emilydickinson

Hey, I think that you are on the right track with focusing on Kant and Hegel because a lot of continental philosophy programs also have a strong focus on the history of philosophy (I would say that Kant and Hegel especially are pertinent to continental. Kant get very far without them!). I can’t really speak to the specifics of how your paper style would have been received, but just as an example, I did my sample on Hegel and have gotten into a few PhD programs so far. My paper was specifically about Hegel’s philosophy of history as theodicy in comparison to more conventional Christian theodicy (i.e. Augustine and Irenaeus). In some sense, it was more continental or perhaps literary in style insofar as much of it was basically biblical exegesis, but I also had to give straightforward technical accounts of Hegel’s account of the will and of freedom. My interests are definitely within the history of philosophy, especially 18th/early 19th c German philosophy, but I also have interests in the Frankfurt School and French feminism. I think the fact that you have been waitlisted and also accepted w/o funding means that your writing sample was great, but that departments are having funding constraints this year. Sometimes it just comes down to which faculty are looking for new students on which years. The dice throw of this process is infuriating, and it seems like your results so far are a good sign that things aren’t over for you yet. Best of luck!

I got accepted at DePaul 2/5!!!