general. 3) No publications - I mean, if you have stuff submitted and under review, that's at least something. But try as hard as you can to get at least one published in something respectable. Also, conferences are much easier to get into, so just apply to every one where you can say something. If your school has a colloquium as well, it's a good way to get some papers listed on your CV. Besides this, having an original, groundbreaking, and/or innovative writing sample is the most important thing. Keep trying to get it published as well.

Just beat me to it.

I do Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger. I'm looking at Duquesne, Emory, University of Oregon, UC Riverside, University of South Florida, Vanderbilt, University of Kentucky, Villanova, Texas A&M, University of Memphis, UC Irvine, University of Dallas, and UC San Diego. What about you?

For her (and for myself), it's more about the cultural differences and Sittlichkeit than matters of professed belief (also, any major city in the South is going to swing blue). In the South, regardless of opinion, you would never see a person blare on the horn, yell profanities at a stranger, or openly display racist convictions. If it happens, it's really, really shocking socially unacceptable behavior. It's a hospitality based culture, and feels very different than the North East.

So it looks like my wife's only willing to live in places with beaches or in the South. Guess my list of schools just got a lot shorter!

Well, I luckily have a writing sample ready to go. I wrote it my first year and it won a department award. Hopefully it will be published before applications! However, I am still trying to put together my list of schools. I'm married, so I am limited in some degree. No out of state, no New York City, and it needs to have an anesthesiology program nearby. I will definitely get my transcripts started much sooner than last time!

Wouldn't you be applying in 2019, then?

Hello everyone, my name's Colin and I was a 2016 applicant. Now, my M.A. is almost done, and it's time to reapply for Ph.D. I've been through this process once, made some mistakes, hopefully learned from them, and am happy to offer you any help, advice, or assistance you need! But first of all, who all is applying in 2018? How far along in the process are you?

I'd like to network with people as well, so feel free to PM me as well!

I work full time, so I can only study philosophy in the mornings, and this only on days where I don't work mornings or have the day off. I started working through Marx's Capital, Vol. I earlier this year. I got all the way through chapter 16 here. Recently, I've started working on a paper on Plato. It focuses mainly on the Sophist, but builds on themes throughout his works. I stopped this because I really can't balance creative work with laboring full time, but it's still very much on my mind. Last week, I switched back to working on Heidegger (my main area of interest) full time. I worked through his entire Introduction to Metaphysics, finishing last week. Over the last four days, I re-read "Origin of the Work of Art," reading parallel with the German. I plan to go back over some elements of this essay tomorrow. My next project is Heidegger's Contributions to Philosophy, which will probably keep me busy until school starts. If I end up finishing this, giving up in frustration, or getting distracted, I'll read Difference and Repetition, since I haven't read any Deleuze yet, and have been meaning to.

Accepted Duquesne's M.A. offer. Anyone else going to be there with me?

I got an M.A. offer, which I'm taking.

Just got my rejection. Kinda happy about this. Vanderbilt was my bottom choice, and I'm really excited about Duquesne.

I'm still in limbo with Vanderbilt, even though its the last day of March. I assume this means that they haven't confirmed all of their offers yet. I saw that someone solicited and didn't get a reply for three weeks, so I opted out of this. So I guess I'm looking for information, as I'm already making plans to move to my top M.A. pick, but am wondering what's up with Vanderbilt. Now, I could drive down there and ask, but I would imagine that wouldn't fly over well. Anyone have a Ph.D. offer that they haven't accepted or declined? Has anyone been wait-listed (at all)? Anyone declined an offer? Anyone still in limbo or been rejected?

Accepted into Duquesne for an M.A. with some tuition waived. It's always been one of my top choices, and it's significantly more affordable. I will be accepting this offer unless I Vanderbilt accepts me into their Ph.D. program at the last minute. Any word on Vandy, by the way?

I live there. I should show up at their philosophy club and raise hell. Philosophy Ph.D. students keep dropping by the coffee shop I work at. The jealousy kills me.

Has there been any recent news regarding Vanderbilt's Ph.D. or Duquesne's Ph.D./M.A. ? I haven't been contacted by either. I know Duquesne has wait-listed people, but I have heard mixed things about Vanderbilt. Did Vandy interview/waitlist anyone, suggesting that non-contact is a rejection? Has anyone contacted either?

Got my Boston College acceptance for the unfunded M.A. It's my top choice so far, but I'm still waiting to hear back from Duquesne and Vanderbilt (hopefully for doctoral programs).

Today, I received my first acceptance from the New School for Social Research. I got a 20% tuition waiver and eligibility to apply for the Ph.D. program upon completion. The fact that the program, to some degree, lets you "work your way up" to the Ph.D. slot is attractive to me. I still haven't heard from Duquesne, Vanderbilt, or Boston College (I assume Newman from Seinfeld ran off with my letter). Stony Brook rejected me for Ph.D., but I am still waiting for them to get back to me about an M.A. I am super happy that I don't have to have a Plan B. New School was one of my top picks for M.A. programs. I will definitely be taking this offer unless offered a Ph.D. or a exceptionally generously funded M.A.

I've been rejected for Ph.D.'s from Villanova, Fordham, Loyola, and Penn State. I haven't heard anything from Stony Brook, Boston College, or Duquesne. I'm not sure if I should hope for an M.A. Shouldn't they already have wait listed these people? I've also applied for New School for Social Research's M.A. I thought my writing sample(s) would get me in. I'm guessing I was rejected because of my rough semester in 2012, when I failed study abroad and disappeared for two years. I'd placed this behind me, but now I guess it will follow me around for the rest of my life. My plan B is to do St. John's College's M.A.L.A. It's the sister program to my undergrad program and I'd love to just read the great books while doing independent research.

" (1) Did you submit the same writing sample with all your applications, or do you think it's generally bad advice to submit different writing samples?" For one school, I sent two writing samples. This was a matter of length. However, if you don't have two well-written samples, just send one. " (2) Do you have any strategies for helping earn strong GRE scores?" Getting a high verbal comes with the profession. Getting a "perfect" verbal means that you practiced enough to avoid the margin of human error. Practices questions under a time limit, note words while reading. With Quant, you just need to not have a low score. If you are bad at math, even this might be difficult. I spent about half a month studying for quantitative. Get a lot of sleep and practice for the time limits. With the essays, it seems to be random and arbitrary. " (5) How much detail did you go into regarding your research interests on your SOP? Is it good to be specific or vague? That is to say, for those of us who know our main area of interest, is it detrimental you think to be specific?" It can be if they don't have faculty with your area of interests.

Thanks!

You think they're still sending calls out? Duquesne was the only one who hadn't contacted someone on my list, and one of my top choices.