ekant

Twwright, Thank you for that very in depth and thoughtful response. I really do appreciate it. I will PM you for your SoP and acceptance/rejection/waitlist list. Haha, I have indeed looked up those professors - those cited from my thesis - and have begun contacting them with general inquiries about the schools they profess at. You're right, it is very difficult to pin down schools by just an 'overarching' topic, but I'd like to look for schools with aesthetic heavy theorists, at least. Michigan, because of their phil/language program, is a school that has alwasy intrigued me. UMiami has also been a prospective on my list for a while. There is a slight discord in my interests, mainly because I'm not sure exactly which route I want to go in yet. I figure graduate studies will help me flesh out my interests in a more cogent manner. Studying both English Literature (literary and critical theory) and Philosophy has been quite the fortune and misfortune. My interests end up falling within both the analytic and the continental paradigms. I already go to school in upstate NY and want to leave the central/upstate NY area (I don't think I can bear four more years here), so no go on Albany or Syracuse, but UPenn and UNC and UConn are all wonderful suggestions. That is a crazy story about your friend, the one with the perfect GPA, 100 page honors thesis, etc. It seems as if he did simply aim too high. I'm glad he is successful in law, though. I have the fear of aiming too high as well. I really want to aim for schools at the top, middle, and bottom. I applied to 12 PhD programs in English this past round and got rejected from all 12. I did, though, apply to almost all top schools. It was naiive and silly. I also realized that I really want to study Philosophy, so I passed up the one offer I did get. Thanks again! I'm going to PM you now.

I have checked out the Philosophical Gourmet report a few times, but I've been told to take those rankings with a grain of salt. It has been a wealth of information for getting started, though. I too have heard people speak highly of Purdue's Philosophy and Literature program, but I heard that having a "Philosophy and Literature" PhD makes you less marketable for jobs. That could be completely wrong though, I'm just going with what a few of my profs told me. The program seems to fit my intersts VERY well, which is what is most important, right? I also don't mind about the not ranked thing. Many of the PhD programs that I will be applying to are "not ranked," yet they're all still super competitive. Crazy process out there. I may have to take the plunge and pay for a prep-course. One of my professors was a GRE/SAT/LSAT tutor for a long time, so he gave me free tutoring this past summer. I learned some of the tricks, but I'm just such a goddamned bad standardized test taker. I can do quite well on the Verbal and Analytic, but the Math is killer for me. I'm not a bad mathematician, but I don't thrive on that section of the test by any stretch. The application is such a crap shoot. Everyone applying has very high GPAs, great LoRs, good SoPs, good writing samples, etc. I wonder how they choose sometimes. Shit is crazy competitive and crazy grim.

Hello, Nausea and magog. Thank you for answering! Those websites are indeed helpful. I am working with a professor, but I wanted to get a few varied viewpoints. I agree that the writing sample is far more important, but I've heard SOPs can potentially hold significant weight as well. I am primarily interested in the philosophy of art and aesthetics. More specifically, my studies have found focus on the philosophy of literature (meaning and truth in art) and hermeneutics. On a sort of separate path, I've also done a lot of work on the notion of the sublime (posed in philosophy, poetry, prose, etc.) its relationship to environmental ethics. Although those are my main interests, I feel pretty well read in many areas of philosophy. I've taken: Theories of Knowledge; Philosophy of Science; Metaphysics; Existentialism; Philosophy of Art; Philosophy of Film; Symbolic Logic; Literary Theory and Criticism; Philosophy of Religion; Survey of World Religions; Senior Thesis (55 page thesis paper); and I chair an Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. Thus, I'm looking for aesthetic heavy programs. Right now my list is: CUNY, UChicago, UOregon, Temple U, New School, Villanova, UMinnesota, UIllinois Urbana-Champaign. Do you know of any other good ones? I've just began searching, really. I'm trying not to shoot so so so high. I know how goddamned competitive it is out there. I have a very high GPA, but my GRE scores lack. I never have been (and probably never will be) a good standardized test taker. I've taken the test three times now, and each time I've done a bit better but not good enough. I'm going to take it once more before sending this application round out. I got rejected from 12 English PhD programs from February to now. I unfortunately sent apps to too many reach schools.

Hey all. I'm new to this "Philosophy" section of the GradCafe forums. I'm a second semester senior (undergraduate) with a major in Philosophy and a major in English. I applied to a bunch of English PhD programs back in November. I didn't get into any. This is kind of a good thing, mainly because I recently came to the realization that I really actually want to pursue Philosophy for graduate studies. I've done much more work in Philosophy and it's quite silly that I chose the English path for graduate studies. I knew something wasn't right. I'm wondering if anyone here might be willing to share their successful Statement of Purpose document. I have one for English, but obviously it didn't do me very well, and this is a different discipline, so I'd like to see how the S.O.Ps differ. I will be applying for the Fall of 2013. I'm assuming that applications should probably be in around December or January, but I want to get a very big head start on this and really create a top notch S.O.P, writing sample, etc. Thanks!

Rejected as well. The letter was indeed unnecessarily mean. Sall good. Still waiting on Rochester (which is a very slim chance for me), but it looks like I'll be at UW-Eau Claire for my MA next year.

LOL! Thank you, that made me laugh. This rejection definitely stung, though. I really thought I had a shot. Good luck to the rest of you folks!

Fuck. Me too. .

Last date of sign-in I can handle, but if they check the amount of times I sign-in a day then we're going to have some trouble haha.

Bahhh! Not losing hope, but also don't wanna wait another week and a half!

Lol, I check the website many times a day. I hope they don't have a tracker on how many times one logs into that system to check the status of applications. If they do, then they'll surely think I'm seriously neurotic.

Thanks, jamie_w! It seems that nobody has heard from Oregon yet... I realllllllllly hope we hear back soon too. Oregon has been my top choice school since I picked schools to apply to back in October. And before considering English programs I was considering Philosophy programs (I have both BA's), and even then Oregon was my top choice! It'd be a dream to get in there. When I e-mailed the graduate administrative assistant, Michael Stamm, he said that they'd be letting us know in "early March - hopefully."

Bahhhh, honors theses.... I finished both my Philosophy thesis (60 pages long) and my senior English capstone last semester. It was a large struggle, so I know how you feel. You got this! I will look into it if I have to do another round! I got into an MA program today (with some funding), so maybe I won't have to do the second round stuff. Still dunno yet! Cheers on the thesis. I literally glued myself (okay, I didn't really glue myself, but I sat myself down) to a chair for hours on end and refused to get up before certain parts of my thesis were complete. Stressful, but it worked. You'll finish it up, I have faith!

I totally feel you. I got into one school today, so that's cool. But yeah, let's see what they say tomorrow. I'm hopeful! And as hermia said, the person we spoke to sounded like she didn't work there... soooo yeah. And hermia, thank you!!!

Thanks ya'll!!! And hey, lyonessrampant, if I end up in Eau Claire I'll be wicked close to the twin cities!

Thanks! Congrats on your acceptance to Milwaukee too. These schools aren't Madison, but they're still good programs! Did Milwaukee offer any funding?

Anyone else apply here for the MA program? I applied and got accepted! Finally, an acceptance! The DGS also recommended to the committee that I receive one of their three graduate assistantships in English.

Lol, this news on top of 9 rejections is REALLY not good. I may call back tomorrow to catch the graduate secretary. I'm dreaming too, GodzillaGrad. I hope it's the case that the representative I spoke to on the phone was wrong.

Lol, I caved and called as well... She said that first round acceptances have gone out, but she also did sound like she had no idea what was going on (she actually said she had no idea what was going on...), so...... yeah. She said to call back tomorrow when the graduate secretary is in. Meep. If the first round admits went out already then that makes me sad.

I wonder when they'll notify... I'm getting quite antsy. I don't think they've made final decisions yet at all. There's still only that one curious acceptance on the board.

Ah, those are definitely some good reasons to take some time off! Pursuing some time in the visual and creative arts sounds wonderful. If I could just tour the country playing music (I'm a musician, too), then I so would, but I'm in the academic mindset and I feel like I may get too far removed from the academic mind set if I abandon it for a long while. CMU's program sounds great. I had never looked into it. There were many programs that I wish I had looked into. If I get into Oregon I'm going. That's it. I'm anxiously awaiting some type of decision. Rejection would suck, but I know it's a huge possibility. For real. Life is grim sometimes.

What kind of second thoughts have you been having? I can definitely understand the wanting to do other things rather than sit through another six years of school when, in reality, we've been in school for many many many years straight. I will take you up on that. I'll call the University of Oregon personally and tell them that Julianne Pigoon wants her spot to go to me. I'll save the testes, yay.

Julianne Pigoon, I love you. This is my dream school. Dream program. Dream. I would so appreciate that spot. However, if you get in, I mean, it's kinda yours, ya know? I would potentially chop off one of my testicles to go to this school. Now you know my gender. Maybe.

Getting really really antsy here..

Bah. Yes. Everyday she sends me job postings. It needs to stop. I completely feel you with the extended family part. My whole family thinks I'm going for a PhD in English and now I must tell them that I probably will not be (in the very probable event that I get rejected from the rest of my schools). Eek, youngest of 20+ grandkids?!? That's nuts. That is horrible that they keep asking you how it's going. Same here on my end. Every time I see someone they say, "Any news?" I have to look at them with a dejected smile and say "No good news."

My professors have been very supportive throughout the whole process. They have been very surprised at all the rejections, though. One of my professors went through at least 10 edits/revisions of my SoP and 7 or 8 revisions of my writing sample before sending it out, as well as writing me a LoR. It has been really tough to relay all the rejection news to people I care about. They feel bad. I feel bad. I don't really want the pity either, but I can't stop talking about it/thinking about it. It's just awkward. If I get another e-mail from my mother sending me job opportunities I might kill myself.