The_Last_Thylacine

I'm starting a thread only for acceptances. The other thread is bound to become confusing and bloated very quickly.

Update: Unofficial copies will suffice!

I did something similar, but I suspect my revisions were not very noticeable. On December 21st, one especially well-known professor very generously agreed to help me improve my writing sample after I had already received comments from three of my other professors. His comments were mostly small suggestions, but nonetheless, the December 31st iteration of my writing sample incorporates these suggestions for improvement, and thus varies slightly from previous versions, though it is hardly a palimpsest. Honestly, I just wrote this response because I wanted to use the word "palimpsest."

Rose-Colored Beetle went to Fordham.

Does Florida State require official transcripts in order to be accepted to the program? I would prefer to save the $22 it would take for me to mail two transcripts, but after perusing the website, I cannot find out whether I should send official transcripts now. I have read that the graduate school requires official transcripts for admission, but I don't know if admission is required for acceptance. Does anyone have any more information about this?

I go to Texas Tech's terminal MA program. The funding is enough to cover rent, groceries, a health cooperative payment, gas, utilities and the tuition remnant left over from the tuition remission. If you want to pursue graduate school in philosophy without taking out a loan, I'd certainly recommend Texas Tech. I live quite comfortably.

All I'm trying to do with my statement of purpose is describe my research interests (that I currently have) and try to indicate my familiarity with the work going on in the department. There's a risk here: namely, that you might state something inaccurate. So, a lot of careful research is required. For faculty that have published papers that correspond to my areas of interest, I do my best to skim those papers and talk about the overlap in interests. The Statement of Purpose, from what I am told, is typically something that can only hurt you, so it's best to "play your cards close to the chest" by: (1) not saying anything weird, and (2) not saying anything inaccurate about the faculty at the school. My statements range from 500 to 1000 words. For example, at Ohio State, they limit SOP's to just one page. Good luck mentioning faculty and your research interests in a single page.

While there is competition, I am not sure that this competition necessitates hostility. Think of the factors that are important to your application to Ph.D. programs from a terminal MA: (1) GPA; (2) GRE; (3) Writing Sample; (4) SOP; (5) LOR's. Only one of these factors, GPA, is something that enables you to directly compete with your classmates, and of course, this measure will likely affect LOR's as well (but not necessarily). Other than this, the rest of the work that you do to gain admittance to a Ph.D. program is something that you can do in the privacy of your own home. It isn't as though you are furiously composing a writing sample to compete with your classmates. You're likely just trying to produce the best possible sample, commensurate with your abilities and independent from what your classmates are doing. Moreover, competition does not necessarily cause hostility. That's largely dependent upon the personalities involved. In my terminal MA program, the most hostility I've encountered has been my classmate reminding me of the respects in which his application is better than mine, but is this really hostility or is just projection of apprehension (or maybe even statement of fact)? With the GRE, you just go home and study (hopefully harder than your classmates). With the statements of purpose, you just do your best to research the faculty and follow the examples of SOP's from successful applicants you know. If you've invested your time and done your research, there is no need to engage in hostility. In fact, I think something of the opposite. I think it's important to help those who don't perform as well as you do. I have a classmate who was scrambling a bit toward the deadline for applications, and it was genuinely my pleasure to help him polish up his writing sample. I sincerely hope he does well this application season, and if he does better than I do, well, that just reflects positively on my department (I'd probably still be a little jealous though!). TLDR: if there is hostility, it is due to the personalities involved and not graduate work itself. There's plenty of healthy competition. Other students' boasting can be discouraging, but it can also motivate you to be a better student as well.

https://graddiversity.stanford.edu/graduate-fee-waiver/school-based-waivers They hand these out fairly generously, so I would recommend applying for them.

I've generally heard that if you're going to live in Austin on that kind of stipend, you're going to need a roommate. Now, the stipend does vary considerably at Austin, because the funding packages they offer differ significantly. For undergraduates applying, there is a certain standard package of around $1,500/month, and those holding an MA receive about +$200 more/month, and then after you finish classes and begin teaching, you receive another raise so you make just under $1,900/month. Tuition costs under $400/semester after scholarships and tuition reductions. My professor who recently graduated from UT had a package of around $17,000/two semester, plus a fairly comprehensive health insurance plan. I have seen one undergraduate on here receive a fairly low offer of around $12,000 per two/semesters. I take it that the department used some of the university funding to recruit a better student, but I can't be sure. His offer was anomalously low. I have also seen someone report a stipend of $34,000 as a result of being awarded an additional fellowship. This is mostly information from the website and past forums on the gradcafe.

My writing sample was an originally a seminar paper for epistemology that I first submitted in March of this year, and I submitted around 3 drafts of it for that class. I was working with my professor with the intent to produce a writing sample. I began research on the topic in January, and since then, I have submitted around 5 drafts of revisions to various professors. Each professor provided slightly different comments for improvement, but they were all fairly unified in identifying the problem areas and suggesting how I could make some of my arguments more defensible. I would say that I have probably spent around 6 or 7 months on my writing sample with about 8 official revisions. It looks professional now, and it's fairly easy to read, and the arguments are commensurate with my training, so although I know it could be better, I am sufficiently content with it.

You should be fine at the University of Arizona. Do a results search for "philosophy" and the Leiter-ranked schools to see how those who were accepted scored on the GRE. There is too small an amount of available data from MIT to know what they expect. I am a native English speaker and my verbal score isn't even as high as yours. I only scored a 165, but I did score a 161 in math by studying a lot. Some departments will view a 148 with suspicion as to your quantitative abilities, but if you have done well in logic classes, or have other evidence of your quantitative abilities, it might not be an issue. Generally, a composite score between 310 and 325 will neither help nor hurt your application, and scores above that can only help negligibly.

Moreover, no program consistently "places" students at Princeton, with the exception of Oxford, and most of the students who matriculate there have completed their undergraduate degree at either (1) an Ivy-league school, (2) a top-ranked college like the University of Chicago or Duke, or (3) either Oxford or Cambridge. Only a relatively small contingency are mined from other schools.

Ohio State is a low-tier state school? It's ranked 28 in the PGR.

Thanks! I think that I shouldn't be on gradcafe this time, yet here I am anyways.

I'm applying all over the PGR out of a respectable MA program! My GRE score is about the average for those accepted to programs ranked lower than 9th on the PGR (with a few exceptions). My Master's GPA is a 4.0. I had not studied philosophy prior to becoming a Master's student, so I don't have a relevant undergraduate GPA to report. My areas of interest are in epistemology, metaethics, and philosophy of law. I'm a lawyer, and I passed the bar in Virginia, but there's nothing I'd rather do than study philosophy. It has been such a rewarding and fulfilling time for me being a Teaching Assistant, and I would be so content to attend any of the programs to which I am applying (though of course I have my preferences, which will remain a secret, just in case there are any adcoms). My writing sample is partially a defense of Mark Shroeder's rejection of the Factoring Account, and I use this rejection to make an argument about the ontology of evidence: namely, that evidence is constituted of objective and subjective reasons for belief. This leads me to defend a dualist view about the ontology of epistemic reasons, wherein I embrace both abstractionism and factualism to give a holistic account of evidence's ontology.

Official GRE (9/3/16): 162v; 153q; 5.0a ETS Powerprep II (Sept, 2018): 170v;156q ETS Powerprep I: 168v; 163q Official GRE (10/6): 163v; 159q; 5.5a ETS Paper Test I: 166v; 159q Official GRE (10/27): 165v; 161q All tests are listed in chronological order. I'll update this post when my analytic score comes in. I was very nervous when I took the test on (10/6/2018), which negatively affected my performance, so the second time, I used a mild dosage of a beta-blocker called Inderal. Although I was still very nervous, I performed better, and I would recommend beta-blockers if you suffer from stress-induced cognitive dysfunction. I still think I could do better, but I cannot justify spending any more money on this test. For preparation, I used Magoosh and Manhattan's 5lb. book. Also, like many others, Powerprep II predicted my score exactly (326).

I am mainly posting this so that future applicants can know the upshot of my application season. I was accepted with full funding and a tuition remission to Texas Tech, and I will be accepting this offer. I was informally notified of the department's decision to offer me funding in the eleventh hour on April 15th, preceeding an official letter from the department. I am so incredibly honored, relieved, and ecstatic just to be able to go somewhere, and I am very grateful to the faculty at TTU for accepting me. I'll see some of you again on here in two years! Final outcome: 1a/1w/9r

I had a problem with submitting my rejection from CU Boulder, but it ended up being because Google Chrome blocked the anti-robot text box.

Where are these acceptances posted from Arizona? NEVERMIND I SEE THEM.

Spoken like someone concerned about lurking "adcoms"! ;D

Congrats! Great program!

Keep checking that email, man!

I was looking up old acceptances, and someone who was rejected from -redacted- posted that he found a video of the admissions committee handling his application:

There are some professors who will never like us. I think it's tempting to seek a professor's approval, but I try to resist that temptation. It's tough, and I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with you for wanting to be accepted.