Profile Feedback and Application Advice for Fall 2014 Applicants

[bar_scene_gambler]

Hi folks,
 

I saw isostheneia's post for profile feedback and application advice, and figured that we should just have a thread dedicated to it. I figured it would give us all a chance to see what other applicants are doing and give us a place to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our respective profiles and get advice for those of us who are fumbling around in the dark, so to speak. I guess I'll kick things off. I'll be using isostheneia's format, because it seems to be fairly comprehensive.

Undergrad school: Top 40 US News, Unranked PGR - no strong trend towards analytic or continental

GPA: 3.83, 3.88 in philosophy

GRE: Haven't taken it officially. ETS practice test (no study): Verbal-155 Quantitative-148

Writing Sample: Trying to decide between a comparative paper (Kant and Laozi: Ethics), Acknowledgment and Cavell, or my senior thesis on Nietzsche's Zarathustra

2 Undergraduate Conference Presentations: One on ethics in Medieval Indian Religion and another on comparative ethics in Kant and Laozi. Also won an award for best comparative philosophy paper.

1 publication: Conference proceedings. Probably not even worth mentioning

Co-founder and President of a chapter of Phi Sigma Tau at my school

Co-taught a class in Eastern Philosophy with one of my professors

Letters of Rec: Not much to say. There's a well-known name or two in my department, but not in areas I'd like to work in. I expect I'll receive stunning recommendations.

Coursework (+ for any graduate level courses):

Eastern Philosophy
Intro to Philosophy
Ethics
Ancient Philosophy
Symbolic Logic
Philosophy of Death (Existential themes in film and literature as they relate to death)
Modern Philosophy
Kant's Ethics +
Theory of Knowledge (An epistemology class focusing on OLP)
Wittgenstein
Independent Study: Hume +
Independent Study: Being and Time +
Independent Study: The Republic +
Independent Study: Al-Ghazali +

Areas of Interest: Chinese Philosophy, Nietzsche, Sartre, and perhaps Post-Structuralism

I have a basic list of places I might like to go, but I'd like to hear what places the community thinks would be a good fit for me. Also looking for a discussion of strengths/weaknesses in my application. I'd love to see what the rest of you are like. Thanks everyone.

Edited June 14, 2013 by bar_scene_gambler

[philoSophia12]

Undergrad school: Top 150 US News, Unheard of Philosophy program

GPA: 4.0 overall, (4.0 philosophy also, obviously)

GRE: Getting ready to take it in a few weeks.

Writing Sample: Either an analytic-focused paper on a problem in philosophy of religion or a Kant on Abortion paper 

2 presentations, but not at conferences

I'll be a TA this coming year for an undergrad phil. class.

Letters of Rec: I should have good ones, but not from anyone famous.

Coursework:
(IP)=upcoming semester
Intro to Philosophy
Ethical Theory
Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Logic
Philosophy of Religion
Modern Philosophy
Kant's Ethics
Philosophy of Language (IP)

Social and Political Philosophy (IP)

Philosophy and Religions of India

 

Areas of Interest: Philosophy of Religion (Reformed Epistemology, Realism vs Non Realism), History of Philosophy (especially Augustine and the Neo-Platonists)

[bar_scene_gambler]

philoSophia12, I have a couple questions. What were your presentations, if not conferences? What are you TA'ing for? And do you have any idea where you're applying yet?

[tomjonesy517]

b_s_g: Are you looking at continental schools? There are people who work on Nietzsche at analytic schools, but the quality of instruction may vary without larger departmental support. You might consider Babette Babich at Fordham. 

[bar_scene_gambler]

It's a mix, because I'm interested in a bunch of stuff. I'll just post a list of schools that I made that I'm looking at potentially applying to. If you can comment on what choices are good and bad and maybe give me any more recommendations that would be awesome. Also, how does my profile looks? What needs improving?

PhD's:

U Chicago
U College London

U Hawaii
UT Austin (really want to work with Higgins)
Duke
Stanford
UC Irvine

U Toronto (hesitant because I've heard negative things about the faculty involvement)
Penn State
Emory
Kingston College
Vanderbilt*
Loyola*

 

*=free application, so I figured, why not?

MA's:

Brandeis
Oxford (BPhil)
Northern Illinois
Georgia State (One of my professors is good friends with Jessica Berry)

Edited June 19, 2013 by bar_scene_gambler

[tomjonesy517]

Your application looks pretty strong. You have a huge mix of schools on that list. I think you should think about what kind of environment you want. For instance, Stanford and Emory have radically different approaches to philosophy. Stony Brook and Fordham would both be good based on your course lists if you want a continental education. It all depends on what kind of scholar you want to be molded into. I'd also say only go for funded MAs.

[bar_scene_gambler]

Yeah, I'm only applying to these MA programs because they seem to be better about funding than the others and because I need a backup. I'm really interested in a continental education in Nietzsche and French Existentialism, but my interests are also broad and changing, so I don't want to lock myself into anything. I was kind of hoping for an environment that had an equal mix of both schools of thought, but I'm willing to go anywhere so long as I'm able to receive a proper education in my current areas of interest. My only reason for being hesitant about Stony Brook and Fordham is because some of the other programs that I'm applying to have better placement records, and the ones that don't (like U Hawaii) are only there because of my interests in niche areas of philosophy.

All in all though, I don't want to lock myself into a program where there are only, or a majority of, continental philosophers. That's the problem that I have with analytic environments as well. I think it leads to intellectual stagnation and a general ignorance of the other tradition, something that I don't want to have happen to me.

[philstudent1991]

That's almost 20 schools you're applying to? Do you think you might be able to weed a few out so you can put more attention toward the ones you really care about? Like Vanderbilt and Loyola, you just said you're applying because it's free. I understand that, but is it worth the time and effort of the app? That's gonna be a lot of application fees.

[bar_scene_gambler]

I'm hoping to get a few fee waivers. I'm going to cut some schools from the list before I apply, but ideally I'd like to apply to somewhere between 14 and 16. My dad works at the university I attend, and one of his employee benefits is that my tuition is waived, so I can't send any financial aid statements out, because I don't technically get financial aid. So my hope is that I can send some tax forms as demonstration of financial need for the fee waiver, because I make almost nothing and I have to pay for application fees myself.

[philstudent1991]

oh I see that's an interesting little twist. Well good luck!

[Narziss]

I think you want something like a 310 combined total GRE minimum.

 

You should consider UCR as Clark does Nietzsche and Schwitzgebel has a secondary interest in Chinese philosophy I think.

[isostheneia]

Bar_scene_gambler, I see you're interested in applying to UChicago, and I definitely recommend that. Depending on the strength of your writing sample (most of what gets you in), I think you'd be a very attractive applicant to them. They don't really have anybody that does work on Eastern philosophy, but they have a great mix of analytic and continental, and your coursework seems to be in line with a lot of work folks do there (good stuff on Nietzsche and currently strengthening their 20th century French faculty). Especially having taken Wittgenstein and some OLP. Anyway, I'd definitely encourage you to apply and spending some time showing how good a fit it'd be for you.

[bar_scene_gambler]

isostheneia,

Well, you'd definitely be able to tell me whether or not you think my ethics paper is a strong sample, considering that I sent it to you a while ago. I must admit though, I'm a little hesitant regarding U Chicago, only because it seems that faculty there (I'm mainly referring to Leiter) study Nietzsche in a way that I find...distasteful. Too analytic, not existentialist enough, you know? I don't know much about Professor Conant's work, but the professor of existentialism in my department tells me I wouldn't like to work with him. However, if you believe that the analytic/continental mix is even enough, it would be a great consolation. 

[philoSophia12]

I finished the gre (and remembered somethings I forgot to include, thanks for your help, bar_scene_gambler), so here is the updated version. My dream school at this point would be Notre Dame. Anyone think this profile might possibly just get me in?

 

Undergrad school: Top 150 US News, Unheard of Philosophy program

GPA: 4.0 overall, (4.0 philosophy also, obviously)

GRE: 157Q 165V Waiting on AW

Writing Sample: Either an analytic-focused paper on a problem in philosophy of religion or a Kant on Abortion paper 

2 "Colloquia" style presentations (basically I taught a mini-one day class/discussion group with a student org.)

I'll be a TA this coming year for an intro to the discipline class that a lot of freshmen take, and I TAed my sophomore year for a lower division English class (so I'll have some direct teaching experience going in).

Letters of Rec: I should have good ones, but not from anyone famous.

 

Awards: Top Student Philosopher (among graduate and undergrad students) in the University, Highest level of departmental scholarship recognition, Outstanding language student, Top 10% of student writers in my university..

Coursework:
(IP)=upcoming semester
Intro to Philosophy
Ethical Theory
Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Logic
Philosophy of Religion
Modern Philosophy
Kant's Ethics
Philosophy of Language (IP)

Social and Political Philosophy (IP)

Philosophy and Religions of India

 

Areas of Interest: Philosophy of Religion (Reformed Epistemology, Realism vs Non Realism), History of Philosophy (especially Augustine and the Neo-Platonists)

[philstudent1991]

Sophia: 322 is right on target for a lot of good programs! While nothing is a sure thing, that's a respectable score. Many many schools have strengths in Kant and history of philosophy so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a list, also factoring in proximity if that's an issue for you.

[philoSophia12]

philstudent, I am so relieved to hear that. Math has never been my strong subject (mostly because I didn't invest energy in it in high school), so the GRE caused me much fear and trembling. So glad it's over. Kant is actually not an aoi of mine, my undergrad program happens to have no faculty members who are interested in any of my own aois, so all my "great" papers that I would submit for writing samples are from courses that aren't within my aois. Do you think this may hurt me a bunch if I'm submitting papers that aren't in my aoi? Or maybe is it worth mentioning why my writing sample may not be in my aoi in my personal statement to clear that confusion up?

[philstudent1991]

I don't think it's a necessity to submit papers in your aoi. I'm an applying student so i'm no guru, but from what I have read, while writing a paper on your areas of specialty is a good opportunity to show off and particularly to show a program you share interests with them, a paper on a general topic can be fine too (Kant or Descartes or something). However, a particularly general paper, and particularly a paper that is a synopsis of an argument or a review of a debate but makes no actual arguments itself is not likely to impress

[Megalopsuchia]

philstudent has a point, but you must be careful submitting papers that are sufficiently outside the aoi of the readers: for example, if the school has no one who studies aesthetics, your analysis - no matter how brilliant it may be - will fall on deaf ears. Another example: once when I was at a conference, I chatted up the Keynote about tangential uses of Heidegger and even though I am no expert, he believed me to be because he hadn't read a lick of it. If I had applied to that school and everyone was equally uninterested in Heidegger, using Heidegger would've been a poor choice.

So make sure first your essay is good, secondly if it is of any interest to anyone at the department.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Megalopsuchia