fuzzyp Posted January 22, 2014 Posted January 22, 2014 Hi all, Here's my situation. I received my BA in an unrelated discipline and my GPA was quite damaged in parts (I'll spare the details). After graduating, I developed a serious interest in political theory, especially to do with ancient thought and the history of political philosophy, right at the intersection of Philosophy, Political Science, and Classics. In order to be able to make the case for myself, I spent about a year and a half gathering upper-level credits (9 term-length courses, 6 in PSci, 3 in Phil) related to my interest, all with A or A+ results. Between the difficulty of finding an MA program that (1) might plausibly consider my "special case" (2) is not cost-prohibitive (ruling out most schools in the US) and (3) could reasonably house my interests, I only ended up applying to U of T (Political Science, Philosophy) and KU Leuven (Philosophy). I was a bit picky about location (avoiding Calgary and Ottawa). At this late late date, I'm becoming increasingly concerned I didn't dig deep enough. U of T is a longshot, and the more I review KU Leuven's course schedule, it looks like less of a match than I thought. I have all my materials ready to go. I'm wondering if anyone might have any last minute suggestions for programs that come to mind as a potential fit? I'm a bit more flexible on cost that I had originally planned, but haven't taken the GRE. Any thoughts would be really helpful. (Cross-posted to Political Science)
MattDest Posted January 22, 2014 Posted January 22, 2014 Hi all, Here's my situation. I received my BA in an unrelated discipline and my GPA was quite damaged in parts (I'll spare the details). After graduating, I developed a serious interest in political theory, especially to do with ancient thought and the history of political philosophy, right at the intersection of Philosophy, Political Science, and Classics. In order to be able to make the case for myself, I spent about a year and a half gathering upper-level credits (9 term-length courses, 6 in PSci, 3 in Phil) related to my interest, all with A or A+ results. Between the difficulty of finding an MA program that (1) might plausibly consider my "special case" (2) is not cost-prohibitive (ruling out most schools in the US) and (3) could reasonably house my interests, I only ended up applying to U of T (Political Science, Philosophy) and KU Leuven (Philosophy). I was a bit picky about location (avoiding Calgary and Ottawa). At this late late date, I'm becoming increasingly concerned I didn't dig deep enough. U of T is a longshot, and the more I review KU Leuven's course schedule, it looks like less of a match than I thought. I have all my materials ready to go. I'm wondering if anyone might have any last minute suggestions for programs that come to mind as a potential fit? I'm a bit more flexible on cost that I had originally planned, but haven't taken the GRE. Any thoughts would be really helpful. (Cross-posted to Political Science) Are you still ruling out programs in the US?
fuzzyp Posted January 22, 2014 Author Posted January 22, 2014 Are you still ruling out programs in the US? No, not categorically. The issue at this point is that I haven't taken the GRE, and also that I probably have a tuition cap. I'd welcome any suggestions, though.
maxhgns Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 Queen's? Waterloo? York? Guelph? Concordia? McGill PoliSci? Their deadlines may have passed, however; Iunno.
DigDeep(inactive) Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 What's wrong with Calgary? Just curious...
Monadology Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 (edited) It's not important, for your MA program, that you be able to pursue some sort of specialty to any great degree. I imagine you'd get a little bored or anxious if the program had no political philosophy courses, but your focus on political philosophy is premature at this stage. Match at an MA program really isn't as important as showing you can do graduate level work and, frankly, broadening your horizons as well. Also what's the difficulty with your "special case?" Most MA programs are used to taking special cases. That's partially what they're there for. If you have another round of applictions, apply to good MA programs, many of which provide funding. I know my own MA program, UW Milwaukee, regularly has political philosophy courses, provides funding has no problems taking people with unusual routes to philosophy. Edited February 21, 2014 by Monadology
maxhgns Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 Also what's the difficulty with your "special case?" Most MA programs are used to taking special cases. That's partially what they're there for. Note that in Canada, an MA is typically required before admission to the PhD. Consequently, there's not the same culture of patching a weak or deviant (so to speak) UG with an MA as there is in the US. To be sure, they still provide an avenue for non-philosophy students to get some philosophy cred, but the point is that they view themselves and their role differently. Nonetheless, I'm with you in thinking that the OP's case doesn't seem particularly bad or "special". Monadology 1
lesage13 Posted February 21, 2014 Posted February 21, 2014 (edited) If climate [EDIT: as in weather... no idea what it's like for women or POC there] is a concern, you might want to consider UVic, which has a nice, temperate climate to go with a pretty decent MA program. Edited February 21, 2014 by lesage13
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