Question for people applying with an MA:

[dgswaim]

I have a question for those of you applying to PhD programs from a terminal MA program. The reason I ask is that it seems likely enough that I won't be getting into any PhD programs on this, my first session of grad applications, given my general academic background (relatively unknown liberal arts university, poor early grades, etc.). 

 

My question is this: Do MA students generally wait until after they have finished their degree in the spring, and then spend the fall and spring of the following year to apply to PhD programs, or do MA students do it the way most undergrads do it and apply at the start of their last semester? Seems maybe that the former method would be more advisable, given that one would presumably be caught up in the process of writing a thesis and that sort of thing, but I'm curious nonetheless. My thanks for your opinions.

[Monadology]

At UW Milwaukee, the Fall semester of your second and final year (so your third semester), there is a writing workshop which is primarily used by applicants to get feedback from their peers on their writing sample. Most people apply during that season. Often one's writing sample is developed into a thesis anyway. Though, should you choose to wait a year that's not at all unheard of (though usually it happens because students aren't sure they want to continue in philosophy and then decide they do after they graduate).

[dgswaim]

At UW Milwaukee, the Fall semester of your second and final year (so your third semester), there is a writing workshop which is primarily used by applicants to get feedback from their peers on their writing sample. Most people apply during that season. Often one's writing sample is developed into a thesis anyway. Though, should you choose to wait a year that's not at all unheard of (though usually it happens because students aren't sure they want to continue in philosophy and then decide they do after they graduate).

Thanks. That makes sense. I really like the workshop concept.

[MattDest]

Most of the people in my program who have applied have done it the Fall semester of their second year. A few have done a gap year for a variety of reasons (wanting to use their polished thesis as a WS, wanting to take a break, etc.) My writing sample is not my thesis, but it was a seminar paper I developed during a summer course. We don't have a formal workshop like UWM (which sounds like a cool idea), but we had 'Works in Progress' series that gave people the opportunity to get feedback if they wanted to. 

[lesage13]

I had a two year strategy when I applied out of my MA. Going into the fall of the last year of my program (two years), I applied primarily to schools in the top 30. The idea was that I could treat the first time around as a dress rehearsal and get the GRE under my belt while also giving myself a free shot at a dream school--you never know if you'll get lucky. This year, my second year, I applied again to top schools as well as a few more realistic picks. The nice thing about this strategy is that it gives you two shots at getting into top schools, a much less stressful time if/when you apply again, and plenty of time to retake the GRE should you need to. But all this depends on whether you have the luxury of taking a gap year to apply again, and whether you have the money to spend on two rounds of apps.