jjb919 Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Has anyone else noticed that Brown's placement record is pretty abysmal? They have a bad record for a top-50 program, let alone for a top-20. Is this a good reason to not apply to their PhD program? I'm genuinely interested in opinions, since I was planning on applying to Brown this year. Placement record here: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/grads-placement.php Someone please feel free to correct me here, but I was looking at Brown my senior year of my undergraduate, and my adviser told me not to bother applying there. On top of their poor placement record they lack structure in their departmental requirements and are a bit 'loosey-goosey'; graduates don't come out very well prepared (which, if this is true, could lead to such a poor placement record). I'm not sure why they are so well ranked. The only one of their faculty members I know of is Paul Guyer, and he is a relatively recent hire. Take what I say with a grain of salt, this was 5 years ago and I haven't given any deep look into their department on my own. a_for_aporia 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nastasya_Filippovna Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 (edited) Perhaps their ranking results from the fact that they are an ivy league? I know they also have Jaegwon Kim, and although I don't agree with reductive physicalism, he is an incredible writer and has been a profoundly influential philosopher and a highly respected name in philosophy of mind for decades. It's a shame that the placement record has been so unsuccessful - ironically you would think graduates would be having luck for what I'm speculating is the same reason the school has the ranking it does- status alone. I liked what the "nature" of the program suggested it provided. If I could recall correctly there was a prof there who was well versed in Nietzsche and German Idealism, and the rest devoted to analytic and phil of mind- that's an ideal program for me. 'Tis a shame. Edited December 23, 2014 by Nastasya_Filippovna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overoverover Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 (edited) Well, I can't speak to the placement, but Brown's faculty is quite strong. Richard Heck is a great logician, philosopher of language, and Frege scholar. Jamie Dreier and Nomy Arpaly are both quite good, and of course Paul Guyer is a top knotch Kant scholar, so it isn't baffling that they're highly ranked. With that kind of faculty, I'd guess that placement is problem a structural issue rather than a departmental strength issue. Edited December 23, 2014 by overoverover a_for_aporia and Establishment 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isostheneia Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 (edited) It's worth noting that there are a couple other reasons their placement record could look bad. First, it's a fairly small department, so fluctuations from year to year can look worse. They currently have <30 grad students. It also looks like they don't update their website very often, so their listed placements may only be initial placements - they might not update when students find TT jobs. Hard to say though, I haven't looked up their graduates to see where they currently are. It's certainly not encouraging, but I would be unsure how much weight to put on their (apparently) bad placement in recent years. Charles Larmore is another prof there who does some great work on German Idealism. Edit: According to this (http://www.philosophynews.com/post/2013/10/02/Will-I-get-a-Job-Graduate-School-Philosophy-Placement-Records.aspx) study, Brown has placed 58% of its PhDs into TT jobs since 2000, which is 27th among graduate schools. Edited December 23, 2014 by isostheneia a_for_aporia and Infinite Zest 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NathanKellen Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Has anyone else noticed that Brown's placement record is pretty abysmal? They have a bad record for a top-50 program, let alone for a top-20. Is this a good reason to not apply to their PhD program? I'm genuinely interested in opinions, since I was planning on applying to Brown this year. Placement record here: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/grads-placement.php I've been told by people at Brown that they're working on new initiatives to place their students better. It sounded like this started in the past couple years, and thus might still be coming to fruition. Just something to note. a_for_aporia and overoverover 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoink7 Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 Hello all, I discovered this forum about a week and a half ago after I finished submitting my applications. My AOI (pretty sure I'm using that right) is philosophy of law. I'm not sure how much I plan on posting, but I feel strange lurking when there's a perfectly good introductory thread just sitting here. So hi. MattDest and isostheneia 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isostheneia Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 Welcome, yoink. Glad to have you with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isostheneia Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 What are other folks doing in the couple of weeks before admissions decisions start coming in? Reading more philosophy (like the studious prospective grad students we all are)? Catching up on some pleasure reading? Doing first-hand research on the relation between pure aesthetic judgment and Netflix marathons? Personally, I would like to work on some papers that I've been wanting to write but haven't had the time, but instead I'll probably just be refreshing TGC about 200 times per day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euromaniac Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 What are other folks doing in the couple of weeks before admissions decisions start coming in? Reading more philosophy (like the studious prospective grad students we all are)? Catching up on some pleasure reading? Doing first-hand research on the relation between pure aesthetic judgment and Netflix marathons? Personally, I would like to work on some papers that I've been wanting to write but haven't had the time, but instead I'll probably just be refreshing TGC about 200 times per day. Ha! I'm with you regarding refreshing TGC 2304532742934923 times a day. I have been trying to read as much as possible. I just read Simon Crichley's Ethics of Deconstruction and I thought it was fantastic, so I might read more Levinas/his commentary on B&T. Nastasya_Filippovna 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nastasya_Filippovna Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 (edited) Ha! I'm with you regarding refreshing TGC 2304532742934923 times a day. I have been trying to read as much as possible. I just read Simon Crichley's Ethics of Deconstruction and I thought it was fantastic, so I might read more Levinas/his commentary on B&T. This is embarrassing- what is TGC?? It has been really nice reading all the philosophy books I never got the time to peruse during my time in school! I've been on a phil of mind kick lately, just finished LeDoux's The Synaptic Self which I really enjoyed, and of course indulging in some more Davidson. I'm about to read Clark's Supersizing the Mind and some William James, and then it's back to some Hegel! Edited December 31, 2014 by Nastasya_Filippovna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overoverover Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Currently trying to finish a draft of my MA thesis. But also reading a bunch of books (mostly not philosophy TBH) and watching Netflix. Oh and posting on this forum all the time and preparing to refresh the results page every few minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isostheneia Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 This is embarrassing- what is TGC?? TGC = The Grad Cafe Oh and posting on this forum all the time and preparing to refresh the results page every few minutes. overoverover 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite Zest Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Learning as much science and math as possible before I no longer have the chance! cestbon and isostheneia 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettmullga Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 When is the earliest you all are expecting to hear back? This obviously assumes that the notification dates of previous years are reliable guides to the future. I have one school around January 13th and a handful of others about the same time in February. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite Zest Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Probably the end of January or early February (UC Berkeley). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overoverover Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Happy New Year, everybody! For some reason it being January makes me think we'll hear from schools any day now. Temporal phenomenology FTW? isostheneia 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overoverover Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Or delusions of optimism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overoverover Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Or delusions of optimism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reixis Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Happy New Year, everybody! For some reason it being January makes me think we'll hear from schools any day now. Temporal phenomenology FTW? Happy New Year! Same thing here. I'm still missing one letter and Harvard's and MIT's deadlines are tomorrow. I'm constantly checking applications systems looking for status updates. Not so much of a pleasant first day of the year. Nastasya_Filippovna 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite Zest Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Happy New Year! Same thing here. I'm still missing one letter and Harvard's and MIT's deadlines are tomorrow. I'm constantly checking applications systems looking for status updates. Not so much of a pleasant first day of the year. A lot of universities are closed until the 5th or so. I wouldn't worry too much if the sites aren't updating. On the other hand, it's worth checking to see that your letter writers have actually submitted their letters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite Zest Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Happy New Year! Same thing here. I'm still missing one letter and Harvard's and MIT's deadlines are tomorrow. I'm constantly checking applications systems looking for status updates. Not so much of a pleasant first day of the year. If it's any consolidation, a few of my apps still are "incomplete," even though everything's been submitted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite Zest Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Happy New Year, everybody! For some reason it being January makes me think we'll hear from schools any day now. Temporal phenomenology FTW? Haha, I didn't even think about it this way. We're about to find out (ish)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nastasya_Filippovna Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Probably the end of January or early February (UC Berkeley). I'm thinking Feb too for the Dec/early January ones- although from what I recall a lot of people seemed to be posting results from some schools last year in March- ugghhhhh do I REALLY need to wait that long? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite Zest Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 I'm thinking Feb too for the Dec/early January ones- although from what I recall a lot of people seemed to be posting results from some schools last year in March- ugghhhhh do I REALLY need to wait that long? It's like waiting for Christmas! ...except Santa is a 65 year old philosopher with a big white beard, and he has rejection letters instead of gifts. Nastasya_Filippovna and a_for_aporia 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isostheneia Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 (edited) It's like waiting for Christmas! ...except Santa is a 65 year old philosopher with a big white beard, and he has rejection letters instead of gifts. You better not pout, you better not cry You better not be continental, I'm telling you why Because Daniel Dennett is in charge of admissions Edited January 2, 2015 by isostheneia cestbon, brettmullga, Edit_Undo and 6 others 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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