hector549

Well yeah, but you're not going to spend those 42 hours doing whatever. You'll need to make food and eat it. Let's assume you spend 2 hrs/day doing that. That's 14 hrs/wk. Let's also say that you spend 3 hrs/wk commuting (being conservative here), 3 hrs/wk doing laundry/getting groceries/running errands, 7hrs/wk doing things like bathing, brushing your teeth, and going to the bathroom, and 3 hrs/wk exercising. That's a total of 30 hours. Now you're down to 12 hours of "free time" a week. That's less than 2 hrs/day. This of course isn't taking into consideration the time it takes to transition between tasks, nor the time for all the other minutiae that make up a human life. If you're working 70 hrs/week or more, you're not giving yourself any real downtime, or you're cutting corners on all the other stuff I listed, which is neither healthy nor sustainable (and it's unlikely that all those 70 hrs are actually spent working!). When are you going to hang out with friends and/or a significant other? Look, I think philosophy is great, and getting to study it in grad school is awesome, but we're not machines. We need rest and a balanced life. Perpetuating this culture of "you need to work inhuman hours to be good at philosophy" isn't doing anyone any good.

There are a lot of studies that show that productivity drops significantly above 50 hours a week or so. Here is one. My advice is this: take your work seriously and work hard, but recognize that trying to work all the time will result in diminishing returns. Sounds obvious maybe, but don't sacrifice your physical or mental health. It's not worth it, and it's not going to magically make you a super-philosopher anyway. Exercise regularly, sleep 7 or 8 hours a night, cook healthy meals, go out for drinks with friends every now and then, bullshit with your classmates from time to time, go for a walk, whatever. You'll feel better, and you'll do better work.

If you're thinking you might need to defer, then I'd suggest you should talk to the DGA/DGS ASAP about your situation. Don't wait until after the 15th.

Your major GPA is most important, to be sure. However, why is your overall GPA low? A 3.0 is low enough that you should get your letter-writers to address it. Also, here's a relevant recent thread (there's also another linked thread within that one from a few years ago in which folks discuss getting into programs with a very low GPA):

a recent relevant thread:

I think that @maxhgns has given you some great advice. From what I know of the faculty, GSU has significant strengths in phil mind/cog sci/psych, so that's good for you. I can't speak to what living in Atlanta might be like as a queer person, but I've been there once, and it's a huge, diverse, and cosmopolitan city. I'd guess that the cost of living will be lower in Atlanta as well. It's pretty affordable, despite its size. I'd recommend talking to a few current students and faculty there (and at SFU) to get a sense of how well the department fits your interests, and how well the program and city meets your other needs. Don't be afraid to cold-email people if you don't yet have a connection in the department!

I'm going to respectfully disagree here; I've never seen a comparison paper that works well. I won't say it's impossible, of course, but I think it's quite hard to write one that comes across as making a substantive argument rather than "lit review-y".

Unfortunately, no, it isn't. It's a "cash cow" program meant only to generate money for the university and to keep enrollments up. If you want to get an MA in philosophy, apply to legitimate, funded terminal MA programs.

Consider that tuition is $51k. If you're paying 40% of that, you're still paying more than $20k. You'll also need roughly $15k/year for living expenses (I'm being conservative here; Medford, Mass. and nearby areas are expensive). Unless you have access to significant family resources, you're still looking at a minimum of $50k in debt, which is by no means worth it for an MA in philosophy from Tufts.

The short answer is yes, placements have been quite strong this year--as strong or stronger than years past. PM'ed you as well!

Are you committed to working on Hellenistic philosophy? Keep in mind that your interests will likely change, so it may not be worth it to have a WS on a topic that isn't much studied. If your paper is on a marginal topic, it may be harder to demonstrate fit with a program, since the faculty on the admissions committee might have a harder time evaluating it. It may be worth switching to a paper topic in an area with which the faculty advising you/the faculty at the programs you're applying to are familiar. You'll be able to get more useful feedback and probably have a better shot at getting in. Also, don't be afraid to ask for feedback on your WS from the faculty you've had in the past. Ask for comments, and see if you can talk through those comments, either in person if you're nearby, or via Skype if you're not.

Yep, Media Mail is the way to go! I'm in a similar position, and that's what I plan to use. Media Mail is cheaper the higher the weight. You can ship 70 pounds for $38! Here's a link to the USPS page with rates: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c059

I know you said you weren't going to take this offer, but it sounds like (maybe?) you're considering it anyway, so here's my advice: Don't ever pay for an MA. There are plenty of excellent, funded MAs out there. Many of the top schools have "cash cow" MA programs. It's a way to generate revenue, and as others have said, keep their enrollments up. Chicago has such a program (MAPH), so does NYU, so does Columbia, and CUNY is in this boat as well. It's unconscionable, but they're using their name recognition as top schools to flatter people into paying out a lot of money for a degree that won't do anything for them. Their website doesn't say what tuition is, but even if it's basically free, you'll be borrowing a lot of $$ to live in NYC. You'll also be competing for time and attention with the PhD programs, and they will get first priority. This is why if you want to get an MA, you should do so at a terminal MA program, where you'll be the star of the show.

@MtnDuck @Moose#@1%$ release date for Kansas acceptance was Mar 1.

Yeah, I'll see what I can find out.

I know someone who got an acceptance in the past several weeks. Not sure about waitlists, etc.

Why let that stop you? I say go anyway!

I had a similar quandary when I had to choose between MAs. Here's my advice: If you didn't get funding at NIU, forget it and go with one of the other two. As far as funding goes, I do think that NIU (if they've offered it to you) and UWM have an edge. GSU's first-year funding is pretty paltry, even for an MA, and their fees are steep. While placement can vary a bit as you mentioned between GSU, NIU, and UWM, I wouldn't worry about who is placing at which clusters of schools, and rather look at overall placement. All three are pretty similar in that they have very good placement. However, it might be that NIU and UWM have slightly better placements than GSU, just because GSU has a slightly larger contingent of students who leave philosophy or go to unranked programs. However, this could be explainable in terms of the fact that more GSU students go to continental schools which aren't on the rankings, and that their cohort-sizes are larger, so I'm not certain about this. Just something to think about. As far as fit is concerned, for an MA, I think it's probably your least important consideration. I'm not suggesting you shouldn't think about it at all, but your interests are likely to change. Rather, think in broad terms about what you're interested in--if you want to explore more history of philosophy, for example, choose UWM or GSU, since NIU isn't very strong for history. If you are inclined towards philosophy of science/metaphysics, go to UWM or NIU. If you're really interested in political philosophy, go to GSU. Also, think about teaching and thesis requirements. GSU has a more serious thesis requirement, and it's my understanding that students often take three years to graduate. They also have very light duties for the first year, but pretty heavy teaching duties for the second year. UWM has a light thesis requirement, and (I believe) NIU doesn't have one at all.

@elger, I made a thread on this question a year ago, after I completed the first year of my MA, and had a few thoughts. See the link: As I mention in the linked thread, there are "hidden" costs involved in choosing an MA offer over a PhD offer. There are costs involved in terms of money that you'll spend (even if you're at a fully-funded MA), and in terms of the stress you'll feel/second-guessing you'll go through if you turn down a PhD offer for an MA offer (i.e., you may find yourself wondering whether you should have taken the PhD offer you had in hand and whether you'll do better). I meant to update my original thread, and will do so with a follow-up, but here's the gist: I do think doing the MA was worth it for me, and might be for you, depending on circumstances. I ended up at a better-ranked program, and one that is a better fit for me interests as they've crystallized these last several years. I do think whether choosing an MA over a PhD is worth it, in short, depends on how well-prepared you were the first time around (how good was your sample, how strong your letters, etc.), how much you think you can improve those components, and how hard you're willing to work at a second try. Just know there's a risk involved (you may not do any better), and it's not without cost.

McGill usually can afford to make only one international offer because non-Canadians are more expensive for the department. I don't know if @kakaz is Canadian or not, but if not, that's likely to be the only non-Canadian offer they make. McGill is just a very long shot for non-Canadians, unfortunately.

Unless you have significant family wealth on which you can draw, take the funded offer from SFU. Tufts isn't cheap, and Medford, Mass. is a high cost-of-living area. It's not worth it to go into debt for an MA in philosophy. Although there are no guarantees (even for Tufts!), if you're a strong student and you work hard, you'll likely do just fine coming out of SFU.

Waitlisted at Indiana, like others, also near the top.

Yeah, I think that this could be a potential issue, not just if you change AOIs, but in terms of getting a well-rounded philosophical education/getting exposure to other ideas/etc.

I looked around a bit more; the placement figure I quoted is for Western's placement 2012-2016. The overall permanent placement rate is 14%, the placement rate for PhD-granting institutions is 5%. Here's the source table.

Your post sounds like good advice to the OP, but I'm not so sure about the placement record. According to an analysis I saw of the APDA data, Western's overall placement rate is 14%, which is very poor relative to many other programs. I don't know about the placement record into MA and PhD-granting departments, but it's hard to imagine that that could be very high if their overall placement rate is so low.