you'll_never_get_to_heaven

just chaired a session with Robert Minor at the APA Pacific. Pleasant man! Congratulations!

Ask about funding, TAships, opportunities for coursework at other schools, residency requirements (related to funding/tuition), etc.

I guess I should've known how this would turn out when I referred to graduate school as "the pursuit of my Mistress Sophia" in my Statement of Purpose.

How do you aggressively pursue a place where you have been waitlisted? I was waitlisted at UCR and rejected (or presumably rejected) from everywhere else.

(1) Columbia is a very expensive school and (2) Columbia is, without a doubt, one of the best PhD programs in the world. You're competing for attention with doctoral students. Columbia doesn't often (ever?) accept students from the vast majority of highly-regarded terminal M.A. programs. You'll spend far more to get an M.A. from Columbia than you would at any of the highly regarded terminal M.A. programs - even if you weren't funded at them at all! And you'd get far more attention at those programs as well. What incentive does a faculty member at Columbia have to help you place well, mentor you, etc.? I'm not saying those faculty members are bad people, but that they have a whole crew of doctoral students already! A PhD is often a form of financial suicide to begin with!

The general rule of thumb is that you do not accept.

Oh, and maybe also look towards people who are interested in philosophy of cognitive science specifically. So far as I can tell, a lot of the interesting confrontations between Husserlian phenomenology n such and analytic philosophy of science is found there.

Check out the California Phenomenology Circle. Might be able to get some pointers that way.

^can't say I disagree.

I'm pretty sure I'm shut out this round unless UCR pulls through. I've got a couple ideas as to why. I suppose I'm okay with it if that's the case.

I might be able to help you with a bit more information on hand. For what it's worth, my interests are (probably) similar.

I assume that I won't get into CUNY or Columbia, but I don't mind a pleasant surprise. Waitlisted at UCR, which is definitely a top choice for me. I think I'd do very well there.

angrily reading Adorno and realizing that all these adcomms are fascist.

Honestly, I'd love to get them all at once. Rip the bandaid off

rejected from Fordham. Accepted: Waitlisted: Rejected: Fordham, UC Berkeley, SUNY Stony Brook, Northwestern, Emory, Oregon, Boston U, Loyola Chicago, DePaul Pending: UC Riverside, Villanova, Georgetown, Duquesne, CUNY, Columbia, Kentucky, McGill, New Mexico. They all probably found my writing sample intimidating and that's why they won't let me in. They're afraid of my intellectual might and intestinal fortitude.