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Like Marcus_Aurelius said, this is the philosophy forum, so I'm not sure if my experiences will be super useful to STEM students. My impression is that admissions for humanities programs (and especially philosophy) are a bit more competitive than other fields. Maybe this is due to funding differences, IDK. I also think the structure of a philosophy PhD differs a lot from one in the sciences; the system of lab groups and PIs does not really have an analog in any humanities program.

Yeah, my worry is not so much that they are bemoaning their struggles with the app cycle. 'Woe is me' stuff is fine, and probably constructive as long as it is restricted to the venting thread or whatever. What bothers me is that most of the stuff on the survey right now is directed at other people, i.e. "hurry up and decline your offers you privileged assholes, I deserve a spot because of x." There have been pretty consistent posts of bile-filled rants insulting more successful applicants. I suspect it is just a few people doing it, though. On a brighter note, I hope everyone has a stress-free and successful decision day. My application cycle is over, and it went better for me than I ever dared hope. A lot of the people in this forum seem like awesome, brilliant, thoughtful students. I wish all of you the absolute best. We made it to the end!

This thread seems pretty dead, but I didn't want to make another thread for this complaint. I really wish people would behave better on the survey page. It has been overrun by (a) people begging others to decline offers, which is not really cool, and (b) people being very nasty to those who do (a), which is even less cool. Beyond the fact that neither of those things contribute to the obvious purpose of the results page, it has just made me, uh, embarrassed I guess? Maybe it was dumb of me to expect that prospective PhD students in philosophy would be any different from any given group of anonymous twenty-somethings on the internet, but Jesus guys, the way people are acting on that page is beyond immature.

Accepted to the University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill off the waitlist. Got a lovely call from Thomas Hofweber at work.

I pretty distinctly remember entering my full SSN in a few application portals, usually in the residence/citizenship section of the application. I have no clue why universities need them prior to admission.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/04/05/universities-affected-it-security-company-data-breach This might be of interest to anyone who applied to these schools this cycle. It looks like the hackers have stolen sensitive information (including SSNs) from applicants and prospective students. Edit: another link: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2021/04/01/hackers-leak-social-security-numbers-student-data-in-massive-data-breach/ Looks like UC Boulder, Syracuse, Stanford, and the University of Miami were all targets.

Accepted to OSU off of the waitlist. Big shoutout to that person on the survey who said they were declining lol. This is a very very tempting offer.

Accepted at Syracuse.

Waitlisted at UMass Amherst. Email says the list does not have a "static" ranking, so I assume it is ranked according to interest/fit. This is my fifth waitlist this cycle.

Just notified that I am accepted with full funding at Arizona. Nice email from Michael Mckenna with the news. I am waitlisted at several other programs, so this was a big relief. Woohoo!

It appears that my application was thrown out by UC-Boulder without being evaluated. I suspect that this is because one of my letters arrived late, but my application was submitted well before the deadline. I emailed the graduate director (who was very nice) asking what happened, and she basically said that my application was probably tossed. I thought I was a very good fit for Boulder, and my results so far show that I am competitive at equally-ranked (and better) schools, so this stings a bit harder than a simple rejection. Really unsure how I feel about this. Oh well.

Received a kind email from Thomas Hofweber saying I am on a short waitlist at UNC Chapel-Hill. This is my fourth waitlist this cycle, and I am feeling a bit like a perpetual bridesmaid, but this sounds very promising. Exciting stuff!

I think I am going to ask Prof. Pincock some of these questions in an email tomorrow. I will post something here when I receive a response. Here's hoping that I see you in Columbus!

Waitlisted at Madison, Hopkins, and OSU. No rejections yet. Hoping one of these works out in my favor...