2015 Applicants Assemble!

[fobak]

Undergraduate: I studied Physics in a recognized School in Nigeria with a CGPA of 4,75, ranking as the best graduating student of the faculty of physical sciences.

I currently was selected on a full scholarship both at masters and phD level to study in the top 25 universities in the World by the Federal Government based purely on merit, I have a lot of schools in mInd, but Canada schools ranked highest! 

I will be applying to Winter 2015 to Physics, Material Science and Engineering... I need advice on the schools to pick and the application process generally in canada.

Thanks and waiting for your response in the forum.

[maxhgns]

Undergraduate: I studied Physics in a recognized School in Nigeria with a CGPA of 4,75, ranking as the best graduating student of the faculty of physical sciences.

I currently was selected on a full scholarship both at masters and phD level to study in the top 25 universities in the World by the Federal Government based purely on merit, I have a lot of schools in mInd, but Canada schools ranked highest! 

I will be applying to Winter 2015 to Physics, Material Science and Engineering... I need advice on the schools to pick and the application process generally in canada.

Thanks and waiting for your response in the forum.

 

Congratulations and good luck, but this is the philosophy subforum. You're looking for physics, I believe. =)

[parasocks]

Undergrad:  Technical school in upstate NY, majored in biochemistry, minored in philosophy.  Paper accepted at an undergraduate philosophy conference but conflicted with a biochemistry conference, and chose the latter.  I regret that. 

 

Grad:  Graduated, applied to graduate schools, accepted at the New School, no funding, turned it down.  Interviewed at DePaul but not offered a position, ended up going to Johns Hopkins to study biochemistry.  After some time knee-deep in research and conversing with older students and faculty, decided that was the wrong path, left the program, moved to China to teach English and study Chinese.

 

Third year in China, now preparing application for 2015.

 

Interests:  Nietzsche, Foucault, American philosophy.  19th and 20th century continental philosophy.  Phenomenology, Critical Theory

 

I wonder how many of us are expatriated applicants?  I wonder how much this harms/helps us?

[sar1906]

I wonder how many of us are expatriated applicants?  I wonder how much this harms/helps us?

That's the doubt forever hanging in the back of my mind.  Just have to put in the effort to show why it shouldn't make a difference.  It still might, but that's not completely within our control.  The time and effort we put into the application is.

[YoungFoucault]

Undergraduate: I graduated from a medium-sized, relatively unknown state school with a Philosophy major and minors in Religious Studies and Literature. I graduated with a GPA of 3.98.

 

MA: In an attempt to strengthen my PhD prospects and to validate my undergraduate work since i attended such an unknown university, I applied to strictly MA programs during my last application season. I currently attend a well-known, prestigious university working with well-known continental philosophers, and I have a GPA of 3.95.

 

I've taken the GRE and scored well, but I will be retaking it to better my chances. I have published two articles in interdisciplinary journals and presented at 3 undergrad conferences (and will be hopefully presenting at a couple graduate conferences before I apply.)

 

Interests: Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy (esp. Heidegger, Derrida, and Foucault), Social and Political Philosophy (esp. issues of anarchy, political theology, history of political philosophy, and feminist theory), and Phenomenology of Religion (esp. Heidegger, Derrida, Levinas, Marion, and Caputo.) I am also most interested in programs that take a pluralist approach to doing philosophy.

 

Programs in which I am interested: Vanderbilt, Boston College, University of Chicago, The New School for Social Research, Fordham, SUNY Stony Brook, McGill, University of Oregon, Penn St.

[dgswaim]

 

Undergraduate: I graduated from a medium-sized, relatively unknown state school with a Philosophy major and minors in Religious Studies and Literature. I graduated with a GPA of 3.98.

 

MA: In an attempt to strengthen my PhD prospects and to validate my undergraduate work since i attended such an unknown university, I applied to strictly MA programs during my last application season. I currently attend a well-known, prestigious university working with well-known continental philosophers, and I have a GPA of 3.95.

 

I've taken the GRE and scored well, but I will be retaking it to better my chances. I have published two articles in interdisciplinary journals and presented at 3 undergrad conferences (and will be hopefully presenting at a couple graduate conferences before I apply.)

 

Interests: Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy (esp. Heidegger, Derrida, and Foucault), Social and Political Philosophy (esp. issues of anarchy, political theology, history of political philosophy, and feminist theory), and Phenomenology of Religion (esp. Heidegger, Derrida, Levinas, Marion, and Caputo.) I am also most interested in programs that take a pluralist approach to doing philosophy.

 

Programs in which I am interested: Vanderbilt, Boston College, University of Chicago, The New School for Social Research, Fordham, SUNY Stony Brook, McGill, University of Oregon, Penn St.

 

Oh man. U Chicago sounds like it's right up your alley. Good luck!

 

While I'm mainly interested in broadly "analytic" work, I've always been fascinated by the phenomenology of religion stuff (esp. Levinas, Caputo, and Eliade). Really interesting stuff.

[Nastasya_Filippovna]

Oh man. U Chicago sounds like it's right up your alley. Good luck!

 

While I'm mainly interested in broadly "analytic" work, I've always been fascinated by the phenomenology of religion stuff (esp. Levinas, Caputo, and Eliade). Really interesting stuff.

I'm curious, were these undergrad journals or professional journals? Superimpressive resume! I'm retaking the GRE too, this time with the assistance of an online course for the math timing skills. Best of luck to you!!

 

*whoops you are in a masters program- obviously they are professional journals!

Edited June 21, 2014 by Nastasya_Filippovna

[sar1906]

 

Undergraduate: I graduated from a medium-sized, relatively unknown state school with a Philosophy major and minors in Religious Studies and Literature. I graduated with a GPA of 3.98.

 

MA: In an attempt to strengthen my PhD prospects and to validate my undergraduate work since i attended such an unknown university, I applied to strictly MA programs during my last application season. I currently attend a well-known, prestigious university working with well-known continental philosophers, and I have a GPA of 3.95.

 

I've taken the GRE and scored well, but I will be retaking it to better my chances. I have published two articles in interdisciplinary journals and presented at 3 undergrad conferences (and will be hopefully presenting at a couple graduate conferences before I apply.)

 

Interests: Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy (esp. Heidegger, Derrida, and Foucault), Social and Political Philosophy (esp. issues of anarchy, political theology, history of political philosophy, and feminist theory), and Phenomenology of Religion (esp. Heidegger, Derrida, Levinas, Marion, and Caputo.) I am also most interested in programs that take a pluralist approach to doing philosophy.

 

Programs in which I am interested: Vanderbilt, Boston College, University of Chicago, The New School for Social Research, Fordham, SUNY Stony Brook, McGill, University of Oregon, Penn St.

 

 

Wow...sounds like I should apply to Master's programs....

 

Do you mind saying what the topic of your writing sample is/will be?

[YoungFoucault]

Oh man. U Chicago sounds like it's right up your alley. Good luck!

 

While I'm mainly interested in broadly "analytic" work, I've always been fascinated by the phenomenology of religion stuff (esp. Levinas, Caputo, and Eliade). Really interesting stuff.

 

Absolutely. Especially with U Chicago's close ties to Marion!

[YoungFoucault]

Wow...sounds like I should apply to Master's programs....

 

Do you mind saying what the topic of your writing sample is/will be?

 

Eh, don't think you necessarily have to apply to a MA program first. I did it because it is what felt right for me. Also, it is important that if you do decide to take the MA route that you seriously consider MA programs that are treated well within their programs. Often times the structure of departments with PhD programs is such that faculty cannot give much time to MA students in which case pursuing an MA is not efficient. I was fortunate enough to attend a program where MA students receive a lot of attention from faculty.

 

As for the writing sample, the title of my sample is "Addressing the Divine: Rethinking God qua Love" and deals explicitly with Derrida's problem of ontotheology as it relates to Caputo and Marion's writings on divine experience within the love relation. This may change in the coming months though since my recent interests have been shifting more towards political philosophy!

[Nastasya_Filippovna]

Another tired GRE question for you seasoned applicants, which I'm sure you are all a bit weary of screening! Last year I did terribly on the math portion of the GRE - 143. Yes. Math is more than a modest struggle for me (ironically I got an A in logic, although I never did essay math logic). I am planning to retake the GRE soon, although the math studying so far does not seem to be improving. Ironically, although I did decently on the verbal section, my verbal score seems to be increasing tremendously. Would it be wise to retake the GRE if I would improve my overall score through increasing my verbal score by a substantial amount while still perhaps receiving a terrible math score, or would receiving TWO terrible math scores only deter adcoms further? It is bad enough that I have one horrid quant score on my record already! Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

[smg]

Undergrad: Cultural Anthro from an unknown Canadian school.  My first year was spent doing a great books program.  We speed read through the Western Canon.  GPA in the 3.8 range I think.   

 

MA: Bits and pieces in Political Economy/Canadian History. 

 

Other Stuff: No GRE yet. Im not looking forward to it but Im no longer dreading it.  I've got buttloads of qualitative research experience.

 

Interests: Heidegger, Marx, Critical Theory, Western Marxism, Situationists, Negative Theology, Political Pessimism, Nihilism, Mysticism, Post Left and Ultra-Left Political Thought.  

 

U Oregon looks dope.    I have New School fantasies.  Getting into an MA or PhD program may be a fantasy too.  I'm older (in my early 30s) and an unconventional student so any tips would be great.  Are there any schools that are particularly sympathetic to the freaks and weirdos out there?  Is anyone else starting their writing sample from scratch? 

[YoungFoucault]

Another tired GRE question for you seasoned applicants, which I'm sure you are all a bit weary of screening! Last year I did terribly on the math portion of the GRE - 143. Yes. Math is more than a modest struggle for me (ironically I got an A in logic, although I never did essay math logic). I am planning to retake the GRE soon, although the math studying so far does not seem to be improving. Ironically, although I did decently on the verbal section, my verbal score seems to be increasing tremendously. Would it be wise to retake the GRE if I would improve my overall score through increasing my verbal score by a substantial amount while still perhaps receiving a terrible math score, or would receiving TWO terrible math scores only deter adcoms further? It is bad enough that I have one horrid quant score on my record already! Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

I would definitely retake. While having a low quantitative score is not ideal, having a higher verbal score is very significant. Quick question: How are you studying for the quantitative portion?

[YoungFoucault]

Interests: Heidegger, Marx, Critical Theory, Western Marxism, Situationists, Negative Theology, Political Pessimism, Nihilism, Mysticism, Post Left and Ultra-Left Political Thought.  

 

Your interests scream "The New School" (and Simon Critchley in particular.) You definitely should apply there.

[smg]

Your interests scream "The New School" (and Simon Critchley in particular.) You definitely should apply there.

 

Yeah, pretty much.  I'm a big fan of Critchely.  I'd love to go to the New School but I've heard their funding situation is wack. 

[AcademicX]

The New School doesn't have any money. I think that the most they give to students is 50% off tuition and no stipend, which is really bad considering the cost of living in NYC. Other schools in the area give full tuition waivers and 25k+ stipends. I would advise you to apply to places like Fordham, Stony Brook, Columbia and even CUNY and seek to take classes at the New School through the NYC Philosophy Consortium. Even then, the New Schools seems like a magic place and if you have the money, you should strongly consider it. 

[MorganFreemanlives]

i have been lurking here since last year, but finally decided to come out

 

undergrad: will graduate from an unknown state university with a 3.85-3.9 gpa in the fall. i will leave with 35 philosophy courses (not credits) completed which include 2 or 3 independent studies.

 

Gre: not sure if i will take, im a horrible test taker. im mostly thinking to apply to UK and canada for this reason.

 

Interests: Primarily British Idealism (esp Bradley, Bosanquet and Mctaggart) Josiah Royce, Spinoza and Leibniz, Process philosophy, philosophy of religion, contemporary metaphysics esp time and space.

 

Other info: URM, candidate chess master (not like its gonna help), Singer disaproving veggie

 

Applying to: John Hopkins, Cornell, Oxford , Cambridge, Leeds, Edinburgh, Mcgill,U of British Columbia, Toronto, Ryerson (MA)  might add a few more

[Nastasya_Filippovna]

I would definitely retake. While having a low quantitative score is not ideal, having a higher verbal score is very significant. Quick question: How are you studying for the quantitative portion?

Thanks for your response -  I just saw it now. Last year I tried a tutor which was not successful. Right now I am taking online courses from Kaplan. The "lower level" questions are very manageable, but I just have a block when it comes to most medium and all high-level math concepts. This is very disturbing considering I got straight As in high school math and a B in college calc (albeit that was 14 years ago- I'm an older student- went back to finish my degree after a long recess from the academic world). I've never had an aptitude for math, but with consistent studying and practice I've always been able to develop a firm command of the subject. My scores on the tests I have been taking have remained precisely the same as the original, but my verbal has shot into the mid 160s. 

Minor note- Logic is not one of my philosophical interests! My fields of interests are 19th century continental, german idealism, philosophy of mind, and post-modern philosophy of science (and post-modernism/neopragmatism)

Edited July 1, 2014 by Nastasya_Filippovna

[smg]

Anyone got the skinny on Vanderbilt? 

[philoSophia12]

Hi 2015 Applicants! 

 

Just randomly stopping by to say "hi," and good luck on this season! If there's any questions I can answer, I went through the process this past season successfully and broke a lot of the traditional wisdom on random application things so I'd love to be of any help I can.I ended up with a T20 PhD offer as well as another PhD offer which I ended up accepting (it's a long story, but the moral of it is--Go with the school you fit best with! I can't tell you how happy I am with my decision!). Anyway, feel free to put my very limited knowledge to use. This was a definite process but gradcafe made it fun at points and it was completely and totally worth every ounce of tears and sweat put into the application process. I hope every single one of you gets to experience the feeling of being funded and accepted at your top school! It's magical and practically sends you to the noumenal world! And ask Ian Faircloud for help too (you'll find his posts here in gradcafe cyber space). He's a legend.

 

-philoSophia

[alopachuca]

undergrad: will graduate from an unknown state university with a 3.85-3.9 gpa in the fall. i will leave with 35 philosophy courses (not credits) completed which include 2 or 3 independent studies.

 

Just wanted to say this is amazing! That must be nearly every single undergraduate course right? Wish I'd had the time to take even half the undergrad classes while I was still a student. 

[brettmullga]

Just wanted to say this is amazing! That must be nearly every single undergraduate course right? Wish I'd had the time to take even half the undergrad classes while I was still a student. 

 

Agreed. I've taken only 13 courses designated as Philosophy in undergrad. It's rather impressive!

[MorganFreemanlives]

Oh its no  big deal, I must actually thank gradcafe for knocking some fear into me. coming from an unknown state school puts me at a disadvantage so i thought i needed some way to compensate. There is also  the irony of becoming interested in an obscure branch of philosopy that none of those classes went into detail over and discovering it all by my myself.

 

Its also pure luck, i started taking college classes non stop in high school, so i  basically had all my general education requirements (the A.A) by the the time i dropped out of junior year of high school, so i had the choice of either getting my bachelors at 19-20, or take my time and use the extra 2 years in taking more courses, and decided the latter would help me more.

 

im flattered by the compliments though, i just hope the adcons are symathetic with such assestment, and dont think the weirdness of my application is to hide something fishy

[Peeping Thomist]

Hey, everybody. Every time I research issues regarding grad school, this forum keeps coming up, so I figured I should finally sign on. 

Undergrad: Thanks to a massive lack of motivation and purpose coming out of high school, I wound up going to community college for my first couple years. Fortunately, a philosophy professor there lit a fire under my butt and got me into philosophy. I transferred to Boston College last year, and I'm now about to enter my senior year for a BA in philosophy. While I really did enjoy my time at community college, I feel as though a terminal MA would be helpful in gaining a more well-rounded knowledge of philosophy, gain teaching experience and up my potential of getting into a better PhD program than I would from just two years at BC. 

Current interests: Philosophical theology, ethics (primarily applied, but with an interest in meta), ancient philosophy (particularly Hellenistic), medieval philosophy. 

Rough list of MAs I'm considering: CSU LA, Biola, SDSU, SFSU, Georgia State, Loyola Marymount, NIU. I have yet to take a good look at programs in the UK. 

Other: Have yet to take the GRE. I'm currently working on my writing sample - I'm discussing Christian reproductive ethics in light of David Benatar's recent work in antinatalism. 

[dgswaim]

Hey, everybody. Every time I research issues regarding grad school, this forum keeps coming up, so I figured I should finally sign on. 

Undergrad: Thanks to a massive lack of motivation and purpose coming out of high school, I wound up going to community college for my first couple years. Fortunately, a philosophy professor there lit a fire under my butt and got me into philosophy. I transferred to Boston College last year, and I'm now about to enter my senior year for a BA in philosophy. While I really did enjoy my time at community college, I feel as though a terminal MA would be helpful in gaining a more well-rounded knowledge of philosophy, gain teaching experience and up my potential of getting into a better PhD program than I would from just two years at BC. 

Current interests: Philosophical theology, ethics (primarily applied, but with an interest in meta), ancient philosophy (particularly Hellenistic), medieval philosophy. 

Rough list of MAs I'm considering: CSU LA, Biola, SDSU, SFSU, Georgia State, Loyola Marymount, NIU. I have yet to take a good look at programs in the UK. 

Other: Have yet to take the GRE. I'm currently working on my writing sample - I'm discussing Christian reproductive ethics in light of David Benatar's recent work in antinatalism. 

Biola sounds like it's right up your alley. Moreland and Rae would be great people for you to work with.