chance of getting into a phd?

[lurkingfaculty]

The good news is that many of us basically don't look at grades, in some ways *especially* from MA programs where small differences can result in As vs A-s. (I think I'd notice if someone had a lot of B+s or below from an MA program--but still, if their writing sample was strong and they had letters that backed their work, it wouldn't bother me. I doubt that's true of everyone but I do bet that most people don't care about MA grades very much one way or another as long as they are As or A-s and the work is good.)

[44agoras]

On 2/1/2021 at 2:08 PM, lamirada said:

Perhaps I should rephrase my question to settle the conflict here.

I guess my question comes down to this:

Take my GPA and school background as the premise. Assuming that I did write my SOP in the way I described above, given that I have such GPA and school background, do you think that my application has a decent chance of passing the filtering process and of getting read by the admission committee? I do agree that once one makes into the top 50 applicants or whatever, a lot of luck plays into it since different committee member has a different standard. And, at this stage, even the best of the best (in terms of numbers and stats) just have the same chance as every other 50 applicants. But it seems that there is some objective standard an applicant needs to meet in order to pass the filtering even to have his/her application read.

I think that my writing sample is good enough to gather at least some attention from some professors working on the relevant topics once I pass the threshold. And I think that my SOP does up to some degree address my interests quite well (regardless of whether they are good fit for the programs I applied). I am just worried that my application will even make it to the stage where it will be read in a way it deserves. I am aware that my GPA is not particularly high, compared to other candidates. And my undergrad GPA is actually low. But it would be very depressing if my undergrad GPA determines my future against my MA grad or the knowledge I gained since then--that is, if my application doesn't even get read properly simply because I have no 4.0 GPA or I didn't graduate from Harvard or so. To me, it sounds fair only if the threshold is only moderately high. But it seems people have different guesses precisely about what constitutes this "moderately high."

No matter how good my writing sample is, if they will simply pass over my application just because I don't have 4.0 GPA or something, I feel like I wasted my last 6 months + $2,000 and perhaps should stop trying at all. I just wanted to whether that depressing projection is the reality (whether we are deceiving ourselves under the motto "GPA doesn't matter, GRE doesn't matter, Writing Sample and Letters are the best!") Perhaps I am writing this thread because I am very anxious and want to hold onto the myth of writing sample (if it is a myth after all). Yet, I think many grad applicants feel the same way and just wanted to open a discussion about it.

Hey OP! I'm in almost the same position right now as you were. I only applied to 13 places, not 20, and I didn't write about McDowell, but everything else sounds very familiar. I've been aimlessly speculating about my chances of getting in anywhere and stumbled upon this thread. Would you mind posting an update?