Hello everyone! I wish I knew about this website before submitted all of my applications, but at least I have found it. I have been obsessively watching both the results feed and the forums here to see if anyone has heard back from schools I applied for. This morning I figured to join in on the fun.
I am finishing up my undergrad degree in philosophy (w/ a minor in astronomy) at the U. of Arizona, so if anyone has questions about the faculty here please feel free to ask. I did not apply to the U. of A mostly because I do not feel that my application would have been strong enough. I switched into the philosophy major around a year and a half into undergrad from astronomy/physics double major, and I immediately fell in love. Unfortunately, I think missing a year and a half to connect with faculty and take more courses in the end might make the difference between getting into a PhD program or not, even though I have a kick-ass writing sample, solid recs., and solid GRE scores. But I am not fretting! I think I have a great shot at getting into a terminal MA program and then applying from there. I think I will be much better off gaining an additional two years of study under my belt before embarking on a PhD.
Here are the programs I applied to: PhD: U. of Minnesota (rejected), UConn, Rochester, U. of Illinois at Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon. MA: Northern Illinois, Georgia State, and U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
After just reading through the forums I can already tell I have not done enough research into the schools which I want to apply to, but at least I am more knowledgeable when it comes to applying next time (whether from an MA or from all rejections).
AOI: Applied ethics, metaphysics (specifically free will), and philosophy education. During undergrad I have worked at the Center for Astronomy Education (funded by NASA), and have loved to see how methods in teaching undergraduate astronomy courses are formed through research. This is non-existent in philosophy, but I really think that doing research into the proper teaching methods of undergraduate philosophy courses is crucial (especially general education classes).
I'm done rambling. Good luck everyone and I'll see you around!
