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No matter how strongly you expect an unwanted outcome, when it actually happens it feels different. That scintilla of hope you had, is just gone. That, and I guess in philosophy we're all beggars. There are very few coveted spots and a lot of smart people who want them.

Given it's Oxford, you should probably expect it to be more difficult to get accepted than it'd be elsewhere (Tufts, SFU, Brandeis, and so on). Also, it's worth noting that I'm pretty certain that Oxford's admissions process (both at the undergraduate and graduate levels) is wholly merit based. Personal factors, diversity considerations, etc., to my knowledge, don't factor into the admissions process, and it's likely this will be made explicit by Oxford when you're potentially filling out your app (this is something on which they pride themselves). They would, in my understanding, be completely willing to accept someone who did well at Oxford as an undergraduate into the BPhil. They probably have a good chunk of people applying each year who went to Ivy League schools and competed degrees in philosophy or related fields as well. Since you did your undergrad at NYU, you should at least be a plausible applicant to the program, though. However, I believe funding for the BPhil is hard to come by, so if you don't come from a wealthy background that could be problematic.

Hoping Rutgers sends out rejections today.

I'm going to strongly consider doing an MA. I went to an undergrad without a good reputation for strong academics or selectivity, so it'd probably help. I'm in the same boat as you, in that if I'm not offered a funded MA slot somewhere, I will probably just move on and do something else. I wouldn't want to go through this process again without a credential that would greatly increase my competitiveness.

Yeah, that's what I figured, but I think I'd almost prefer that departments take the JHU route and just say "your app was denied." Straight to the point! I'm probably also shut-out.

What does that even mean??

Interesting. Thanks for the information. I don't imagine it's likely that I was one of their better applicants, but for some reason I'm still holding on to my last bit of hope. If they continue last year's timeline rejections may go out on Thursday.

Do you have any knowledge of anyone's being waitlisted by UMich yet?

Though you didn't say anything that would disagree with this, I suspect the datum relevant to graduate admissions in philosophy is how well regarded a school is in a very general sense. Surely a Swarthmore graduate would be perceived much more favorably than someone from Cal State LA, though, yes, I agree that a Cal State LA student could compensate some for a lack of prestige by taking graduate-level courses. Being able to get into a selective school for your undergraduate degree, the thought goes, says something about your suitability for top graduate programs. This is why I suspect a Swarthmore or Williams College graduate would be very unlikely to be negatively affected by a lack of prestige, and, as you say, would probably be interpreted similarly to someone from NYU (although NYU is very well regarded for philosophy and has some famous professors, which might provide a slight edge to someone with no history of graduate coursework if those professors were among their recommenders). I take it that the suggestion to take graduate-level courses is more relevant for people from schools like UC Riverside, which is outside of the top 100 of US News but ranked in the PGR, and Cal State LA in that someone from those schools could add a lot to their app by taking those courses. Someone coming from one of those schools, though, with no history of graduate-level work, would be worse off, ceteris paribus, than someone from an elite school (say, ranked in the top 50 by US News in its national or liberal arts rankings).

With respect, I doubt anyone's ever claimed that you can't get into top programs from an, as you call it, "unranked" (not sure what you mean by that - PGR unranked or something else) undergrad - just that it's quite unlikely. And a school's being PGR unranked doesn't necessarily say anything about its overall prestige - see, for example, Dartmouth, Williams College, Swarthmore, and so on. They are rather prestigious schools, yet they're not PGR ranked. Since you never introduced yourself to the forum and haven't really posted any personal information thus far, one can only speculate, but my suspicion is that you're not coming from a school as unprestigious as the ones from which other unsuccessful applicants have originated and may (for whatever reason) have strong reasons to believe your dossier is unusually strong (a 170 V can't hurt, but perhaps there's something else that's good about your dossier you'd rather not mention for anonymity's sake, like a double major in neuroscience or something). I would certainly be interested in knowing at least a rough sense of the ranking (e.g. "it's in the 80-90 range of US News' national rankings") of the school to which you went for undergrad. Congratulations on your success, but I would certainly be skeptical of your n=1 meaning much without more information about your background.

Lack of pedigree, my writing sample, or maybe something else that it'd be impossible to know. I suspect many of the better applicants have engaged in more CV-building activities than I have too.

11 PhD programs, all of which were Leiter ranked. Only one was outside of the T25. I was probably way too ambitious given I didn't go to a well-regarded undergrad and didn't have a great quantitative score. But my sights were set on being a research-oriented professor of philosophy. Apparently I'm not cut out for that. My writing sample came together late, and I probably could've gotten more feedback. Yet I would still be somewhat skeptical of the possibility of a new writing sample (after a terminal MA program probably) being that much better than the one I used this time. It's very disheartening. I guess I might finish my application to the University of Houston, even though that wouldn't be a sure thing. I feel reluctant to pursue a master's degree since I suspect that could drag the PhD process out to 7-8 years if you include the terminal MA in the total time spent pursuing the PhD (that's assuming an eventual acceptance - something of which I feel skeptical given my slew of rejections this cycle). I've been considering other career options pretty seriously.

Tried calling Indiana for Dialectica and others - but no one picked up the phone.

Rejected from Oxford's BPhil program (implied given the recent posts in the results section). Waiting on confirmation of my implied rejections from JHU, Michigan, UCSD, and Notre Dame. Tempting to call, but I guess I'll wait and see if I don't get anything by the 15th. It's looking like a shut-out for me in PhD admissions.

Interesting projection of the time it'd take to become a tenured professor of philosophy (or perhaps tenure track). Sadly, that probably is fairly realistic. I'm pretty sure NYU and UVA have the strongest programs. They're both T14 law schools too. Georgia State also appears to have a program. Where you're able to go will depend on your LSAT score. Alternatively, you could just do an MA in philosophy somewhere, and try to get funding for it, and then do your JD.