2019 Graduate Entrants

[Kantattheairport]

9 hours ago, nonbeingandsomethingness said:

I just heard back- was told that while they were impressed with my application they still don't have a decision for me. I'm gonna take this as good news lol.... 

That's definitely good news! I think that's the closest they'll get to admitting you're on a waitlist!

[ohtimethypyramids]

Why has Irvine not sent out rejections??? I know they interviewed wayyy back in January, and I did not get one...c'mon guys...

[DoodleBob]

4 hours ago, ohtimethypyramids said:

Why has Irvine not sent out rejections??? I know they interviewed wayyy back in January, and I did not get one...c'mon guys...

Last year (according to the results page) Irvine released some acceptances on February 12 for their Philosophy PhD program. Their logic and philosophy of science program decisions came a bit later. Hopefully will hear back this week. 

[bluwe]

I just found that you can set up your Apply Web preferences so that it sends you a text when there are changes/updates to your applications. Unless of course you enjoy obsessively checking it day in and day out.

[nonbeingandsomethingness]

50 minutes ago, bluwe said:

I just found that you can set up your Apply Web preferences so that it sends you a text when there are changes/updates to your applications. Unless of course you enjoy obsessively checking it day in and day out.

woah thanks for this! 

[TexasTerry]

What do y'all make of Stony Brook's program?

[Aesthetics Always]

On 1/26/2019 at 6:42 PM, gradhopeful96 said:

Has anyone else been having second thoughts lately and wished they applied to more programs?? haha nothing better to do than just think of all the what if’s while waiting to hear from schools ? 

I cant stop thinking about this! this was my first application cycle though so I'm telling myself that I'll get it right next year. how many did you apply to? I ended up doing 6 (rejected from 1 so far)

[charliekkk]

1 hour ago, TexasTerry said:

What do y'all make of Stony Brook's program?

im curious too

[Kantattheairport]

15 minutes ago, Aesthetics Always said:

I cant stop thinking about this! this was my first application cycle though so I'm telling myself that I'll get it right next year. how many did you apply to? I ended up doing 6 (rejected from 1 so far)

Applying to more programmes helps, but that's going to be true regardless of how many you apply to! So I think planning to apply to more in case you don't get in this year is a good plan; but also, it's not necessary to worry about the effects on this cycle. (My first cycle, last year, I applied to 8 PhD programmes and 2 MAs.)

[gradhopeful96]

20 minutes ago, Aesthetics Always said:

I cant stop thinking about this! this was my first application cycle though so I'm telling myself that I'll get it right next year. how many did you apply to? I ended up doing 6 (rejected from 1 so far)

yeah same! I applied to 8, I have one acceptance, 1 official rejection, 1 presumed rejection, and 5 seem to not have come out with anything yet, but I fear they will be rejections 

[bluwe]

I applied to a lot of programs, and sort of regret it as I foresee a large number of rejections to roll in soon, and can probably guess what schools (so why did I even apply to those?). I think fit matters so much that if you have interests more specific than broad fields of study, you're probably better off applying to just the ones you're a fit for since the rest will just reject you on the basis that no one at their program has that particular interest. That said, if you're willing to put in the work to make your interests seem of broad interest to a large number of diverse faculty then maybe you should apply to a high number, since you won't be rejected based on your interests in lieu of any other reason to reject you.

[VentralStream]

Does anybody know if Notre Dame has more than one wave of rejections? I noticed many applicants were rejected yesterday (I have not heard back from them). 

[MtnDuck]

3 hours ago, VentralStream said:

Does anybody know if Notre Dame has more than one wave of rejections? I noticed many applicants were rejected yesterday (I have not heard back from them). 

In past years there have been two main waves of rejections. One usually goes out mid-late February and then another goes out in March if the past 3 years are anything to go by.

[VentralStream]

@MtnDuck I won't get my hopes up then! Thanks for the info!

[nonbeingandsomethingness]

On 2/14/2019 at 12:41 PM, bluwe said:

I applied to a lot of programs, and sort of regret it as I foresee a large number of rejections to roll in soon, and can probably guess what schools (so why did I even apply to those?). I think fit matters so much that if you have interests more specific than broad fields of study, you're probably better off applying to just the ones you're a fit for since the rest will just reject you on the basis that no one at their program has that particular interest. That said, if you're willing to put in the work to make your interests seem of broad interest to a large number of diverse faculty then maybe you should apply to a high number, since you won't be rejected based on your interests in lieu of any other reason to reject you.

I wholeheartedly agree! Just to echo what you said... save yourself the heartache, money, and time, and apply to schools that you can get work done at. Alternatively, you'll have to really tailor and make it seem like you are fit for their uni. The latter option doesn't really sound good to me (since isn't the point of all this not just to get an acceptance, but to get work you enjoy doing done?) The rejections I have received really make sense to me (seems like an issue w/fit though this is not to belittle other factors at play)

[politkal]

I'm a little bit late to the proverbial party and also from the U.K but I would love to hear from anyone else who has applied to either UCL or Oxford! I'm currently waiting to hear back from both universities and from the data provided on this website, it seems as though I can expect to receive a decision within the next two weeks. 

I finished my applications back in October and the wait has been absolutely agonising. I am not very confident of gaining entry into either school even though I definitely have the grades. I'm not quite sure whether stumbling across this website has helped or worsened my anxiety but it has softened the experience and the blow of my only rejection so far. I suppose it's comforting to know that you aren't alone!

[practically_mi]

1 hour ago, autonomyminded said:

I'm a little bit late to the proverbial party and also from the U.K but I would love to hear from anyone else who has applied to either UCL or Oxford! I'm currently waiting to hear back from both universities and from the data provided on this website, it seems as though I can expect to receive a decision within the next two weeks. 

I finished my applications back in October and the wait has been absolutely agonising. I am not very confident of gaining entry into either school even though I definitely have the grades. I'm not quite sure whether stumbling across this website has helped or worsened my anxiety but it has softened the experience and the blow of my only rejection so far. I suppose it's comforting to know that you aren't alone!

I'm in the 2nd year of the MPhil Stud at UCL and I'd recommend that you email them to ask about your status if you haven't heard back within the next few weeks. In my experience they can be a bit slow to communicate decisions, and there isn't really a set date for when decisions come out either--ppl in my cohort heard back anywhere between February and April. Good luck with your applications!

[Kantattheairport]

2 hours ago, autonomyminded said:

I'm a little bit late to the proverbial party and also from the U.K but I would love to hear from anyone else who has applied to either UCL or Oxford! I'm currently waiting to hear back from both universities and from the data provided on this website, it seems as though I can expect to receive a decision within the next two weeks. 

I finished my applications back in October and the wait has been absolutely agonising. I am not very confident of gaining entry into either school even though I definitely have the grades. I'm not quite sure whether stumbling across this website has helped or worsened my anxiety but it has softened the experience and the blow of my only rejection so far. I suppose it's comforting to know that you aren't alone!

Hello! I'm a fellow applicant for the BPhil, and right there with you on the 'not especially confident' boat! ? I see from your signature that you've had an offer at the LSE though; congratulations!

[SexandtheHaecceity]

Anyone gotten positive contact from Fordham? I missed the rejection wave a few days ago and trying to ascertain whether that's good news or if I've just received a temporary stay of execution. 

[Monk_Fudge]

2 hours ago, SexandtheHaecceity said:

Anyone gotten positive contact from Fordham? I missed the rejection wave a few days ago and trying to ascertain whether that's good news or if I've just received a temporary stay of execution. 

I'm in the same boat.. I also haven't received anything from Duquesne as well... 

[BuffaloBuffalo]

Just got my first acceptance, and my first (soft) rejection.  My acceptance was from Memphis, for their MA program (waitlisted for funding) and my soft rejection was from Duquesne's PhD program (saw that coming).  I call it a soft rejection because I'm still in the running for the MA program there, but the funding package they offer just really isn't competitive (It's usually around 50% off tuition), so I'm probably not going to accept it.  

As for who I am, I'm a chemistry and fiction writing major who realized way too late they wanted to do philosophy.  I've been studying on my own and taking classes like nothing else since then; I managed to get a research fellowship through my school's honor's college last summer, and basically did a Foucauldian archaeology of body piercing.  I'm also interested in the philosophy of Guy Hocquenghem, an obscure French philosopher who is sometimes called the first queer theorist.  I've been slowly chipping away at a translation of one of his untranslated texts, and I delivered a guest lecture to a French literature class on him last semester.  Getting my first acceptance, even if it's got that annoying asterisk of "waitlist for funding" attached to it felt so validating that I've been riding a wave of positiveness for two days now.  

Related to that last point; does anyone know if I can expect that funding to come through? A friend of mine told me that it usually did, but Memphis is telling me I'll have to wait til mid-April to get a decision from them, and I'm kind of anxious to just take his word for it.  

[politkal]

19 hours ago, practically_mi said:

I'm in the 2nd year of the MPhil Stud at UCL and I'd recommend that you email them to ask about your status if you haven't heard back within the next few weeks. In my experience they can be a bit slow to communicate decisions, and there isn't really a set date for when decisions come out either--ppl in my cohort heard back anywhere between February and April. Good luck with your applications!

Thank you for getting in touch, I hope you're enjoying your second year - how have you found the workload at UCL? I will be sure to chase them up if I don't hear anything in the coming weeks, a friend of mine who graduated from the same university is currently doing her first year at UCL and I think she heard back in March. Also I would love to know whether you submitted a research proposal when you applied and what your background was? I got in touch with the graduate admissions office and they told me that it wasn't necessary to liaise with a potential supervisor or submit a proposal for entry onto the course. I did submit a proposal in the end as I do have a clear set of problems that I would like to pursue but I avoided getting in touch with any potential supervisors, as I didn't want to preclude myself from working with any other tutors (my proposal would probably be suited to more than one tutor at UCL). I was actually rejected from KCL on the grounds that I did not contact any tutors in the department regarding supervision (a mistake which was made as a result of the assumption that King's would operate more similarly to UCL, even though I know the courses are quite different) and so I am worried that somehow the grad admissions at UCL might also have made a mistake and that I might have been led astray? Any light you could shed on this would be great!

18 hours ago, Kantattheairport said:

Hello! I'm a fellow applicant for the BPhil, and right there with you on the 'not especially confident' boat! ? I see from your signature that you've had an offer at the LSE though; congratulations!

Thank you, LSE is a great school and I am happy to have received an offer, especially given my areas of research interest (political philosophy, social epistemology). Despite this, I am really hoping for an offer from either UCL or Oxford. I think that both the MPhil stud and BPhil provide much better value for money when you consider the quite frankly ridiculous fees that LSE charge (one year of tuition comes scarily close to two years at Oxford). In addition to this, I think that both of the aforementioned courses provide a more rigorous training for doctoral study and offer students the opportunity to really deepen their knowledge on a range of philosophical fields. Another sticking point with LSE is that all the modules that you take are graded by examination (67%) and short essays of 2000 words (33%) - it kind of comes across as quite lazy, as in the tutors can't be bothered to read long student papers and also as an ineffective way to develop more advanced student philosophers. May I also ask what your profile is like and where else you have applied?

[Kantattheairport]

3 hours ago, BuffaloBuffalo said:

Just got my first acceptance, and my first (soft) rejection.  My acceptance was from Memphis, for their MA program (waitlisted for funding) and my soft rejection was from Duquesne's PhD program (saw that coming).  I call it a soft rejection because I'm still in the running for the MA program there, but the funding package they offer just really isn't competitive (It's usually around 50% off tuition), so I'm probably not going to accept it.  

As for who I am, I'm a chemistry and fiction writing major who realized way too late they wanted to do philosophy.  I've been studying on my own and taking classes like nothing else since then; I managed to get a research fellowship through my school's honor's college last summer, and basically did a Foucauldian archaeology of body piercing.  I'm also interested in the philosophy of Guy Hocquenghem, an obscure French philosopher who is sometimes called the first queer theorist.  I've been slowly chipping away at a translation of one of his untranslated texts, and I delivered a guest lecture to a French literature class on him last semester.  Getting my first acceptance, even if it's got that annoying asterisk of "waitlist for funding" attached to it felt so validating that I've been riding a wave of positiveness for two days now.  

Related to that last point; does anyone know if I can expect that funding to come through? A friend of mine told me that it usually did, but Memphis is telling me I'll have to wait til mid-April to get a decision from them, and I'm kind of anxious to just take his word for it.  

Yay, latecomers to philosophy club! Congratulations on your acceptance, very nice to hear your story. Your areas of interest sound really fascinating as well; I started out reading  'continental' stuff before becoming interested in the analytic side of things. I've been meaning to go back and re-read some things though, and Foucault (and some Derrida) in particular! Hope the funding process goes smoothly for you.

8 minutes ago, autonomyminded said:

Thank you, LSE is a great school and I am happy to have received an offer, especially given my areas of research interest (political philosophy, social epistemology). Despite this, I am really hoping for an offer from either UCL or Oxford. I think that both the MPhil stud and BPhil provide much better value for money when you consider the quite frankly ridiculous fees that LSE charge (one year of tuition comes scarily close to two years at Oxford). In addition to this, I think that both of the aforementioned courses provide a more rigorous training for doctoral study and offer students the opportunity to really deepen their knowledge on a range of philosophical fields. Another sticking point with LSE is that all the modules that you take are graded by examination (67%) and short essays of 2000 words (33%) - it kind of comes across as quite lazy, as in the tutors can't be bothered to read long student papers and also as an ineffective way to develop more advanced student philosophers. May I also ask what your profile is like and where else you have applied?

Ah yes, I can imagine the fees at LSE are very high - not to mention the cost of living in London! Back in the day I had applied to do an undergraduate degree there (not in philosophy) and even though I got an offer it was completely untenable because of the costs. I hope you get into one of the other two as well, then!

My interests are in moral & political philosophy (plus some social metaphysics), the history of philosophy (including some non-'Western' stuff), and some philosophy of science (especially the philosophy of biology, and within that especially topics that bear upon social issues). The BPhil is my only UK application, but I applied to a bunch of places in the US; happy to give you a list in PMs if you like.

[practically_mi]

On 2/18/2019 at 9:57 AM, autonomyminded said:

Thank you for getting in touch, I hope you're enjoying your second year - how have you found the workload at UCL? I will be sure to chase them up if I don't hear anything in the coming weeks, a friend of mine who graduated from the same university is currently doing her first year at UCL and I think she heard back in March. Also I would love to know whether you submitted a research proposal when you applied and what your background was? I got in touch with the graduate admissions office and they told me that it wasn't necessary to liaise with a potential supervisor or submit a proposal for entry onto the course. I did submit a proposal in the end as I do have a clear set of problems that I would like to pursue but I avoided getting in touch with any potential supervisors, as I didn't want to preclude myself from working with any other tutors (my proposal would probably be suited to more than one tutor at UCL). I was actually rejected from KCL on the grounds that I did not contact any tutors in the department regarding supervision (a mistake which was made as a result of the assumption that King's would operate more similarly to UCL, even though I know the courses are quite different) and so I am worried that somehow the grad admissions at UCL might also have made a mistake and that I might have been led astray? Any light you could shed on this would be great!

I've found the workload fairly balanced and the structure of the degree very good--first year is pretty intense w 8 4,500 word papers but it's managable if you plan ahead. I really learned a ton during first year. I did a joint degree in philosophy and French for undergrad (also at UCL) so I appreciated being able to both pursue my areas of interest and try out some new areas. I did not submit a research proposal or contact potential supervisors before applying, but I know that some people in my cohort did. My impression is that the department doesn't really have a preference either way. It's good that you have a clear idea of your interests though, that will help you get on with the thesis later on. Good luck with your applications and congrats on your LSE offer! 

[Nothingtown]

Has anyone else heard back from the University of Kentucky (acceptances, rejections, waitlists)? I saw a couple acceptances go out at the beginning of February and it's been radio silence on more, or rejections and waitlists. I don't want to bother them if they're still making some decisions.