The_Last_Thylacine

Admittedly, I'm slightly envious of people like that---who have already attained that level of obvious talent. Given the choice between every top 10 program, I would pick USC every time. That will be a difficult rejection letter to read if (when) it comes!

Any cool acceptance stories?

In the meantime, I suppose I'll just keep hoping that 50% of the applicants had a GPA below a 3.9.

Interesting thoughts! I don't know if I have enough information to assume that I am in the 50th percentile. I also don't know enough about the applicant pool to be this optimistic yet!

What programs have an acceptance rate as high as 15%? I should have applied to some of those. I only know that one year, USC had an acceptance rate of 10% (from a comment I saw from Dr. Mark Schroeder), and that the University of Texas at Austin usually has a 3% acceptance rate. I'm not even sure if these percentages account for acceptances from a waitlist either. Does anyone have any more information as to acceptance rates?

That's all folks! I'm sure UT has a hidden waitlist. They receive a massive amount of applications per year.

OH NO! Any acceptance will be all the sweeter for you this year at least.

Firstly: incredible user name! Secondly, I feel the same way about the first acceptance. I will feel so much better for the whole application season if I know that I can go somewhere. As I see it, the worst case scenario involves being waitlisted, only to be rejected on the deadline after a protracted period of waiting and anxiety.

Every time you see an email notification though... :'(

Middle of Chicago? Living expenses must be higher.

Often times, the stipends vary by department. Here is a resource: http://www.phdstipends.com/results

Because I am a Christian, I read a lot of Psalms and pray. I also caught up on the show "Better Call Saul" and started reading an older edition of Irving Copi's Introduction to Logic. Next semester, I am taking: (1) Virginia Civil Procedure; (2) Corporate Tax; (3) Secured Transactions (UCC-II); and (4) Professional Skills. Most of that is boring and nuanced legal material, so these classes should keep me distracted until results come in! I'll also be working as an editor for the Journal of Global Justice & Public Policy.

This is how to find unranked programs. http://www.apaonline.org/?page=gradguide

I hope to see an increase in forum discussion here. Then again, we don't have any news of acceptance to share with one another yet!

? Boutique font; Forrest Green lettering.

I hope I know what a publishable article looks like! I work as the Notes and Comments editor for an international legal journal, meaning that I select the student-written notes for publication! :I Notwithstanding, this whole experience has made me so diffident, that I am second guessing everything. As long as your paper isn't written in Arial, I'm sure it will be aesthetically pleasing. I do prefer the appear of single-spaced material though. Best wishes to all of you as you finalize your samples (if you haven't already)!

I'm also trying to make a disciplinary "switch" from law to philosophy. One thing that you might consider doing is researching the graduate student's profiles under the "People" tab of the department's website. Often times, departments will display their student's previously held degrees and majors. Find the departments that have interdisciplinary students, and email the directors of graduate studies there to see if their departments are amenable to accepting students like yourself. Here's my own experience: (1) UNC pretty much laughed at the prospect of me applying in an email response. Their department website says about the same. (2) University of Arizona said it was possible, but didn't sound very optimistic unless I came from a top tier law school like Yale. Their words. They had two interdisciplinary students, if I remember correctly. (3) IU Bloomington adulated me and welcomed me to apply with open arms. (4) The University of Texas at Austin has several interdisciplinary students without a philosophy degree. (5) Colorado University Boulder has a few interdisciplinary students. (6) The University of California Riverside has a few. (7) The University of Southern California has one! (I'm holding out hope for USC or UT Austin!) (8) The Florida State University might be amenable. That's all I can remember off the top of my head.

Mainly to have studied for the GRE longer, but the writing sample and SOP's are as good as they'll ever be! I put out 11 apps. ?

Good ol' Carnegie Mellon. Most of their philosophy graduate students have a undergraduate degree in mathematics.

Crap, man, I wish I had waited like you. I submitted all of my applications back in September, minus a few stragglers to Master's programs as a backup.

I've never heard of someone applying with two writing samples! I think you're already in the page range for an acceptable writing sample as it is. The question I really have for you is this: do you think your sample will be ameliorated by explicating your original ideas?

It is the perfect font and it is the truth. ?

I work as a senior editor for an academic legal journal. It's boring, but I found the true love of my life. Century Schoolbook has captured my heart, though I admit that Garamond is pretty cute, albeit a little immature for her age.

Good discussion, guys. In my statements of purpose, I did not limit myself to a specific philosopher at a department for the very reasons that Dialectica mentioned, and additionally, I did not want to come across as sycophantic. The University of Virginia, University of California San Diego, and the University of South Carolina all required me to list several faculty members under whom I would be interested in studying. Other schools like the University of Southern California, Colorado University at Boulder, and the University of Texas required no extra information outside of the statement of purpose. I believe this is because these departments are more interested in having an intellectually diverse student body, as long as the faculty are able to specialize in a specific area. Just look at the current graduate students at UT, Austin. Their interests are all over the place. UCR makes you choose from a list of interests, which hopefully correspond to the interests of some faculty members. In the letters themselves, I simply stated (1) how I became interested in philosophy [this was important for my USC application, because the whole reason I became interested in philosophy was because of a USC graduate]; (2) my research interests; (3) why I wanted to switch careers from being a lawyer to being a philosopher; (4) and then I tried to say something nice about the school itself. I tried to research the buildings where the majority of classes were held/where the professors and graduate students have offices and said that it would be an honor to spend time in [building] where so many eminent philosophers have been able to work.

Dang.