What are my chances?

[Gorgoll]

Dear friends,

I'm a Brazilian student with interest in entering graduate school in Continental Philosophy, specially German Idealism and Phenomenology. My undergraduate degree was in Law, not philosophy - Law is an undergrad in Brazil -, and I've entered a (fully funded) MA in Philosophy, also in Brazil, but in a different university. My undergrad GPA was relatively low at 3.4, but my current MA GPA is 3,97. I've a lot of experience with presentations - More than 20 -, I have translated a philosophy book from German to Portuguese and I've some publications. That being said, I would like to inquire you about what are my chances of joining a good grad school in Continental Philosophy at USA or Canada. I would also like to know where I should apply. The best places seem to be are Columbia, Chicago, McGill and Toronto. Where else should I apply?

 

Thank you in advance.  

[Olórin]

Here's a recent thread on exactly this question:

 

Also, here's a link to the Pluralist's Guide (a non-ranked guide). I don't know when this list was last updated, but it has a good set of the usual suspects for continental philosophy.

In my experience the usual suspects really heavy in continental philosophy are: Depaul, Duquesne, Emory, Penn State, Stony Brook, and Villanova.

https://sites.psu.edu/pluralistsguide/program-recommendations/continental-philosophy/

[Gorgoll]

On 12/17/2019 at 11:40 AM, Olórin said:

Here's a recent thread on exactly this question:

 

Also, here's a link to the Pluralist's Guide (a non-ranked guide). I don't know when this list was last updated, but it has a good set of the usual suspects for continental philosophy.

In my experience the usual suspects really heavy in continental philosophy are: Depaul, Duquesne, Emory, Penn State, Stony Brook, and Villanova.

https://sites.psu.edu/pluralistsguide/program-recommendations/continental-philosophy/

Thank you very much, friend. I would like to know what you think about my chances. Would a Brazilian degree be considered for such? Or would it be a hindrance?

[Olórin]

Funny timing, I just found the updated guide for 2019/2020 this morning: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/pluralistsguide/program-recommendations/continental-philosophy/

I think your writing sample will be what counts most, and having a degree from a Brazilian university won’t make too much difference. It’s true that people might not be familiar with your university, but your application as a whole will speak for itself.

It might help if some of your letter writers are familiar with Canadian/US programs and standards. Actually, it might be helpful to ask them about programs they are familiar with. 

And a lot of programs are interested in having students from different places, so that could help you. 

[hector549]

5 hours ago, Olórin said:

Funny timing, I just found the updated guide for 2019/2020 this morning: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/pluralistsguide/program-recommendations/continental-philosophy/

I think your writing sample will be what counts most, and having a degree from a Brazilian university won’t make too much difference. It’s true that people might not be familiar with your university, but your application as a whole will speak for itself.

It might help if some of your letter writers are familiar with Canadian/US programs and standards. Actually, it might be helpful to ask them about programs they are familiar with. 

And a lot of programs are interested in having students from different places, so that could help you. 

There are some major problems with this list. U. Penn is "strongly recommended" for studying continental philosophy? Western Michigan, Houston, and Rutgers are "recommended"? These are good programs, but are strongly analytic in orientation. Why are Houston and West Mich listed under the "recommended" PhD program list and then also under the MA program list? These departments only offer the MA, not the PhD, and are fully analytic programs.

There are other issues as well. Why is Washington State Pullman listed? They have no grad program in philosophy at all. American U. is listed as a "strongly recommended" MA program, but Georgia State is merely "recommended". American doesn't even have a standalone philosophy department per se; it has a Religion & Philosophy department. A cursory look suggest that the department has maybe four TT phil faculty. Everyone else does religion or is a lecturer of some kind. Furthermore, there's no placement page, and the program doesn't appear to offer funding. GSU, on the other hand, has notable Nietzsche and Hegel scholars, and is fully funded with a strong placement history of getting students into continental PhD programs to boot. LSU and Cal State LA are not mentioned in the MA list at all, despite having TT continental scholars. UW Milwaukee isn't either, though they have someone who works on Hegel and Nietzsche.

Edited December 19, 2019 by hector549

[Duns Eith]

On 12/19/2019 at 8:55 AM, Olórin said:

Funny timing, I just found the updated guide for 2019/2020 this morning: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/pluralistsguide/program-recommendations/continental-philosophy/

I'd really recommend against this page.

The links for the PluralistsGuide are either broken or replaced, or they got their methods for picking philosophy programs from a food guide.

They don't outline any of the reasoning, so following the Pluralists Guide is moot. It isn't clear how or why those programs could/would be chosen.

And the PluralistsGuide, if I recall correctly, seems to be ideologically driven rather than research driven. Fair warning. Those who recommend it might be ideologues.

Edited December 21, 2019 by Duns Eith

[Olórin]

Agreed about the weirdness of the updated list. The older one was less inaccurate in terms of stating where a student can go to find comprehensive support for continental philosophy (which to me means: find other students studying it and have most classes in it instead of just one or two classes a year).
 

I posted the new one assuming it would be, um, not a pile of garbage. But that was a mistake.