eep Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 (edited) (I posted this before in a different topic but didn't get any replies... since the situation might be sort of specific to philosophy I thought I'd repost here just for fun.) So, while I wait for the rest of my rejection letters to roll in, I am faced with the following choice: I have been offered full funding for the Ph.D. philosophy program at a not-particularly-prestigious school to which I applied basically as a backup plan. Other pros of this place (henceforth School 1) include that it's a small department (i.e. lots of attention) that is highly specialized in almost exactly my area of interest. School 2, predictably, is a much more prestigious place with a lot of famous people working there, a good fit for me academically, and put me on the waitlist with an acceptance to their M.A. program. The M.A. option would offer a little funding, and I promised myself I wouldn't do the M.A. thing because I don't want to go into debt to be treated like second string. But, all other things being equal, I would rather go to School 2. So what do I do? Could I sign up for the M.A. for a year and then reapply for School 2's Ph.D. from within next year? Am I being silly to even consider turning down the only offer of full funding that I got? Edited March 13, 2011 by eep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bukharan Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 I think School A sounds amazing. Honestly. As you said, it is a small department with more opportunities for you to shine as a TA and interact closely with the faculty, AND it specializes in exactly what you are interested in. Just think about it this way: what if you did not get that waitlist for an MA programme. You would be pretty happy with School A AND full funding it provides, right? Choice really doesn't help sometimes. It is a tough decision. I am not in Philosophy so maybe I don't know what I am talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilovephilosophy Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) I'm fairly new to this process but one thing I've heard over and over is that you take a PhD offer over anything else. The funding and other pros that you mentioned sweeten the deal even more. I suppose the only question left is how much of a "backup" this school was rankings-wise? Edited June 23, 2011 by ilovephilosophy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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