wwfrd

I, too, am waitlisted at Irvine LPS. I am in at UT Austin. For what it’s worth, UT has been transparent about their funding situation; they upped the first two years to 20k (so, not a ton, but not too different from many schools), and have additional funding opportunities down the road (e.g., if one teaches a class). Irvine certainly seems like a standout in terms of placement- I would only choose a couple of schools over it for studying phil of science/logic (Pitt HPS, Princeton, Stanford). They also send people to good industry jobs. Have they given you any indication of the likelihood of admission? There are so few of us on the waitlist that I am hopeful.

Also assuming a UW Madison rejection.

You, too! Hopefully we hear something soon.

I applied to LMS. I have no idea- it looks like they tend to release anywhere from early to mid February, but there’s very little data. It would be such a cool program to attend, I think my chances are slim but I’m hopeful.

The anxiety certainly gets to me, too.

I think it’s the case that Pitt had previously announced paused admissions for several of their programs, but not philosophy. I would be very surprised if they retroactively announced a pause on philosophy admissions. Also, it reads to me like they are announcing that the admissions process will be paused for the academic year 2020-2021, and thus this pause impacts programs beginning fall 2021.

Congrats!! Where else are you waiting to hear back from?

I think you all are probably right. However, if it is a troll, then it’s certainly a more thought out and intentional one, which is unfortunate.

Do we think the CMU posting is also fake? It would certainly be earlier than most years.

Thanks! It’s not looking good for me, but fingers crossed for a waitlist or something similar.

Congrats!!

Can anybody claim that Duke acceptance? I interviewed with them but haven't heard anything back yet and am anxious to hear more.

Damn, that seems late for Princeton! Oh well, gotta love the wait.

Received an interview offer from Duke!

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

It looks like they have notified accepted applicants- 3 have posted on the results page. I am unsure about rejected applicants.

Awesome analogy; now comes the waiting. I was surprised by how early Irvine came out with results. I wonder if other programs will follow suit, or if it will be a few weeks before we start to hear more. I’ll be happy once classes start and I have something else to stress about.

I’m the Irvine LPS waitlist- I’m nervous, I hope it is a positive signal for the rest of my applications, that it wasn’t crazy to hope for admission somewhere...

I'm curious as to how you all are approaching the personal history/diversity statements required by some schools. For me, a cis-het white man from a privileged background, most of the barriers that I've faced have been of my own making. I have had, however, an unusual college path, and had to drop out of my first institution and go to treatment. I'm now in recovery, have been sober for some time, etc. I am torn about whether or not to bring this up in personal history statements (for those places that require them). I worry that, by doing so, I could be oversharing, seen as privileged white guy trying to sound disadvantaged, or seen as a liability. I also worry that, in not bringing it up, I am missing a good opportunity to explain my weird transcripts, and that if my statement is bland and standard, it could be a mark against me if there's an admissions committee member who cares a lot about these. I am probably overthinking but wanted some advice. Right now it looks like only two of the programs to which I am applying require these, Berkeley and Michigan.

UC Irvine LPS, NYU, and Michigan probably have the best philosophy of physics in the US- Jeffrey Barrett is at Irvine, NYU has Tim Maudlin and others, Michigan has several philosophers working in the area. Otherwise, Columbia has David Albert, who’s awesome, and runs their phil. of physics master’s program. Pitt HPS got David Wallace from USC recently, putting them up their with best programs in the US for phil. of physics. If one is interested in programs that might be a little less selective, I would put Minnesota and Maryland on the list. Not in the US, but the University of Western Ontario would also be a good choice. Utah is mentioned above, but although they have tons of philosophers of science, I don’t think they have anybody doing philosophy of physics specifically. Check out the philosophical gourmet for specific rankings, too!

The University of Chicago is suspending admissions to its philosophy program this cycle- does anybody think that other programs will have to follow suit? More generally, I’d be interested to hear others thoughts on how the admissions cycle this year might be different. Eg, there might be more applicants as a result of students putting off entering the job market, or there might be fewer international applicants to American schools, etc.

My prior is as follows: it is very possible to go from mathematics or computer science to specific philosophy PhD programs, including (but not limited to) CMU, UC Irvine LPS, Pitt HPS, Berkeley’s logic group, and (maybe) Notre Dame’s logic track. But, I would guess that most successful students have taken a number of relevant philosophy classes. For such programs it is probably less important to have taken, say, an ancient philosophy course, whereas philosophy of science courses might be more helpful. Of additional note are specific master’s degrees that offer a bridge: LMU’s MCMP, LSE’s master’s degrees, Bristol’s master’s degrees, Amsterdam’s master’s degree in logic, and CMU’s master’s degree. All of these cost money, with the exception of LMU. From computer science specifically, it would probably behoove the applicant to note how her CS background is applicable to what philosophers at the relevant school are working on. For example, CMU has a number of philosophers that work with computer scientists on issues in causality, Bayesian decision theory, and computability theory. In summary I would say that yes, it is possible, provided the applicant has some background in formal philosophy coursework. A well-done writing sample should also go a long way (but, CMU’s admissions page does state that some students have instead submitted a specific proof or piece of code, if I remember correctly). These programs are all quite competitive, and often niche in the kinds of philosophy that they do.

My situation is close to what you have described- the professor in question thought that I had performed well, and told me that he’d love to write me a letter if I needed one. My plan is to have him submit the letter to four schools that don’t accept Interfolio and to Interfolio for any others. He stated that he’s happy with my sending it to as many places as possible, but that he will not navigate more than 5 websites. I’m finding that a little under half of the schools to which I will be applying will accept the service. Thanks for the advice, I think I will use a similar question to help choose my list of non-Interfolio schools.

He’s an ~85 year old emeritus professor who is a field leader- probably the best letter I will have, and he approached me first, suggesting he write me a letter. As he put it, the 5 school maximum policy applies to all students for whom he writes letters. Of course it’s not a perfect situation, but given his stature in the field (as well as age) I’m trying to take what I can get...

Has anybody compiled any kind of list as to which departments will accept Interfolio for letters of recommendation as opposed to those that will not? I have found some information in several departments' admissions FAQs, but not on others. One of my recommenders is only willing to navigate five websites, total, so I hope to use a service like Interfolio to maximize the number of letters he can send out for me. Thanks for your help!