Kantattheairport

(Happened to see on social media that at least one acceptance for the Oxford BPhil seems to have gone out. ) EDIT: Congratulations!

I think a couple of Canadian programmes have issued some decisions already, going by the Acceptances thread here. Just to be sure, these are Philosophy programmes you're applying to, yes? (Asking since it says under your profile that you're in Computer Science!)

Yay, latecomers to philosophy club! Congratulations on your acceptance, very nice to hear your story. Your areas of interest sound really fascinating as well; I started out reading 'continental' stuff before becoming interested in the analytic side of things. I've been meaning to go back and re-read some things though, and Foucault (and some Derrida) in particular! Hope the funding process goes smoothly for you. Ah yes, I can imagine the fees at LSE are very high - not to mention the cost of living in London! Back in the day I had applied to do an undergraduate degree there (not in philosophy) and even though I got an offer it was completely untenable because of the costs. I hope you get into one of the other two as well, then! My interests are in moral & political philosophy (plus some social metaphysics), the history of philosophy (including some non-'Western' stuff), and some philosophy of science (especially the philosophy of biology, and within that especially topics that bear upon social issues). The BPhil is my only UK application, but I applied to a bunch of places in the US; happy to give you a list in PMs if you like.

Thank you so much, and I'm very glad it lifted your spirits!

Somehow I was hoping this thread was about C. S. Peirce. (My intuition is that you needn't worry too much!)

Hello! I'm a fellow applicant for the BPhil, and right there with you on the 'not especially confident' boat! ? I see from your signature that you've had an offer at the LSE though; congratulations!

Hey, as someone who had similar luck last year and also pulled out of a Master's for financial reasons, I strongly empathize with this! A couple of notes on what I did, in case it's useful: pretty soon after the end of the cycle last year, I had a talk with my main Professor/advisor. We discussed what the strong points of my application might have been, and strategized about what might be done to improve it. This was incredibly helpful for me, as it gave me some basis to plan my year ahead. I was lucky enough that the work I was doing in the meantime was quite flexible, so I could devote some time to my sample, and to the applications when the time came. Like you say, my application this year isn't really radically different to last year's either (I don't really have any opportunities to interact with the academic philosophical community where I live, or to take more classes and so on). It was the same letter writers, same sample topic (though obviously I did a fair amount of work on the sample itself), and a similar CV and stuff. But the sample really is the component you have the most control over, so working on it is probably the best usage of your time anyway. And as I'm sure you've heard many times on here already, a sharp, well-written sample can override many other things about your application. A couple more things to consider: admission committees want to know that in the time you've spent outside of academic institutions, that you've been doing something to keep academically sharp. If this is something you can work into your job or daily routine - writing, editing, teaching, other intellectual activities - that's worth doing and mentioning. It's also important to mention this stuff to your letter-writers. At a minimum, your letter-writers should be able to say that you've been reading and otherwise preparing yourself for grad school (it might be worth telling them specifically that you have been, as it's relevant admissions information). Another thing is, if it's at all possible for you, you can try to audit local courses or attend summer programmes and so on. Thirdly, you should ask your letter writers to make mention of the fact that you got into those very good MA programmes this year, but were unable to attend for financial reasons (if this ends up being the case). That won't, of course, be news to those programmes themselves, but for other places, it will be an indication that you're being taken seriously and narrowly missed out in the previous year. The situation with your late letter-writer sounds pretty unfortunate. Have you had much contact with them since? Do you have alternatives? One thing you might consider is trying to establish a relationship with a philosopher you don't yet know, who might be able to write you a letter for next year. This isn't a very conventional route, but it's possible, and has been done. You might, for example, sent your sample to someone who's work you use in it, or who has done a lot of related work, and ask them if they might give you comments on it. If they respond favourably, you can explain your situation and ask if they might be in a position to write you a letter. This was a strategy that was suggested to me, though in the end I didn't end up having the time to utilize it. However, one of the applicants from last year, who, like you and I, hadn't had the opportunity to get to know philosophers very well while in college, did something like this, and got a letter from a very renowned professor at a top institution. Worth noting, of course, that I haven't yet gotten into programmes either, so it's not that what I did or have said is a surefire way to achieve success! But it's based on advice I've received, and has at least left me feeling quite positive about my chances. Hope some of this helps, good luck!

Woke up to find rejections from MIT, Notre Dame, and Berkeley. My plan is finally coming into fruition: soon, my list will be whittled down to a manageable number of remaining applications to think about! ? But warmly accepted into the Internet School of Poetic Persuasion. We were very impressed by your application, and in particular your nimble usage of the word 'nixed'. Below, please find campus visit dates.

Congrats to both, both very good choices!

Hello! So, someone's already said that most philosophy grad programmes are competitive, and there's another thread in this forum about how no school is really a safety school. I think this is basically right, and Penn, being a pretty-regarded programme, is likely going to be quite competitive. But I also want to add that the application process isn't just competitive, it's also unpredictable: that is to say, the likelihood of your getting into a programme doesn't necessarily have a direct correlation with how competitive or highly-ranked it is. There are a bunch of other things that come into play, including your areas of interest, the way you come across in your sample and SOP, what your letter-writers say about you, and just how lucky you are on a given day. All of these things, as I understand it, can have a significant impact on whether or not admissions committees think that you're a good 'fit' for the programme. Therefore, just knowing how competitive or well-ranked Penn is in a given year will give you maybe some indication, but probably not a very complete idea of your chances of getting in! As I see it, the upshot of this unpredictability is basically that the more places you apply to, the better your chances of getting in somewhere. So even if you have an extremely strong application, if getting into a philosophy programme is a high priority for you, it's probably best not to put all your eggs in one basket! That said, you should of course apply only to programmes you want to go to, and it sounds like you have very good reasons for wanting to go to Penn. But if you are able at all to widen your net, I'd advise you to do so.

Hey, I remember you from last year's cycle when we were on the MIT waitlist together! Congrats on a fantastic acceptance! Congrats, well-deserved! Congrats! Another great option for you. Congratulations! That's a number of big ones today. +1 (alas, I have run out of reactions today)

Applying to more programmes helps, but that's going to be true regardless of how many you apply to! So I think planning to apply to more in case you don't get in this year is a good plan; but also, it's not necessary to worry about the effects on this cycle. (My first cycle, last year, I applied to 8 PhD programmes and 2 MAs.)

Thank you so much! Yup, that's what mine looked like as well. I assume it was a standard email that was sent out - though to be fair, I also think it's probably pretty accurate as far as the university's position goes. The other waitlist emails I've received from other places in the past haven't been all that different (this one is much more optimistic than those other ones!).

Waitlisted at UW Madison. I was straight-up rejected last year, so feels like some progress is being made! Good luck!

1. Whether you're talking about your overall GPA or your philosophy GPA makes a big difference! 2. As other people have said, it can hurt your chances, but also other parts of your application can bring you back up. Sub-3.5 overall GPA, accepted last year at Tufts, waitlisted at GSU, MIT, NYU. I think if a component of your application bothers you, the best thing to do is to have a talk with your letter-writers and ask them about your chances. Not only will they probably know better whether or not you're a good fit for grad schools, they can also note in their letters that X component of your application does not reflect your full abilities, and so on.

In addition to the Carr, here's a recent retrospective roundtable on the question that might be of interest: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642529.2018.1528046?journalCode=rrhi20

That's definitely good news! I think that's the closest they'll get to admitting you're on a waitlist!

In terms of fit into a programme, I suspect you probably want to show that you understand and are able to work in a way that's compatible with the professors in this programme! So if 'geared towards analytic' means that there are one or two professors who work in the continental tradition and whose work is close to your own, then it might not hurt you too much. If there's nobody there who works in the continental tradition, then yes, it probably would hurt your chances (and it probably wouldn't make too much sense to go there if your interests are all firmly continential!). Partly, you also want to think about methods and what you're demonstrating what you can work with in your sample. My sample takes as its point of departure work in continental philosophy/critical theory/history, and then proceeds into analytic territory; it got me a Tufts acceptance last year, which I take to be a very analytic-y department. So just having analytic/continental references isn't the main thing, it's what you do with them that counts, I think!

Thanks so much! Perhaps you could set yourself for a reading or writing challenge? Read a paper every x days, write a paragraph a day, or similar.

Nice, congrats!

Congratulations!

If we're doing music for trying times, you guys might enjoy this bit of existential wobble from the Kit Fine Ensemble, featuring some serious disciplinary shade: Phi-lo-so-ophy It's not for me! I don't have what it takes, I'm not one of the greats... So I'll practice law, Make money galore! Make money, make money, And thi-i-ink no more. ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fNWeKL0was And which ends with the heartwarming message of 'be yourself!' Which I think is good to keep in mind during application season when everyone's a little worried about how they're presenting themselves. :)

Ooh, congratulations! A number of schools seem to be making decisions earlier this year, huh!

Congratulations to you too!

Also, to quickly note, I did indeed get my UMich rejection on the 9th of Feb last year, but I definitely heard of people getting acceptances several days before that (via Twitter)... maybe there was just a failure to report to TheGradCafe last year? EDIT: Actually, just checked the dates and, never mind, my memory was playing tricks on me!