PolPhil

Congrats. Simon Fraser is a first-class MA program

Most programs take 5-7 students in normal years. That number is likely reduced at almost all programs this year. I know that Toronto takes 12 in normal years. Other programs with a large faculty likely do the same.

Don't be down on yourself. You are the cause of your success. No one is going to accept you just because they know your letter writer. At most, that gets your foot in the door. Everything after that is all you

I agree with you for the most part, but that's a far cry from people getting accepted to top programs + they went to top schools (which, btw, is not true of many of these students) = rampant elitism and the reason why you're not getting acceptances (which I know that you're not saying, but other people on this forum seem to have an unjustified sense of entitlement)

Again, did you read my comment? Read it to the end and tell me that I'm claiming that my sample was better than yours. Jesus. And so, if you're getting rejected and other people are getting multiple acceptances, what do you think is the reason? How could you possibly think that your application package is just as good? The fact that admissions are more competitive this year is completely irrelevant. The claim is relational. Their application packages are better.

Well I am making claims about those who are rejected; namely, that their writing samples are likely inferior to those who are getting many acceptances. That's a pretty safe inference. It's not an insult. It's up to you how you take it. Are you going to let it get you down, or are you going to let it motivate you. Have you considered asking a successful applicant for their sample, to see what a successful sample looks like? That's what I did last year, and so far it has worked for me.

I said that "These people have obviously worked hard and have put together superior writing samples and application packages more generally." It doesn't at all follow from that (remember your philosophy 101!) that others have not worked hard enough on your application packages. Nothing that I said implies anything about anyone other than those who are getting accepted to many programs except that other people's writing samples are inferior. That is probably, by and large, true. That doesn't mean that you cannot be as good or better a philosopher in the future. Technically, it doesn't even mean that you're a worse philosopher now. It just means that you haven't done enough to show your aptitude. The only way to fix that is to improve your sample and try again. Edit: and yes, as much as you may not want to admit it, the fact that someone is getting accepted to multiple top programs is objective evidence (to the extent that there can be such evidence) that their writing sample and application package is better than other people's (and better than mine, for that matter)

How is it elitist to accept the same people? These people have obviously worked hard and have put together superior writing samples and application packages more generally. I get it, you're disappointed. But you can't go around blaming others. Edit: It's also not like any programs know which applicants the other programs will be accepting. As far as they know, they're accepting the strongest candidates for their department.

That email was a bag of lies

Congrats!

oh haha yeah I agree. But yeah, I get the same feeling

There is lots of time. 13/15 programs that I applied to haven't released any decisions yet.

U Mich and UNC really letting me down haha

Title says it all. It clutters the page, and that's what the forum is for! But to the person asking about the University of Toronto: they don't do interviews

Hey Christoper! Im a current U Toronto student and I was born and raised here in Toronto (though I did my undergrad and masters degrees elsewhere). Feel free to pm me if you have any questions!

Accepted to the University of Toronto PhD Philosophy via email ?

I'm rooting for you at Ohio State!

What does this have to do with this thread?

still so many applications to go

Hence I said "usually"

There aren't going to be 8 waitlists if there are 4 acceptances, that's for sure. There are usually no more waitlists than acceptances

But most applicants for virtually all of the schools don't post here. Typically, only like 15-40% of admits post here

But how do you know how many acceptances were out on Friday?

Admissions for fall 2021 is this application cycle. We are all applying for fall 2021 admissions. Also, it's only paused for the programs that they listed

How do you know that they only admitted two students? Yuu do realize that the majority of people don't post their results on the Grad Cafe, yeah?