coffeepls

For the benefit of others, please decline as many acceptances as you can as soon as possible. It will help decrease the odds that people who are waiting to hear back from a school they were waitlisted at from being put in a bad position on April 15th.
(Why am I posting this despite being shut out? I know some people IRL who weren't, so I'm still witnessing this process play out)

Yup, I do mean Seattle.  My AOI's are Egalitarianism, Structural Oppression, and Philosophy of Language as it relates to politics, oppression, and power.  What are your's? 

Yes, but there's only one UW - Yoo Dub!

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One of my favourites:
How many speech act theorists does it take to change a light bulb?
*Do you really want to know or are you simply asking me to change it?*

I bought this book (Philosophy for Graduate Students) after seeing someone recommend it on here and I really like it! It just gives an overview of significant areas/concepts so it helps orient you to the general trend of discussions of a particular topic.

Nice, sounds like you'll be a good fit there. And I'll be starting my PhD in the Fall.
Piece of advice in SF - TEACH. You'll have the opportunity to teach a few sections of critical thinking or intro applied ethics/social phil/phil art classes if you have the time. That, imo, is a main part in what makes that program great. I can't stress how important that is for your own philosophical well-being.
Also, you'll have the opportunity to take upper-level lecture courses in lieu of grad seminars in some cases, and I'd personally recommend against that. Fill your course load (2-3 classes per semester) with the graduate seminars (unless you've got pre-recs to cover, obviously). You'll not only get a better, more hands-on approach to the subject matter, but you'll be writing papers that might a.) turn into your MA thesis b.) turn into your writing sample c.) flesh out your AOCs d.) give you excuses to go present at conferences and network with other graduate students (essential for when you jump into applying for PhD programs!). Many times all of the above is what occurs. Finally, if you find that your area you really like isn't being taught that semester, feel free to ask for personal study projects for credit. Also, TA-ing is a good way to establish a report with professors you might want on your thesis committee that you haven't had a chance to take a course with (two years goes by fast).
Ok, stepping off the soapbox now. Again, good luck, and congratulations. Most bars in SF are cash only and the ATM fees are a kick in the dick, so heads up on that.

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(I'm pretty sure all this information can be found somewhere in the forum, but I guess a summary could be helpful.)
I've accepted NYU's offer.
I've declined offers from Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan, UCLA, Toronto, Yale, Pittsburgh, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford (BPhil), USC, Rutgers, U-Conn and UT-Austin. I've taken myself off the following waitlists: MIT, Columbia, CUNY and UNC.

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I like this one. Succinctly sums up what most of the posting here is all about. And warns new people what they're getting into. 

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I don't believe so; I haven't heard anything from them. It sure is getting late. 

Deplorable.

Looks like you forgot what is alleged to be the most important component of an application: the writing sample. Where does that fit into your theory?

Hi, I just wanted to say that I was only admitted to one PhD program (though I applied to far fewer than you did, but I also think that PhD admissions were less competitive when I was doing them), and recently received tenure at an R1, Phd-granting department. Don't worry! No one remembers or cares who did what and while sometimes getting in everywhere tracks later success, that's also often not the case. (If anything, you just should consider yourself as having better practice at the constant rejection that you will receive from now on, from journals, jobs, etc.)

Thanks for the replied above. That is actually what I am doing now.
Speaking of being professional on the department's side, I hesitated to add this to my previous post, but it happens again today and I feel very upset about that. During the application cycle, I got emails from professors in which my name on the top was misspelled--they mess up the first letter of my family and my first name.(By the way, my name is something like A*** B**. It is short and simple, not that difficult to make it right) This happens for three times. OK, it is still understandable, for some documents put the family name before the first name and that may leave people the wrong impression of my name. .
But I also got emails which were not supposed to send to me, since I saw another accepted person's name on the top of the email. (And these emails were sent by professors, not the program coordinator. And they are all top programs) Although this professor later apologized to me and said that this email was supposed to send to me, I knew that it wasn't--since this professor mentioned that there are good people doing area A in the department while I am sure that I never wrote anything about area A on my SoP. It is still understandable when it happens only once. Unfortunately it happens again. At that point, I realized that probably they forgot to change the name when they copied and pasted the email content before they sent to me. I fully understand that it is impossible for the professor to write different emails to different accepted students, but at least they should double-check whether the name is correct before they send it. And I think this is the sort of thing which might make some applicants feel dissappointed (or not repected).
Anyway, I still replied all these emails politely, and I tried to be understandable. The reason is that, just like what lurkingfaculty said, we are not in a position to do disrespectful things to the professors. Of course, some of these professors apologized for making my name wrong, but some didn't.

Accepted to Tulane! 

Considering we're at the midway point of the semester, maybe it's a better time to have a 1:1 with your professor and plan out how you can still achieve an A or A- instead of planning on how you'll explain away a B+ in a year.
That said, unless the class is in your AOI, I don't think it will hurt that much.  Heck, I had a C+ in an undergraduate philosophy course, and I still got into MA and PhD programs.  (In my defense, it was my first philosophy class, at the time I was a bio major, and I have a problem remembering/differentiating some names, especially foreign ones -- it was Islamic Philosophy.  I was very active in the class and department, and the same Prof later wrote one of my letters.)  One Prof I spoke to said getting straight As can throw up a red flag, that it wasn't challenging enough.  I tend to agree, and I think that may be one reason we see so many candidates drop out after the coursework is complete: these are good students, but perhaps not as good researchers, and to earn your PhD you truly need to excel at both.