Advice needed: not feeling hopeless

[BabyFarmer]

Title says it all! 

 

I'm a second-year MA student (in Canada a lot of our Master's degrees are two years) currently looking into PhD programs to apply to this fall. I have research experience, a few conferences, fairly strong grades and, with the exception of my quant score, a good (I think?) GRE score. How do I just not lose hope during this app cycle? I have no idea how my credentials fare in a bigger pool and I have a hard time being realistic (more in a positive sense than a negative sense; the negative side is quite easy lol).

Help? 

 

Thank you.

[maxhgns]

They fare just fine. And, as a Canadian, you took more philosophy courses in undergrad than most of your American colleagues. It's still a bit of a crapshoot, but focus on your writing sample and letter of interest, apply to good-fitting programs, and you'll be fine. Even if you don't get in this time around, there's no harm in trying again once you've got some experience with the process. Send your applications, and then bury yourself in stuff that will make you forget all about them for weeks at a time. It's when people are constantly thinking about them that they become very unhappy and stressed.

What you should feel hopeless about are your job prospects at the other end. You can't really afford to hold out any hope about that, because it's crushing when you send out 100+ applications and never hear back from any of them, not even for a first-round interview.  The lower your expectations on that score, the better--and hopefully, low expectations will see you cultivating possible exit strategies during the PhD.

[BabyFarmer]

2 hours ago, maxhgns said:

They fare just fine. And, as a Canadian, you took more philosophy courses in undergrad than most of your American colleagues. It's still a bit of a crapshoot, but focus on your writing sample and letter of interest, apply to good-fitting programs, and you'll be fine. Even if you don't get in this time around, there's no harm in trying again once you've got some experience with the process. Send your applications, and then bury yourself in stuff that will make you forget all about them for weeks at a time. It's when people are constantly thinking about them that they become very unhappy and stressed.

What you should feel hopeless about are your job prospects at the other end. You can't really afford to hold out any hope about that, because it's crushing when you send out 100+ applications and never hear back from any of them, not even for a first-round interview.  The lower your expectations on that score, the better--and hopefully, low expectations will see you cultivating possible exit strategies during the PhD.

Haha thank you. I'm hoping to go into a career as a bioethicist so while it's a small field, it's not academia. I should note that I *am* applying to a number of American schools.