Opinion about K U Leuven and future study plans

[Idiomorphic name]

Hey all! I have applied for the abridged bachelor's degree ( one year)  of philosophy at K U Leuven . Is anyone of you familiar with the program or the institute in general ? I am interested in continuing my studies and applying to grad school , eventually. Do you think it is going to have a negative impact ,on my future applications, the fact that I won't possess a proper Bachelors ? For the next year I hope I will get into the masters( one year too)  and apply for phd then . The Abridged program is pretty heavy with 64 credits and a bachelor's thesis.  I have a bachelor's degree in Mathematics ( 8,24/10) .

Edited July 6, 2019 by Idiomorphic name

[hector549]

On 7/6/2019 at 1:07 AM, Idiomorphic name said:

Hey all! I have applied for the abridged bachelor's degree ( one year)  of philosophy at K U Leuven . Is anyone of you familiar with the program or the institute in general ? I am interested in continuing my studies and applying to grad school , eventually. Do you think it is going to have a negative impact ,on my future applications, the fact that I won't possess a proper Bachelors ? For the next year I hope I will get into the masters( one year too)  and apply for phd then . The Abridged program is pretty heavy with 64 credits and a bachelor's thesis.  I have a bachelor's degree in Mathematics ( 8,24/10) .

This is second-hand information, but I have a good friend who went through this shortened bachelor's program at KU Leuven and went on to good graduate programs. This person was, I think, less impressed with the master's program; it's large and many students aren't necessarily going on to the PhD. In any case, it seems like a decent way to get a BA in philosophy if you already have another degree in another field.

One drawback that I can see is that since the bachelor's program is only a year, you won't have as much time as you would in a conventional degree program to get letters and work on a writing sample, unless you take the following year off to work on applying to grad programs. Another potential issue is that I suspect US grad admissions committees have a harder time making sense of European undergrad programs, like at KUL, than they do US schools, but I don't know how much to concern yourself about this. I think that this could be more of an issue if you wanted to apply to US analytic programs, since to my knowledge, KUL is more well known as a continental school (though I know it's fairly pluralistic).

Edited July 8, 2019 by hector549

[Idiomorphic name]

1 hour ago, hector549 said:

This is second-hand information, but I have a good friend who went through this shortened bachelor's program at KU Leuven and went on to good graduate programs. This person was, I think, less impressed with the master's program; it's large and many students aren't necessarily going on to the PhD. In any case, it seems like a decent way to get a BA in philosophy if you already have another degree in another field.

One drawback that I can see is that since the bachelor's program is only a year, you won't have as much time as you would in a conventional degree program to get letters and work on a writing sample, unless you take the following year off to work on applying to grad programs. Another potential issue is that I suspect US grad admissions committees have a harder time making sense of European undergrad programs, like at KUL, than they do US schools, but I don't know how much to concern yourself about this. I think that this could be more of an issue if you wanted to apply to US analytic programs, since to my knowledge, KUL is more well known as a continental school (though I know it's fairly pluralistic).

Hey, thanks for the reply! My primary focus is on continental philosophy , so I don't care about the analytic programs . Concerning the applications, I am a bit worried too, as I hooope I will get everything done before January of 2021. The good thing is that this shortened program offers a bachelor's thesis, so my writing sample could be related to this. In what area did your friend specialise to ?

Edited July 8, 2019 by Idiomorphic name

[hector549]

18 hours ago, Idiomorphic name said:

Hey, thanks for the reply! My primary focus is on continental philosophy , so I don't care about the analytic programs . Concerning the applications, I am a bit worried too, as I hooope I will get everything done before January of 2021. The good thing is that this shortened program offers a bachelor's thesis, so my writing sample could be related to this. In what area did your friend specialise to ?

My friend works in analytic philosophy, so a somewhat different trajectory than you. In any case, I think that if you're doing continental, since KUL is better known in continental circles, I'm sure you'll do well. There is also not anything wrong with taking a gap year to work on application materials! I took several years off, and it's more common than not.

[Idiomorphic name]

19 hours ago, hector549 said:

My friend works in analytic philosophy, so a somewhat different trajectory than you. In any case, I think that if you're doing continental, since KUL is better known in continental circles, I'm sure you'll do well. There is also not anything wrong with taking a gap year to work on application materials! I took several years off, and it's more common than not.

Yea, I think I will decide according to how this year will go. If I make a good thesis + good grades and connections with profs that could write strong recommendational letters , I stand a chance . I am concerned more about the professors,  as they might not be willing to write anything good after one year . The good thing is that I have already some ideas which could be of significant importance to the continental tradition. What I need is to get adjusted to the language ( non native speaker) and the nuances of the discipline itself, which of course is the biggest hurdle .