PhilCoffee

So if you look up previous acceptances to UCI's LPS, someone last cycle has said, "Those invited to the interview (11 this year) are essentially already accepted. LPS is just required by the university to interview candidates in person before formally admitting them." My guess is that this is what is happening. In years past, those accepted to the LPS seem to receive a formal email in early to mid-Feb. which coincides with those who are also formally accepted to UCI's regular philosophy track program. I would imagine that the LPS is allowed to get a jump on early because of university's extra requirement to interview candidates.
 
FWIW, I doubt that this is an indication that other universities are going to release early. This is pretty standard for UCI's LPS. They normally notify LPS candidates around this time. If anything, it might indicate that most universities will be keeping with their normal timelines of when they notify people that they've been accepted. This is good news. 

https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=Philosophy

Great question! GRE is optional. If reported, it will be included as part of a holistic assessment of the applicant (though the role of the GRE will be different this year, since we will not be able to use it to compare across all applicants). 

Economy goes down, applications to grad school go up.
Also, since several grad programs are not accepting applications, the number of programs that you can apply to is lower. It's thus not too surprising that the programs accepting applications will see an increase in applications.

I mean a shere possibility, though.

What will happen if only 2 letter are submitted while the program requires 3? Will that simply get one turned down?

Hi again ak71,
Thanks for clarify, I didn't follow your point here. You are proposing to submit five letters rather than three, which is going to bump you up against NYU's suggestion that you only submit more than three in special circumstances. I don't take your situation here to be unusual, but you might ask the person in charge at NYU what the right take is on this. The general advice I've seen on this is always: pick the best letters, not the most. In your case: pick the three strongest ones, namely the ones from people who know you best and can speak most effectively to you being on track to become a great philosopher (given it's NYU, literally the next David Lewis). You will know best which three are best here, and it may be that the old ones are preferable to the new ones, but my suggestion is still that you stick with three rather than five. It may be that you've written something transformative for your writing sample--good, that should speak for itself, rather than having two topic experts weigh in on the writing sample alone.
On submitting both samples: I wouldn't. Really, I think the best case would be to ask those people to submit new ones if you think they are in the best position to write on your behalf, but if that is out of the question I would simply make a note in your file about the discrepancy rather than submitting a whole second sample. Alternatively: just the cover page, not the whole sample. Then again, this might raise questions: why didn't ak71 ask them to simply rewrite the letters? Was there a falling out? These things do come up in grad admissions, especially in cases of PhD students jumping ship (I'm doing something similar).

By the way, does anyone have an idea about what generally contributes to a great fit between you and an MA programs? Say, one has to decide between two great MA programs, one has better placement but has not that impressing faculty (but still a fit), while the other has professors that interest you a lot but is not that strong at placement. Is the fit with the latter one going to enhance you a lot, despite the general placement records? Or is it better just to choose the former?

For an MA program, I would probably suggest prioritizing placement since MAs usually aim at giving students general competency in philosophy. When I did an MA, it was basically impossible to pursue your own interests because the courses demanded so much in so many different arenas. Also, you'd hate to have regrets if you go with the "fit" choice and then don't get in anywhere afterward...
For assessment, look at the courses they've offered in the last two to four years, that will give one of the best indicators of what life will be like there.

I strongly recommend against long footnotes. If an argument is interesting and important enough to go in the main body of your paper, great. Otherwise, cut it (or just gesture at it briefly). Footnotes are often distracting from one's argumentation, and they're important (especially for mentioning relevant literature), but should be kept pretty trim because the writing sample's main goal is to show off your interesting philosophical argumentation.

Many Canadian MA programs simply don't list their placement records. SFU and Calgary have placement, and they seem amazingly strong.

Many Canadian MA programs simply don't list their placement records. SFU and Calgary have placement, and they seem amazingly strong.

It seems to me that there is nothing to worry about with your freshman year performance. Research carefully about the terminal MA programs, and apply some of them. Maybe you can choose some that actually placed students into CU, and fit your interest.

I think Glasperlenspieler is right. There are cases that I know where people get two MA degrees, and both in philosophy. But that's because they do their first MA in the native country (in non-English world), and do the scond one in the US.
The MA programs may not admit you. Even if they do, given that your program has a good placement record, doing a second MA might not do anything good when applying for PhD, with respect to the impressions.

I think Glasperlenspieler is right. There are cases that I know where people get two MA degrees, and both in philosophy. But that's because they do their first MA in the native country (in non-English world), and do the scond one in the US.
The MA programs may not admit you. Even if they do, given that your program has a good placement record, doing a second MA might not do anything good when applying for PhD, with respect to the impressions.

I think Glasperlenspieler is right. There are cases that I know where people get two MA degrees, and both in philosophy. But that's because they do their first MA in the native country (in non-English world), and do the scond one in the US.
The MA programs may not admit you. Even if they do, given that your program has a good placement record, doing a second MA might not do anything good when applying for PhD, with respect to the impressions.

Congrats! And wish you good luck with Michigan.

Thank you. Yes, I think the moral is to be clear and specific in the text and also to mention the big picture where the topic fits in.
The big picture and related topics can be discussed and referred to in the footnotes in order to keep the main text simple. This seems common in published articles and I'm learning from them.

Thank you. Yes, I think the moral is to be clear and specific in the text and also to mention the big picture where the topic fits in.
The big picture and related topics can be discussed and referred to in the footnotes in order to keep the main text simple. This seems common in published articles and I'm learning from them.