HomoLudens

As an asshole myself, I think one should be able to freely post on the forum whatever BS self-pitying they want. People just need to keep it off of the survey.

I generally don't advocate for increased moderator activity since it typically violates the principles of free speech that online forums are founded upon. However, I do wish there was a way for some active members of the forum to delete those survey postings without having to go through GradCafe's process. Anonymity is a good thing IMO, but when it is in service of breaking the explicit rules and disrupting the function of the site, then something needs to be done.

I will be attending BU in the Fall! Has anyone else accepted a BU offer?

I am at a continental program now (They aren't accepting PhD apps this year). Without looking at your full application, it seems like you just got unlucky. Take this time to get more feedback on your sample and your SOP. Maybe take Stony Brooks' MA offer if you can afford it. There is nothing about your application that strikes me as an issue.

I don't really about Brian Leiter.

He is still its champion, though. He literally just updated his blog a couple of days ago with projections about rankings.

Please stop telling people that they should only attend a PGR T10 school. It is very clear that some people think that anything less then that will result in homelessness or something. Look at individual departments, with people that you like, and check the placements of students who worked with the people that you want to work with. Another word of advice, just do an MA out of Undergrad. Too many people don't know what academic philosophy is and how it works in a real department. An MA gives you a really good primer for the real thing at a PhD. I know too many smart people who did well in UG, got into a PhD in philosophy, and were shocked that it was competitive and that they had *gasp* submit papers for publication that were most likely going to be rejected. Grad school sucks. Even once you get in it is constant rejection, second guessing, and anxiety. The people who have it worse (this is anecdotal of course) are those straight out of UG and no MA.

I think a lot of you are focusing way too much on PGR rankings without really understanding what they are and how they should be used. These rankings are the result of a man (Brian Leiter) who's sole goal in life is to make academic philosophy into as toxic of a place as possible. PGR rankings serve to give 20 or so. academics at top ranking departments the chance to express their general opinion about other departments in the field. The rankings themselves don't really make much sense. How do you put a relevant quantitative number on something like a 7-year graduate program? You should never, ever, base your choice on PGR rankings. Use them as a general guide for what programs are considered quality by other academics, but nothing more. I have been accepted by a T50 school and waitlisted by a T10, a T20, and a T30 school. I went to a small liberal arts college that is fairly unknown, and I am finishing up a philosophy MA at an unranked school that does not have a strong reputation. It isn't impossible to get into PGR places without a pedigree. I am actually planning on attending the T50 school over the others because they have a really top scholar who works in my field. You should always attend places based on who you want to work with, not some BS ranking by dipshit Brian Leiter. I think we on this forum have put too much stock in a system that professors themselves don't think should be there. I wish Leiter would heed the calls to take that stupid ranking down.

Stop spamming the results page with questions FFS!

Also check out Loyola. Andrew Cutrofello is an amazing guy. I have interacted with him many times over the years, and he is an amazing resource for German Idealism and psychoanalysis stuff.

Stop spamming the results page with Princeton trolling!

Are you accepted at all these places? Honestly you can't really go wrong at any of these places. I have a friend who is at Emory now. He does Lacan mostly. They have great funding, and Atlanta seems like a cool city. They also have George Yancy for phil. of race. I don't really like Yancy, but if that is your thing he might be a good fit. I know a guy at PSU. He seems to like the program, but he says that there isn't a whole lot of interest in the history of philosophy among the grad students. I was waitlisted at Stony Brook. Their department seems ok, not really a good fit for me though. Emory or PSU are the two best options. I think PSU has the better placement rate, but living in State College PA sounds awful.

Considering how competitive most programs are in a normal year, I would imagine that the number of people who get shut out of grad school is pretty high. Can any of you stats whizzes make an educated guess as to what % of applicants don't get any offers?

Fair enough, my contact left the department quite a while ago and things might have changed. I am just giving a report.

I think I will remove myself from Bloomington's waitlist soon. Their department seems to be having a lot of problems. A friend of mine was ABD there and they completely fucked him over. His supervisor left the department, and no one was willing to take over for him due to infighting and department politics. They also seem to be lacking fresh blood on their faculty. Also, who wants to live in an Indiana cornfield for 6 years anyway?