twwright

Whoops. Didn't mean to say he sent the entire thesis; you're right, that would've been dumb. I was even told that around 8 pages is best (so long as they don't have a minimum 15pp. requirement). I also certainly don't mean to say "don't apply to reach schools." My advice was more to be weary of applying to only reach schools. It also seems to be the case that direction of fit is an extremely important factor. The SoP is a chance to show how you fit like a puzzle piece into the school's system. Why you'd benefit from them, and why they'd benefit from you (without being pretentious). Since direction of fit is so important, getting into top ranked programs isn't impossible, but it's likely going to be a climb for many applicants. I think Eric S. suggests that the writing sample and SoP are the most important parts of the application, and I'd probably agree. (In part, my motivation for agreeing is that I didn't have a good GPA. I had some family issues and some screwups freshman year. I also used an unpolished writing sample. I also had mediocre GRE scores. I'm certain my acceptances were based largely recommendation letters and my SoP. The university to which I'll attend fits like a glove around my interests, and my background and interests make me a good candidate for them.)

Just a few cents. First, take a look at Warwick's Philosophy & Literature program. It's very good. Second, try to pick schools based on a much more precise measure than an `overarching' topic. It will become very difficult to pin this down at a lot of places. You'll get a better feel for what departments are like if you find some professors there who do things in the fields you like. Start by picking a paper you rea like, maybe one you cited. You should have lots of references from your thesis. Then look up the people who wrote the articles! Many times you'll find that they're still alive and around, doing something nice. I'd recommend Michigan for phil/language (which is probably what you actually want if you care about truth and meaning), except I've heard Walton (the ace there) is difficult to work with (don't know how true this is). I would also suggest UMiami's department. Amie Thomasson is a precious aesthetician and metaphysician. I also notice a discord between your interests. Without being too cut-and-dry, some of your interests seem to be analytically weighted and some are continentally weighted. (For example, you'll be hard-pressed to find a philosophy at, say, CUNY, who will share your interest in hermeneutics.) Make sure you can tell which departments fall into which stint. The New School, for example, trades in continental (perhaps even party-line continental) philosophy. You won't find too much Tarski or Quine. Continental specialties often make it difficult to get a job, since America is dominated primarily by analytic philosophers. Be sure you're clear on which department will offer what. Many departments will have proficiency in both subject areas, and I imagine that's where you'll like to go. Suggestions include UAlbany, UPenn, Syracuse, and UNC/UConn (particularly for William Lycan). As for your original question about statements of purpose, I'd be glad to share mine privately with you. Drop me a message if you'd like me to, along with my acceptance/waitlist/rejection list. I also wrote a blog post not too long ago about how I went about writing my SoP, but I can't seem to find it. If I stumble on it, I'll share. I'm not sure how true it is that you ought to take the Gourmet Report with a grain of salt. This week on Leiter Reports (philosophy blog by the founder of the PGR), Kieran Healy has been guest blogging about the PGR's results. He's a sociologist who's done some extensive studies on the PGR and his findings are starting to look like they're showing that the PGR really isn't all that skewed. Additionally, Schwitzgebel has made a post about the hiring practices among PGR schools. He noted that 100% of the top ten school's hires come from PhD programs in the top 20 of the PGR. Additionally, he notes that there is a very low likelihood of breaking into the top 50 for teaching if you don't attend a top 50 for the PhD. I am always slightly skeptical of Schwitzgebel (he seems to be very crude and, sometimes, accidentally pretentious), but I've heard general agreements from professors within my department and others'. The PGR, it seems, is the standard. And while that's no indication that a smart, hard-working individual can't achieve at a school not PGR-ranked, it's certainly an indication that PGR rank does matter. Additionally, if you're coming from a school not generally known to have a renown philosophy department, it's good to look into acceptance rates from recent graduates. If most graduates from your school went to Rice, e.g., it might be good to apply to Rice (since your chances will be higher). Also, don't get too wide-eyed. A very, very smart student graduated from my university several years ago with a 4.0, highest Greek honors, Phi Beta Kappa, nearly 100-page Honors thesis which was granted approval by both the psychology and philosophy department, and had two summers spent doing x-phi/psych research at MIT and he was not accepted into any programs. I wondered how, what seemed like such an awesome student, could get rejected from a philosophy program. So, I searched for an answer. Here I found out that he had only applied to NYU, Rutgers, Oxford, Princeton, Harvard, and St. Andrews. Fortunately he applied to law programs, as well, as is now attending Harvard Law (turns out it's easier to get into their Law program than their Philosophy program). He simply aimed too high. One way to think about admissions is like this: picture the smartest person you've ever met. Now multiple him by forty, and put all forty people into a competition for a single admission spot at a top-tier university. That's sort of the way philosophy admissions can be. =/ Can you get into a top program? Sure, someone does, right? Just make sure to aim for schools both at the top level, the middle level, and the bottom level. Your odds of success will be much higher. Best of luck! [Note: I make some cases in this post quite strongly than they might actually be. There is likely a hermeneutically-interested philosopher at CUNY, for example. It's just meant to give you an idea of the thing I'm talking about; I don't hold rigidly to anything I've said as if it's gospel or necessarily true.]

I agree with v3p011, but I would also suggest applying to some of the PhD programs you'd `rather go to.' Some of those schools, so far as I know, will likely admit you if your dossier looks good (even more so than some of the `back-ups' you listed). Coming from a weak philosophy department will not be very big hurdles for places like, e.g., New School and SUNY-Stonybrook. =)

Just a quick word; I believe the progams you want to apply to in Scotland, especially, are MSc, not MPhil.