Jump to content

billiam345

Members
  • Posts

    12
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by billiam345

  1. Hi, I'll give you my two cents. I can tell where you're attending based on the courses you listed -- I'm about to graduate from the same place with a philosophy degree, and I'll be going to grad school for poli sci in the fall. I was in a similar position during the last round of applications, not really knowing whether I'd rather be in a philosophy or political science department. I ended up applying to both, and had far greater success at getting into poli sci programs (despite having taken only a couple of poli sci courses). Based on my experience (I took many upper level phil courses and got A's in them), I would think you'd have trouble getting into philosophy programs, especially compared to your prospects in poli sci. Of course, if you had a really fantastic writing sample and great recommendations from philosophy (not poli sci) professors, you might be able to overcome this, but I'd keep this in mind when applying. If you are certain you want to do political philosophy, I suspect that a poli sci program might be more feasible (and apply to more philosophical programs like Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Virginia, etc.). However, if you're not sure of this, then a philosophy program might be what you want, in which case you should take several upper level philosophy courses next semester and knock them out of the park (and pick up a couple of recommendations along the way).
  2. One thing you might want to do is check out what graduate students are writing their dissertations on. It will give you a good idea of what kind of work the profs are willing to supervise and how many other people you'll be able to have fruitful discussions about your research with. On the Yale website, only a relatively small percentage of students have websites, but among these, there were definitely a lot of people working on ethnic violence (I didn't look at Stanford).
  3. (I posted this on the main discussion thread also). I'm going to be declining a (funded) offer from Berkeley later today. I'm in theory.
  4. I'm going to be calling Berkeley later today to turn down their (funded) offer. I'm in theory.
  5. I don't know much about Yale on ethnic violence and civil war, but I know Fearon and Laitin at Stanford are pretty awesome in this area (though from a very quantitative perspective, esp. Fearon). Yale has a better reputation for political theory overall probably, but I don't think either faculty is clearly better at the moment. I'd say it depends on interests. If you're more interested in continental philosophy, critical theory, Straussianism, or early modern/modern political thought then Yale is better. However, if you're interested in analytic/liberal approaches, ancient political thought, or American political thought, then Stanford is better. Stanford's rep in political science might be better overall, but the schools are close enough that you should probably just go completely on subfield strength and particular faculty. If you care about weather, then Stanford is MUCH better (basically perfect weather year round), though Palo Alto is boring to many people.
  6. I got the waitlist email from UCLA. I'll probably email or call them very soon to turn it down, so hopefully that gets someone else closer to being admitted.
  7. In at Princeton! AMAZING. I'm a theorist who wants to do global justice so there's definitely nowhere I'd rather be. I'll be turning down my UVA offer shortly so hopefully that helps someone on the waitlist.
  8. Oh yes, I'm definitely still ecstatic about the offer, and I have a ton of schools to hear from still. When I was wondering "what to do", I actually was pondering whether I should say something to the department like "why did everyone else get more money" or "you might lose me to another school with a better offer".
  9. Nope, I'm all-American. I'm not sure what to do exactly. 20k doesn't go all that far in Berkeley...
  10. Hi everyone, I was too lazy to set up an account for awhile so I've been lurking, but I figured I'd finally take the time. I'm a philosophy major looking to become a political theorist. So far I've gotten into UVA and Berkeley. Curiously, however, my Berkeley funding offer (20k per year, 3.5k for first two summers) seems to be lower than all the other offers I've seen on grad cafe. Is there anyone else who received this offer, or am I getting shortchanged?
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use