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Similar to that, the program to which I've been accepted said they would nominate me for a fellowship. Then the three other people reported acceptances and also the fellowship nominations. It's like, "How many fellowship nominations can you have?" Ha!

This is definitely my philosophy. If it's that hard to get something so simple, it's not a good fit for me. Although you were hyped and can understand the disappointment, look at it as a very visible look into the disorganization of the department and school. I'd move on and not look back.

After getting a very early acceptance I asked a professor what to do since I'm still waiting on two schools that I see more favorable. He told me to be honest with them and let them know that there are two other programs which I find at least as attractive as them. I did also note to them that the fellowship they were nominating me for was going to be a large factor in my choice, both as a way to say thank you and also to make them try a little harder on my nomination form ("If you really want me to go there, getting me that Fellowship will go a long way.") . They were very gracious in their response and have been very helpful for any forms and questions and whatnot.

There's still three to go. No harm in holding on to hope til you hear back. That said, if this is the second year and you are again rejected by every program (10+), that makes me very suspect of the strength of your letters. It could be that your letters aren't from the right kinds of programs, have the expertise the admissions group is looking for, aren't well written, or one or more say something disparaging about you. I've certainly heard of rumors where a letter writer you thought was going to give you a recommendation actually turns out to do the opposite. If you are summarily rejected again, I would suggest one or both of these two things: 1. find new programs to which to apply, and/or 2. find new letter writers. A third recommendation would be, in the interim, to work on building your resume, as a person above recommended. I graduated in 2006 with my Bachelors, immediately tried a couple completely boring Masters programs, stopped them, and then didn't go back until Fall 2016. Next year I'll be entering a PhD program. I have little doubt that, had I tried to do the same after my Bachelors, I wouldn't be where I am today. I'm not entirely happy with where I am, but it has allowed a means to the end that I do want. Again, as the person above said, life -- and not every path -- is linear. Keep your head up, regroup, and find new opportunities. You can continue working toward your end-goal while doing something less enthralling. It isn't fun, but sometimes it is necessary. Good luck!

From what I understand, it really isn't all that important, and is only used [in most departments] as a secondary or tertiary score, and sometimes in consideration for requirements for Fellowships and the like. I see plenty of [self-reported] perfect scores and perfect GPAs on here, yet many of them received rejections. Goes to show that even with top scores, there are other things far more important. If I had to take a guess, I'd bet it's a combination of 1. conference/publication/research track record, 2. writing sample, and 3. letters, not necessarily in that order. For the record, I too was very worried about my GRE scores. I'm a bit "later in life" and hadn't had a math class in somewhere around 14 years, and math was never my strong suit, with my highest college-level math class being regular ole Algebra I. But thanks to that 5 lb book of GRE questions, which showed the methodology behind the solution of each question, I was able to find some patterns and memorize basic equations. I was happy enough that I scored a 153 quant (51st%) and called it a day. Similarly, I too was a bit confused that departments don't care more about the AW since it seems, in my opinion, to be the thing most applicable to philosophy (with a close second being verbal reasoning). But I think many departments see that a writing sample is far more indicative of an applicant's philosophical ability to understand an issue or problem, construct a solution, argue for it well, recognize and dispel objections, and do all of that in a way that's clearly organized. That's my suspicion, at least.

That was quick.

I wouldn’t read too much into it. From what I’ve learned, many programs send out initial and early offers to entice students they really, really want to attract, especially if it’s bumping up to the application deadline for a fellowship for which they’d like to nominate the applicant. This sometimes means reaching out to an early applicant before the deadline.

I would strongly recommend University of Missouri-St. Louis. It's one of the top terminal MA programs according to Leiter, and they have $10k stipends for MA students, which is quite competitive. Graduates have gone on to Rutgers, UCLA, ANU, WUSTL, and others. The program specializes in mind, medieval, ethics, and epistemology, and it's also a good generalist department, too. If you're interested I can get you in touch with the Director and Chair personally.

My writing sample was a paper expanding and clarifying a theory of delusions that implicates metacognition. One acceptance so far; waiting on three others; one international program strongly encouraged me to apply, but as it might not involve tuition or stipend, it'll be my backup-to-my-backup. I see at least one person has received an acceptance to another program to which I applied, so now I'm just playing the same waiting game as everyone else.