Another "Am I any good?" from an International

[kachan]

Okay, so I am a naïve international applicant from a third-world European country with an attitude in getting a PhD. However, I had a lot of hard thinking (as many of us do) on the best-suited programs and got into trouble (as many of us got). Being far away from a clear vision of how the US higher education system process, I would take in high regard any recommendations some of you may provide to me. The main thing I would like to hear is that if it worth of trying to get into this pretty tough application process in the US at all, taking in account that there are a lot of ways getting the degree in less time (3 years against 5) in Europe and with a higher probability of actually getting in.

First, I probably would not have any issues with getting a degree in my home country (Ukraine) and very high chances for a top university in Russia. But that does not make much sense, except for simplicity of the way, cause my research is completely out of the context in the post-soviet area, and there are almost no qualified supervisors on the topic, by any exaggerations.

I am studying meta-ethics, and my research lies in the area of Language and Morals. I must look at the institutions with faculty especially strong in such, and most of them located obv. in U.S. and U.K. However, in Britain, as far as I can see at least, there are a lot of troubles with the financial support of applicants (or am I wrong?). That is a crucial point for me because even paying application fees will take a great number of resources (God, a lot of them!) from me.

Brief CV of mine:

-         My main disadvantage is a very low GPA – (3.2-3.3 undergrad). Now I am getting my Philosophy M.A., and it probably will be only a bit higher.

-         B.A. I have got from the best phil. program I could get in the country, though the university is still only 500-600 place in the world ratings. M.A. is going to be from a smaller institution.

-         I currently have 3 conferences in my account, all related to my main research topic and one co-publication apart from it. I still have plans to work hard this autumn and probably the list will expand.

-         I will get my recommendations from the Director of Philosophy Institute in my country, who is my current supervisor for an M.A. thesis, another from the head of the department in my first university, who also supervised one of my papers, and the third one from a German professor in Friedrich-Schiller Jena University, where I am studying now by Erasmus grant.

-         My IELTS score is 7.0, though it is old, and I will get another one with a bit higher grade (I hope so). I do not know does in counts as an advantage, but currently, I have 4 languages in my account.

-         I will not provide a GRE test.

As you can see, a lot lies in the local context and been taken away it probably leaves for me not too many chances of getting into a respectful U.S. program with enough financial support. That is how I see it at least. But I would be pleased to hear an opinion from you guys, who are much more into the whole thing. Does it worth even trying? If yes, what institutions would you recommend taking into consideration (especially best for analytical ethics)? I was thinking of UPenn and CUNY, looking at the Gourmet report, but it is still high tier for my GPA, I guess.

There is also no way I could take a break for a year because it means that I will use it not for preparation and ethics research but marching in lines of our gorgeous army.

I wrote too many letters, no one will ever read this, thanks.

Edited September 18, 2020 by kachan

[PolPhil]

On 9/18/2020 at 2:43 PM, kachan said:

Okay, so I am a naïve international applicant from a third-world European country with an attitude in getting a PhD. However, I had a lot of hard thinking (as many of us do) on the best-suited programs and got into trouble (as many of us got). Being far away from a clear vision of how the US higher education system process, I would take in high regard any recommendations some of you may provide to me. The main thing I would like to hear is that if it worth of trying to get into this pretty tough application process in the US at all, taking in account that there are a lot of ways getting the degree in less time (3 years against 5) in Europe and with a higher probability of actually getting in.

First, I probably would not have any issues with getting a degree in my home country (Ukraine) and very high chances for a top university in Russia. But that does not make much sense, except for simplicity of the way, cause my research is completely out of the context in the post-soviet area, and there are almost no qualified supervisors on the topic, by any exaggerations.

I am studying meta-ethics, and my research lies in the area of Language and Morals. I must look at the institutions with faculty especially strong in such, and most of them located obv. in U.S. and U.K. However, in Britain, as far as I can see at least, there are a lot of troubles with the financial support of applicants (or am I wrong?). That is a crucial point for me because even paying application fees will take a great number of resources (God, a lot of them!) from me.

Brief CV of mine:

-         My main disadvantage is a very low GPA – (3.2-3.3 undergrad). Now I am getting my Philosophy M.A., and it probably will be only a bit higher.

-         B.A. I have got from the best phil. program I could get in the country, though the university is still only 500-600 place in the world ratings. M.A. is going to be from a smaller institution.

-         I currently have 3 conferences in my account, all related to my main research topic and one co-publication apart from it. I still have plans to work hard this autumn and probably the list will expand.

-         I will get my recommendations from the Director of Philosophy Institute in my country, who is my current supervisor for an M.A. thesis, another from the head of the department in my first university, who also supervised one of my papers, and the third one from a German professor in Friedrich-Schiller Jena University, where I am studying now by Erasmus grant.

-         My IELTS score is 7.0, though it is old, and I will get another one with a bit higher grade (I hope so). I do not know does in counts as an advantage, but currently, I have 4 languages in my account.

-         I will not provide a GRE test.

As you can see, a lot lies in the local context and been taken away it probably leaves for me not too many chances of getting into a respectful U.S. program with enough financial support. That is how I see it at least. But I would be pleased to hear an opinion from you guys, who are much more into the whole thing. Does it worth even trying? If yes, what institutions would you recommend taking into consideration (especially best for analytical ethics)? I was thinking of UPenn and CUNY, looking at the Gourmet report, but it is still high tier for my GPA, I guess.

There is also no way I could take a break for a year because it means that I will use it not for preparation and ethics research but marching in lines of our gorgeous army.

I wrote too many letters, no one will ever read this, thanks.

1. UPenn is not accepting applicants this year
2. You're shooting yourself in the foot by not taking the GRE. When your grades are low, the GRE is a great opportunity to show that you are intelligent, but for some reason just couldn't make good grades in undergrad. I would highly recommend taking the GRE
3. No analytic PhD program cares about your conference presentations or co-publications
4. Your letters might not carry much weight, given that they're from scholars with (I'm assuming) little to no contact with the scholars at the programs to which you'll be applying
5. If you do proceed with your application, as is, then your writing sample will have to be stellar. By that, I mean it will have to be a top 5-10 writing sample out of the 200-300 writing samples that the program receives. Is your writing sample of that caliber?
6. All in all, I disagree that your main disadvantage is your GPA. As it stands, I would be surprised if you get into a ranked PhD program (but, again, a lot of it will come down to your sample). You are much better suited to pursuing a funded MA in the US or Canada. It's quite common for foreign students to get an MA at home, then come to North America for a 2nd MA. Don't discount this option. I tell you all of this because I don't want you to waste $1000 on applications that will get you nowhere.