2013 Applicants (Philosophy)

[Phil2013]

Looks like three acceptances to Riverside so far - two on the 18th, one on the 22nd.

[ProspectStu8735]

Looks like a stellar profile, with the only weak point being the JD GPA, but I doubt that matters at all to philosophy admissions people.

Yeah, but law school grading is actually pretty rigorous.

[aglaea]

Is there any way, short of calling departments, to find out which departments interview finalists when fly-outs for admitted students will be? 

[PhilosophyHopeful2013]

I received a nomination for a fellowship from one of my schools yesterday.  When I emailed the director back, I was told that this was an unconditional acceptance regardless of whether I receive it or not (I will receive funding, the fellowship is just worth more.) I hope y'all forgive me, but I'm hesistant to put the name right away.  However, from the list of schools y'all posted, I don't think anyone else applied there.  Sorry for being vague.

Edited January 24, 2013 by PhilosophyHopeful2013

[squidfish]

I received a nomination for a fellowship from one of my schools yesterday.  When I emailed the director back, I was told that this was an unconditional acceptance regardless of whether I receive it or not (I will receive funding, the fellowship is just worth more.) I hope y'all forgive me, but I'm hesistant to put the name right away.  However, from the list of schools y'all posted, I don't think anyone else applied there.  Sorry for being vague.

^ so, not University of Chicago?

I applied to twelve schools: Stanford, U Chicago, Penn, Notre Dame, Yale, NYU, Columbia, Toronto, Brown, Cornell, Syracuse, Johns Hopkins

 

AOS: Kant and post-Kantian German Philosophy

 

Canadian student with M.A.

[notorious_biv]

Finally heard back from a program! I got a call from Prof. Dougherty at Baylor, who invited me for a campus visit in a couple of weeks. Apparently they're flying out their top 10 applicants.

Congrats!

[notorious_biv]

I received a nomination for a fellowship from one of my schools yesterday.  When I emailed the director back, I was told that this was an unconditional acceptance regardless of whether I receive it or not (I will receive funding, the fellowship is just worth more.) I hope y'all forgive me, but I'm hesistant to put the name right away.  However, from the list of schools y'all posted, I don't think anyone else applied there.  Sorry for being vague.

Good luck!

[PhilosophyHopeful2013]

^ so, not University of Chicago?

I applied to twelve schools: Stanford, U Chicago, Penn, Notre Dame, Yale, NYU, Columbia, Toronto, Brown, Cornell, Syracuse, Johns Hopkins

 

AOS: Kant and post-Kantian German Philosophy

 

Canadian student with M.A.

 

It's not U of C.  That's a really nice list of schools.  GL to you

[squidfish]

Thanks for the reply. As, I imagine, anyone viewing this thread, I am anxiously awaiting results. I suspect that it was a bad thing to discover the wealth of information available on gradcafe just a couple days ago, with still almost two months to go until all of the results are in. Congratulations on your very early funded offer - I imagine that it comes along with a robust feeling of relief!

 

As for the schools, I definitely picked the ones I feel are best in what it is I'd like to study, with some attention to the cities in which I'd like to live. Not much to fall back on though, with all of those programs receiving 200+ applicants!

[onlyonemorgan]

Hi all, waiting with others can be a little less painful, so let me introduce myself.

 

 

Schools: Stanford, University of Chicago, USC, Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UM Ann Arbor, UT Austin, UW Madison

(I was told by my letter writers to aim high and hope following their advice wasn't a mistake)

 

AOI: moral psychology, philosophy of action, early modern philosophy

 

GRE:
Math: 150

Verbal: 161

Analytical Writing: 4

 

 

Undergrad Background

One of the top UC schools

Overall GPA: 3.9

Major GPA: 3.9

High honors in philosophy based on faculty review of a thesis 

 

My writing sample is an extensively revised version of my honors thesis.

 

Fingers crossed!

Edited January 25, 2013 by onlyonemorgan

[thevagrantphilosopher]

Hey all - for what it's worth:

 

BA Phil: 2.49GPA

MA Phil: 4.0GPA

 

GRE: 160V/152Q/4.5W

 

SCHOOLS: UC San Diego, UC Riverside, Stanford, U Arizona, U Indiana, WashU, NYU

 

OTHER: Co-Founder of an Internet Startup, writing sample received a R&R request from a peer-reviewed journal

 

 

I honestly have no idea what my chances are. I suspect that BA GPA won't help me any (despite the fact that there's a ten-year gap between it an my MA work). That GRE will probably not be much help either. Further, I'm coming from an unknown MA program so it's not like I'll get a pedigree bump. All of these schools are competetive, so I've made sure my plan 'B' takes not getting into any programs this year into account.

 

 

[incontradiction]

I received a nomination for a fellowship from one of my schools yesterday.  When I emailed the director back, I was told that this was an unconditional acceptance regardless of whether I receive it or not (I will receive funding, the fellowship is just worth more.) I hope y'all forgive me, but I'm hesistant to put the name right away.  However, from the list of schools y'all posted, I don't think anyone else applied there.  Sorry for being vague.

 

To mimic another question, it wasn't Duke, was it? 

[onlyonemorgan]

vagrantphilosopher, I wish you luck on getting into all your schools...especially UCSD. San Diego is a great place to be. I'll be sad to move away (assuming I get into some program this year).

[thevagrantphilosopher]

vagrantphilosopher, I wish you luck on getting into all your schools...especially UCSD. San Diego is a great place to be. I'll be sad to move away (assuming I get into some program this year).

thx!! and i definitely agree - san diego is a fantastic city!

[Philosopath]

thx!! and i definitely agree - san diego is a fantastic city!

 

 

San Diego looks to be a great program, and yes, an awesome place.  

 

What are your interests?

[thevagrantphilosopher]

San Diego looks to be a great program, and yes, an awesome place.  

 

What are your interests?

 

I am primarily interested in Emergence as it pertains to Philosophy of mind. To a lesser extent I'm interested in applied ethics.

[Phil2013]

So here's my rundown:

 

AOI: History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, general interest in other areas of history of philosophy in 18th-20th centuries

 

BA GPA: 4.0

Went to unranked large state university

Double major in Philosophy and Linguistics

 

GRE: 169 Verbal, 158 Math, 6.0 Analytical Writing

 

I'd prefer not to post my list of schools (well, you know I applied to UCR), but it's long and mostly includes schools ranked on the Gourmet's History of Analytic Phil all the way up and down the overall rankings. They are all Ph.D., but I'll probably be applying to an MA program in the next few days. My one obvious strength is my grades, and my big glaring weakness is coming from a school with an unranked grad program. I think my letters will probably be good for me - even though I come from an unranked program, the professors I got to write them aren't complete unknowns in the field. I like my writing sample, but it's a pretty big unknown as it is in the history of analytic philosophy and thus I am unsure if committees will be able to read off the strength of philosophical acumen they want in a student from my sample. Basically, admission committees are going to have to really like my sample and letters to overcome my school.

[incontradiction]

So here's my rundown:

 

AOI: History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, general interest in other areas of history of philosophy in 18th-20th centuries

 

BA GPA: 4.0

Went to unranked large state university

Double major in Philosophy and Linguistics

 

GRE: 169 Verbal, 158 Math, 6.0 Analytical Writing

 

I'd prefer not to post my list of schools (well, you know I applied to UCR), but it's long and mostly includes schools ranked on the Gourmet's History of Analytic Phil all the way up and down the overall rankings. They are all Ph.D., but I'll probably be applying to an MA program in the next few days. My one obvious strength is my grades, and my big glaring weakness is coming from a school with an unranked grad program. I think my letters will probably be good for me - even though I come from an unranked program, the professors I got to write them aren't complete unknowns in the field. I like my writing sample, but it's a pretty big unknown as it is in the history of analytic philosophy and thus I am unsure if committees will be able to read off the strength of philosophical acumen they want in a student from my sample. Basically, admission committees are going to have to really like my sample and letters to overcome my school.

 

Are you saying you come from a school without a grad program, and so is not ranked, or that it has a grad program and still isn't ranked?

I'm in a, relatively, similar position. I come from a large state university. While I'm in the honors college there, which has a history of sending people to major grad schools, I'm not expecting that to boost my pedigree. One (possible) advantage is that my school has a Leiter-mentioned MA program (no PhD) and I've been taking grad classes for three years now alongside our MA students.

[Phil2013]

It has a grad program that isn't ranked (although formerly was). I took one grad class. I wish I could have taken more (money being the main issue), but I excelled in the one class I did take.

[PhilosophyHopeful2013]

To mimic another question, it wasn't Duke, was it? 

 

Nope.  I think I can post it.  It was University of Missouri.

[incontradiction]

Nope.  I think I can post it.  It was University of Missouri.

 

Well congratulations!

[incontradiction]

And now there are two OSU acceptances posted. I know acceptance/rejection season is just beginning, but I'm getting very anxious.

[Philosopath]

And now there are two OSU acceptances posted. I know acceptance/rejection season is just beginning, but I'm getting very anxious.

 

Indeed.

[lovephil]

Yep- I'm checking these discusison threads and gradcafe search results an unhealthy amount. It sucks to not know where you'll end up in September, if anywhere! I'm stressing over my GREs.

 

Question: schools say that they don't make GRE cutoffs, but is this true? Or, is it possible that some schools with eliminate students with poor GREs without looking at other parts of their application?

[philosophia3]

Yep- I'm checking these discusison threads and gradcafe search results an unhealthy amount. It sucks to not know where you'll end up in September, if anywhere! I'm stressing over my GREs.

 

Question: schools say that they don't make GRE cutoffs, but is this true? Or, is it possible that some schools with eliminate students with poor GREs without looking at other parts of their application?

 

I think most schools claim to look at applicants in a holistic manner, but in reality, I think they make some cuts based on GRE scores. When the departments have to go to the deans for funding numbers, one of the the latter's only indication of high performance (without reading through every application piece) is the GRE and the GPA. It sucks, but I've been told this is the case by many professors. I have slightly poor GRE scores, though, and am hoping that they do indeed look at every piece of the application!!!! Good luck!