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Well, you have to take what you can, no? There are many plus signs to Fordham: very outgoing and bright grad students -- so it's a good collegial atmosphere -- and they just put on a great conference with Badiou as guest speaker. Decent library to work in, too. The oral and written exams have been known to be legendarily tough, but that's changed -- I don't think they're as difficult as a few years back. This is something you might want to look into with a current student. Minus signs: physical plant of parts of the university -- particularly where the philosophy dept. is located -- is deteriorating, you're (most likely) living in the Bronx, and the profs can be a bit distant unless you identify someone with whom you'd like to work right off the bat. It's an eclectic mix -- but it's still a PhD program, and one with strong connections to the other continental schools. I'd take it -- particularly if you've already identified what you'd like to write on and are really self-motivated in your research habits. I can't say anything about the department politics, or anything you might be referring to in that area, though. By the by, has anyone heard from Stony Brook? God!

Heart, I am in the same situation. It looks like it'll be a year off -- maybe more. I blew a lot of money on this and it'll take a while to recoup the savings. Of course, one can say, "if one wants something bad enough, then..." and keep trying, but I had a pretty tough first year of undergrad (some time ago, though, and I went on to earn two MAs despite that) and I often wonder if those grades will forever keep me out of programs. You know, sifting through 200 applications, you have to have some way of winnowing them down, and I have the equivalent of a giant splotch on my transcript there. Shame to have something you did at 18 follow you deep into one's future...but that's the case for a lot of life, I suppose. Well, I'm sure if Wittgenstein were alive, he'd tell me that I really ought to do something a bit more useful, anyway. Maybe I'll move to Sils Maria.

The whole thing just seems so, I don't know, ridiculous. Why rule out those with MA degrees? Just a good way to create a filter, perhaps, to make it a bit easier to find five candidates from among the masses? I am zero for seven at this point. I was told that Fordham received nearly 200 applications this year -- can that really be true? I'm sure BC received over 150. One would have a better chance of trying out (successfully) for a minor-league baseball team. What can possibly distinguish the top, say, 50 candidates for these five positions? Better to just pick names out of a hat. One would like to be optimistic and to give it a try another year, but if this is the state of the process -- that M.A. candidates with a 4.0 GPA are instantaneously herded out by admissions committees -- then it seems rather pointless to waste more money. Nothing more can be done to improve one's credentials. Philosophy will continue to become a penniless handmaiden of the state, just as -- increasingly -- universities are. There may be an advertised veneer of independent thought within some departments, but who is kidding whom? When so many able and passionate people are turned away from the gates of the agora, then it seems impossible not to acknowledge that the "profession" is little more than a career, rather than a calling. May the best jobbers prevail.

Hey all, DId anyone here apply to Oregon -- and if so, have you heard anything?

don't want to break this news to you guys too suddenly, but i am waiting for depaul, too. what could that possibly mean? i have a few pretty run-of-the-mill specialities and interests, insofar as depaul is concerned. nothing too outside the realm of possibility for them. i also think/thought i hit a few key points on their "checklist" as well. we are all likely in the same boat; i suppose we'll all know within the next few days where we're landing. maybe we all ought to move to chicago into some sort of hegelian/holderlinian/schelling-like commune and start attending classes and see what happens (like all i need to permanently keep me out of phd programs is another MA!). i'm done in new york in may, so you never know.

i'm not feeling too good about this whole thing tonight -- have been rejected from yale (expected) but also memphis, which i kinda had my heart set on. i had a perfect writing score on the GRE (strong V, but terrible, terrible on the maths), and am finishing an MA in philosophy and have another MA from the late 90s in a different field. so a strong record in terms of grad school performance and tons, tons of philosophy courses for the MA (about 18 courses) with a near-perfect GPA. don't know what to expect now -- have a bunch more apps out with the usual continental schools, but after the bad news from memphis, i really don't hold out a lot of hope. my writing sample was solid, so i'm thinking that maybe it's the statement of purpose that's doing me in.