Chances of gettting into my preferred Philosophy Masters Programs?

[ADaLe]

Hi!

I'm presently studying in Germany and looking forward to applying to a number of US / UK masters degrees in philosophy next year. I am however very unsure how hard it actually is to get into the programs themselves; I would just wait it out and see, but of course my assessment of the difficulty is important for deciding on how far down my priorities list I should go when applying to programs. My grades should be sufficient to fulfill all the demands any Uni has set out (roughly a 1.4 on the German scale), but they don't particularly break the bank. (I believe that is roughly equal to a 3.6-3.7 GPA?); my extracurricular activities are very strong, but I am not sure how relevant this is to the applications. I do have references from 3 well respected professors at my Uni, but while my Uni is very good for a German uni, it isn't super well known internationally. I am prepared to completely self-fund the degrees and don't require any external funding or tuition waivers, so I think that might be somewhat of an advantage. I am still super uncertain about how good my chances are and I've oscillated from one end of the spectrum ("as long as you're willing to pay 40000$ for a 1y program, nobody is gonna reject you") to the other ("covid deferrals and increased competition combined with coming from a decent, but not excellent german uni makes it impossible to get anywhere"). I'd like to get some perspective on how difficult it will actually be to get into my preferred Masters programs and would love to hear any insight on that.

For reference, some of my preferred programs are as follows:
UChicagos MAPH, NYUs, Columbias, Stanfords, St. Andrews, Cambridges, Oxfords, TCLs  Masters programs in Philosophy, LSEs Masters in Political Theory and Philosophy and Public Policy, KCLs Global Ethics and Human Values, UCLs Legal and Political Theory, Columbias MA in Global Thought.

Thank you so much!

[UndergradDad]

Well I don’t know enough about applying from a German uni to speak on that aspect, but I can say that funded masters are not “easy” to get into. Unfunded masters are definitely easier and some say they are cash cows, meaning they are there for bringing in revenue for the program and the university, but I would not say they are automatic acceptances by any means. 

Some terminal masters programs in philosophy are ranked more highly like Tufts (Tufts has partial funding) and Georgia State etc.

You mention some Ivy League and top British programs that are geared towards Phds. I am not as familiar with how difficult they are to get into unfunded, certainly easier to get into than their Phd programs, but the rap on those is often that not as much attention is paid to their masters students as their Phs students.

It depends on what your goals are as to which programs are best to apply to, however I will say if your goal is primarily just to get into a Masters program, I would say to cast your net wider than just the top schools.

NYU is considered on some lists as the top philosophy Phd program in the US.

And of course, the programs you mentioned are not all philosophy programs so I couldnt comment on the others. 

Sorry if this is a bit jumbled, writing this on the run. 
 

Best of luck!