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SkepticFutile

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Everything posted by SkepticFutile

  1. I am an MA student in SFSU in my second year. I suggest people who get the offer from SFSU to think twice about whether they want to join us because we are faced with severe over-enrollment NOW. That is to say, we only have 9 professors at their positions: Professor Asta and Professor Tiwald have their names on the wbesite but they are actually in another university (Duke and U of HK), I do not know why they are only labled as "on leave"; Professor Peschard may not advice you and she does not deliver graduate seminars. To make things worse, Professor Landy is on sabbatical, and Professor Garcia is a newcomer. So actually we only have maybe 7.5 professors here this semester. And how many students enroll in classes this semester? I do not have the data for this semester, but the in 2022 Fall, we have 79 graduate students and 41 senior undergrads. (data source:Student Enrollment (sfsu.edu)) And many of the latter enroll in the "SF Scholar" program that have chance to enroll in Master seminars. So, put it more straightforwardly, we have 8 professors that have to deal with around 100 ought-to-be graduate students. If you feel this situation crazy like me, please be cautious before you decide to accept the offer from SFSU. I am suspecting the university is going to exploit the prestige of the program and make this over-enrollment deliberately. As for me, well, I am struggling in looking for someone to advice my thesis and so the writing sample for application. I have been in a hard time to find a professor to do independent study with to make that procedure more fluently. Finger crossed to me.
  2. Maybe it is heuristic to see PGR's ranking on Phil of Mind and check whether they are shown in SPEP or The Pluralist Guide. After narrowing the scope of departments, check faculties of them and see if they meet your expectation.
  3. When things come to international job market, rankings other than PGR would matter more than it, at least the case of China. That is because: 1) Departments of Philosophy are not analytic-oriented enough to make PGR an authority to measure your graduate background; 2) Policies of employment in universities influence much on how departments give offers, and you shall not expect those policies would include a 'small rankings' like PGR when they set criteria for applicants' graduation school. Hope it helps. For I think those two reasons are not only applied to departments in China.
  4. Thanks for your dedicated reply! I wish I could see your recommendation to CSULB one month before, since as an international applicant, I had missed the deadline. What a pity! I cannot remember why I omitted this excellent school when I was filling out the CSU application system. It directs on my interest, has responsible advisors and formal trainings (even non-thesis option while applying for phd is available? I understand 'paper portfolio' option as that) and seems financially friendly. Poor me! Your remarks on CSULA is also valuable to me. And I share the same experience with you when I emailed to Dr. Shim. I am more tending to SFSU, but I would ask some of their graduates as well as enrolling students first. Thanks again!
  5. After further inquiry, I lean on SFSU for it seems to pay more attentions to advise students, as well as the better placement in recent two years. (Especially on placement, Dr. Shim told me that their placement was gathered volunteerly. So it is not as accurate or transparent as I thought before.) However, I found information about choosing between those two programs in this forum turns out to lean on CSULA. So I hope to hear some defeaters here.
  6. Agree. At present, I only concern how they train me and the result I would reasonably expect (as represented by placements).
  7. I know there are some discusses about choosing between these two. But they didn't match my worrying. So, I decide to launch a new topic. I regard their placement as at the same level, for although SFSU sent much more students to phd programs, its cohort is large, too. One of the pro points for me to choose CSULA is it provides non-thesis option, which is thought that would concentrate one on WS, while SFSU certainly needs a thesis for gradutation. As for academic interests, as an international student who needs time to be accustomed to work in a new way, I keep open to all theoretical philosophy areas. Neither of the two provides funding for internationals, but TA-ship seems to be available, though competitive. Any remarks or rebuttals? It seems to be necessary to decide before Apr. 15th (which is also what I learned here).
  8. Thanks for your efforts to gather and present information, which is a great benefit to us international applicants. Salute!
  9. But in the Acceptance Thread, @MtnDuck said that he seemed to track from FB and there are already 4 acceptance. Well, he is not sure though, I think.
  10. Also waitlisted at UW-Milwaukee MA program which is the best one I had positive response so far. It seems that NIU accepts many students this year. I hope this is a good new for both of us, dude.
  11. Thanks for your opinions. Maybe a good startpoint for WS is to summarize/find out a 'popular argument', which is hard to find when I dive into newest papers without any guide. I would try it. Thanks. It is helpful. So, your opinion is that those standarized tests take the place of transcripts? It makes sense, though a bad news for me.
  12. As the title shows, I am a student majoring in philosophy, but has no experience in studying aboard. Nor did I receive qualified analytic training. Still, I want to apply for MA programs in North America, for I think I should have (relatively strict) guided courses of analytic philosophy, given my lack of those trainings. What's more, I want to assess my ability to do philosophy as a vocation, rather than a job relying more on social connections. Yes, I think most of phDs gratudated from my country are better treated as charlatans, not philosophers. For someone who has no confidence to be excellent by only doing self-learning, I think it is a better choice to chase for phD aboard. [well, maybe you would say 'to be a philosopher itself is always something relying more on social connections rather than academic acumen or articulating skills, and it is the case everywhere'. If someone would argue like that, it helps me a lot, for I would quit this field without any regret. But as far as I know, from the papers I read and professors I met, I think there is much better academic environment in English-speaking countries than mine.] So much for my background. When I looked up tips for application, I found them not so fit to me, or the conditions of my type. For example, the most important part, writing sample, is always suggested to be come from the course/term papers. Before it is finished, the writing sample should be polished again and again by your own and examined by your professors. And those professors are also those who provide you recommandations. All the processes seem to be good for an undergraduate studying philosophy in analytic style department, of which I dream. So, I have to organize my writing sample from no course but my MA thesis, without knowing whether there is anything 'original'. And professors, who are good persons though, may not be eligible to examine my WS, for many of them have only a limited knowledge to this topic (and they even dare to be a supervisor in an area they are not familiar with). Let alone recommandations. I hope those who are familiar with me have a little international reputations, and would not be regarded as imposters. Alas, so much for complaint. I think I need to clarify and add some of my concernings here: a. about WS: what is the standards of WS for applying MA program, especially in its degree of ingenuity? I have almost no one to discuss with because professors here have no experience for that. b. about recommandations: I think it is better for me to bet my professors have international reputations. Well, at least, the department I am in is about 150-200 in QS. c. about GRE and TOEFL: It is said (I forgot the sourse, maybe agencies)GRE and TOEFL scores of international applicants are weighted, because they in general have no good WS and recommandations. d. numbers of applications: for there are not too many good (or merited) MA programs, I might choose to apply for almost the fee waiver/funded programs. I am here waiting for tips and suggestions. If there are any problems in my expression or even English-using, questions or corrections are welcomed. AH, by the way, does San Jose State University a good choice for me? I find Anand Vaidya there when I prepare for my thesis of modal epistemology. But 1) I may not continue my interest in this topic and 2) I want to receive completed guided courses of analytic philosophy, which I did not think SJSU could provide and 3) I doubt its placement is average in America, for SJSU is not showed on that googledoc. [though maybe to be admitted by SJSU is beyound my limit]
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