Pythian

I doubt it will affect your chances. They will understand that if you are accepted at Brown, then it is in you will want to visit them over a waitlist opportunity. In your position, I would probably call them about the visit and tell them you want to come but cannot. Then either try to organize another time to visit, or come to the conclusion that you cannot visit and ask them if this will affect your chances of being pulled from the waitlist. I think a phone call will show you are interested an proactive, and at the end you get some some useful information or a new time to visit.

Rejected at U Mass Amherst and waitlisted at Ohio State this week. I think I may have been on a hidden waitlist at Ohio State, since I believe the waitlist decisions went out a long time ago. I still haven't heard by from 7 programs. I would solicit decisions, but does anyone ever get good news from that? I think I am going to wait and see if I get moved onto any official waitlists in April.

Going to be declining offers from NIU and Texas A&M this week. I was told I was high on the list for assistantships at NIU, so I hope this helps someone out. I will also be removing myself from the waitlists at Indiana, U Miami, and U Texas - Austin this week. I was high enough on the waitlist at Indiana to be offered to visit, so hopefully someone else gets that opportunity!

I am currently talking with my mentor about this very thing. I will probably be declining offers and taking myself off waitlists in the coming week. Hopefully this will lead to someone getting good news in the near future. Exactly which programs I am declining, I am not sure yet.

Thank you! I thought I was going to be in waitlist purgatory until April.

Just got accepted at UNC! Woo! Currently dancing in my room.

I applied for the MA program at TAMU, but the discontinued that and accepted me into the PhD. But, I don't think I am interested in the PhD given other offers. I would prefer NIU given either the tuition waiver or assistantship - I have also been told I am relatively high on the list. I would love to get off any of the waitlists, but I don't know how likely that is. I talked to USC over the phone, and I couldn't pin them down on anything. A waitlist seems similar to a deferred decision, so I put them in the same category as the schools I haven't heard back from.

I have this same feeling, even with my official waitlists. I seem to be amassing quite a number of them at places high up on my list. They all say, "we are very impressed by your application. I am sure you have many other offers - please keep in touch about your decision," and here I am sitting with only 1 acceptance with funding. You have 3 acceptances from good programs. You should feel proud! Getting an acceptance in the first round is impressive, and means you have a very competitive application. I am thinking the same thing. Really wanted the Rutgers waitlist (an acceptance would be miraculous) but doesn't look like its going to happen. I see you are in at NIU as well - if I get funding, there's a good chance I'll be seeing you there! Good news is, Rutgers has a lot of students who are graduates of NIU, so there's a second chance!

That's too bad. A 90 person hidden waitlist though? That's absurd. Shows how many qualified applicants there are though. I noticed you are presuming a Rutgers rejections. Is that based on any admissions data, or just an gut feeling? EDIT: Just checked the admissions doc - turns out Rutgers acceptances and waitlists have already gone out. I should've checked before I posted.

I see a lot of people with Notre Dame waitlists, and some new Notre Dame rejections. I still haven't received any information from them. Anyone got a inkling for why this might be the case? A hidden waitlist perhaps? I also haven't heard from Cornell yet. Not sure what to make of this either. Good news is, I got waitlisted at U Texas Austin!

Waitlisted at Indiana with an invitation to visit. Is inviting people high on the waitlist to visit a common practice?

I am not you, so I can't speak to your experience, but if having a job in academia is the only possible way for you to feel you are doing fulfilling work, then I would find that a little worrying if I were you. If anything, it seems to indicate a strong dependence on an institution that is impersonal and unreliable. Based on the wording of your statement, it is ambiguous as to whether you have actually been outside of the academy. Just like getting into a cool pool, the water is a lot warmer once you get used to it (and after you've been swimming around for a while, getting out of the pool seems like the cold part!) It might take a lot of work to find a meaningful job, but probably not as much work as graduate school. Not everyone reports their acceptances publicly. Perhaps there were a few more that are undisclosed, and the rest are going out tomorrow?

Hi @cjm720 ! I am a recent graduate of MSU's philosophy department. I can't say anything about how difficult it would be to get into the MA or PhD program, but I can answer any questions you have about faculty or the department in general. Seeing that you are going to law school, I am guessing that you want to practice law. If this is the case, I wouldn't worry too much about school reputation as it probably won't play that big of a role in your career. What matters is getting a good education, and MSU can provide that. Feel free to DM me if you any specific questions!

As someone hoping for your assistantship (assuming it's that, and not the tuition fee waiver), I say go for Tuffs! But my best advice would be to stick with NIU + funding. I applied to NIU because of the frequency I saw their graduates in programs like USC and Rutgers. I haven't crunched the numbers, but based on my observations its comparable to Tuffs' placement at those schools, if not better. The assistantship also comes with a stipend, so if you are frugal your living expenses are covered too.

Coming out of undergrad, I had a similar mindset as @ kurumetarou , but now being a year out of school, and working at a job that I enjoy, I feel I can approach my goals in academic philosophy more lucidly than I could have a year ago. Many students go into college right out of high school, and apply for grad school their senior year. For many people, their senior year at college is 16 unbroken years of being in the education system. It wouldn't surprise me if students experience something similar to stockholm syndrome. It's hard to look beyond academia if it has been the central structure of one's life.