whatamidoinghere

Ugh this sounds really frustrating. I wonder what that person is thinking about.

No just risky, but also really misguided. The ranking of your program can be a bolster and make getting a job easier, but as far as developing yourself as an academic it just isn't enough. Being a successful academic really depends a lot on yourself as a scholar: pushing yourself, networking, reading everything ever and luck. Don't get wrapped up in the game of try to get the most prestigious name on your C.V., and instead just focus on your own development as a philosopher. You can do that nearly anywhere. Sometimes it would even be easier at a lower ranked school with faculty that have more time to give you more attention. 
 
It would be different if you didn't *click* with any of the professors, the campus, the students, etc. and just didn't feel right about the schools you got into. But a good placement record doesn't guarentee a job, and your much better off focusing on being maleable in the market and just being a good all-around academic. 
This is all just my opinion though, of course.
 
 
Edit: Oh and I just want to say that sometimes students that are stellar applicants as BA applicants dont do as well in the MA applicant pile. It is more rare to be a crazily dedicated and focused BA student than an MA one. 

When Ong, who is Asian-American, brought up the topic of American imperialism, Searle responded “American imperialism? Oh boy, that sounds great, honey! Let’s go to bed and do that right now!” the complaint states.
 
This is TRULY DISGUSTING. But apparently, Searle has a sexual assault history and Berkeley has a history tolerating his misconduct. 

When Ong, who is Asian-American, brought up the topic of American imperialism, Searle responded “American imperialism? Oh boy, that sounds great, honey! Let’s go to bed and do that right now!” the complaint states.
 
This is TRULY DISGUSTING. But apparently, Searle has a sexual assault history and Berkeley has a history tolerating his misconduct. 

When Ong, who is Asian-American, brought up the topic of American imperialism, Searle responded “American imperialism? Oh boy, that sounds great, honey! Let’s go to bed and do that right now!” the complaint states.
 
This is TRULY DISGUSTING. But apparently, Searle has a sexual assault history and Berkeley has a history tolerating his misconduct. 

I feel it's my duty to share this article with anyone who has been admitted to UC-Berkeley (or might be admitted off the waitlist). Not gonna comment beyond that since this article is my only familiarity with the situation:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/famous-philosophy-professor-accused-sexual-harassment?utm_term=.lj4Y5eXnk#.sfWdE3b15

Just declined Tufts with a huge amount of scholarship.
Good luck!

this whole hidden waitlist thing is stupid, I don't get it. 

this whole hidden waitlist thing is stupid, I don't get it. 

Their goal in these meetings is to court you and convince you to come to their department. This is true even if you have no other options and even if they know you have no other options. They are by no means interviewing you. If anything, you're interviewing them. It might be a bit of an overstatement to say you can do *no* wrong, but it's not that much of an overstatement. Nobody is going into these meetings with the mindset of making sure they didn't make a mistake on you, or trying to test your knowledge base. That said, philosophers in general can be pretty socially awkward, so don't be too surprised or discouraged if you don't get much more than "so, what do you want to talk about?" from some of them.

Maybe the most useful question I asked professors was: so, what sorts of projects are your graduate students working on? This is a good question because it can give you a picture of the sorts of projects you could work on with that professor, and allows you to have a conversation with them about those sorts of projects without having to pretend like you already know what your dissertation project is going to be. I like asking this more than asking what that professor is working on, since some professors advise some dissertations on topics they've never published on, so it can give you a more full sense of their areas of interest than asking about their own work would. It's also useful because some professors only advise projects that perfectly line up with their interests, and that's good to know. 

I have no clue. I provided like five to the first department I visited, and two of them were unavailable so that still didn't wind up being enough -_-... But yeah, I would still probably say about five is reasonable?

Accepted into Tufts!

Accepted into Tufts!