Department info from one another? Do any of you go to schools that some of us are applying to?

[roast beef]

To respond to the original post: I think this is a great idea and I'd be happy to participate! I'm finishing up my MA at Georgia State; if anyone has questions about the program, please shoot me a PM.

[TheVineyard]

I don't want anything I say here to be held against me by students from my school, my own professors, or the rare professor that checks gradcafe and is on an admissions committee. I presented my package in my application. If I wanted more to be considered, I would have put it in my application.

I figure that IF a professor does look at this kind of stuff (and I personally know at least one professor that does!) then everything I say would be up for analysis, might hurt my image, etc. What are the chances of this happening? Maybe 5%? 1%? I don't really care, any % chance of that happening is too much, and I know there is a nonzero chance of it happening. I would far more regret that a school bumped me off a waitlist or moved me from accept to waitlist because of an online profile that was overanalyzed, etc.

TL;DR, it most likely doesn't matter, but that is a risk that I'm not willing to take, especially considering that I see no reward in making it known who I am. I haven't even listed all of the schools I'm applying to...I'm not sure how that could hurt me, but I haven't figured out if I should do it yet =P

Edited February 1, 2014 by TheVineyard

[MattDest]

I don't want anything I say here to be held against me by students from my school, my own professors, or the rare professor that checks gradcafe and is on an admissions committee. I presented my package in my application. If I wanted more to be considered, I would have put it in my application.

I figure that IF a professor does look at this kind of stuff (and I personally know at least one professor that does!) then everything I say would be up for analysis, might hurt my image, etc. What are the chances of this happening? Maybe 5%? 1%? I don't really care, any % chance of that happening is too much, and I know there is a nonzero chance of it happening. I would far more regret that a school bumped me off a waitlist or moved me from accept to waitlist because of an online profile that was overanalyzed, etc.

TL;DR, it most likely doesn't matter, but that is a risk that I'm not willing to take, especially considering that I see no reward in making it known who I am. I haven't even listed all of the schools I'm applying to...I'm not sure how that could hurt me, but I haven't figured out if I should do it yet =P

 

I have a slightly different view about this. When a adcom attempts to search for me on the web, I'm assuming that they are not necessarily  just looking for potentially stupid things I have done/said, but may want to learn more about me. If I portray myself in a positive light through online presence (whether that be social media, websites, or forums), it could be a good thing. 

 

Of course, this strategy could completely backfire (if I think what I'm saying makes me look good, but it actually makes me look like an insufferable ass), but I'm reasonably confident that I don't come off as a complete jerk. (There was an interesting thread about this very discussion on Leiter's blog.)

[TheVineyard]

Of course, this strategy could completely backfire (if I think what I'm saying makes me look good, but it actually makes me look like an insufferable ass), but I'm reasonably confident that I don't come off as a complete jerk.

 

I cannot say the same about myself.

[Silly_Socrates]

I'm okay with users knowing my undergrad and masters university since I've had a good experience with my department over the years. So if anyone has questions about Marquette University let me know.

[axiomness]

I don't know if any here are applying, but I can answer questions about Purdue.

[AquinasDuo]

I will happily answer questions about St. Andrew's (SASP) MLitt/MPhil program. Spoiler: it was grand. 

[philosophe]

I will happily answer questions about St. Andrew's (SASP) MLitt/MPhil program. Spoiler: it was grand. 

 

I applied -- I'll let you know if I get in! If so, I'd love to hear more. 

[philstudent1991]

Graduate school in philosophy, that is. Maybe I'm way off, but I would guess most departments have 0-3 undergrads applying to philosophy phd programs. If I knew someone from school X was applying and saw someone from school X post here, I would think it was reasonably likely that they were the same person, because I just don't think there are that many people applying. If I saw they had the same interests I would think they were probably the same person. 

 

I don't really think there would actually be tangible consequences, I would just not especially like it.

I should mention that someone has pretty intensively searched for information about me before, and they found (and read) a lot of posts by someone that they thought was me. It wasn't, so at the time I thought it was just funny, but it's probably made me a bit more cautious.

0-3 seems like a high range. Maybe 0-1, with an occasional 2 or 3. Prestigious schools may be overrepresented, and maybe that's where you're from, idk. But if every university had 0-3 there would be thousands of applicants. And I don't think there are...but maybe. :-/

[SelfHatingPhilosopher]

0-3 seems like a high range. Maybe 0-1, with an occasional 2 or 3. Prestigious schools may be overrepresented, and maybe that's where you're from, idk. But if every university had 0-3 there would be thousands of applicants. And I don't think there are...but maybe. :-/

 

I wonder.

 

Just my own ancedotes, I'd be curious to hear from others their own experiences from their undergraduate universities: my undergrad program had at least 4 applicants including myself that I knew about. We were the "loudest" four of the department that everyone knew, so it's possible there were some quieter undergraduates who applied out the same year as well but weren't being talked about. On the one hand, my undergraduate university is large (>40k students). On the other, the philosophy major isn't that large in proportion. There were like 3 philosophy majors who graduated the year before me. I have no idea how many graduated my year.  Probably no more than 8 or 10. But still, that's a good percentage of students applying out.

[philstudent1991]

I wonder.

 

Just my own ancedotes, I'd be curious to hear from others their own experiences from their undergraduate universities: my undergrad program had at least 4 applicants including myself that I knew about. We were the "loudest" four of the department that everyone knew, so it's possible there were some quieter undergraduates who applied out the same year as well but weren't being talked about. On the one hand, my undergraduate university is large (>40k students). On the other, the philosophy major isn't that large in proportion. There were like 3 philosophy majors who graduated the year before me. I have no idea how many graduated my year.  Probably no more than 8 or 10. But still, that's a good percentage of students applying out.

That sounds like an incredibly rare circumstance that you'd have so many, but maybe I'm wrong.

[kant_get_in]

That sounds like an incredibly rare circumstance that you'd have so many, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

I did my masters at a very large (60k+) university, with a fairly large philosophy program. In my first year 3 undergraduates applied to graduate programs in philosophy and in my second year, none applied to graduate programs in philosophy. 

[Table]

0-3 seems like a high range. Maybe 0-1, with an occasional 2 or 3. Prestigious schools may be overrepresented, and maybe that's where you're from, idk. But if every university had 0-3 there would be thousands of applicants. And I don't think there are...but maybe. :-/

 

Just to clarify, if most schools have 0-1 applicants, most also have 0-3 

[kant_get_in]

Just to clarify, if most schools have 0-1 applicants, most also have 0-3 

 

To be even snarkier, if most schools have 0-3 applicants it might be the the case that there are no applicants. 

[RookIV]

I'm at Oxford. I would be happy to answer any questions about the philosophy department here.

[Monadology]

Seems like this is a good time to bump this thread.

[AcademicX]

Anyone doing their undergrad at Columbia? I would love to help but I am doing my undergrad at a liberal arts college.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Johannes14

[PhiPhiPhi]

Sorry, I never saw this thread before. I'm a PhD student at UConn.

 

Feel free to post questions here or PM them.

[humean_skeptic]

Sorry, I never saw this thread before. I'm a PhD student at UConn.

 

Feel free to post questions here or PM them.

 

Do you know if there is a particular reason for UConn being the only department in the US -- or at least the only ranked department in the US -- which doesn't update most of its applicants by March 15th? So, why aren't any wait list notifications or any rejections given out by March 15th? As far as I can tell from the results page, only a couple offers have gone out. 

 

Seems as though several other people who also post on TGC and are applying to UConn are wondering the same thing. 

[PhiPhiPhi]

Do you know if there is a particular reason for UConn being the only department in the US -- or at least the only ranked department in the US -- which doesn't update most of its applicants by March 15th? So, why aren't any wait list notifications or any rejections given out by March 15th? As far as I can tell from the results page, only a couple offers have gone out. 

 

Seems as though several other people who also post on TGC and are applying to UConn are wondering the same thing. 

Good question. That wasn't the case during the year I applied (a few years back) or last year from what I hear. I don't really have an answer, no. I suspected that they would be out by now, and wasn't able to get any info by phishing for it unfortunately.

 

Honestly I'd suggest emailing them. The (officially unofficial but still pretty respected) deadline is past now and they owe you an update.

[humean_skeptic]

Good question. That wasn't the case during the year I applied (a few years back) or last year from what I hear. I don't really have an answer, no. I suspected that they would be out by now, and wasn't able to get any info by phishing for it unfortunately.

 

Honestly I'd suggest emailing them. The (officially unofficial but still pretty respected) deadline is past now and they owe you an update.

 

Will do! Thanks

[Mather]

I'm a current grad student at Columbia University and recent MA graduate from UW-Milwaukee. I'm happy to answer questions about either program as best as I can.

[Monadology]

^^ I know this guy and he's awesome. 

[Dialectica]

If anybody has experience (and useful information as a result) at either Western Michigan's or Northern Illinois' MA programs, feel free to PM me. I've heard a small range of perspectives on each. 

[prepare2deluze]

I'd love to hear some perspectives on New School's MA program.