Rants, Venting, and Speculation

[machineghost]

3 hours ago, prtrbd said:

How seriously should I take "implicit rejections"? E.g. (at the moment): Pitt, Toronto, USC, Rutgers, Virginia, Harvard. That's half of the schools I haven't heard back from.

It is a good general rule of thumb to assume that if you haven’t been accepted or waitlisted (and both acceptances and waitlists have been reported on gradcafe), you will be rejected. This isn’t *always* true, but it will be true in the vast majority of cases. 

[coffeepls]

21 hours ago, totorotaro said:

At this point, almost all of my schools have sent acceptances. I have received two rejections. I am reconciling with the fact I will probably be shut out. And this requires copious amounts of wine. I hope this next week brings you some response and, ultimately, the acceptance to the school of your dreams! 

Thank you! I've gotten into two MAs, so I know I'll have somewhere to go post-undergrad, but I really want to get the rejections out of the way. 

[prtrbd]

Dear Prof, I applied but you still ain't callin'
I left my cell, my statement, and my writing sample at the bottom
I attached three letters back in autumn, you must not-a got 'em
There probably was a problem with my AOI or somethin'

[prtrbd]

I still have only two actual decisions out of fourteen applications. Is anybody else this low?

[lyellgeo]

It depends on how you define actual. Right now I have one actual (financially sound) decision. But there is a chance that others could open up.

Edit: thought you meant decision to make, not having received an official decision on one's application. I think I've "officially" received a decision by 3-4 places

Edited February 24, 2018 by lyellgeo

[ThePeon]

2 hours ago, prtrbd said:

I still have only two actual decisions out of fourteen applications. Is anybody else this low?

Yeah I've only officially heard back from 2 out of 9 programs as well. It's frustrating.

[eigenname]

3 hours ago, prtrbd said:

I still have only two actual decisions out of fourteen applications. Is anybody else this low?

I have 3 out of 15 (2 if you discount wait-list),  so thereabouts as well. I am expecting next week (and the week after) to be the decisive weeks. 

[Schwarzwald]

I've gotten decisions from from 6 out of 20. Though, counting waitlists and presumed rejections, I'm at 12 out of 20. Looking forward to the end of this.

[dogman1212]

On 2/23/2018 at 3:17 AM, kurumetarou said:

Didn't even get waitlisted yet, let alone acceptance. It's pointless to be sad, but it surely is quite depressing to think I don't even get a chance to make something out of my life. But then again maybe that's just how life works.

 

Ok, I apologize if this is overly forward, but your comment is a bit concerning to me. I think there are many ways that people make something out of their lives outside of academic philosophy, and I think overvaluing the work of academic philosophers may be dangerous. There are many other fields where people engage in fulfilling and meaningful work.

I understand that this thread is for ranting and venting, but it's likely that you still have plenty of opportunities to make something out of your life, whether or not they have to do with philosophy.

Edited February 24, 2018 by dogman1212

[thehegeldialectic]

50 minutes ago, dogman1212 said:

 I think overvaluing the work of academic philosophers may be dangerous. There are many other fields where people engage in fulfilling and meaningful work.

I disagree. Why should someone find something rewarding or fulfilling just because someone else does? Some people only want to do one thing with their lives. These people tend to succeed. So I would say: don't ever settle for less. 


(Of course, it's definitely possible to pursue philosophy in a different department, such as theology, comparative literature, or French/German studies).

Edited February 24, 2018 by iunoionnis

[lyellgeo]

 

12 minutes ago, iunoionnis said:

I disagree. Why should someone find something rewarding or fulfilling just because someone else does? Some people only want to do one thing with their lives. These people tend to succeed. So I would say: don't ever settle for less. 
 

That is fair, but I think the main point was that a career in academic philosophy—or even academia more generally—is neither necessary nor sufficient to "make something" of one's life. In fact, in some cases, the former may even be detrimental to the latter! (See this essay for just one example.)

Edited February 24, 2018 by lyellgeo

[kurumetarou]

8 hours ago, dogman1212 said:

Ok, I apologize if this is overly forward, but your comment is a bit concerning to me. I think there are many ways that people make something out of their lives outside of academic philosophy, and I think overvaluing the work of academic philosophers may be dangerous. There are many other fields where people engage in fulfilling and meaningful work.

I understand that this thread is for ranting and venting, but it's likely that you still have plenty of opportunities to make something out of your life, whether or not they have to do with philosophy.

Can't say I disagree with you, but where I'm from, things are really not looking good, especially for a Humanities major. We are told to be grateful if we can get a menial, mindless, meaningless, dead-end job which inevitably leads to mental exhaustion after we graduate, and let's not get started on the meager salary and the continuously skyrocketing cost of living. Life pursuits that are not economic and wealth-accumulating in nature are discouraged by the prevailing ideology, and having them will make one the butt of jokes. I am not gonna go into details about the political situation here so let's just say it's dire.

Sure, doing a PhD, and with any luck, working as an academic philosopher is not all romantic and rosy - from what we know it is gonna be frustrating as heck as well, and maybe it eventually will lead to nowhere, but at least I will be learning stuff and doing things that are a little bit less meaningless in the process. And it's one of the few ways to get out of this predicament, if even only for a while. But now it looks like this door is shut.

Thanks for your response, and I'm sorry if I sounded whiny. Though it feels good to have a place to put my disappointment into words.

Edited February 25, 2018 by kurumetarou

[thehegeldialectic]

12 hours ago, kurumetarou said:

Sure, doing a PhD, and with any luck, working as an academic philosopher is not all romantic and rosy - from what we know it is gonna be frustrating as heck as well, and maybe it eventually will lead to nowhere, but at least I will be learning stuff and doing things that are a little bit less meaningless in the process. And it's one of the few ways to get out of this predicament, if even only for a while. But now it looks like this door is shut.

Well, if you really want this, it might be a good idea to look into a terminal M.A., if you don't have an M.A. already. It's becoming more and more standard for people to get M.A.'s before Ph.D. nowadays. 

[prtrbd]

Having joined this forum on Friday, I just received some sort of automated prize for "best content" for February 25th due to the number of likes I received from you all. Now I can no longer say I didn't get anything out of this process.

[soproperlybasic]

At this point, I really just want a miracle to happen and to hear back from UNC and Rutgers with good news!!!

Also what is taking Chapel Hill so long this year???

[prtrbd]

Any predictions for who we'll hear from this week?

My dream: Monday, Notre Dame; Tuesday, UNC; Wednesday, Princeton; Thursday, Oxford; Friday, NYU.

[PhiloStorian]

9 hours ago, soproperlybasic said:

At this point, I really just want a miracle to happen and to hear back from UNC and Rutgers with good news!!!

Also what is taking Chapel Hill so long this year???

I'm also very anxious about UNC, hoping we hear from them this week.

Edited February 26, 2018 by PhiloStorian
I'm an idiot, there was an easily visible 'x' for removing reactions.

[Philodoxia]

1 hour ago, prtrbd said:

Any predictions for who we'll hear from this week?

My dream: Monday, Notre Dame; Tuesday, UNC; Wednesday, Princeton; Thursday, Oxford; Friday, NYU.

My predictions: We'll hear back from Amherst by this Wednesday. I bet today. We'll hear back from UCSD by Friday. My money's on phone calls tomorrow,, though.

[PhiloStorian]

I'm annoyed by the amount of spam email I get from universities that either already have rejected me or almost certainly will, including universities I didn't even apply to. Vanderbilt and NYU, I'm looking at you.

[soproperlybasic]

3 hours ago, prtrbd said:

Any predictions for who we'll hear from this week?

My dream: Monday, Notre Dame; Tuesday, UNC; Wednesday, Princeton; Thursday, Oxford; Friday, NYU.

Why even space it out? I'm desperate and want to know about all of these by tomorrow

[kretschmar]

2 hours ago, Philodoxia said:

My predictions: We'll hear back from Amherst by this Wednesday. I bet today. We'll hear back from UCSD by Friday. My money's on phone calls tomorrow,, though.

Likely Columbia will send a few acceptances, and GSU is Thursday or perhaps Friday. 

[ThePeon]

I wonder if Harvard will send out more waitlist letters. It seems like the one posted was a POI contact and so they likely (?) haven't sent out others, but maybe I'm just being overly optimistic.

[prtrbd]

POI, un professor
I'm a loser baby
So why not reject me

[Cogitodoncrien]

Can anyone who is a member of the FB group for philosophy admissions results tell me if there have been other, unique (meaning those who haven't posted or don't post results here) postings of acceptances from Indiana-Bloomington? (I understand if there is no easy way to determine whether posters use both sites or not.)

[Pythian]

On 2/24/2018 at 1:36 PM, dogman1212 said:

Ok, I apologize if this is overly forward, but your comment is a bit concerning to me. I think there are many ways that people make something out of their lives outside of academic philosophy, and I think overvaluing the work of academic philosophers may be dangerous. There are many other fields where people engage in fulfilling and meaningful work.

I understand that this thread is for ranting and venting, but it's likely that you still have plenty of opportunities to make something out of your life, whether or not they have to do with philosophy.

Coming out of undergrad, I had a similar mindset as @ kurumetarou , but now being a year out of school, and working at a job that I enjoy, I feel I can approach my goals in academic philosophy more lucidly than I could have a year ago.

Many students go into college right out of high school, and apply for grad school their senior year. For many people, their senior year at college is 16 unbroken years of being in the education system. It wouldn't surprise me if students experience something similar to stockholm syndrome. It's hard to look beyond academia if it has been the central structure of one's life.