Vivec

Rejections rolling out from University of Pennsylvania. Letter was nice, at least.

If you like Heidegger and Nietzsche, you'll probably really enjoy what the department has to offer. Professor Rayman does a lot of neat work w/ Nietzsche, and Professor Braver is particularly focused on Heidegger and continental thought writ-large. Metaphysics and epistemology are big topics, though due to the composition of the faculty, I'd say we have a continental slant with metaphysics/ethics, and an analytic slant with our work in epistemology, due in part to faculty composition. We've also got an incredible talent in Professor Ariew for early modern history of philosophy. Fun anecdote about our epistemology stuff - I had a chance to take what is probably the best capstone course ever: "On Truth and Bullshit", and it lived up to its name. The city is...pretty great actually (minus the heat). While I was growing up here I literally never thought I'd say that, but it's come into its own. The area around campus on the other hand is less than fantastic, but once you spend some time around it, it's not too bad. Also, if you're not a hockey fan yet, you'll probably wind up becoming one if you stay too long - it's pretty much the only sport we have left. Oh, and go to Tampa theater at some point. Definitely the coolest cinema in the southeast. They show cheesy 80's movies and cult classics pretty often - I actually caught a showing of David Lynch's Dune about a month ago.

Congratulations on getting accepted to USF! I've had the pleasure of taking some of their cross-listed courses as an undergrad and found them to be very rewarding. If you do decide to go with USF, feel free to ask me if you have any general questions about the city/area.

At that point they're just making one giant, over-glorified waitlist with all the applicants on it.

What do you think is the best way to go about soliciting application feedback from departments? I was wondering how best to reach out to universities in order to minimize the intrusion and maximize the possibility of getting useful information. (e.g., do you consider it better to write directly to the department, or instead to the graduate admissions office? Do you have opinions as to the best time to ask for feedback? etc, etc.) At this point I'm planning on a second admissions cycle, and even if I get accepted somewhere last minute, I'd like to open the discussion for any lurkers who may be facing a shutout in the next few weeks.

Well said. I'm getting neatly flogged this season, but I do feel like I've discovered countless ways to improve for the next attempt - and how to better size up programs in terms of fit and faculty. With all of that said, tomorrow never knows! I, personally, am counting on the possibility that a hung-over Columbia acceptance committee mistakenly admits me instead of someone talented and driven.

Same, just got mine too.

If you don't mind me asking, could you go into a little more detail about the interview? I was under the impression when applying that interviews for Philosophy PhD's were somewhat uncommon, if not outright rare.

UChicago just started sending out the conciliatory 'recommended for MAPH' emails. Better than nothing I suppose - and no hard feelings; wishing all the best to those who got in this cycle!

"Even without the applications from 4 weeks ago, I still think man would be a creature that fears the email refresh"

Political implications of Heidegger's attributes of Dasein. I.E. how the Authentic-Inauthentic axis gives way to a 'preferable' political position, and the sorts of challenges this produces. I also included a second (auxiliary) sample in some applications from my political science work, talking about International Law and National Populism.

This might as well be the national past-time of February. Hang in there!

It's funny (and great) seeing the subgroup of hopeful philosophers that looks so similar to myself. Echoing some of the posters in this thread, I love how diverse the research interests are. I was also a double major Phi/Polisci, and my main area of focus was actually anti-rationalism, political identity, and political violence. To oversimplify, I am interested in the questions "How do we form political identities if we must bridge given cultural characteristics alongside more deliberated values" and "To what extent is our preference for certain political values malleable in response to facts in the world?" The end goal would be discussing how best to safeguard human liberty and dignity in an increasingly dissolute political reality. The main thinkers I interacted with for my work in philosophy were Heidegger and Arendt, and I used a modified version of my thesis on Heidegger as my writing sample. (The thesis discussed Heidegger's Dasein concept and argued that it contained an authentic-inauthentic axis that could give way to a political position). I also spend a decent amount of time reading and discussing Military Ethics, which I find particularly rewarding. I applied to a mess of programs in both Political Philosophy and Political Theory (ultimately leaning much more towards philosophy),from a perspective that I started an academic hybrid, and a hybrid I will likely remain. I was very open about my mixed interests to all programs I applied to, and in any Phi program that allows it, I hope to pick up an M.A. in polisci along the way. My 'dream' program is Brown. I'm optimistic...in the way that I'm sure it won't hurt too bad when I get rejected. I have pretty good GRE scores (98th percentile in verbal and AW), but I come from a mediocre large school in the southern US, and I know that'll count against me somewhat. Philosophy Programs: Harvard (lol), Columbia (also lol), Brown, Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, UNC Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt Political Science Programs (All Theory track): Harvard, Michigan, Cornell, University of Virginia To answer OP's question about exciting trends: I would say the emerging ideological adaptations to globalization. There's so much going on at the very bedrock level of individual political identities and we're looking at one of the most exciting (maybe even vertigo-inducing) times of political development in history. Also, to the OP and everyone in this thread, best of luck on the applications! I have no idea what I'm doing with all of this, and I'm not afraid to admit it, so let that give you some confidence!