objectivityofcontradiction

Once a Vans only person, I now I wear almost exclusively Tretorn canvas shoes. Check em out.

Bump. Some one tell me, anything, about Bloomington!!! Please?

Generally speaking, I am a chatty, laid-back, gregarious type of person who has no fear of reaching out to any one in the field over email (the worst that can happen is they don't respond), or approaching professors at conferences to chat, etc. I am one of those who throughout the year leading up to my applying was constantly emailing people whose work I read and enjoyed. I'd run some ideas by them, express an interest in working with them at their school if I applied, etc. At this school in particular, I emailed both of these professors last fall informing them of my application to their department and my interest in their work, and I essentially quoted a paragraph from my SOP in each email, seeing if it reflected the sort of project(s) they had supervised in the past. I then got in touch with them again after the wait-list offers to touch base on the same sorts of things.

maxhgns charitable interpretation is the right one and the one my professor was no doubt trying to express. Basically the piece of advice was meant as a general point about geography and academia. We should all be prepared, if we are lucky enough to secure employment after all is said and done, to take a first job at 'Little Valley Hollow State College' in State X in a not so favorable region of the country, if that is all we've been given to start with. For those in disagreement, I will paste the quote directly from my professor's piece on attending graduate school in philosophy. Here it is: 'Does it matter where the graduate school is? I’ve emphasized often enough that the basic principle is to go to the best, most highly thought-of program that suits your interest you can get into. Geographical factors such as how high the surf is or the availability of good tex-mex cuisine simply shouldn't count. It’s a 4-6 year commitment that will determine the rest of your life, so if you refuse to go to a great program because it’s in a rural area and you’re a city gal, or because it’s in a big city and you’re a country boy, you’re not really serious about a career in philosophy, are you?' Further to his point, and from the same advice column: 'Would you be happy teaching a heavy load for not much pay in a small college in North Dakota or Mississippi? Of course, we’re just talking about the odds here, and there are ways to move up the academic ladder, wherever you start (publish, publish, publish!), but you should go into grad school aware of the odds you’ve decided to play.' Such are the basic ideas behind his advice to not let geography have too great of an influence on your decision.

To your second question: if I am offered a place off the wait-list at what has become my top choice (of my three wait-list spots), and if the visiting period has already passed, and, further, I am up against the April 15 deadline, I will accept the offer without a visit. FWIW, I would feel comfortable doing this, given that since my being wait-listed, I have been in fairly regular correspondence with my two main POIs at this institution, both of whom seem keen on my interests and are going to be available to work with me. I don't care about scouting the location, etc. I up and moved to Europe for my MA with two suitcases, and managed to find a flat and settle other logistical issues just fine. As one of my undergrad professors once told me, if you are not willing to take an offer somewhere because of the location and other such 'social life' issues, then it would seem that you are not actually serious about pursuing the PhD.

from what I have heard over the past couple years, it is standard practice for Canadian Unis to have very generous MA stipends.

New School hopefuls, How much credibility is there to all the stories about New School never offering admits full funding packages, students taking 8+ years to finish, etc..? I've heard all these rumors before, just want to know how true any of them are. Are all there PhD. students fully-funded? Or is it the kind of place people pay some for a PhD. in the hopes that the 'New School' name will land them a sweet gig (and a well paid one) when all is said and done?

I asked my letter writers to address my mediocre GREs if they felt so inclined (was told this a much better strategy than wasting your own time doing it in your SOP; better to have professionals make the excuse for you than you for yourself). Guessing at least one of them did. Not sure. I did not see any of my letters.

Right. Obviously that was my first step. I'll probably take the advice I got from two of my writers, but wanted to open it up for comments here as well.

Looking for advice on this issue: I have some wait-list offers, one of which I would absolutely accept if it turned into an admissions offer. Now, I have spoken with some friends in PhD. programs already who say that it is not a bad idea to e-mail such a program and inform them that if you were to be accepted off the wait-list, you would absolutely accept the offer. As my friends say, this may incline them to bump you up the list or, if it is getting down to the April 15 wire, they may straight up send you an offer. The reason he gave had partially to do with the fact that some schools need to get their admits in before the funding pool dries up, and they may lose out on future funds if they are not able to admit enough students this time around. Therefore, if they are under pressure in that they are waiting an especially long time to hear back from those they offered admissions to and those at the top of the list, they may dive into the wait-list early. Thoughts?

FWIW, Vineyard has now taken jabs at Notre Dame and Purdue. Can we conclude from this that he/she is some sort of all-things-Indiana hater, i.e. an illini of sorts? Or, perhaps an IUB person who is duped into the ideology of college rivalry and detests the rest of the Indiana Unis? Why not answer this one for us, Vineyard. What do you have against these two Midwestern institutions? The Christian-bias is one thing, but what did the Boilermakers ever do to you?

Wait-listed at 3 schools within (Leiter) top 25: 162 V, 145 Q score. Boom GRE, roasted.

Interpret it like the rest of us in your position have: We've been rejected.

4 BU acceptances with the posters saying they will most likely decline; for the love of casserole could some one claim one of these?

Published a book review in a phil journal (not a top, not a bottom). It is on my CV, and I've been rejected by plenty. Just sayin'

Shouldn't you assume that you'll produce a piece of work during the MA that will be better than anything you wrote before having such graduate training...?

Congrats Johannes. Your dream school, correct? Mine as well, though I never expected (and still don't expect) to get in.

Hey Columbia, Call me, maybe?

FWIW, Leiter's rankings were helpful in my concocting a list of programs to apply to. But I have always considered it just a reference, and never the be-all-end-all of graduate program rankings. I am, however, interested primarily in German Idealism and 19th and 20th century German philosophy in general, and so I fall into the category of working in a 'continental' area that the rankings treat kindly. Maybe it goes without saying then, but I do think the rankings (for the most part) showcase the best places to pursue studies in this area in the English speaking world. As far as the argument that states that the likes of Derrida, Badiou, etc. should be relegated to cultural studies or literary theory departments, I don't think that is fair. Then again, I have had people tell me that working on 'philosophy' in such a department can actually be nice and, more importantly, may open up further avenues of employment when your studies are complete. I met Leiter at a conference last year. He comes off as a bit self-important but so do most in this field. I didn't think he was all that bad of a dude. He answered plenty of my questions regarding where I should look to apply to study area X, etc.

Any one else a Jeopardy fan? And if so, do you want to see this arrogant DB Arthur to lose as bad as I do?

Any one headed off for a visit this weekend or next or the one after that? Talk about it here. I, unfortunately, only have wait-list offers thus far, so no visits just yet for me.

Awesome, congrats. And in a beautiful part of the country!

MattDest, I suppose my recommendation was a bit biased, given my interests in Post-Kantian European philosophy. But, seeing that BSG applied to Warwick, and lists Nietzsche as an interest, I assumed (maybe wrongly) that they had an interest in this area as well. In which case, it is not even an argument: Warwick is clearly the strongest of the three in this area. I know full well that GSU and Houston specialize in PhD. placement, and, as that is the end goal of the MA route, maybe their placement records should take precedent over the research interests of the staff. Either way, I too was not trying to push BSG one way or the other; just spit balling my thoughts.

BSG--In my opinion, if you are not offered funding, and so decide to take out a loan to finance the MA, and if the cost of their MA is not all that greater than what you'd pay to go to Houston or GSU, you should take the offer from Warwick. Pound for pound it is a much stronger department than both Houston and GSU. Houlgate, Brewer, Poellner, Ansell-Pearson, these are all fairly imminent scholars in the field.

Speaking of philosophical maturity, I tend to take it as a sign of philosophical maturity when an individual is able to talk philosophy with various levels of intensity and rigor, and so, for example, can leave a seminar, head to a pub, and continue the discussion in a manner that is appropriate to the pub scene. If we are sitting down for pints, and you react to something I say by enlightening me to the disconnect between my premise and my conclusion, or overreact or offend in a manner that is consistent with the behavior of some on this forum, well, suffice it to say I will not be picking up the tab, and that you've certainly lived up to the name of the type of graduate student that us regular folk will be looking to avoid. I hope to be immersed in a grad student body that consists of, dare I say, 'average,' individuals. Ya know, people with social skills. My MA supervisor once said to me, 'The other students are going to be so happy when they find out you're normal.' I took that as a compliment.