you'll_never_get_to_heaven

Loyola Chicago, Northwestern, Emory, and UC Berkeley have all failed to observe my brilliance, nor have they acknowledged the profundity of my philosophical interventions. I told my Mother today and she assured me that our esteemed family will be boycotting these institutions hereto forth. I will pursue my mistress Sophia at whatever doctoral program shall have me, and they will be better for it.

I keep finding out that there are letters missing for my applications and I'm going to lose my shit.

Congratulations to whoever got the Fordham acceptance!

Thanks! I got it down. I absolutely love smoking and always have, but I really had to face the fact that I needed to quit - really quit - and get it over with.

quitting smoking after submitting all my applications has proven to be an interesting experience.

I got that same email right when I submitted, but I did have a delay from an application submitted elsewhere. Who knows? Every enrollment management office at every school is on the tail end of processing a massive amount of information

What is the interview process like? I was interviewed for undergrad forever ago, but I have no idea what an interview for a doctoral program would be like (especially one in philosophy). [btw my comments on just about anything should be taken with a hefty dose of salt. I'm a student, not a professor, etc. I don't know all that much about what I'm talking about]

the way things go is that you anxiously await any news and feverishly refresh your email, the gradcafe results page, check your mailbox, etc. If you haven't heard from the program, you're stuck in some sort of purgatory (of what kind you don't know). Fortunately or unfortunately, the admissions process is not standardized and many schools have procedures that might strike one as idiosyncratic or counter-productive. (ex: note the poster who was interviewed by DePaul and then rejected. But, from what I've been told, interviews are often a formality of sorts at most programs. Apparently not at DePaul). Toronto receives an outrageous number of applications.

Rejected from Emory and Northwestern. Pending everywhere else (UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Oregon, Kentucky, Loyola Chicago, Columbia, Duquesne, CUNY, Vanderbilt, SUNY Stony Brook, Villanova, Boston U, Fordham, McGill, DePaul, and New Mexico). Congratulations to everyone on their acceptances so far!

Oh, yeah, I know! Not my first rodeo. But it's nice to just get it all out of the way ASAP - rejections included! It's really hard to focus on anything else right now!

I got one rejection and nothing else.

replying to every rejection email with “your loss” and CCing anyone who might possibly be on the admissions committee.

On the one hand, I concur with a professor I like quite a lot who said that the number of requirements, etc. for incoming/continuing PhD students is excessive. On the other hand, I can say - pragmatically speaking - that I wish I had applied to more terminal M.A. programs! I did not apply to Texas Tech and I am finishing up my M.A. elsewhere, but I do think more people should consider terminal M.A. programs (and for multiple reasons). As someone who is always in doubt, I'm still not sure about pursuing a PhD. However, I feel much more confident about the quality of my application materials, philosophical acumen, and scholarly discipline after completing an M.A., particularly choosing one outside of the general scope of my undergrad (although I am still very much a member of that "school" of thought).

I had some missing application fees. Just great. I paid, but I'm worried it could be a waste of money.

Email the relevant person at the school.

Arizona State and Syracuse had far fewer applications this year.

Yeah, in general I don't know what use the data would be, except to tell you about "prestige", but there are - in fact - programs widely considered to be of excellent quality that accept students with M.A. degrees. It has something to do with internal university politics, but not necessarily program quality. I don't want to bring up the PGR, but several top tier PGR programs have admitted students with an M.A. more than one time in the last... ten-ish years, as well as great programs not considered by the PGR. Of the programs that I know have recently admitted students with M.A.s from the general slew of good U.S. terminal M.A. programs, there's Pittsburgh HPS, Toronto, Cornell, UC San Diego, Stonybrook, UC Irvine, Wisconsin, UT Austin, University of Southern California, Stanford, Brown, Northwestern... At least some of those would be considered "elite", I'd think!

applied to eighteen or so schools. No word back yet. Frankly, I'm just glad the application process is over.

depends entirely on the program. Some programs have almost no students with degrees from any of the esteemed terminal M.A. programs (UWM, Georgia State, CSULB, etc., etc.). For example, Chicago, Columbia, Berkeley - typically few M.A.s and/or only M.A.s from particular programs. A statistical average wouldn't really be of much use, because it varies quite a bit by program.

CSULB has a terminal M.A. and is very strong in philosophy of science (recent placement into Pitt HPS and UC Irvine is demonstrative of that)

Yeah, I dropped Toronto. They got almost 500 applications last year and it's a better fit for some other people applying from my M.A. program (now, hopefully they have respectfully dropped programs from their lists that are better for me...) There's no thread for this year's app season, but I've got a healthy set.

So, after taking a prep course and then taking the GRE from my apartment, I found that the GRE is either waived or optional at almost all of the programs to which I'm applying. Does anyone have advice on whether or not to include GRE scores if it's "optional" to do so? I can think of plenty of reasons to do so, and plenty of reasons not to do so! Because this is the case at almost every single program I looked into, I'm assuming many other people here have similar questions/concerns.

M.A. program is probably a good idea in your case, but - M.A. programs cost money, even if they say they do not. That being said, if your passion is philosophy, include some of the M.A. programs mentioned in the link above.

http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1011404/28477892/1635443782310/Tips+for+applying+to+PhD+Programs+in+Philosophy2.pdf?token=DbN71X3m2lBFlti4y2w3rbeCk6o%3D&fbclid=IwAR1XICCU1jbqZFY9QU0DrPI4ixn1liTvIA30esfD-V-fvglX16H46rlsHIs Two of my profs said that most of what is said here is true. Personally, I can't share my writing sample. One, because I'm still working on it. Two, because I'd like to work on presenting it and trying to publish it and I don't want my draft circulating. Or, frankly, given how the internet and PhD applications can go - I don't want someone stealing my work! (No offense). What I can say is that my first writing sample for M.A. and PhD applications didn't do me too well, because it was an attempt to excerpt a sample out of a massive honors thesis. So, don't do that. The writing sample should be more than just a good term paper. But, of course, you could develop a term paper, become more familiar with the topic it is on, etc. It also never hurts to email the person whose chairing admissions for this year.

Check out the SPEP lists - those are a good first step. What you're interested in is extremely broad and general. Also look into terminal M.A. programs. As far as those go, you really just gotta make sure it isn't one that is explicitly opposed to Foucault, etc., but it doesn't necessarily have to cover that specific set of thinkers. It's also good to familiarize yourself with the general offerings within contemporary analytic philosophy, if only for professional reasons (it's going to be hard to get published, etc. if you don't know the norms of the more "orthodox" wing of the profession in the US)