Acceptance Thread

[Griswald]

I'm in at University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (focus in philosophy of biology)! Awesome news, very solid phil sci program, great to get this one in the bag so early =D

Congratulations!

[wandajune]

MattDest, I'm one of the Mizzou admits. The email says I was accepted and nominated for a fellowship, and a teaching assistantship is likely if I am not granted a fellowship. There is a visit day in March, and they will cover some of the travel costs. Very exciting!

[MattDest]

MattDest, I'm one of the Mizzou admits. The email says I was accepted and nominated for a fellowship, and a teaching assistantship is likely if I am not granted a fellowship. There is a visit day in March, and they will cover some of the travel costs. Very exciting!

 

Congratulations, and thanks for the information. I have a friend there and he seems to like it very much. 

[wildc4t]

I'm another one of the Missou admits (the one with the MA GPA in comments). I got the same as wandajune above, so no extra info here. (By the way, the undergrad GPA should read 3.5. I mis-typed in excitement.)

[Platonist]

U of Minnesota has released both the acceptances and the wait list. I did not receive either an acceptance or a waitlist notice. So there should be no any hope regarding my admission to this school (I guess the rejection email will come later). Is that right? 

[wildc4t]

Platonist, if you have a hobby you should pursue that now. You are waaaaaaay too stressed out. Too many posts.

[Platonist]

Platonist, if you have a hobby you should pursue that now. You are waaaaaaay too stressed out. Too many posts.

Thanks for your suggestion, wildc4t. I am so sorry for having so many posts; I am really really stressed out. I do not drink any alcohol. Otherwise I would drink heavily. I will try to post less from now. Thanks for your understanding. 

Edited February 1, 2014 by Platonist

[TheVineyard]

U of Minnesota has released both the acceptances and the wait list. I did not receive either an acceptance or a waitlist notice. So there should be no any hope regarding my admission to this school (I guess the rejection email will come later). Is that right? 

 

I think that is right. Can never be certain with these kinds of things, but if a school puts together and notifies both accepted people and waitlisted people, then I think everyone else is pretty much out.

With Duke and UNC, we can still hold out hope if we weren't accepted because they have not finalized a waitlist (or at least, they have not made it known).

[DHumeDominates]

I think that is right. Can never be certain with these kinds of things, but if a school puts together and notifies both accepted people and waitlisted people, then I think everyone else is pretty much out.

With Duke and UNC, we can still hold out hope if we weren't accepted because they have not finalized a waitlist (or at least, they have not made it known).

 

Or at least, they have not made it known -- as far as we know ...

[shelbyelisha]

Thanks for your suggestion, wildc4t. I am so sorry for having so many posts; I am really really stressed out. I do not drink any alcohol. Otherwise I would drink heavily. I will try to post less from now. Thanks for your understanding. 

 

As a fellow non-drinker, I feel your pain.  Try video games and netflix.

[Platonist]

I think that is right. Can never be certain with these kinds of things, but if a school puts together and notifies both accepted people and waitlisted people, then I think everyone else is pretty much out.

With Duke and UNC, we can still hold out hope if we weren't accepted because they have not finalized a waitlist (or at least, they have not made it known).

Thank you Vineyard. I checked the application status, and saw no rejection. But I think they are behind the updates, and a rejection will appear in the next week. It seems that not many people in this forum applied to Minnesota, and the applicant pool may be not that big. Failure in this case makes me feel so worried regarding the prospects of finding a place elsewhere. I remember this school requires 3 (!) statements, more than any other school does. I worked very hard on the three statements when applying. Feeling so bad now. Hope there will be good news regarding other schools. 

[bar_scene_gambler]

Thank you Vineyard. I checked the application status, and saw no rejection. But I think they are behind the updates, and a rejection will appear in the next week. It seems that not many people in this forum applied to Minnesota, and the applicant pool may be not that big. Failure in this case makes me feel so worried regarding the prospects of finding a place elsewhere. I remember this school requires 3 (!) statements, more than any other school does. I worked very hard on the three statements when applying. Feeling so bad now. Hope there will be good news regarding other schools. 

Don't project what may be a rejection onto other programs. There's no intrinsic connection between a rejection at one school and your chances at others. U Minnesota might have received a batch of really strong candidates this year, and perhaps some of your other programs received applications from weaker candidates. Perhaps there was less funding this year. Who knows? Don't neurotically assume you'll get rejections everywhere because one program hasn't accepted you. You'll just end up stressing yourself to the breaking point.

[Gnothi_Seauton]

bar_scene_gambler is right.  Don't take the result from one school to be indicative of what will happen at other schools.  There are too many random variables at play in an admissions decision.  Any acceptance will depend, at least to some extent, on luck.  

[TheVineyard]

Thank you Vineyard. I checked the application status, and saw no rejection. But I think they are behind the updates, and a rejection will appear in the next week. It seems that not many people in this forum applied to Minnesota, and the applicant pool may be not that big. Failure in this case makes me feel so worried regarding the prospects of finding a place elsewhere. I remember this school requires 3 (!) statements, more than any other school does. I worked very hard on the three statements when applying. Feeling so bad now. Hope there will be good news regarding other schools. 

 

I don't remember what you're talking about with the 3 statement thing....I don't think I did that...The only difficult thing about their application that I remember was having to do that hard copy and scan it, etc.

Now as far as Minnesota, as others have said, there really isn't much of a connection between them. Are you studying the philosophy of science? Remember that if you aren't doing phil sci, you aren't studying MN's specialty, so fit issues could always be at work. Also, there are very few phil sci people on this forum, so MN is probably underrepresented here.

Edited February 1, 2014 by TheVineyard

[mrs_doubtfire]

Thank you Vineyard. I checked the application status, and saw no rejection. But I think they are behind the updates, and a rejection will appear in the next week. It seems that not many people in this forum applied to Minnesota, and the applicant pool may be not that big. Failure in this case makes me feel so worried regarding the prospects of finding a place elsewhere. I remember this school requires 3 (!) statements, more than any other school does. I worked very hard on the three statements when applying. Feeling so bad now. Hope there will be good news regarding other schools. 

 

Here's one data point to support the idea that a decision from one program is poor indicator of how other programs might act on your application. I was rejected from a few places that were lower ranked on the PGR. Like you, I headed towards the mountain of despair thinking that my chances at top 10 departments were probably non-existent if I couldn't manage to be accepted to lower ranked places. This turned out to be false. I ended up being admitted to a few top 20 places. My guess is that fit plays a big role in your admission. 

 

I also wanted to offer you a piece of advice, Platonist. This whole process has really stressed you out, more so than any other applicant on this forum. The thing is that graduate school is more stressful than the application process. If you do graduate school right, it's bound to be hard. Your professors and peers will be critical of your ideas and papers. If they're good colleagues, they'll challenge you to think in ways that you probably never could have on your own. They'll expose gaps in your reasoning or raise objections to your view. When you submit papers to journals or conferences, you're likely to receive very critical and often harsh feedback from referees and conference organizers. And this is the way things should be, because after all, you're trying to become a better philosopher. But without the right attitude, it's easy to take these criticisms personally and suffer from a lowered sense of self-esteem throughout graduate school. So I would heed the advice of different posters on this forum and try to find a way to reduce your anxiety about graduate school. It'll serve you well once you're in. 

[Platonist]

I don't remember what you're talking about with the 3 statement thing....I don't think I did that...The only difficult thing about their application that I remember was having to do that hard copy and scan it, etc.

Now as far as Minnesota, as others have said, there really isn't much of a connection between them. Are you studying the philosophy of science? Remember that if you aren't doing phil sci, you aren't studying MN's specialty, so fit issues could always be at work. Also, there are very few phil sci people on this forum, so MN is probably underrepresented here.

U of Minnesota requests 3 statements: statement of purpose, statement of diversity, and statement of extenuating circumstances. It took me a lot of time and efforts in writing these three statements. 

 

Does this school only take students whose interest is in philosophy of science, not any other area like ethics? Anyway, I am trying to forget about Minnesota. Thanks again. 

[Platonist]

Here's one data point to support the idea that a decision from one program is poor indicator of how other programs might act on your application. I was rejected from a few places that were lower ranked on the PGR. Like you, I headed towards the mountain of despair thinking that my chances at top 10 departments were probably non-existent if I couldn't manage to be accepted to lower ranked places. This turned out to be false. I ended up being admitted to a few top 20 places. My guess is that fit plays a big role in your admission. 

 

I also wanted to offer you a piece of advice, Platonist. This whole process has really stressed you out, more so than any other applicant on this forum. The thing is that graduate school is more stressful than the application process. If you do graduate school right, it's bound to be hard. Your professors and peers will be critical of your ideas and papers. If they're good colleagues, they'll challenge you to think in ways that you probably never could have on your own. They'll expose gaps in your reasoning or raise objections to your view. When you submit papers to journals or conferences, you're likely to receive very critical and often harsh feedback from referees and conference organizers. And this is the way things should be, because after all, you're trying to become a better philosopher. But without the right attitude, it's easy to take these criticisms personally and suffer from a lowered sense of self-esteem throughout graduate school. So I would heed the advice of different posters on this forum and try to find a way to reduce your anxiety about graduate school. It'll serve you well once you're in. 

Thanks for the information, doubtfire! I did apply to some schools that are higher ranked than Minnesota on the PGR. I hope an offer will come from one of those schools! 

 

Thanks for the advice regarding the graduate school. Yes, I know philosophy is a critical subject by its very nature. So I am not afraid of criticisms from my professors and peers at graduate school, though I will surely unhappy with very negative comments by paper reviewers, which will cause my paper to be rejected for publication.   Thanks again. 

[TheVineyard]

U of Minnesota requests 3 statements: statement of purpose, statement of diversity, and statement of extenuating circumstances. It took me a lot of time and efforts in writing these three statements. 

 

Does this school only take students whose interest is in philosophy of science, not any other area like ethics? Anyway, I am trying to forget about Minnesota. Thanks again. 

 

I only did a statement of purpose. I did write a history/diversity statement for some schools but not for Minn, and I certainly never wrote a statement of extenuating circumstances. I might have just opted out because I simply haven't had any seriously extenuating circumstances.

But as far as only taking students interested in phil sci, looking at their graduate student roster, its mostly philosophy of science and mind students. http://www.philosophy.umn.edu/people/gradStudents.html

Edited February 1, 2014 by TheVineyard

[Platonist]

But as far as only taking students interested in phil sci, looking at their graduate student roster, its mostly philosophy of science and mind students. http://www.philosophy.umn.edu/people/gradStudents.html

Yes, there are indeed many students in philosophy of science and mind. But I see many in other areas as well. I think the faculty do not like my writing sample-I am pretty sure they will disagree with what I present. I argue for something as a priori, but I find that the faculty are empiricists on that issue! That may be at least one of the reasons that I did not receive an offer. (By the way, for better or worse, it seems that philosophy today is too much influenced and overshadowed by science and empirical perspectives.)- sorry if I am a bit off topic of this thread. 

[TheVineyard]

Yes, there are indeed many students in philosophy of science and mind. But I see many in other areas as well. I think the faculty do not like my writing sample-I am pretty sure they will disagree with what I present. I argue for something as a priori, but I find that the faculty are empiricists on that issue! That may be at least one of the reasons that I did not receive an offer. (By the way, for better or worse, it seems that philosophy today is too much influenced and overshadowed by science and empirical perspectives.)- sorry if I am a bit off topic of this thread. 

 

I'll bite!

I think philosophy isn't intertwined enough with science + empirical perspectives! It is my goal to make sure that philosophy and science are continuous, as a purely a priori philosophy is, IMO, almost completely worthless and gets us nowhere. Philosophy has a place in helping clarify science, and philosophical thinkers can also help with theoretical work and conclusion drawing regarding scientific research. I do not believe there is anything that philosophers can carve out that is unique and special and all-their-own. If the job of a philosopher is to be relevant, it can only be in conjunction with other fields. (ie., optimally, there should not be a "Philosophy Departments" as they currently exist, but there should be philosophically minded people well educated in other fields, and these people will reside in those other departments).

Edited February 1, 2014 by TheVineyard

[Platonist]

I'll bite!

I think philosophy isn't intertwined enough with science + empirical perspectives! It is my goal to make sure that philosophy and science are continuous, as a purely a priori philosophy is, IMO, almost completely worthless and gets us nowhere. Philosophy has a place in helping clarify science, and philosophical thinkers can also help with theoretical work and conclusion drawing regarding scientific research. I do not believe there is anything that philosophers can carve out that is unique and special and all-their-own. If the job of a philosopher is to be relevant, it can only be in conjunction with other fields. (ie., optimally, there should not be a "Philosophy Departments" as they currently exist, but there should be philosophically minded people well educated in other fields, and these people will reside in those other departments).

I am very open to alternative perspectives. 

Edited February 1, 2014 by Platonist

[philstudent1991]

I'll bite!

I think philosophy isn't intertwined enough with science + empirical perspectives! It is my goal to make sure that philosophy and science are continuous, as a purely a priori philosophy is, IMO, almost completely worthless and gets us nowhere. Philosophy has a place in helping clarify science, and philosophical thinkers can also help with theoretical work and conclusion drawing regarding scientific research. I do not believe there is anything that philosophers can carve out that is unique and special and all-their-own. If the job of a philosopher is to be relevant, it can only be in conjunction with other fields. (ie., optimally, there should not be a "Philosophy Departments" as they currently exist, but there should be philosophically minded people well educated in other fields, and these people will reside in those other departments).

I think I'm in the middle of you two. I wouldn't wholly discredit the a priori, but science absolutely has to be taken account of in modern work on ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, religion, etc. I'm interested in philosophy of biology, so I definitely see a role for science. But philosophy examines values in many cases, and science cannot as of yet say anything about values.

[SelfHatingPhilosopher]

almost completely worthless and gets us nowhere

 

 

Why do people always treat this like a bad thing? Some people say reading fine literature makes you more empathetic, and that's why you should read. I never connected with this line of reasoning. I'd still read fine literature and think it be an important thing to keep up with even if it had no practical benefits. Even though Fermat's Last Theorem doesn't get us anywhere, I think it's one of the greatest accomplishments of human history. If we can appreciate literature and pure mathematics on this basis, why can't we appreciate philosophy in this way?

[TheVineyard]

Why do people always treat this like a bad thing? Some people say reading fine literature makes you more empathetic, and that's why you should read. I never connected with this line of reasoning. I'd still read fine literature and think it be an important thing to keep up with even if it had no practical benefits. Even though Fermat's Last Theorem doesn't get us anywhere, I think it's one of the greatest accomplishments of human history. If we can appreciate literature and pure mathematics on this basis, why can't we appreciate philosophy in this way?

 

Well there are many worthless feats of humanity. Worlds largest cookie, for example. I guess they deserve to be appreciated...

As far as literature, if you think the literature is cool/fun/beautiful, then enjoy it! Enjoy it like we enjoy video games. However, what I am interested about when it comes to philosophy is finding out the way the world is, or being less wrong about it. I think ultimately this work is best done by a philosophically informed science (or scientifically informed philosophy).

[Canis]

If literature is a thing in the world, like rocks and rivers and mountains and trees, doesn't it too tell us something about the way the world is? Or is it it not also a thing in the world, in which case, what is it? I'm curious to know the thoughts that might be behind excluding any of the many things of the world from an investigation into the world.