ilovephilosophy

Thank you for the helpful replies, and sorry for the confusion. I'm not trying to brag or gloat; on the contrary, I'm worried about my chances. I wanted to post my credentials without giving much commentary in order to see what people on here would think of my overall potential. I think I'm about as strong a candidate as I could be coming out of the university I'm at, but I'm not sure exactly how optimistic that should make me. A small department with young profs at a school ranked in the 50's isn't exactly ideal, and I was wondering if people would point that out as a significant weakness. Exactly

I'm fairly new to this process but one thing I've heard over and over is that you take a PhD offer over anything else. The funding and other pros that you mentioned sweeten the deal even more. I suppose the only question left is how much of a "backup" this school was rankings-wise?

I'm entering my senior year and so will be applying for PhD programs this fall. I've heard a lot of different things about how competitive the process is, so I'm wondering where I stand/what a realistic expectation would be as far as where I'll get offers from. Here's my general profile: -Undergrad institution ranked in the low 50's overall, not particularly strong in philosophy though (small department, young but promising profs) -On track to graduate summa cum (overall GPA of at least 3.9, will probably end up around 3.92 or so) -4.0 in the Philosophy major (completed) -3 essays published in various undergrad journals, 1 that I'm told might land in a professional journal -Writing sample probably quite a bit above average -Have not taken the GRE, but consistently scoring mid 700's on both sections in practice tests -Scoring low 170's on practice LSAT tests (going to apply for joint PhD-JD programs, not sure if the Phil departments even see LSAT though?) -Summer research with the dept. chairperson -Will TA for the dept. chairperson next year, supposedly I'll get to lecture at least a few times -Letters of Rec. will have nothing but outstanding things to say, and all will be from philosophy professors with whom I've worked closely So, what am I looking at here? Any chance of getting offers from a school in the top 10? Top 20? Top 30? Funded offers? Or should I just study for the LSAT more and consign myself to a boring legal career?