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Posted

I was looking at Edinburgh (mind & language yay) but was a bit confused by all the options. MSc by Research vs. MPhil, and then a recommendation that if you were coming right out of your undergrad you could transfer from the MSc to the MPhil..?

I think the MSc by research is only a 1 year program, whereas the MPhil would be a 2 year program that coudl count towards part of your PhD. Generally MScs are standalone degrees, whereas MPhils transition you right into the PhD without having to re-apply (assuming that you complete the requirements at a high enough standard). Usually in the UK they consider a PhD to be an MPhil/PhD. Meaning you apply to the MPhil and transfer after a couple years, and the thesis for your MPhil (usually about 30,000 words) would be a few chapters of your final PhD thesis. So when they say transfer between the MSc and the MPhil you should read it as "do a masters first, then start your PhD"

  • 2 months later...
Posted

Sorry to hijack this dead thread, but has anyone applied to an MA program with March/April deadlines? If so, roughly when did you hear back (admission, rejection, waitlist)?

And if you got in, were your stats good enough for PhD programs? I'm looking at US programs like Stanford's and Columbia's, but I'm worried that I'll be fighting for spots with people who applied for PhD but didn't get in anywhere due to the admissions crapshoot.

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
Posted

There are a few very good funded MAs.

I'm at LSU, and the professors are very good and very dedicated to working with you and your interests. (They are very ready to do independent studies and even whole classes in the interests of their students.) There are 5 funded slots (total, not each year), and about 5+ unfunded students in the program (and grad students from other programs sometimes take philosophy classes, too). The funding has gone down since the post I'm replying to: it's just under $9,000 a year, but the school charges a lot of fees, so it works out to about $6,000 a year--the fees, however, do cover your healthcare, and Health Care for spouses is extremely affordable. There are some funds for going to conferences available from the Graduate School Association and occasionally from the philosophy department itself. Unfortunately, decreased state funding will mostly likely cause the school to levy more fees, but being paid $10,000+ for an MA in philosophy is still preferable to paying $30,000+ for an MA elsewhere! And the application fee is cheap.

The program itself is well-balanced and somewhat blended in terms of analytic, continental, moral philosophy, and philosophy of art:

Full Professors:

SCHUFREIDER: Heidegger, Philosophy of Art, History of Continental Philosophy (esp. German), Anselm

SIRRIDGE: Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy of Language and Literature

SARKAR: Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Science

RAFFOUL: Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Ethics

Assoc. Professors:

COGBURN: Philosophy of Mind, Language, Logic

CRYSTAL: Ancient Philosophy

Assist. Professors:

ROCHA: Moral and Political Philosophy

ROLAND: Philosophy of Math, Logic, Science, and Epistemology

SONG: Political Philosophy, Ethics

Also check out Georgia State University. I was waitlisted there, but had a really good experience with my application. They are strong in Neurophilosophy, Legal and Political Philosophy, and German Philosophy. They only admit funded students, and I believe the first year involves a teaching workshop and you teach during your second year.

Virginia Tech looks particularly good as well. I got in without funding, but they look well balanced.

University of Toronto offers a funded one year masters, which looks very good. I didn't get in.

I also applied to several PhD programs, but didn't really get a look. My GREs were low (600v, 750q). But I believe that with improved GREs and an MA to boot, I have a good shot at a top PhD program.

Hello:

There a lots of MA programs out there that provide funding!!! Most of the times this is a better option, because you get into a better PhD program.

I would suggest LSU first and foremost. They provide 10.5k TA-ships. Dr. Schufreider: Medieval Philosophy, Heidegger, Aesthetics; Dr. Raffoul: Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida, Nancy; Dr. Protevi: Foucault, Deleuze, Badiou, continental cognitive science. Plus, tons of other great professors. Protevi and Cogburn both have great blogs.

Also there is George Mason which I suggest. But there are tons more, they are just badly advertised, so you have to find them yourself. Find big schools that do not have PhD programs... many of them have MAs.

Cheers

Posted

Don't listen to people who go on about the GRE. It is not the final arbiter of your application. I have a friend who scored a 750V, 800Q and 5.5. He was shut out of PhD programs. The most important thing you can do is have a kick-ass writing sample and excellent LOR's from professors who know your work. The writing sample will be read if it is good. It will be thrown in the trash if it is trash.

MA programs are great for people who have no philosophy undergrad (like me) or for people who came from programs that no one has ever heard of. But like many here have said, make sure you try to get into a funded position. I had to pay half my tuition my first semester and since then I've been fully funded (it wasn't much, but I was able to get through debt free). I now have one offer from a top 50 on PGR and a fellowship offer at a school not on the PGR, plus I'm still waiting to hear back from several top schools.

  • 1 month later...
Posted

I know it's unlikely that anyone is around right now, but I wanted to ask if anybody knows about the funding situation at Tufts. I was accepted with a very late application to the Georgia State MA, which gives me full funding plus a small assistantship, but for reasons both academic and personal I am more interested in applying to Tufts in the fall for spring admission. Does anybody know how likely it is I'll get funding?

Posted

Pick the place you think you will be the happiest and will be the best in helping you reach your goals. Why not just ask Tufts about funding? It's probably competitive, so likelihood would depend on the strength of your application. It sounds like, if you're willing to decline Georgia State's offer to go to Tufts for "reasons both academic and personal", that you have a strong preference for going to Tufts.

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...
Posted

Tufts is very competitive, but I can say that they offer decent funding (sometimes very good funding) and are interested in helping students that wouldn't otherwise get a shot at top schools. The writing sample is the single most important piece of the application. If you don't have a pedigree undergrad and your stats are pretty good, it's worth applying to Tufts.

Posted

I understand the benefits of getting a terminal MA at a place like Tufts or Brandeis where faculty focus their efforts on grooming the MA students to apply for PhDs, but would it be at all beneficial to get a Masters from a school that also has a PhD program? Are there such MAs that might be worth it at the good departments, where MA students do get some faculty attention? I'm thinking here about places like Penn, Chicago, Columbia, Stanford, CUNY, etc.

I ask because I think my application would really benefit from having a few more Phil classes on it that are outside of value theory, so I'm considering a one year MA to sure up my courseload in E&M, Logic, etc before re-applying.

Posted

When should I be hearing back from the master's programs, my last deadline was Feb 15th.

I applied to: WI-Milwaukee, Texas Tech, NIU, Univ. of Montana, Houston, A&M, Brandeis, Colorado State, Western Michigan.

If I haven't heard back does this mean I've been rejected?

Thx. :]

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

When should I be hearing back from the master's programs, my last deadline was Feb 15th.

I applied to: WI-Milwaukee, Texas Tech, NIU, Univ. of Montana, Houston, A&M, Brandeis, Colorado State, Western Michigan.

If I haven't heard back does this mean I've been rejected?

Thx. :]

Brandeis and Houston have already notified. Check the results survey to see who else has posted so far.

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