philosophy ph.d. programs

[Guest]

I am really sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but all DePaul offers have been made. They have made offers and waitlist offers. Of course this medium is not the best for backing up information, but it is from a reliable source (chair of the dept.) Although I do believe that rejections have not officially gone out, so perhaps if enough people decline the offers some others may get lucky... no idea on that end of things.

[iheartphilosophy]

:shock: Why do they wait soooo long afterwards to send out all notices? In all fairness, please let me know so that I can move on unless there is a possiblity that I will be accepted. Plus, I did pay the school to review my application, so its not like I am asking for a favor. If all waitlist offers have been made, I think that it shows a lack of responsibility to not send out the rejections immediately especially when the dept. advertises that all applicants will be notified in February! I am disappointed-yes- so atleast spare me the anxiety of waiting. How much effort do they have to put into sending a generic rejection letter?! And my feelings go out to all the schools that fail to send out their letters of rejection promptly!!

[Guest]

i posted about this elsewhere and i agree with you. it certainly seems that the best practice would be to notify rejections first, so nobody is waiting in vain, but as long as a lot of students really want to go to these schools the laws of demand dictate that such customer service frivolities will be often or even usually ignored.

[iheartphilosophy]

hmmm..I know, but I have worked in admissions offices in which I alone sent out more than 200+ decision letters. If all offers have been made and no rejection letters have been sent, then it seems like this issue just is not their priority. This behavior could spoil their reputation with applicants in the future. I know I am looking for a dept that has there sh*t together. (Pardon my language).

Anyways, Two Questions:

1. Was the anonymous guest that posted regarding Depaul an applicant? Accept, waitlisted, or rejected?

2. Does anyone know if Fordham considers its PhD applicants for the MA program?

[Guest philosophy applicant]

I also am applying to programs and am eagerly waiting any reply. But many of the programs that I applied to say that they will begin sending out decisions in the middle of March or starting March 15th. It is disheartening that so many other programs have already sent out their decisions. However many of the application deadlines for other programs were much earlier than the phil deadlines. Sometimes no news is good news.

[thomasf]

all we can do is wait and see, but my confidence is waning at this point and I would no longer characterize myself as 'eager'.

[Guest]

Speaking from experience, I can say that while "sometimes no news is good news," this, unfortunately, is VERY RARELY the case.

[iheartphilosophy]

I am getting sick of this waiting game! Its making me depressed. I need some reponses so that I can get on with my life

[Guest]

Did anyone who applied to Stony Brook receive a confirmation or any information regarding when we will hear?

 

[Guest]

Did anyone who applied to Stony Brook receive a confirmation or any information regarding when we will hear?

see earlier post...I called Stony Brook last week.

[Guest guest]

Are there any prospective philosophy PhDs out there who have heard back from UC Berkeley? A bit of a long shot, but it's my first choice and I've been gnashing my teeth over it a little.

Thanks!

[Guest phronesis]

I am the one who posted the waitlist for DePaul (or the new Tuebingen)

I haven't seen anyone else mention anything else about DePaul except that they are waiting, maybe they haven't notifed acceptances yet.

Here is (part of) the email:

I am contacting you to let you know that you are on a waiting list for

admission to the Ph.D. program in philosophy at DePaul University. There

is strong possibility that you will be admitted. Should this happen,

there is some possibility that you would be offered funding.

Please know that we had a large pool of very strong applicants against

whom you are competing. Consequently, there were some very difficult

decisions to make. I will let you know if and when your status changes.

I also got a letter confirming wait list.

[Guest phronesis]

well, I geuss I replied before I read the rest of the thread about Depaul. But, heres where I applied:

Stony Brook, DePaul, WashU, Boston U, Boston C, Fordham, Loyola, Duquesne, & Kentucky

Accepted: WashU, Loyola, Kentucky

Waitlisted: DePaul

No rejections: Yet.

[Guest nspeds]

Who was admitted into Princeton's philosophy program?

[thomasf]

What are your top choices phronesis? Waiting to hear from BC I bet?

[iheartphilosophy]

Does anyone know if Fordham considers its PhD applicants for their MA progam?

I still haven't heard anything, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that atleast I'll get deferred to a MA program somewhere I applied. Also, does anyone know of continental philosophy MA programs that are still accepting applicants? I am trying to be constructive by thinking of ways to improve my resume for grad school if I am rejected from PhD programs. :roll:

[Guest phronesis]

thomasf said:

What are your top choices phronesis? Waiting to hear from BC I bet?

My Top choices are WashU, Boston U (which I am thinking I have not been admitted to since someone has and I have received squat) and BC. Though, I am pretty much entanced with WashU - seems like a perfect fit, and kick ass funding - and very doubtful I'll get into BC - as everyone seems to be. What about you?

[thomasf]

Top choice is probably Northwestern, but at this point I really don't give a good god damn where I get in. Looks like I may be doing this again next year though...

[Guest df]

I just broke down and called the Phil dept at BC.

The very nice lady informed me that the top five candidates for the PhD program have been contacted already (by phone and in writing), and anyone who applied with a MA degree already has been rejected.

She said my status is 'still under review' - so it sounds like I'm on a waiting list, but she said she doesn't know if they've ranked applicants other than their top five yet or not. So I assume this means I could be #6 and I'll get a call if one of the top five turn BC down or I could be so far down in their rankings that I may as well have been rejected . She didn't say anything to indicate this, but I'm also not sure if they have other funded positions besides their top 5 (but 5 sounds about right from what I've heard about BC).

We'll see what happens....

[thomasf]

very sad.

[Sea]

The whole thing just seems so, I don't know, ridiculous. Why rule out those with MA degrees? Just a good way to create a filter, perhaps, to make it a bit easier to find five candidates from among the masses?

I am zero for seven at this point. I was told that Fordham received nearly 200 applications this year -- can that really be true? I'm sure BC received over 150. One would have a better chance of trying out (successfully) for a minor-league baseball team. What can possibly distinguish the top, say, 50 candidates for these five positions? Better to just pick names out of a hat.

One would like to be optimistic and to give it a try another year, but if this is the state of the process -- that M.A. candidates with a 4.0 GPA are instantaneously herded out by admissions committees -- then it seems rather pointless to waste more money. Nothing more can be done to improve one's credentials.

Philosophy will continue to become a penniless handmaiden of the state, just as -- increasingly -- universities are. There may be an advertised veneer of independent thought within some departments, but who is kidding whom? When so many able and passionate people are turned away from the gates of the agora, then it seems impossible not to acknowledge that the "profession" is little more than a career, rather than a calling. May the best jobbers prevail.

[Guest df]

Well, I don't know if they just rejected MA candidates out of hat or if it's just that none of the MA candidates who applied were accepted this year. I've been told that BC quite often takes one of its own MA grads into its PhD program ... Maybe that's not true, who knows.

A lot of times it really is just a crap shoot though. If you have 20 or so candidates with great GRE and GPAs and strong LoRs, but only 10 of them have interests that match up with the department's focus (or what the adcom is looking for anyway), ... Even then, 5 more have to be eliminated, and it's not like there's a science to it. If it's really what you want to do though, don't lose hope

[philosophia]

In response to Sea's comment above: I get the feeling that this year really is over-saturated with applicants in philosophy. The sheer number of posts on the philosophy thread at who_got_in suggests this, as do the reports of an unusually high number of applicants at a variety of schools (as many as 4-5 times the normal number in some cases) -- many of which are not generally considered 'top picks'. Perhaps this is just because so many people have applied to 12+ programs, significantly increasing the number of applications floating around, but I think it's also the result of an especially high number of applicants. My thought is that it's really just an unusually competitive year, but perhaps I'm too optimistic? Maybe next year will be worse, with a lot of people reapplying as well as new applicants? Sigh ...

[thomasf]

It's more than pretty random. I have a friend who was accepted first round into Northwestern's pol sci department with GREs in the 1200s and 3.8 GPA. If a faculty member reads your statement/LORS/and sample and decides they want you as a student you get in. If not, then you might as well be dust in the wind. Somebody over at whogotin had a similar experience last year and just resolved to get in the next year. So he took the year off, spent 3 months writing the best sample he could and personalized statements, and applied to 22 schools. I think as of now he's gotten into 5. Gotta decide if it's worth it to you.

[philosophia]

Does anyone know about the Toronto situation? I guess a bunch of people got calls. I wonder if there will be a second round ... I'll assume not for now.