Dr-H

It really depends on your academic profile, but if you already have a bachelor`s degree in any field you could definitely apply to MA-PhD programs in philosophy. It would also depend on your career goals, target programs, and interests.

Although I haven`t read them, the best choice seems to be the first one. It is always best to send something from your master`s degree.

The SOP that you will have to send for the PhD will have to be different than the one you used to master's programs. It requires a different approach altogether. Where are you applying and what are you career goals post graduation?

You say nothing about your career goals? Why the PhD? This seems like a lot to do for you at first glance. Applying to different fields will very likely require for you to change your approach for each program. Also keep in mind that PhD in stat run by business schools tend to be very small (which makes them extremely competitive).

Unless it is required by the department, it is not necessary to write professors to ask if they are taking students for a few reasons: 1. In most programs, you are teamed with your advisor at the dissertation proposal stage, which is at least 2 years down the line. Unless the professor is not taking students for the next 3 years, it's pointless to ask them prior to applying. They will not be "advising" you in your first few semesters, that comes later. 2. At least half of PhD students take a slightly different direction from the project they write about in the SOP or take on a brand new topic as they progress through the program. So why ask a professor you might not even end up working with? Profs all know that you might work on something entirely different as you go through the program, so asking them for some commitment is always a bit odd. 3. Professors would rather connect with specific students once they have taken a wholistic look at the application: grade, CV, LORs, SOP, etc. So, unless you have a completed SOP in hand, sending them an email with a cv doesn`t really achieve much. 4. Some professors are not the best at communication or would rather only interact with students once they have been accepted in a program, so if you don`t hear back from them, it should not be a reason to not apply. In other words, you can always write a short email to network a bit with professors but it is not at all necessary, AND you should definitely apply even if you don`t get the answer you want from the initial contact. Hope this helps!

You`re welcome! There is no real recipe for an excellent SOP. It should be as objective as possible and focus entirely on research: past research and what type of research you would like to do. I also suggest adopting a tone that will be scholarly (objective). The admissions committee will evaluate mostly your ability to use the conventions of academic writing. It should be rigorous, precise, and well organized. Hope this helps!

Contrary to popular belief, your SOP shouldn`t be "exciting" or be built as a "sales pitch" about your skills or "intelligence". You certainly don`t need to reinvent the wheel either. An excellent statement of purpose should be about research (the research you did in the past and the research you want to do) and it also should adopt the conventions of scholarly writing. It should be as objective as possible (and possibly boring). Every SOP is different and it is rather pointless to ask other students to share theirs with you. It will very likely confuse you. Every one will have a different opinion and, between you and me, most grad students don`t have a clue why they were accepted or not into a program. The admissions process follows specific rules and many factors influence decisions...It is all a question of fit. I suggest making sure that you will be applying to RIGHT programs and that you have the outstanding LORs. You can send the best SOP possible, but if you send it to the wrong program and have lukewarm LORs you might not get accepted. Hope this helps!

This would fit more into the category of research statements. What the admissions committee will evaluate is your ability to define a clear, relevant, and realistic potential research project, how rigorously your ideas are presented, and your ability to demonstrate your familiarity with existing research on the topic. This requires a bit more work than your run-of-the-mill statement of purpose.

I wouldn`t worry too much about your GPA. It is not bad (3.2-3.3 is usually the minimum required for grad school). I definitely would move forward with applications. The big question regarding outcomes will depend on the connection between your research interests and the offerings of each program. Without clearly knowing what you would like to work on, it is always hard to determine if you will be a good fit or not. I also suggest being strategic with your school choices. You should apply to 1 or 2 that are stretches in terms of acceptance (one never knows what might happen), but you should also consider programs where you have optimal chances of getting in. It is also not a bad idea to have "backup" programs. Hope this helps!

This looks good to me. The next step would be to select schools that are going to be the right fit for you. Fit is everything. In addition to a rigorously written SOP and strong LORS, admissibility to the program will depend on the alignment between the research you would like to conduct and the research focus of the program. You can have the best application ever, but if the fit is not there, you might not get admitted. Faculty research should serve as a guideline instead of school rankings.

If you meet all the requirement stated on the program`s website and your quant scores are good -and the quant score of your GRE is high (if needed)- there is no need to take additional courses or an extra year. No need for a predoc. And you should not dedicate any part of your SOP to math prep. This is not the place for that. Make sure that your SOP is outstanding and that your LORs are strong and relevant. Hope this helps!

Your profile is great. I don`t see any reason why you wouldn`t have strong changes of getting admitted to a top program, provided that the program is a good fit for you. I suggest having an outstanding SOP (this is the first thing they read and a sloppy one might stop them from looking at any other elements of your profile), a strong CV, and excellent recommendations. But first and foremost, it is important for you to make sure that you are the right fit for the program. You might have all the achievements in the world, but if your goals don`t align with the program`s offering you might be wasting your time. Hope this helps!

This looks good in terms of profile, but the admissions committee`s decision will heavily rely on school "fit" and the quality of your applications. At the PhD level, the ranking of the school of program where you got your PhD doesn`t carry as much weight as people think. I suggest making sure that your target school are in alignment with your professional and research goals. Hope this helps!

If that is the case, I highly suggest to make sure that your SOP will clearly align with the research that is conducted at each department. You should make sure that what you present the admissions committees aligns with the research of some of the professors (for example, it would be pointless to apply to work on the XVIIth century if there are no XVIIth century specialist in the program). Keep in mind that what you will be presenting as your research interests in your SOP is no way binding. You will have the opportunity to take another direction as you take courses, etc. Admissions committees are aware that your interests might change.

If you are considering to complete a research-based master's degree, you should focus less on school-ranking and more on the alignment of your research interests with what is being done at each department. Admissions committees will make a decision based on the quality and relevance of your SOP, the quality of your letters of recommendation, and if your research interests aligns with what the program offers (curriculum, faculty research, etc.) Premodern/modern Japanese history is quite broad in terms of interests so it's hard to tell...