akraticfanatic

FYI: In an informal poll in the facebook group in early September, 68% of respondents said they're planning on applying this year, and 18% said they will wait for next year or upcoming years.

Confirmed Stanford has cancelled.

Confirmed that MIT and Michigan have cancelled.

in my what?

Who did you write to, and how long has it been?

also good to ask about whether grad students are unionized and if so what benefits that gives you (e.g. dental insurance, childcare options, etc.)

Confirmed that Columbia has cancelled.

It was reported in the group that Princeton cancelled their visit. Given what's happening in California, I expect Stanford and the UCs will cancel if they haven't already.

As I've suggested before, if they've sent out acceptances, waitlists, and rejections, and you haven't heard anything, it's permissible to email them and solicit your status (but check spam folder and portals first to make sure you didn't miss something). Here's the template I used: "My name is [Firstname Lastname] and I'm a philosophy PhD applicant [include app number here if applicable]. I've heard from other applicants that some decisions have been released, and I'm hoping you can give me an update on my status or when I can expect to receive a decision. Thanks in advance for your time."

That is confusing! Everything is such a mess right now. I would definitely email them ASAP to see what's up.

No, I'm referring to the comment that stated, "BU canceled their visit."

It was just reported in the group that BU cancelled as well.

Thought it might be useful to have a list of the schools that have cancelled prospective student visit events due to the COVID-19 threat. The ones I know of from the fb group are Harvard, Rutgers, and UNC. It also looks likely that the NYC schools will announce cancellations soon (NYU, Columbia, CUNY, not sure about Cornell). So far it looks like business as usual at UMass and IU (the latter has their visit event this weekend). Please post here if you have more info about this!

My advice: - Apply to more than "a limited number" of schools. It's really competitive out there and if you're not currently in the field, you might not realize how much. Top schools get hundreds of applicants competing for around 6-10 spots. (Last year, out of Brandeis MA, I applied to 26 PGR-ranked PhD programs. I was accepted to 2 and waitlisted at 3.) - Apply to MA programs, if you can afford to go to a not-fully-funded program. Without a strong academic background in philosophy, this is your best bet. - If it's feasible, retake the GRE. It's not the biggest deal, but the 160 verbal score might be hurting you somewhat. - Make sure your sample lines up with your stated AOIs, and that it's appropriate in terms of scope and structure-- the best way to get a feel for this is to read others' successful samples (preferably read some within your subfield). It's great that you're getting feedback on your sample from advisors; it can also be a good idea to get feedback from peers who have more recent experience with the app process from the applicants' side. - Join the facebook group! It's more active than this forum, and there's a lot of info there. IME, it can help to be part of a group (virtually or otherwise) of peers who are going through or have recently been through the app process.

Update: Two acceptances were reported in the Facebook group. I don't know if all initial offers have gone out. I do know that last year they had both an official waitlist and a "hidden" waitlist.

If anyone's waiting on UMass, they should be sending out offers sometime between tomorrow and the following Friday

By staying in touch, I also had in mind things like attending prospective student visits if applicable, contacting faculty members you might like to work with, contacting grad students to ask questions about the department, and so on.

I would fill out the FAFSA if you're planning to attend any university in the US. (I'm in a PhD program at a state school and it's required by the university, not sure if this is universal.) But the due date isn't until June 20th, so you can wait until you know where you're going.

First off, it's great that he responded and was interested! I think Schwitzgebel et al are probably advocating against emailing profs for the SOLE purpose of helping you with admissions, because that's just disingenuous. The fact that this prof wrote a substantive response shows that he's taking you and your ideas seriously, so I would absolutely continue the conversation and send the draft if he's willing to look at it. I doubt it will affect admissions either way. That's just my two cents as a grad student-- It's also a good idea to get advice from your advisor/PI/favorite prof at current institution about this.

This was claimed in the fb group!

I wrote in legal epistemology last year. Have we talked about this before? If not you should message me!

Huh, I always do mine the fall semester prior, so I've already done mine for next year, while I haven't done my taxes for 2019 yet.

The FAFSA for the Fall 2020 to Spring 2021 academic year uses your tax info from the 2018 fiscal year, so I don't know if it will make a difference for you to file differently for 2019.

Here's a link to make it even easier! https://www.facebook.com/groups/383145905518561/

I don't know about UK programs specifically either, but prima facie I don't see why it would make a difference whether it's for credit, since it's the proficiency that matters. Also hello fellow akratic