MattDest

Yeah, I didn't really study for verbal or AW and my scores were pretty top-notch in that area. But I am exceptionally horrible at math, and I thought the tutorials were incredibly helpful. Despite that help, I still managed to do rather meh on the math section.

Good luck to you too!

This thread started out so promising. Let's not feed the trolls and instead focus on the questions that bar_scene prompted.

Well, your application does sound pretty fantastic. Being assured you will get into a top 25 program is pretty spectacular - I'll be interested to hear where you end up!

This is a beautiful time-wasting opportunity - thanks barscene! You should answer these questions yourself. I enjoyed your drunken desire for camaraderie. (2) I'm not working on any last minute projects for my application (I've already turned them in), but I'm organizing a graduate student conference for the spring and am awaiting submissions *wink wink*. I'm also writing my MA thesis this spring, which I'm really excited about. (3) I'm interested in philosophy of mind (psychology/neuroscience esp. perception and consciousness), social epistemology, and philosophy of religion. These interests allowed me to cast a really wide net while applying. However, my experience at my MA program taught me that my interests don't necessarily need to be set in stone, and might develop differently depending on where I end up. (4) My writing sample was a paper I developed during a summer seminar on John Broome's "Rationality Through Reasoning". It's a critical response to some of the requirements of rationality he proposes. It's a bit outside of my usual areas of interest, but I went through two rounds of revisions with professor comments, and I feel pretty confident in it. My PS was pretty generic, but I did tailor the last paragraph to specific programs. (5) Honestly, I would want to go to any of the programs I applied to. Arizona and Northwestern (Lackey) are pretty high on my list at the moment. (6) I have no earthly idea.

Good luck to everyone! Now we can hurry up and wait for the results.

I studied a bit, but I wish I would have studied more. I used Magoosh (it's online with video tutorials and tons of practice questions), which I found to be really helpful and my results from the several practice tests I took were pretty accurate to my official scores.

I'm not really surprised that they aren't lurking the web - I barely stumbled onto these sites, and it is not as if they are advertised that heavily. I do wonder about how many competitive applicants there are. I wish that departments provided more data about the applicants they accept.

I got some introduction to both during my undergrad (at least as far as I understand what is meant by this divide), but I've always been more interested in philosophy that is widely considered analytic.

What i included in my SOPs that I sent out is similar to barscenegamblers, and I also did a university-specific paragraph where I explained how my interests matched up to faculty at that institution. You can see a few successful examples of SOP here: http://schwitzsplintersunderblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/sample-statement-of-purpose.html.

Pedro, I would concentrate on your writing sample - those are pretty good scores, and most people who retake the GRE (myself included) don't change their score too much. May I ask what "first class MA degree" means?

If you haven't completed your writing sample yet, you should definitely work on that instead.

I would like to register my own positive experience with an MA Program, the University of Missouri, St. Louis (it's mentioned on PGR). I'm finishing up my second year and applying out simultaneously, and the faculty have all been incredibly helpful in the process. I've gotten feedback from four different professors on my writing sample, two of them have commented on my personal statement, and each of them has given me feedback on which programs to apply. The program itself was well worth it. I got funding for each semester I was there (roughly $3,000/semester if you get a full time appointment)). It was a major positive for me that I got to get experience teaching my own courses, designing syllabi, etc. The seminars were all fairly small, and were rigorous and discussion-based. Each professor I have had certainly knows their stuff, and are almost all willing to do independent studies if you are interested in something in particular that is not offered. I've personally done independent studies on Epicurus, Decision Theory, and looking to do one on social epistemology. BIG PLUS: You can also take classes at Saint Louis University, and Washington University for free if you have the tuition waiver + funding. It's also a very active and close-knit department. There are weekly outings, and we often go out even more than that. Most of the professors are pretty active, and attend a lot of the functions. I think it's well worth considering doing an MA before committing to a PhD, and I highly suggestion UMSL. Here's the placement record (and you can see the department website): http://www.umsl.edu/~philo/MA%20Program/Placement/index.html

I have absolutely no experience with this, but it seems absurd that this could count as a strike against you. If your classes are in German, and it is not your primary language, it's hard to see how an admissions committee would not take that into account. If you do take classes in German, I would have your letter writers mention that it was not your first language. (You could mention it to, of course.)

I don't think it will put you at a disadvantage at all, but I would let your letter writers explain it for you (if your department has a history of placing well, presumably this has worked in the past, and PhD departments might already know this). It might come across the wrong way if you try to explain it yourself.

I've always appreciated when others have been transparent about their stats, especially when reporting admission decisions. It makes it easier on future applicants, and provides people with a good idea about what places their application might be competitive. I completely agree that it's nice to see what others are up to. Cheers!

It obviously matters to some extent, but I don't think that pedigree alone will keep you out of a T-20 program. If you look at a program like Rutgers, you can see that their graduate students are not all from top-tier programs. The other issue is that pedigree often works against an applicant in terms of LORs, as well. It seems like a glowing letter from Big Name Philosopher will be weightier than a glowing letter from a relatively unknown philosopher. Of course, I'm not sitting on an admissions committee - but from my discussions with advisors this is what I've learned.

Hey everyone! Any others been browsing this forum hoping for more activity? It's too early to start fretting over all of this yet, but that hasn't stopped me from doing so.

I'm reading Churchland's new book "Plato's Camera". Pretty good read.

So this might be a dumb question: since results are posted for 2 people at UIC, what does this mean for others who have applied there? Does acceptance work in waves, generally, or do they make most decisions at once? I'm a first-time applicant who doesn't know much about that process.