Blurry

The number or the schools?

Will your sister be employed?

Did you take most of your upper-division undergraduate courses/seminars in these two years or is the GPA inflated by A's in complimentary courses?

I would like to have some info myself. I imagine, however, that health insurance should be purchased through your school where it would be subsidized. Some funding packages may even include health insurance. Are you travelling alone?

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Directly addressing a weakness in your file is far better than ignoring it. The admission committee will see these incompletes and if it is not addressed, given how competitive applications in philosophy are, then you are at a serious if not damning disadvantage. I've also heard that it is much better if the professors address and excuse certain weaknesses in your file. In you case, personal issues explain the anomalies in your application. I think you should make the professor writing you a letter aware of this fact. It may very well be too late now, but I hope that you've discussed this with your professor. I do not think that this will hurt your application too much. You still look like a competitive MA candidate with a 3.5 GPA. Best of luck!

Indeed, but it is not just a 'head start' although this is probably the most important thing. I was totally lost when I went to University and I only applied to two schools for my undergraduate (the two english speaking institutions in Montreal) and then one for my masters. I did not even know graduate school was funded until one of my professors in late undergraduate was trying to encourage me to apply to more competitive schools for my Masters. She was a straddler and the only person I've ever spoken to in academia about my background. Had I known what I know now, like many others on this board, I would have done things differently. I also agree that I am privileged compared to my counterparts. Many people I know were never encouraged to get an education and had they pursued it, they would have found little support. In any case, I wanted to add that having well educated parents is a decisive advantage in the Humanities. Not just for navigating the academic terrain, but with the additional cultural capital one gets growing up in such an environment. It is also a decisive advantage for standardized testing (especially, for example, the verbal component of the GRE). I'm not sure what the precise data is, but "middle class" homes tend to use three times more words than a working class home. I also agree that we are all mostly working class. The 'middle' class is a distinct social class but not, in my view, a distinct economic class.

Universities tend to weed out weaker applicants so it makes sense that those applying directly to SSHRC have a lower success rate. Also, you can get the statistics for any award year here I was looking at the statistics from 2011-2012 Doctoral Awards.

I do think that this has much to do with many for our discomforts with networking although I would not say it is the only possible source of discomfort. Many people find networking irritating. Again, to new posters, I'm glad there is a good reception to this thread. On another note I wanted to ask everyone here something which just occurred to me: I remember reading a while back that The University of Minnesota had a reputation both for helping and accepting many students from working class backgrounds. I had not given it much thought until I recently applied there. The application actually asked me about the academic background of my parents and I was somewhat surprised. Has anyone experienced this at any other school? I do find it encouraging that there are attempts to identify 'non-visible' minorities.

I would think that the experience in, say, Quebec is different from the experience in Canada which is itself different from the American experience. In this respect, each situation probably calls for different measures. A majority of the working class is not poor (in fact many working class families out-earn middle-class families) and, in Quebec at least, it is not as economically challenging to pursue university studies. I worked and funded my entire Bachelor's degree at a prestigious Canadian university in Quebec. Had this been in the United States, I would have accumulated far more debt and may have had to rethink my studies in the humanities. The most important issue in working class or underprivileged families is cultural capital; growing up in such environments, children essentially have none. I did not grow up reading Dickens or Chaucer. In fact, I did not grow up with any books at all. My parents did not and could not pass on any 'culture' and I did not grow up in an environment that trained me to navigate middle class institutions and environments. The only thing I had was a father who used his own life and own mistakes as a model for what I should not do in life. He would tell me, constantly, that I did not want to grow up to be like him and working a dirty job. I was lucky. Many working class families have a peculiar disdain for higher education and it makes it very difficult for children in such families to grow up wanting to pursue higher education. This is a problem that no amount of money or policies could fix. The problem becomes all the more acute when many kids from the working class will make more money in construction, laying brick, plumbing, etc., than had they continued going to school and got a middle-class job. I honestly do think that a lot of the attitudes among the working class that discourage higher education could be obviated, to a certain extent, by placing a greater emphasis on the humanities and the liberal arts in high schools (history and intellectual history in particular). These tend to help some students center themselves socially and historically and makes them think of their lives in terms of contributing to society rather than in stark, individualistic terms. It would also help pass on much-needed cultural capital. By itself, this would by no means be sufficient but it would help those few that would, otherwise, not have even thought about culture and higher education.

Thanks to everyone for posting and I am glad the reception of this thread is so positive. There were a few specific things I wanted to say: I have an issue with networking and I think it is one of the more foreign things that I've encountered. Growing up, everything was sort of 'in your face'; people said what they meant and meant what they said and the idea of charming someone for individual advancement isn't just foreign, it is somewhat repulsive. I learned quickly as an undergraduate to keep my opinions to myself and not to stir the pot, so to speak. I would speak very passionately and loudly about issues and was somewhat confrontational, calling most everyone on their bullshit (or what I took to be bullshit; it was mostly diplomatic talk I was not used to). This all changed in my Masters studies and I am now much more quiet and my world has become mostly about what I don't say rather than what I do say. That's fantastic and all the better if your fiancee is completely supportive of your career. I also constantly feel like an impostor and that I'm close to being 'found out' or something; it is quite weird and I did not handle this experience really well until I read about the experiences of other people. Class seems to be a hushed subject. Just recently my philosophy department began a "task force" for the study of "minorities" in philosophy. Of course all they talk about is gender; the professor running the group is a woman (whose father was a surgeon and mother a lawyer). I do think that departments should encourage women to study philosophy; however the only reason that the issue of class is not brought up in this "task force" is because, to my knowledge, I am the only graduate student from a working class background and I never participated in these type of things; there just isn't that many people who can relate to my situation, I guess. I am not belittling the plight of women in graduate school (especially fields like philosophy, mathematics and physics where there are very few women); it is just that there are enough women in philosophy to care about issues concerning gender but there are virtually no straddlers in the field to raise the issues of class. I can relate to everything else others have mentioned. If anyone is interested I read a book recently on the subject: Alfred Lubrano, "Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, While Collar Dreams" Given Lubrano's Italian-American background it was easy to relate to many of the issues he brought up from his own experiences (both my parents are from Italy), but he also recounts many other stories from other straddlers he has interviewed. Another book I have picked up, but I have yet to read, is: C.L. Dews, "This Fine Place so Far from Home: Voices from the Academic Working Class"

Did you receive the funding or was it a rejection notice? EDIT: never mind, I just read your previous post. Waiting until April is absolutely crazy; I imagine those who are not on the waiting list receive their notice earlier..?

Same here, Concordia told me my application would be forwarded to the national competition at around the same date. I am not a PhD student yet so I am not sure what my chances are but from past data it seems that there is a somewhat equitable distribution across the board (from starting to 3rd year PhDs). Also, applicants forwarded from universities have over 60% success rate while those who apply directly have about 20-30% success rate, so I think your odds are MUCH better this time around I heard that SSHRC lets you know by email in the spring. This is vague, but it is all I have heard. If anyone else has more specific information please share.

I was just curious if there were any fellow straddlers on this board: those from working class backgrounds, first generation college students, etc. I've been reading about some experiences transitioning from the working class to the "middle" class and I have found them similar to my own. It is all the more difficult for straddlers pursuing graduate studies.

I would probably be in mathematics, physics or linguistics; although, my interests in linguistics grew out of my studies in philosophy. Philosophy is great because it is so compartmentalized that you get to, and must, indulge in separate interests. If you are also interested in linguistics, for example, then philosophy of language is a great avenue, or, given different interests, then the philosophy of mathematics, formal logic, philosophy of physics or biology or psychology, etc. I also have interests in urban planning. Unfortunately the prospects of all these fields are few.

I'm not quite sure I understand. I can filter out philosophy only in the results board; when you filter by 'linguistics' philosophy and history programs also show up?

To those fretting about letters: know that most departments are quite lenient with the deadline when it concerns letters of reference. Many professors are somewhat absent-minded when it comes to their students' applications. Departments usually contact the professor if she has not submitted a letter. I have never heard of a committee or department holding a late letter against an applicant, but maybe this varies in other departments. Still, I understand the anxiety; I also had a letter that was late for a couple of departments and it could be stressful.

Philosophy Students tend to do quite well in business (even better than the majority of Business majors), if that is something you could handle. Personally, I would consider teaching in a CEGEP or getting a professional degree; another option would be to abandon the prospect of tenure-track and get a PhD at a less prestigious institution. Figure the rest out later...?

McGill, Toronto, UBC, Calgary UConn, CUNY, Minnesota, UIC, Boston U, WashU, Brown, IN Bloomington, Ohio State Aiming to work in History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Mathematics. Hope I get in somewhere. Good Luck to everyone!