MtnDuck

For the spreadsheet, predictions are now up for when folks might hear back from programs based on past trends

It's that time of the year again--the Philosophy Admissions Spreadsheet has made its yearly return 🙂 As per usual it is tracking deadlines, application requirements, how to get a fee waiver/deadlines for fee waivers, GRE requirements, etc. Around 120 PhD programs and 100 MA programs in philosophy are included and TOEFL requirements have been added for the PhD programs. I am still working on the MA programs, but they will be updated within the next two weeks or so. Please share this with folks who are applying, are thinking about applying, or who work in a Philosophy Department! I know a lot of folks applying, or who are helping folks apply, won't know about it and the more circulation it gets the better. For transparency, it's free, the bitly link is just so I can see how many folks click on it (roughly speaking), google doesn't pay me to use their spreadsheet system, etc. If you notice any errors or omissions, just let me know or leave a comment on the spreadsheet itself. Link for sharing: bit.ly/PhilAdm

For what it's worth this year was the earliest WL movement in general that I've seen in the last 4 years or so. It looks like, in general, folks are turning down the offers they know they will not accept and that is helping the shuffling start at a few programs. With any luck that will spell good news once the visiting days wrap in another week or so. A caveat of sorts I want to flag for folks is about yield--some programs (including top programs) will make more A offers than they have spots for with the running assumption that a certain percentage of folks will turn them down leaving them with an incoming class of x (or something). In past years there have been times when folks were confused about why SCHOOL's WL didn't move even though 4 folks had declined the acceptance. If a school accepts 12 expecting an incoming class of 8, there's no movement until the 5th person declines ??‍♂️ It's still not totally clear which schools do this and which don't (gathering the stats on that is a work in progress), but it is something to be aware of since folks can decline in a timely fashion and the WL can still not move at all in a given cycle for some schools ?.

Never say never until you have the actual R--a number of schools have hidden waitlists (has been a contentious topic for years) and it's always possible that someone will end up getting off of a waitlist they didn't originally know they were on ??‍♂️. Source: had at least one case of this every year since I started running the spreadsheet.

Many thanks for declining early--sometimes we have folks hold on to schools they know they won't pick given their available options and it's a nightmare on 4/15 as folks try to get shuffled off of waitlists. I'll add a note to the stats page on the spreadsheet that someone has declined their acceptance for this school

Greetings folks, As we head into the chaos of application season I just wanted to plug the Philosophy Admissions Spreadsheet for anyone who is new to the forum and may not have encountered it previously. More or less I track the admissions requirements for programs (mostly) in the US and Canada. (If folks can help fill in the gaps for places in the UK, Australia, and any other country though go for it!). I am also in the process of moving things over to a website but that'll be a bit of a longer goal. These requirements include: deadlines, cost of application fees, how to get a fee waiver, whether they want the GRE, what type of transcript to send in, and how many letter writers folk will need. For MA programs I also look at whether they are funded and, if so, how many folks appear to be funded. In January it also tracks admissions decisions. Feel free to share with anyone else that is applying! bit.ly/PhilAdm There is also a FB group for folks looking to connect with more folks during this application cycle. Philosophy Graduate Applicants

Now that we've mostly come to the end of the application chaos (well done everyone--especially with all the support folks have shown during this stressful cycle), just wanted to give this a bump. We're at about 90 survey responses and the more the merrier!

Greetings folks, It is time for Part 2 of the Philosophy Admissions Survey--feel free to share with other folks not on TGC! Link to the Google Form Survey Folks that applied in past/recent cycles are invited to participate in addition to current applicants. Knowing the information for past cycles may allow us to notice shifts in the current application cycle so all are welcome to participate. For Part 2, we are looking at outcomes (A/W/R), the elements folks considered when applying, how much money folks spent on application fees (some folks here flagged putting together a fund of some sort and that requires empirics), waitlist movement/hidden waitlists (optional questions), how folks picked which program to attend, etc. No identifactory information is required/collected (email, name, program, etc.) and while quantitative data will be shared explicitly no qualitative answers will be shared verbatim (I'll summarize those elements/note trends as with Part 1 but want to maintain anonymity). The summary will also be publicly available and shareable once we get to that point and folks will always be welcome to circulate it around to whomever/wherever. -L

The survey has now been workshopped into a more formal report though there are a number of limitations due to sampling size problems. That said, here's what we have. More on Part 2 soon! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Id7ZHLgXBEbcVb8fqPkhqiY64LYpG6izyZ-BLjjdJ8U/edit?usp=sharing

From FB-- Stanford is now confirmed as of today 3/11

Can confirm at least 4 folks over on FB have As ?. I'm going to try to figure out a way to add when folks are declining to the stats but might take a while ?

For folks not on the FB group: Cornell is confirmed, UoAlberta (PhD) is confirmed (direct report to me), Baylor is confirmed, and University of Missouri-St. Louis (MA) is confirmed. No news on Stanford with respect to direct claims.

I've had a number of folks reach out to me directly when they hear back because they don't want folks to know and then be pressured to make a decision when they're trying to work through their options as best they can. But they still want the spreadsheet to be up to date so folks stay informed and have been kind enough to drop me a few lines. As you said, the vast majority of folks won't be jerks and will decline as soon as they can. For the folks that are jerks, it's not as if pressuring them will likely make them decline from places any quicker ??‍♂️

Looks like they misreported with the PhD designation--it's for the MA program (and they have 4 folks currently accepted based on the stats I tracked from FB?) ??‍♂️

Since some folks aren't over on FB--Harvard has started to call folks with Acceptance offers. Sounds like 4 spots this year though a few (2) may already be filled from folks that deferred last year. No word on WL numbers yet.