SexandtheHaecceity

I appreciate the replies, and its exactly why I was asking. I suspect the tuition paid by MAPH students is a subsidy for PhD students and I consider taking on substantial debt for an MA to be financial suicide, unless somehow the placement record was so good that it was practically a guarantee of admission to a top program. The only MAs I bothered applying to are funded and have good track records of placement. I only bothered asking in the first place because I've read multiple accounts of people who thought the program was worth it for them and I want to square how that might be possible given the staggering price. The only way that makes sense to me is if they were attending at heavy discount or if they were attending with a big fat savings account.

If and when I get rejected for PhD and referred to MAPH, any hope at money? And any insight on how that money gets distributed?

Three in (pending my other two professors submitting their LoRs), 10 to go. Rereading my sample paper and the small edits to suit my SOP are becing maddening.

Built mine from scratch since my undergrad papers were utterly irrelevant to my intended study. Three months in total. Pushed out the first, 16 page draft after about 4 weeks of reading, writing, and developing the contours of my argument. Spent another 7 weeks editing, fleshing out, revising through what amounted to about 6 substantively different drafts, ending in a 20 pager not counting the bibliography. All in all, I've probably sunk about 80-100 hours in this thing.

Hey guys, just a quick question. There are a few classes outside of the philosophy department where I did substantive work in philosophy. One of them should very obviously be counted as it was taught by a philosophy professor and even contains "philosophy of" in the title. The other two might be more borderline, but one was entirely a political theory class where we read Enlightenment political philosophers, and the other spent several weeks reading and writing about Foucault. In what element of my application should I be letting adcomms know to count or consider counting these classes?

Checking in! Stats: 3.8 UGPA, 3.9 in philosophy. Taking the GRE next week, BA in Philosophy and Pol Sci from an unranked school. I'm 5+ years removed from undergrad in a primarily analytic department. My sample paper is a critique of a Deleuze scholar's book, which I do via Deleuze and Nietzsche. Wanna study Deleuze's politics and metaphysics, Spinoza, Nietzsche, in conjunction with contemporary continental philosophy. I'm applying to some Ivies, Duquesne, DePaul, Vandy, Memphis, Purdue, BC, BU, Northwestern, U of Chicago, Stony Brook, Fordham, CSULA's MA program, a couple places in the UK, U of Leuven, Lille and a few other schools in France.

Certainly worth considering. Unfortunately, I live a little over 2000 miles from my undergrad institution, so it's a little bit far for me to just stop by after work. I would certainly consider going by next time I visit home, but I'm not quite certain when that will be. Perhaps I could email some old professors and try to get an honest opinion as to whether they would be willing to write one for me? Yes. I'm looking to study primarily, but not exclusively, Deleuze and contemporary figures influenced by Deleuze. This makes my application range fairly narrow. I plan on applying pretty much everywhere I could feasibly do that if they have an M.A. or a funded PhD program. My big projects will be to produce a paper about Deleuze and take the GRE over the next few months. I'm a little concerned about not having a professor that would feel comfortable giving me critiques and advice, but I think I can compensate by getting into contact with some people I'm friendly with that know Deleuze a bit better.

Hey all, first post as I start gearing up to apply this year. Some necessary background: I am five years removed from undergrad. I graduated Magna with a double major in philosophy and political science at a state school, with good but not phenomenal grades in my phil department. I initially planned on going to law school, scored well enough on the LSAT for Top 6 programs, but spurned them because a life in law sounded miserable. Since then, I've been teaching the LSAT professionally, but I've decided it's time to go back to school. My initial plan is to apply for PhD as well as terminal M.A. programs, using the latter to build up my application to the former if my options aren't good enough. My first obstacles: 1. Letters of Rec - I have one former professor who is gracious enough to have offered to write me a letter unprompted. I'm confident this one will be strong, as we have had past conversations about my reentering academia, and I took the most classes with him. After that, I fear my gap will make it hard, if not impossible to get the letters of rec I would require. And even if they did, I sincerely doubt their opinions, positive or negative, would be indicative of my philosophical acumen I've acquired in self-study I've done over the past five years. I worry I couldn't even get a "professional" letter. I work for a company, but my teaching is done away from immediate supervision and I see my bosses like once per year. My performance as a teacher is excellent, and I have internal data to back that up, but I wouldn't expect any of my bosses to actually say anything substantive beyond "he's a good teacher". Does anyone have advice on how to address this? 2. Change in interest - my undergraduate institution was very, very analytic. I took a diverse body of classes and I can count the number of readings I ever did in the department on a continental figure on one hand with life-altering amputations. And though I've retained a certain analytic sensibility, my passion is almost exclusively figures of, and downstream from, continental philosophers. Not that I'm looking to rigidly wall myself off from analytic and gap-bridging philosophers, but the catalyst for me posting here today was picking up Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari three years ago, which is a far cry from my undergrad curriculum. My worry is that it doesn't make sense for me to submit a paper from my undergrad career, given that I'm a much better reader with a very different focus than I had in undergrad. For those that have reentered a philosophy program after a gap or did so with a significant departure in interest, how did you deal with a sample paper? I'm certain that I can clearly explain why I'm a good candidate, produce good work, and stick with the program. But I am looking to resolve these issues so I can do so with minimal hiccups along the way. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I would appreciate any advice you may have for me.