Jump to content

brookspn

Members
  • Posts

    27
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by brookspn

  1. I did an MA at Texas Tech and would whole-heartedly recommend it. It's a great place.
  2. I've just finished the terminal MA at Texas Tech University, and I can't say enough good things about it (I'm going to Rutgers in the fall. I certainly wouldn't be if not for the program here). If you have any questions, feel free to message me.
  3. I'm going to read some books by my soon to be professors to familiarize myself with their work. Otherwise, I'm just going to take it easy. Regarding workload, I think one has to find one's own balance. I don't mind my work-life balance skewing towards work, but even so, I still have plenty of time to have beers with colleagues, play video games, or just relax. I'm sure you'll figure out what works best for you.
  4. Admitted off the waitlist to Rutgers. I've accepted the offer.
  5. I'm not sure whether one's MA AOI really matters–I don't have a strong intuition about this. I do, however, think that it would be weird to say in your SoP that your interest is in x while your sample paper is on ~x. It would be weird, also, to express a (primary) interest in y in your SoP, or to use a sample paper in y, to apply to a program at which no one works on y.
  6. Declined UT Austin and removed myself from the waiting list at Stanford.
  7. Idk, it seems to me that the nature of our job is such that thinking really hard about x counts as working. I'd say at least 30% (probably more) of my reading and writing time is spent either thinking carefully about what I've just read or considering what I am about to write. And why wouldn't talking to one's friends about philosophy count as work? Again, it seems to me that this is part of the job.
  8. Right. So I think we might be talking past one another, @hector549. When I say 70 hours, that's inclusive of time spent in seminar and time spent on TA responsibilities (roughly 20 hrs/wk total). The remaining 50 hrs/wk is spent on reading and writing. To me, these represent different kinds of work. If these are different kinds of work, then I agree with your 50 hrs/wk number–it would be quite a lot, maybe too much, to spend 20 hrs/wk on classes and TA-ing + 70 hrs/wk on reading and writing. If these aren't different kinds of of work, then your view would suggest that I should spend only 30 hrs/wk on reading and writing. This is the claim I was disagreeing with since, as @Prose said, I have things I want to accomplish that cannot be accomplished by working that few hours. I also disagree that work/life balance is at all important, but, as I've already mentioned, I'm a bit mad!
  9. So, there seem to be two kinds of answers here. On the one hand, there are answers which put a high value on work/life balance, e.g., @hector549. On the other, there are those which do not put a high value on work/life balance, e.g., me, @Prose, and @The_Last_Thylacine. I think one ought to use whichever method works best for one. Still, as long as there are people in the latter camp (and there always will be), it seems that those in the former camp will be at a disadvantage. Maybe they'll have better lives in some sense, but it's unlikely they'll be as productive philosophically.* I mean, even super-genius philosophers like Wittgenstein, Quine, and Lewis (to name a few) were famously hard workers. * I should add that, for me, being maximally productive at the thing I've chosen to pursue (e.g., philosophy) is a good life.
  10. Exactly this. It's no different than becoming excellent at anything else, e.g., guitar, dance, painting, writing, etc. I don't think any of the greats in these and other areas were primarily concerned with striking a healthy work/life balance.
  11. I don't entirely disagree @hector549 (I was mostly being glib with the time breakdown). Look, I'm not saying that working 70 hours per week is in any sense required to be good at philosophy. What I am saying is that I do spend that much time (as does @Prose), and spending that amount of time works just fine for me. Then again, I'm super-obsessive, I don't have an off-switch, and I generally like working on philosophy and prefer doing it to the exclusion of most other things. But I understand that not everyone is like this (nor do they need to be).
  12. I mean, there are 168 hours in a week. Even if you work 70 hrs/wk, you can still sleep 8 hrs/night AND have 42 hrs/wk to just do whatever.
  13. This is the info is the APA: https://www.apaonline.org/page/aid_offers
  14. I'm an MA student, too. In my first year, I took four classes both semesters and had discussion sections for my TA course. So I spent 12hrs/wk in classes + 8hrs/wk on TA duties. I'd say I spent another 40-50hrs/wk on course work (reading and writing). That totals to 60-70hrs/wk. I only took three classes fall semester of my second year, but I spent the extra time preparing my PhD application. So I was still at about 60-70hrs/wk (maybe more). This semester (my last one!) I've had significantly less motivation, but I'd imagine I'm still putting in 40-50hrs/wk. Also note that I worked ~60hrs/wk on my writing sample from 1 June until the start of the semester. TL;DR: expect to spend 60+hrs/wk on average.
  15. Well said @mithrandir8 (great name, btw). You know, maybe it's wrong to call this whole thing a lottery. Indeed, one doesn't buy just one ticket and cross one's fingers. Perhaps a better metaphor is a raffle: one does as much as one can to increase one's chances, e.g., writing sample, letters, GRE, GPA, etc., but, at the end of the day, a fair amount is left up to chance and/or factors beyond one's control. There's nothing mystical about this, but it is esoteric in the sense that only a very few people (i.e., admissions committees) really know the extent to which such factors will weigh on one's chances of admission. Of course, this shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, right?
  16. I've had pretty good luck this year: I'm in at USC and waitlisted at Rutgers. I suppose we'll see how things shake out come 15 April!
  17. I've had pretty good luck in my applications (accepted at USC, UNC, UT, Northwestern, Davis; waitlisted at Rutgers). So, maybe what I have to say will be of use. I focused all of my energy on my writing sample. I treated it like a full-time summer job. It was more or less done before the fall semester started. I solicited comments from each of my letter writers (obviously) and also from other faculty who work outside of my discipline (philosophy of language). I also sent it to a friend for copy-editing. I recommend formatting papers in LxY or LaTeX: they look a million times better than MS Word double-spaced in Times 12. This shouldn't matter but it does. My GRE scores were acceptable but not remarkable (162V/155Q/4.0V). If I had it to do over again, I'd have retaken it. But they seem to have been fine. I think my time was better spent on my writing sample. I put minimal effort into my SoP, and I used a boiler-plate version for all the school to which I applied (I changed only the name of the university). Again, I think my time was better spent on my writing sample. I had four letters from professors who (1) knew my work, (2) knew a bit about me, and (3) guaranteed to provide strong letters. Don't be afraid to make sure of (3). The last thing you want is for your LoR to say "they've got excellent handwriting." W.r.t. applications: start early, apply for fee waivers where possible, and be sure to save as much money as you can (I averaged ~$100/application).
  18. I'm generally quite a workaholic, but I've been a little out of sorts the last few months too. I think this is for two reasons. First, and most obviously, admissions season takes a lot out of one. Second, I think it's hard to muster much motivation in one's last semester. I already have enough credits for my MA, and I'm already in at some very good places. So, it's kinda hard to give a damn about this semester. This, combined with my workaholic nature, makes me feel a bit weird. TL;DR: I'm with you, and I think it's perfectly normal.
  19. I've declined at UNC. Hope this helps someone.
  20. In at USC (also UNC, Northwestern, and UC Davis).
  21. I'm "one of a very small number" on the waitlist at Rutgers.
  22. I'll second this. I worked on my writing to the exclusion of anything else, e.g., retaking the GRE, writing program-specific personal statements, involving myself in resume building activities, etc., and I've had rather a successful application season. I can't say for sure, but I'd imagine that this is owed largely to the quality of my sample paper.
  23. This is a bit late, I suppose, but I'd imagine that I spent at least 500 hours on my sample (plus, like, 40 hours figuring out how to format it in LaTeX). My "writing sample drafts" folder has 15 drafts (with each one having less substantive changes). I also solicited comments from as many faculty members as were willing. I also submitted the "final" version to my grammarian friends for a round of copy-editing. TL;DR: I focused all of my obsessive-compulsive tendencies on this one thing for about 7 months.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use