BuffaloBuffalo

I am a non-phil major (chemistry and creative writing, so even further removed from the field than you are) and I was able to successfully apply to and secure a funded MA position during this past cycle (although I did cut it a little close; I got a few non-funded MA offers, and was going to take an offer with an assistanship that would have still required me to pay tuition at a school in Canada until April 9th, when i got my funding offer from the school I will be attending come fall). I did have a few things going for me (I won a research fellowship for the summer between my junior and senior year, and used that research to write what I think was a really good writing sample, and I had one fairly prestigious letter writer). My GPA was lower than yours, and I think my GREs were comparable. So, I think it's definitely possible for you to make this happen, and I think that with the advice thus far in this thread (really knuckle down on your writing sample, try to take or audit graduate courses at your current institution if you're eligible as an employee, get that minor, etc.) you'll have no problem. I'm sure you know this from applying to programs before, and I'm sure that you'd find it elsewhere, but really nail in your personal statement why you're making this shift from history to philosophy; that'll convince adcoms that you're serious and help to demonstrate to them why you're worth the "risk."

Just accepted the MA at University of Memphis.

Just got accepted to Kent State's MA.

Just got my first acceptance, and my first (soft) rejection. My acceptance was from Memphis, for their MA program (waitlisted for funding) and my soft rejection was from Duquesne's PhD program (saw that coming). I call it a soft rejection because I'm still in the running for the MA program there, but the funding package they offer just really isn't competitive (It's usually around 50% off tuition), so I'm probably not going to accept it. As for who I am, I'm a chemistry and fiction writing major who realized way too late they wanted to do philosophy. I've been studying on my own and taking classes like nothing else since then; I managed to get a research fellowship through my school's honor's college last summer, and basically did a Foucauldian archaeology of body piercing. I'm also interested in the philosophy of Guy Hocquenghem, an obscure French philosopher who is sometimes called the first queer theorist. I've been slowly chipping away at a translation of one of his untranslated texts, and I delivered a guest lecture to a French literature class on him last semester. Getting my first acceptance, even if it's got that annoying asterisk of "waitlist for funding" attached to it felt so validating that I've been riding a wave of positiveness for two days now. Related to that last point; does anyone know if I can expect that funding to come through? A friend of mine told me that it usually did, but Memphis is telling me I'll have to wait til mid-April to get a decision from them, and I'm kind of anxious to just take his word for it.

I just got accepted to Memphis's MA program (waitlisted for funding) with a 3.2 GPA, and undergrad degrees in Chemistry and Fiction Writing. I did have a fairly prominent letter writer, however, and a few considerable bonuses on my CV (specifically, a funded research fellowship (in philosophy) and a guest lecture for a professor at my uni).

I spent a reallllllly long time working on mine, but it was the culmination of a research fellowship I did this past summer, and I'm sending it out to journals soon. The drafts are probably uncountable at this point. I also got to experience the amazing feeling of finishing my last application, taking a few days to cool down, and then going back to the paper and noticing a TON of problems (I mean, mostly typos and some sloppy wording). Here's hoping application committees think it's compelling regardless.

Just got that same email. I'm local to Duquesne and I met with some professors before applying, so I knew the odds going in, but yeah, it really did reemphasize the difference in the numbers between grad applications and undergrad applications. When there are that few slots going around, I don't think you can call any application "safe."

After I posted this, I remembered that the director at one of the departments I applied to has an eyebrow piercing in her faculty photo, so I'm thinking this is likely the case. I am generally a pretty clean dresser, actually kind of boring/normie in spite of all my piercings, and somewhat obsessive about keeping my face clean-shaven/my hair well groomed, so I'm feeling pretty good.

I just got my first acceptance letter, from the University of Memphis. I'm on the waitlist for funding, but I got into the MA program.

So, I just received my first acceptance letter, to the University of Memphis' MA program (waitlisted for funding). They were the school I applied to with the earliest deadline, and so I expect I'll start to receive the rest of my decision letters shortly. I'm starting to think about going to schools, meeting professors, being a graduate student and possibly teaching undergrads, and, well, the question of personal presentation and "professionalism" is weighing on my mind. As you might guess from the title, I have a fair amount of piercings in my face and ears (my septum, both nostrils, and then 4 in each ear) . I know that wearing facial piercings is usually considered fairly unprofessional, but I guess my question is, how worried about this should I be? If it makes any difference, my writing sample (which I'm submitting to journals) was about body piercing (sort of a Foucauldian archaeology of the body piercing industry), and I'm intending to pursue this project further in my Master's, and I applied exclusively to continental programs.