polemicist

Congrats!! That's super exciting.

Yikes, likely bad news for my Oxford applications. I haven't seen anyone claim acceptances to the MSt in Practical Ethics yet... do you think they've sent all acceptances for that out already?

@HomoLudensGood points, it does seem unlikely that they'd want to review new materials from waitlisted applicants. Thanks!

@AnotherLattePleaseI'm also very excited about this MSt program, although I am concerned about funding given what I've heard about the difficulty of attaining funding for Oxford graduate programs, but we'll see what happens. Best of luck with your applications as well!

In addition to reaffirming one's interest in attending a program at which they've been waitlisted, would it ever be appropriate/advisable to send the relevant department an improved draft of their writing sample (or, if not the entire paper, then significantly improved sections of the paper?) Of course, it's best to avoid this situation by making one's submitted writing sample as strong and polished as possible before application deadlines or admissions decisions. In my case, my current draft is substantially stronger than the one I included in my application, and is much more reflective of my philosophical skills. Thus, I'm tempted to send it to the department in the event that it might factor into waitlist decisions leading up to April 15. If the new draft isn't read/considered, then there will be nothing lost on that front; but if it is read/reconsidered, then it could make all the difference. But I'm unsure whether or not this will come off negatively in any way (in particular, I wouldn't want it to seem as if I'm expecting a reassessment of my writing sample or that an exception be made for me). Might it be a bad idea to send an improved writing sample to a program at which one is waitlisted but remains interested in attending?

I applied to Oxford's MSt in Practical Ethics and it says the same thing.

Out of curiosity, which programs (or faculty) are best for the philosophy of machine learning?

Looking for advice on this. My undergraduate degree isn't in Philosophy, so I'm applying to MA programs to transition into academic philosophy. In undergrad, I took an upper-division Philosophy course in my general area of interest as PASS/FAIL (this was a couple years ago, so it was for reasons unrelated to COVID). Should I address why I took the P/F option somewhere in my application?

@eleatics This helps a ton, thank you!

Here's the main page for the course. I'm particularly curious if this is a viable alternative to getting an MA for those interested in going onto a philosophy PhD and academia (and who have primary interests in applied ethical topics). So by "competitive", I mean for PhD admissions prospects after completing the course. But I'm also curious if anyone has information about the relative competitiveness of admissions to the MSt program.

@cockroach Late reply, but here's a writing guide for academic philosophy that many have found useful. To your main question, I can't myself give authoritative advice, but it seems wise to me to carefully (but perhaps briefly) specify wherever you diverge from the author you're citing. If it's important that you cite philosopher B's argument for Y (where Y is the conclusion you share), you can say something like "While philosopher B also reaches Y, they do so for reason Z, which are distinct from reason X that I offer. I do not endorse/discuss reason Z here". On the other hand, if the difference between how you arrive at Y and how the person you're citing arrives at Y is informative or important for your main argument, it's probably worth discussing Z at least a bit.

@PolPhil Thank you! I hadn't considered Canadian universities but am looking into them now. SFU in particular looks to have a great placement record. Do you think UofToronto's MA program is worth applying to for international students given that domestic applicants are given high priority? Also, do you know much about the University of British Columbia's MA program? I couldn't find their placement data for MA graduates, only for PhD graduates.

Obviously "top" or "best" are somewhat subjective and unfairly dissolve many important factors that should be considered when applying to schools and deciding where to go. But like many MA applicants, my primary aspiration is to attend a university with a strong placement record for PhD programs, particularly in recent years. So by "best", I suppose I'm asking mostly about schools with the most promising placement records, given that this seems to be one of the more consequential factors for MA students interested in going on to a PhD in Philosophy and who are deciding which terminal MA programs to apply to. Personal fit (in terms of my main areas of interest) matters a lot, too, but I'm currently persuaded that it is wise, in my case, to first get into the best PhD program I can after receiving a terminal MA, and only at that point focusing in on my primary philosophical interests. I think this makes sense because there's a reasonable probability that my current main areas of interest and primary research questions will change after entering an MA program, and because my philosophical interests are currently broad enough to allow me to be comfortable attending a university that's less of a personal fit but with a much better placement record. My current, tentative list of schools comes almost entirely from the PGR's list of top MA programs. But perhaps there are schools not listed there that are also promising, and that I'm missing. I may not apply to all of these ultimately, but they're all on my radar, and some are obvious choices to apply to: Tufts University Brandeis University University of Oxford (BPhil) Northern Illinois University University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Georgia State University San Francisco State University Cal State Long Beach Cal State Los Angeles Western Michigan University Virginia Tech Carnegie Mellon University University of Missouri, St. Louis University of Houston Ohio State University Any other schools worth applying to for someone looking to get into the best PhD programs? I appreciate all feedback and advice!

@Glasperlenspieler This is super useful advice, thank you! I hadn't considered explicitly motivating these positions in relation to my argument, apart from merely describing where they lead, but your advice made me notice that they did seem rather random/arbitrary as written.

I have a question about the writing sample, but considered that it need not merit an entire thread. So I thought I'd make a thread for anyone to ask whatever questions they might have about the writing sample, in case others are able to answer (if this already exists and I simply didn't see it, feel free to point me there). My question is: I'm writing an applied ethics paper, but one that also discusses a bit of normative ethics and metaethics. The paper is unfinished but already too long, and I'm wondering how appropriate it is to simply state certain metaethical and normative assumptions at the beginning without defending them. For example, is it appropriate to merely write something like: "The arguments offered here are supported by a few, critical assumptions. First, the metaethical foundation of my argument is non-naturalist moral realism (*brief explanation of what that means), and the normative foundation of my argument is hedonistic utilitarianism (*brief explanation of what that means)." Is there a better way of doing this? Also, should this be written at the beginning of the paper, where I state certain preliminary assumptions, or should it immediately precede the section to which it is relevant? Thank you!