UnbearableNausea

No offense intended, but if you have only taken philosophy courses from a theological perspective and your degree-granting institution did not have any full-time Philosophy-oriented faculty, then I think an M.A. in any area of philosophy other than Philosophy of Religion might be a shock to the system. I would say generally that having a degree in Philosophy will certainly help you in theology, but having a degree in theology will likely not help you in focus areas that are not Philosophy of Religion. Just my two cents (my undergrad program was heavily oriented toward philosophy of religion and "postmodern" theological approaches and I found many of the theology students who took philosophy courses to be woefully unprepared for the different approach). You mention Hegel for history of philosophy and Plato, Socrates, etc. Have you considered a Classics focus or Ancient Philosophy? This might also pair well with language often useful in theology, such as Latin, Greek, or even German.

Amherst looks like it filled a chunk of its spots today. Based on 2011 it looks like they will offer admission to 19 or so and only 5 or so will enter the program... Given that 5 just posted acceptances, chances are looking pretty slim. Also, does anyone want to claim the Syracuse acceptance? They look pretty early, given that no one else has posted an accept/reject from that school yet. Just wondering if any correspondance indicated waitlisting is occuring, etc. **edited because I just double-checked and FSU post was from 2011

My two cents likely comes too late, but on most, if not all, of my applications there was an area to indicate unusual circumstances or to clarify weaker elements of your application. Even without those, this is also something that is appropriate to address in your own personal statement, so long as you couch it in positive terms.

There is a position at my current job that just opened up and they are having trouble filling it. It is essentially what I am doing now anyway but with better pay and a little bit more responsibility. So, if I don't end up getting in (or get in but can't get funding) then I will try and get the promotion and use the exra money to re-take the GREs, maybe have a PhD student I know at Riverside to help me tune up my SoPs, and re-apply to a lower-ranked set of PhD programs and more MA programs than I did this round. This is my first time applying. I agree with Blurry about business - even if you don't have GRE scores/writing that puts you in the 98th or 99th percentile (as it seems a hefty number of Phil applicants do...) you are likely still more intelligent than the average applicant for a lot of business positions, probably a more clear communicator as well so that can put you in good stead for office work. Eric S. at Splintered Mind has said in the past that one really ought to reconsider applying for graduate school in Philosophy if he or she wouldn't be happy teaching at community colleges and scraping by for a long time, if not a very long time. I wish that weren't a possible future for any of us, but that's the way the market is right now.

I applied to Boulder, just checked the site and it says mine is still under review. Delayed rejection, or secret waitlist? I know which I prefer...

Hey all, I have to say, I am a little uncomfortable that I have not heard from any schools except for UNC and Duke, who both let me know around late January. If some have gained acceptance and some have received rejections from schools I have applied to but I have yet to hear anything...is that a good sign or a bad sign? Casting my lot: Reject: UNC, Duke Waiting to Hear Back From: Georgetown, Cornell, Brown, Amherst, Boulder, Arizona, Tufts (MA), Syracuse, CMU, UMaryland, FSU, JHU, Brandeis (MA) and Houston (MA). I can throw up some of my generic stats if you guys are interested.