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aristotleonchipotle

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Everything posted by aristotleonchipotle

  1. TGC is like a drug for me. It is detrimental to my mental health but I can't help but check it, just to get my soul crushed whenever there's an acceptance/waitlist report and I didn't get anything from them. It sucks to know that my philosophical abilities are not adequate enough for me to be an academic philosopher. I thought I was good enough. Bracing for a shut out. I think about ending it all on a daily basis. (Not my life, but just my philosophical career as a whole)
  2. Still no acceptances. Only rejections... have a strong feeling I will get shut out this year. Desperately applying to more masters programs but seems like many of them won't consider me for funding since I'm applying this late...
  3. Are there any MAs that I can apply to like right now? I've only applied to two MAs stupidly and I've already gotten rejected by one of them...
  4. I've taken some time off of Gradcafe for the past two days to clear my mind and think about my situation rationally. I would like to first apologize to @PolPhil for making unsubstantiated, emotional, and irrational claims and charges against them. I am not sure why I was so antagonistic and belligerent a couple of days ago. I think it was just a mixture of my own inferiority complex and resent towards those who were accepted to the programs that I was rejected from, which I now understand is irrational and immature. I have nothing against those who were accepted to many top programs and I genuinely would like to congratulate them on their success this cycle. Further, I do want to agree with @PolPhil that rejections from these top schools do indicate that my application is weak, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. Maybe I can try again next cycle with an improved dossier and perhaps that would yield a better result. Further, so far I've only gotten rejections from 4 schools out of 16 I applied to so I shouldn't necessarily despair yet. If I do get rejected from all of them then so be it, but I guess I shouldn't necessarily be too depressed or anxious prematurely before all the decisions are released, although that is definitely easier said than done. Nonetheless I shall try my best. Now for the vent: In the case that I get shut out this cycle, it is just somewhat disheartening to see that my philosophical aptitude is not as high as I thought it was. I've been receiving many compliments and encouragements from my professors in my institution and I've always thought that I had a good chance in the admissions but perhaps I was too arrogant and self-centered. Of course everyone applying to philosophy graduate schools would have been "the number one student" of their schools. Also, it just sucks that many people are getting some kind of positive responses such as acceptance or waitlist and I've been only getting rejections. I can't do anything about it but this just makes me sad and depressed. And yes, I know the cycle isn't over yet but my anxiety and depression regarding the results are killing me. Let's all keep our hopes up, even though I know very well that it is hard to do so (especially this cycle with the increased competitiveness). Again, my sincerest apologies to @PolPhil.
  5. Really? Not considering the fact that many more applicants applied this year and there's less spots than usual? You're really going to say that theirs is 'objectively' better? So your writing sample is 'objectively' better than mine since you gained admission to Toronto? Edit: Alright, I should stop here for the sake of my mental health (it is making me have panic attacks and anxiety attacks). I concede that your writing sample is probably way better than mine. How else would you have gained admission to a top program? Congratulations. Best of luck for your future endeavors and worst of luck for my future endeavors.
  6. You say that nothing you say implies anything about anyone other than those who are getting into many programs and at the same time you say I haven't done enough to show my aptitude, considering the fact that I have been only receiving rejections. Also, I wasn't saying anything about the logical implications of your claim, rather I was saying it makes it sound like you are making claims about those who are rejected, and I see that it is wrong to hinge my post on whatever 'sounds' like it so that is my bad. Perhaps this is why I cannot gain admissions to any graduate schools. I do not know my philosophy 101. Fml.
  7. My bad. This was written in the heat of the moment. Let me clarify: it is elitist in that the people who are accepted to the top departments are going to be proceeding in their philosophical career very well and the rest will just be eliminated, never to be seen again in philosophy academia. I've heard from my professors that I should only aim to apply to top 25 departments since it would be very, very difficult to get a job once you get your PhD in the out-of-top 25 departments. That's what I did. If I was told otherwise, e.g. you can just apply to any departments you'd like depending on your interests, then I wouldn't have done so. I've seen the same set of people be admitted to those top departments that I've applied to and it makes me wonder if I am really worthy of pursuing something in philosophy academia since acceptances to those departments seem to indicate that it is likely that their philosophical aptitude is sufficient enough for them to succeed whereas the rejects probably should reconsider their path. (It is also written so here: https://80000hours.org/career-reviews/philosophy-academia/)Perhaps my statement came from my inferiority complex regarding the strength of my application and philosophical aptitude as a whole. If this sent the wrong message (i.e. blaming those who got accepted) then I apologize. In addition, your claim implies that the rejected people's writing samples are inferior and we have not worked hard enough for our application packages. We have all obviously worked hard and tried our best to put together writing samples and application packages. Let's not go around and accuse others of their 'inferior' application packages and 'inferior' writing samples.
  8. The same fucking people. They are the only ones who are actually worthy of doing philosophy and rest of us are just pieces of shit? I wonder if philosophy will ever be able to get rid of its elitism
  9. Alright, if we are getting into the territory of 'this is my opinion,' then I have nothing more to say about it. However, please note that there are many over-qualified candidates getting shut out every year regardless of the number of schools that they applied to. Further, according to MtnDuck's survey results, 20 is not necessarily a high number of schools that one applied to at least this cycle, since it seems like the average is around 16-17. I will just rephrase and reemphasize my opinion once again: I think that nobody has a very good chance of getting in anywhere, whether that be an undergraduate from Harvard or a community college graduate. A strong applicant does not necessarily have a very good chance of getting in somewhere because of the extremely highly competitive nature of the admissions process, more so this year than ever. I respect your opinion that the OP has a very good chance of getting into somewhere. I personally strongly disagree, but who am I to speak about this.
  10. I would like to reemphasize, that *nobody* has very good chances, regardless of their background. Therefore, whether the OP has a strong background or not is irrelevant here. It is a crapshoot and a lottery for pretty much everyone. Of course there are certain threshold that a ‘strong’ applicant shall surpass, and perhaps you were trying to say that the OP probably is above that kind of threshold to be considered a competitive applicant. But I don’t think that’s equivalent to saying that the OP has a very good chance. I do appreciate your positivity but it is just not true that the OP has a ‘very good’ chance. That is all
  11. No, nobody has 'very good' chances. Even the very best of all applicants have slim chances of gaining admissions to programs (especially mid to top tier). Philosophy graduate school admissions are largely a crapshoot and a lottery at this point, more so this year due to the reduced admissions and increased applicants. You are giving the OP a false hope by saying that the OP has 'very good' chances. Nobody can be sure that any given one particular applicant will end up somewhere one is excited about. This is just the cold hard truth. In my opinion, it is better to realize this rather than to 'expect' any kind of good result out of the admissions cycle. Just expect that you will get shut out, and if you get into a program, then congrats! You lost nothing. But if you expect that you'll get an acceptance and you get nothing, then you will remain frustrated and depressed. TL;DR: Don't give the OP false sense of hope.
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