fluxkit

They finally got 'round to it.

It's April 30th and I still have one PhD application out that was due February 1st. I've heard nothing in any direction: not put on wait list, not notified of acceptance, not notified of rejection. Is this unusual? What do you think they are doing?

Anyhow, I don't think you should base your decision on what you did in undergrad. Start by considering what problems in philosophy, or what figures in philosophy you are most interested in working on. Then find programs with faculty that support those interests. You can always emphasize your qualifications to fit around what you hope to pursue. It's more important to put forward an idea of where you want to go, than where you've been. P.S.: I've no clue about these "quarter-credits." At first I thought you took like 38 or more philo. classes.

I think it's more about pedigree. Committees will want to feel like they are selecting someone who has been reared by someone who has an important rep. Good grades are good. Getting published may or may not matter, it depends. Most of them don't want you to have very new ideas. Sometimes that might scare them off, as it might show you already have too many ideas of your own. They may want to see you as an empty vessel to fill with their own ideas, so you can be their disciples. However, showing a bit of arrogant self-regard may help you appear more attractive to some. They also like high standardized test percentiles, because schools love quantifiable things to put in statistics reports and believing that everyone they accept is in the top 2% of smart people. Cynicism aside, I've talked to numerous profs and chairs at schools and none of them can really give a straight answer as to what a committee actually wants. It's apparently very mysterious. They may consult the I Ching or divine entrails. Nobody really knows. Common points of emphasis tend to be "strong" GRE scores, good reading skills in foreign languages is never a bad thing to have, and almost everyone talks up having publications and presentations... but still, its a mystery. Having all of these will guarantee nothing, but it may give you a shot.

You can adjunct and teach general courses at many schools, not just community colleges. A community college is likely to be the only venue you stand a chance of landing an actual position. Otherwise, you will need to start over in something else. If you only want to study philosophy to learn about yourself and stuff like that... I think it's great, but you probably can do that without getting an MA. You also can't trust that even if you excel in your MA program that you'll get into an PhD program that you'd want to... at least not with funding. It's a gamble. So, probably only go for the MA if you think you have a reasonable interest in going further. Options at the MA level suck. And yes, I speak from experience.