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MattDest

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MattDest last won the day on February 27 2014

MattDest had the most liked content!

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    St. Louis, MO
  • Interests
    Philosophy of Mind/Cog Sci, Epistemology (esp. Social Epistemology), Practical Rationality
  • Application Season
    2014 Fall
  • Program
    Philosophy

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  1. ^Ditto. The more interesting people populate my timeline, the better!
  2. Establishment's advice seems right on. Also, you ought to consider the specialty rankings for your AOI, especially if you think they will remain constant during grad school. WUSTL's PNP program is definitely one of the stronger cog sci programs, and I imagine that their placement record in that AOI is quite good.
  3. Evaluating MA programs is not totally unlike evaluating PhD programs, in my opinion. A lot of the same questions seem to apply just as well at either level. Instead of looking at job placement, however, you want to be looking at placement in PhD programs if that is your ultimate goal. One thing that wasn't really apparent to me until after I left my MA institution was that I think depending on who your thesis advisor/committee was (especially if they are writing your LOR), it might impact your ability to place well at PhD programs when you go through that process. If you have an idea of what area your thesis might be in, you might ask students or the faculty directly how students in those areas tend to do in PhD applications.
  4. BUT CHALMERS! Here is Chalmers with a lightsaber (and me).
  5. Did they already admit you, or is this an interview type situation?
  6. I don't see any reason why they would find it weird to route somewhere else - they should know that you are likely going to visit multiple places. I don't know what's normal with regard to booking tickets, but my only experience has been booking and then being reimbursed at a later date. I imagine some institutions might be able to just book them for you. Have fun visiting!
  7. I would ask about the teaching expectations of graduate students, how many students you are expected to have, ask other graduate students about how long they put in towards teaching responsibilities, etc. I talked with professors about what types of courses were usually available from semester to semester, what the people in my area of interest were thinking of doing seminars on, what the rotation was like for instructors doing seminars, etc. I think it's good to ask graduate students about their perspective, but even better would be to look at a placement record. You could even look it over with a faculty member or something and get their ideas as to how a graduate from their program might fare.
  8. This is exactly what I meant to emphasize. I didn't mean to undermine your general comment (as someone with both a shitty undergrad GPA and a mediocre grad GPA, I'm so thankful for professors like the one you mentioned), but I just wanted to signal to potential applicants that they should actually care about the types of grades they receive if their ultimate goal is grad school.
  9. I got one B+ in my MA, and you can see how my applications turned out in my signature. I don't think grades will necessarily sink your applications, but it's obviously not ideal either. LIke others have said, you can't change any of it now - just finish out the rest of your coursework as best you can and kill your writing sample. I understand this is coming from a good place, but I want to register that I don't think this is the case at PhD programs. These programs are trying to fill an extremely small number of spots, and usually they have over 100 applications to wade through (for example, my incoming class at Arizona was 5 students, and they had over 200 applications). Every piece of your application speaks to some of your potential, even if it is only very limiting. Grades that you received in MA coursework (which are, on average, based almost completely on the quality of a term paper) are going to be pretty strong indicators of how you will do in graduate level coursework. Most MA programs have less applicants with more spots to fill. It's easier for faculty on admissions committees at MA programs to just look for potential, but I don't think many PhD programs have that luxury.
  10. As long as it's footnotes, I don't really care. If you use endnotes, you are what is wrong with the world.
  11. I have to agree with the others - that is mighty impressive! You might have seen this Daily Nous thread about philosophers from poverty awhile back. It is probably nice to know that you aren't alone. I would describe it in any place where they allow you to expand on difficulties you've faced in academia/undergrad/on the way to grad school, but I agree with Gnothi_Seauton that you probably shouldn't put it in your personal statement unless it has shaped your interests in some important way. Dude(ette), you shouldn't be worried if mentioning that you were homeless provides you with an unfair advantage in the application process. Fortunately, I was able to have a job to work my way through undergrad, but I can't even begin to imagine the type of hardship you would face from not having a place to sleep at night during undergrad. Especially if you were in a rather rigorous undergrad program - which it sounds like you were. Your ability to overcome that hardship is what would give you the edge, not your unfortunate circumstances.
  12. You can always re-submit a writing sample and let them know that you would like them to read the revised version. It's possible they don't read through the samples until they have all of the applications in. It's certainly frustrating, but I'll also say that you will NEVER feel completely fine about your writing sample. You'll always wish you had another day/week/month to do the revisions you would like.
  13. I've had some nervous breakdowns, but I don't recognize educating someone on the dangers of implicit bias as being in the same category.
  14. I don't know if it's usual, but I know several universities still paid for prospective students to visit last cycle. It's a shame that UConn doesn't offer it, but totally understandable. My entire trip to Arizona was paid (including a few people offering to put me up/pay for meals) for, which was splendid. I've heard glowing things about UConn. Out of curiosity (I'm not a prospective applicant), how do you find living in Storrs?
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