The_Last_Thylacine

WHOAH, AND JUST LIKE THAT! CONGRATULATIONS, MAN! I WAS PULLING FOR YOU!

Every time I see that you were the last person to comment in this thread, I hurriedly rush here hoping to see news that you were accepted somewhere, but it's always you asking questions!

Take all your students out to lunch someday.

The HPS program historically releases significantly earlier than the philosophy department at IU. Of course, given that we're all especially cognizant of Hume's problem of induction . . . . Dr. Kate Abramson has produced some of my favorite contemporary research. It's a shame I've only discovered her work recently.

Nobody has. http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=philosophy

I'm ready to hear back from UVA!

If someone asks me to keep my information private, and I subsequently assent to keep my information private, then I will keep my information private; otherwise, I'm not really sure why "adcoms" knowing my personal information is such a bad thing.

Why is it so bad if people know your identity?

Ah, I'm sorry, man. :/

I'd recognize that picture of John Calvin anywhere! One of my favorite theologians of all time. I read The Institutes when I was bored as a Criminal Justice major.

As long as you weren't in prison, I really can't imagine why a haitus from academia would be all that bad for your application. In some analogical way, I can imagine your frustration with web design. I hope you can escape from the cubicle life!

In regard to my love of philosophy, my family members have said little things like "he'll grow out of it" or "philosophy is great, but you'll have to come back to the 'real' world someday." I'm sure a lot of us know how disparaging the general public can be toward philosophers though. Every day I spend without hemlock in my stomach is a good day! Law school is tedious, the subject matter is boring, and mostly deals with overwhelming memorization. I emphasize the word "overwhelming" because unless you're a wunderkind, you'll be inundated with reading all the time for your first two years. My least favorite class was criminal law, because criminal law is more about developing specious and ostentatious arguments. At least personally, I don't want to have a mercenary intellect that is subject to the whim of my clients, and I have a scruple about being disingenuous toward a jury. My favorite non-theory class was Contracts though. Admittedly, I enjoy drafting contracts. It's an interesting strategy game that involves negotiating with the other side and then trying to employ an artifice to prevail with the best terms for your client. Judges can be unpredictable, so most of law involve writing an argument and wishing for the best. Law school is a good back up plan, however, if for no other reason than that you'll genuinely become proficient at skills like writing, public speaking, and learning how to condense lectures into an outline. Again, a lot of people make a lot of jokes about lawyers being greedy, unscrupulous, and unpleasant opportunists, but all the of lawyers I've met have been kind and humble people. A lot of them are workaholics and borderline alcoholics because they're so concerned for their clients. I think it's good that you have a wide range of interests. You could be like the family doctor of philosophers---refer the student to a specialist in the off-chance that you don't know the answer to a specific question! Where have you applied?

I'll never need to vent again after all this.

I am very interested in the philosophy of law! My main area of interest involves the intersection of epistemology with legal propostions, and you are correct! I hope to teach legal philosophy at a law school someday. A lot of people ask me why I am studying law in the first place. I was homeschooled, and my Dad pretty much told me that I was going to be a lawyer all growing up. My Dad is a very intelligent physician---the number one graduate of his medical school--- but he views/viewed philosophy as largely worthless, and I had adopted his views (because as a homeschooled child, he was constructively my only influence). Then I discovered philosophy after I was already accepted to law school when I was 20 and in my senior year of college. I wish I had known that I wanted to be a philosopher much earlier so I could have prepared more adequately. The faculty at my law school are imbibed with Natural Law Theory, but I am quite nonplussed with regard to Thomas Aquinas. Natural Law is a research interest of mine, and I would love to study under J. Budziszewski, but I'm opposed to any application of NLT. My writing sample is a systematic criticism of the various natural law traditions actually. All in all, you're right---it's too early to despair. I'm looking forward to seeing things unfold over the next two months! What are your research interests, and how did you become interested in philosophy?

On the practice tests I was taking, one of the Verbal sections had a longer sample from a Constitutional law treatise on Marburry v. Madison (a subject matter with which I'm more familiar). I scored a 166 on that practice test, so I thought I would be fine. On the actual test, I froze up. I rushed through the final three Verbal questions, and was barely able to skim the final paragraph on anthropology. Maybe it was the headache, maybe it was something else, but the GRE was a fiasco for me. I think I could have raised my quantitative score by about 5 points with only a few weeks of study if I had just had the time back then, and I could have raised my verbal score by three points through happenstance. I only had two math classes in college, and they were six years ago. I'm glad you were able to score well despite your work schedule, but I'm admittedly a little bit envious too. Working at a golf course was not the most ideal job for someone wanting to study, but I've been doing this for the last six years during the summer. I woke up at 4:55 every day (I am by no definition a "morning person"), would get home around 3:30--5:30 after digging ditches, mowing fairways, or watering greens in 85--95 degree heat, and then all I would wanted to do was sleep. Please don't misunderstand me: I'm very thankful for that job because it allowed me to pay rent through my fall semester---it's just that I can't write explanations like this into my statement of purpose. What type of job are you planning on quitting? Ultimately, it was a blessing that I submitted my apps early. I received two A's and two B's last semester in law school. In a class of 30, the professors will usually only award 4 A's. The median GPA is 2.5 for first year students so they can weed out those who fall below a 2.0 (my class started with 107 and fell to 80 after the conclusion of the first year because 27 people "failed out"), and then the school changed the median to 2.7 for 2L's and 3L's; however, this past year they must have felt bad for us receiving all these dehumanizing grades, so they upped the median to 2.9--3.1 for my last year. At my law school, a "D" is a passing grade as long as you maintain above a 2.0 cumulative GPA, and those receiving the highest "A" are awarded a "Book Award" in front of the whole law school at a ceremony. Those graduating with above a 2.8 are usually considered good students who are usually projected to pass the bar exam on the first try. Indeed the law school aphorism is: "A-students make law professors; B-students make judges; and C-students make the money." It looks as though I'll be a judge at this rate. I got the highest "A" in our philosophy of law class, but I did not receive a Book Award because the school policy was apparently that there must be 8 J.D. students in the class for a student to be eligible for a book award. Unfortunately, one of the eight students in our Jurisprudence class was a Master's student, and Master's students are graded separately and far more leniently. Master's students are given a B pretty much for showing up to class. Our (the J.D. student's) grades are based upon one cumulative, in-class, timed, final exam, which is usually several essays, but some have been multiple choice or a combination of the two. Most students elect to take summer classes so that they can avoid having to study for five cumulative finals at the same time; however, I did not have enough money to afford this option. I've gotten hammered by brutal exam seasons---except for this past year in which I only had four, so I'm very thankful I submitted my applications, as early as possible. Wow! I'm so sorry for becoming hypergraphic, but I needed to get all of this "off my chest." I couldn't reduce all of my academic peregrination to writing for my statement of purpose, but I hope my writing sample is cogent. To anyone who actually read all of this, thank you for witnessing my wanderings.:'( I consider myself to be personable, caring, as well as a good lecturer and editor, so I hope some department will at least grant me an interview.

I'm sorry you feel that way, and I can't imagine how anxious you must feel. Police discrimation against POC's transcends the urban/rural divide. It always has.

If I'm not accepted this year, I'll probably start studying for the GRE the week after I take the Virginia State Bar Exam. I didn't have time to study very thoroughly for the GRE first time around because I worked at a golf course doing manual labor, and I would always come home exhausted. I had a vocabularly app that I studied extensively but that was about it. I only studied the quantitative for four days. I had to submit all my applications in early September because they would cut into my study/journal editing time if I waited any long. At the end, my score was 315 (162 V; 153 Q). The day I took the test, I had a splitting headache, and I was incredibly nervous. I'm fairly certain that I could do much better if I had something other than a used Kaplan prep book with which to study. I was thinking about doing the Magoosh course because it was only $100 and they guarentee an extra 5 points to your score if you watch all the videos for the problems you get wrong. In any case, I realize how naive I was to have applied to many of the programs I was hoping for. Right now, I'm really hoping for either Virginia Tech or Texas A&M. Those are good Master's programs with great placement records. I don't think it's possible for a Master's program to be any more difficult than my current schedule, and hopefully I will find a less labor-intensive job for the summer so I can finally study for the GRE. Maybe I'll even be able to draft wills during the summer if I pass the bar and am able to attend Virginia Tech. That's sort of my hope at this point. Of course, if I'm accepted to IU, UT, or USC, or UVA, that would be wonderful, but it doesn't seem very likely to me. It's just frustrating during the wait. I want to be able to start formulating a plan!

Yale leaked it to troll us.

Pulling for you! Also, I suspected that some of the faculty would research the applicant pool on here. I'm pretty above board, so hopefully that won't get me into any trouble.

Edited to reflect the change.

Facebook group reports one acceptance to Ohio State and one waitlist to Michigan State.

Was it as pretty as the Youtube videos? :'(

Thanks! I'm hopeful that I'll be accepted to IU!

This thread is a constructive acceptance thread. I vote for creating an acceptance thread, and merging it with this thread. Then we can create both a separate rejection and waitlist thread.

I read about a guy in the previous years' posts who turned down Harvard so he could stay close to his girlfriend. What a selfless man.