What am I doing wrong? Need advice.

[sleepingdogmatist]

Moral of the story for what used to be here: getting into a philosophy PhD program is hard.

Oh, and the "problem" didn't lie in the samples (I submitted one of the same ones this year with little revision), the letters of rec., or anything like that. This year, I applied to a broader range of programs and worked for a few months on making everything shiny. I currently have one funded PhD offer from a good program, waitlists at two other PhD programs (one of which is arguably the very best in its area), three funded MA offers, and I still have a few programs to hear from yet. In my opinion, the thing that probably made the most difference this time was luck, followed kind of distantly by fit and a somewhat more focused purpose statement.

[LaraAnn85]

My best bet would be that one of your letters of rec isn't really as good as you think. That's the only thing it seems like it could be! If I were you, I'd meet with the people who wrote them, tell them what happened, and ask if you apply again if you should still use their letter. If they say yes, apply to places where they have connections.

[rising_star]

Agreed that the letters of rec could be problematic. Or that your project isn't well reasoned in your statements. What's your language training like?

P.S. You should write to/call Houston ASAP to ask about funding.

[LaraAnn85]

Agreed that the letters of rec could be problematic. Or that your project isn't well reasoned in your statements. What's your language training like?

P.S. You should write to/call Houston ASAP to ask about funding.

Good call, you should do it. I got into University of Houston and was offered a TAship for (a small amount of) funding, I think it's pretty doable but it may vary by department.

[engguy]

and ended up applying to four places where it looked like I could do something reasonably approximate to my project. I was rejected from all four

Agreed that you should look at the letters if at all possible -- in a tactful way, because some profs are wary of sharing them -- but to me this is another potential problem, especially given that your stats look really solid.

Apply to more places, and either do one of two things: fit your statement to what you perceive to be the kind of research/scholarship going on at the programs where you apply, or only apply to places about which you can say, 'my project fits very well with the types of things going on there.' If the schools to which you applied don't have anyone who's interested in working with the philosophers/issues you outline, they will be unlikely to admit you no matter how good everything else looks. You've got to make it sound as if the program needs you as much as you need to study there.

[sleepingdogmatist]

Redacted.

[LaraAnn85]

Did you apply to places where you were a very good research match? I found that I got rejected from the few schools that I stretched my interests for and got accepted to the ones that were more dead on, and I don't think that's a coincidence! The only other thing I could possibly think is that they say the best letters come from people with whom you have done more than just take classes. For example if you take 3 classes with someone and work in their lab for a year, it would look much better than just taking their classes even if you go to office hours. It sounds like you knew your letter writers pretty well though, so maybe that's not it. Anyway, good luck when you reapply, hopefully you will have much success :mrgreen:

[sleepingdogmatist]

Just got word back from the DGS at Houston, and I was right -- no funding or tuition whatsoever. Looks like I get a year to think about things.

[hbui]

Hey I'm the one who posted in the results section. I got accepted with full funding (10k TA ship) and tuition remission. I have, however, since 1 pm today emailed the Dr. Nelson to inform him that I will not be accepting the offer. (I belief that they are only giving out 5 ta-ship this year; I applied late in the game (i submitted my app the day of the deadline) though so I don't really understand how i lucked out and got the funding offer.)

Anyway, hopes that helps out your situation!!!!

[hbui]

Just got word back from the DGS at Houston, and I was right -- no funding or tuition whatsoever. Looks like I get a year to think about things.

BTW maybe it was your letters... or perhaps your writing sample? Your GREs are similar to mine, and your GPA is definitely higher. (I had a bad sophomore year :mrgreen: ) Again, hope things work out for you!

[sleepingdogmatist]

Also redacted.

[Tayl0496]

I would suggest:

1) Apply to many more programs (which it seems you have already started to look into): as many people have noted, this process is also very random

2) Personalize your statement of purpose for each department

3) Many professors helping me during the admissions process told me to make sure to clearly articulate my current interests but to make sure I do not sound too set in my ways because about half of graduate students change from what they originally thought their AOS would be; thus, I would suggest mention your current interest/project but make sure to mention other interests that would also be well served at the departments if your interests were to change.

4) Revise your writing sample, or even start a new one, to make sure it illustrates the particular skills adcoms are looking for -- given your stats, I am guessing your sample already does this but just make sure it does so to the best of your ability, and make sure it is clear (definite thesis and strong argument) and concise because adcoms probably will not read an entire 40 page writing sample. As far as the topic of your writing sample, Eastern Philosophy is a touchy subject, especially among the more analytic departments, and you might do better with a different topic -- but this is something to definitely take with a grain of salt considering this is what you are interested in. Remember, even though a department might have people doing work in Eastern Philosophy, they might not be the people reading your writing sample.

Anyways, that is my advise and I hope you find it helpful. You may not but that is okay as well. Given your stats I think you should do fine next time around since you will have more time to prepare your applications and will probably have more programs to apply to in general. My own stats are: Similar GPA, a GRE with a lower verbal score than yourself but an 800 on the quantitative, I imagine 2 very strong recommendations (one from a well known and respected philosopher in ethics) and 1 letter that I imagine was mediocre, received my BA from an honors program in a more analytic philosophy department that is in the top 50 of the Leiter Report, and then a year off from school. I applied to 16 programs and got accepted with full funding to 3 programs (one unranked and two in the top fifty) and I got waitlisted at four-schools (2 in the top fifty, 1 in the top 30, and 1 in the top 20). I withdrew from the all the waitlists except the one in the top 20 (my first choice) but nothing came of this one waitlist and I actually accepted the offer from the unranked school for various reasons (the PGR is a good resource but if you do use it make sure not to get caught up in it). Anyways I will leave you with that because it is getting really long now. Good luck with your applications next year!

[tomsmith]

Sleeping,

I am probably going to sound like a jerk, but to be honest the problem is obviously your writing sample. Your thesis sounds absurd and is not going to sound credible to anyone with an ounce of training in philosophy (multiple absolute Truths, etc.--how could they all be absolute? There are a lot more problems there, but I won't bother you with those). This is especially true if you are applying to schools which do mostly analytic philosophy (which is most in the top 50). My advice would be to do something more mainstream for your writing sample. For example, instead of writing about how religious views are constructed, you could simply focus on constructivism more generally and defend it against the vast number of objections against it. If you are certain you want to continue with the sort of thinking you are doing you also may consider applying to schools that focus on continental "philosophy."

TS

[sleepingdogmatist]

Further editing.

[Stud. Theol.]

Dogmatist,

I am a philosopher/theologian who has interests that cross philosophical and religious lines, as yours apparently do.

I have MAs in philosophy (in the analytic tradition) and theology. The fact is that a focus in philosophy of religion and even worse, philosophical theology (if you are able to make that distinction), will simply put you behind the 8 ball at most places. Even at schools where there are "weighty" faculty members who do work in philosophy of religion, you are fighting an uphill battle unless you can put a more traditional foot forward.

I have interests in free will and the nature of universals as well, so I put that foot forward with ph.d. programs and only mentioned, as a follow up, that I'm also interested in philosophy of religion. On top of that, I applied to places where phil of religion is well established. After all that I got rejected by 10 philosophy programs and got accepted by 1 religion program that is heavily philosophical in orientation. Three of my advisors have ph.d.s in analytic philosophy in addition to their training in religion. So I guess I got lucky.

You'll really need to look at religion programs rather than philosophy of programs. The kind of philosophy you are trying to do (as Tom mentioned) will not open doors at most of the "Gourmet" programs. I don't mean to pile on but the notion of multiple, incomensurate, absolute truths simply won't fly in those places. You can however do that sort of thing in a philosophy of religion program within a religion department at, say,  GTU or Boston. (From my perspective that's unfortunate, but you may consider it fortunate.)

If you are thinking of sticking to philosophy programs and presenting a more "mainstream" project I would suggest Notre Dame, WashU SLU, Purdue, Iowa, or Indiana. Those places are are pretty friendly to phil of religion.

[Philmajor]

Dogmatist - University of Hawaii may be a good place to look - they are the premeir place for comparative phil. I don't think they're ranked very high but if you manager to study what you're interested in would it really matter?