The_Last_Thylacine

I'd say to produce a writing sample relating to your primary area(s) of interest.

Tufts by a long shot.

What have we become?

A "top 5" Leiter MA program? I didn't realize there was an ordinal ranking of MA programs.

You two sound like the ultimate "power couple." That's amazing. My Dad was a chief resident (graduated medical school in '87), and he used to assure me that the residents used to work 120+ hours per week. He also told me that he timed himself as only sleeping 20 hours one week. I don't know if this story is apocryphal, but I sincerely doubt that he would exaggerate about this (he also graduated with the highest GPA in medical school). Suffice it to say, I could not write philosophy papers with that little an amount of sleep. That's also incredible that you're licensed in some of the jurisdictions with the most difficult bar exams! My only passage was in Virginia before I "jumped ship" for philosophy. I know this would exemplify the fallacy of relative privation, but I really couldn't imagine complaining about a 60-70 hour work week, given how much residents are required to work, and how much I saw my Dad working when I was growing up.

No, that's either impossible or inefficacious. I mean was she even counting meal prep? But seriously, I've done 90-hour study weeks (with breaks, of course) when I was studying for the bar exam. I even experienced "car sickness" from reading all day. For me, that amount of study would be unsustainable, but for a few months, it was fine (and it was well worth it when I saw my name on the list of people who had passed).

Oh no.

I have a concern that mental health is not so much affected by a failure to maintain a work-leisure distinction (whatever this means to you; philosophy is both my leisure and my work) as it is by a failure to meet one's goals. Every students has a set of goals that they wish to achieve, and if your goal is to become an academic philosopher, then to me it seems likely that students (like myself at least) would need to work for about 70+ hours per week to achieve this goal. I have seen a lot of people on here with intimidating intellects, and if you are one of the truly exceptional philosophy students, then this generalization will obviously not apply to you. You may, for instance, be able to produce a publishable paper with only 20 hours a week. However, in philosophy, what seems to be the biggest cause of mental health issues (e.g. depression) is that students have a goal of being at the top of their class and they refuse to work the number of hours per week that (for them) would be required to meet this goal. Alternatively, to be at the top of a class, some students may refuse to sacrifice other things that they value more than philosophy (e.g. family life, hanging out with friends, being in a band, et cetera). Sure, sometimes students get sick or their grandparents die, but programs will often treat these kinds of situations as extenuating circumstances. I don't really see any reason to talk about mental health here. If you are becoming depressed doing academic philosophy, then you should do what you need to do to take care of yourself, but you shouldn't feel entitled to a job at the end of your graduate education if you've submitted work that is of a lesser quality than everyone else. You've just learned that academic philosophy is not for you.

If anyone is thinking of declining an offer (or waitlist) from the University of Texas, Austin or Notre Dame, would you PM me?

I think I usually averaged 70 hour weeks in my first year, but that's hard to account for, given the amount of bullshitting that goes on when you talk to your classmates while working.

I'm afraid that I don't understand what you're trying to say. You think the professors are poor, which is why UCSB is ranked 44th on the Philosophical Gourmet Report? If this is what you think, I would say that there are a good number of excellent faculty members there. The department is very small, so it would be hard for them to compete with larger departments, given their size. For what it's worth, the graduate students that I talked to claimed that the faculty were very helpful.

I mean, UCSB is an R1, so that makes sense.

I just declined UCSB (which almost broke my heart).

I'm pretty sure I added this to the results page, but I was emailed by Kent Staley. Maybe your status will change now.

Today, I declined Florida State and removed myself from the waitlists at UC Davis (where I was third on the waitlist); SLU (unranked); and Syracuse (where I was approximately 13th on a waitlist of 20). It was really hard to do this because these are all good programs, but it just wouldn't be fair to the other applicants.

If you look at their profile, I believe it was Princeton.

Congratulations on being accepted to your top choice, and thanks for quickly removing yourself from the waitlist! You're one of my many heroes right now!

I emailed to ask if I was off the waitlist at Florida State, and they had just voted to accept me even though no one had yet declined! Really nice of them!

D313t3 Th15 101

I was also waitlisted at Notre Dame, and I want to hope that the waitlist is not made up of 21 people, since ND is my first choice! I'm glad I'm not the only one who drew that conclusion!

You are amazing. Thank you!

Uriah Kriegel is incredible.

Are you a student there, now Jespersen? If so, could I PM you?

Accepted to Ohio State with full funding!

I THOUGHT I RECOGNIZED THAT GRE SCORE! EXCELLENT!