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Decisions 2015!


tacitmonument

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Huh.

Source?

Too lazy to find the original source, but here're some things along the same line:

 

http://amj.aom.org/content/50/4/923.short -> on emotions being beneficial for decision making

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699931.2014.896318-> on positive vs. negative emotions being beneficial for different kinds of decision making

 

There's also loads of studies on maximizing vs. satisficing, which cautions against the temptation to over-analyze choices (in the sense that maximizers tend to choose objectively worse choices than satisficers, and are also not as happy as their choices), but it is only distantly related to the topic of choosing grad programs.

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To me, that doesn't say you shouldn't analyze, but should be doing value-focused decision making. (Like using a weighted decision table—sorry I took an applied psych class on decision making last term and it definitely came in handy making my grad decision.) 

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It's really just the age old intuition of: trust your gut, which I've actually seen people recommend regarding grad. school. If you attend two different places, and just really feel at home at one place and not the other... you should give a lot of credence to that feel, even if there's nothing on which you can justify that feeling (that is, it's not like professors were distant at program b but really nice at program a...)

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Looking for advice. So far I've been accepted to only 1 school, University of Missouri. I'm waitlisted at Notre Dame, Ohio State, UWisc Madison, and UVA, but I obviously don't know if any of those will come through. I have a  large amount of funding if I decide to go to Missouri (normal stipend plus University scholarship plus waved annual fees). My question is, is it worth it to spend 5+ years at Missouri, or not? It's ranked 50 on the Top 50 list, so kind of dangling right on the edge of "Whoa, don't ruin your life." I know two people who have gotten their PhD there, and one of them is doing a postdoc at Rutgers and one just got a teaching stint at KSU. So placement could be worse, and the town and school are beautiful and inviting, but... I don't know. What would you guys do if Missouri was your only choice?

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Looking for advice. So far I've been accepted to only 1 school, University of Missouri. I'm waitlisted at Notre Dame, Ohio State, UWisc Madison, and UVA, but I obviously don't know if any of those will come through. I have a  large amount of funding if I decide to go to Missouri (normal stipend plus University scholarship plus waved annual fees). My question is, is it worth it to spend 5+ years at Missouri, or not? It's ranked 50 on the Top 50 list, so kind of dangling right on the edge of "Whoa, don't ruin your life." I know two people who have gotten their PhD there, and one of them is doing a postdoc at Rutgers and one just got a teaching stint at KSU. So placement could be worse, and the town and school are beautiful and inviting, but... I don't know. What would you guys do if Missouri was your only choice?

 

Well, I'd hold off on accepting until as late as possible. You may get in off a waitlist at the last possible moment.

 

Accept or not accept? I don't think anyone can answer that question for you. One thing I've noticed is that graduate admissions require some existential thought. What matters to you? Do you find placement record to be the most important thing? Or is doing philosophy in the near future the most important thing to you?

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Looking for advice. So far I've been accepted to only 1 school, University of Missouri. I'm waitlisted at Notre Dame, Ohio State, UWisc Madison, and UVA, but I obviously don't know if any of those will come through. I have a  large amount of funding if I decide to go to Missouri (normal stipend plus University scholarship plus waved annual fees). My question is, is it worth it to spend 5+ years at Missouri, or not? It's ranked 50 on the Top 50 list, so kind of dangling right on the edge of "Whoa, don't ruin your life." I know two people who have gotten their PhD there, and one of them is doing a postdoc at Rutgers and one just got a teaching stint at KSU. So placement could be worse, and the town and school are beautiful and inviting, but... I don't know. What would you guys do if Missouri was your only choice?

You should definitely take the offer if you don't get in on any of the waitlists (and perhaps even then - I don't know what areas you're interested in). But there's no harm in waiting to see what pans out.

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Looking for advice. So far I've been accepted to only 1 school, University of Missouri. I'm waitlisted at Notre Dame, Ohio State, UWisc Madison, and UVA, but I obviously don't know if any of those will come through. I have a  large amount of funding if I decide to go to Missouri (normal stipend plus University scholarship plus waved annual fees). My question is, is it worth it to spend 5+ years at Missouri, or not? It's ranked 50 on the Top 50 list, so kind of dangling right on the edge of "Whoa, don't ruin your life." I know two people who have gotten their PhD there, and one of them is doing a postdoc at Rutgers and one just got a teaching stint at KSU. So placement could be worse, and the town and school are beautiful and inviting, but... I don't know. What would you guys do if Missouri was your only choice?

 

contingency

 

[Ma & (~Na & ~Oa & ~Wa & ~Va)] ⊃ Me

 

where

a = accepted at

e = enroll at

 

You can throw some other additional criteria, like

 

Na ⊃ Ne

Wa & ~Na ⊃ We

 

and so on

 

----

 

My advice though: Take an offer, especially a really, really well funded offer!, over waiting it out next year. You don't have to accept Missouri before April 15. Follow either Infinite Zest or NathanKellen's advice.

Edited by Turretin
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Thanks everyone. That's sort of what I'm leaning toward, I guess. Fingers still crossed for one of the waitlists, but I think I've made my peace with Missouri, if need be.

 

I know two people who got PhDs at Missouri not too long ago, and both have TT jobs now. My impression is that the placement there is really quite good for a bottom-of-the-top-50 kind of program. Ideally one of those waitlists will materialize into an offer, but you should feel good about the Missouri option.

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Officially declined Temple today, they were very gracious about it. So now it's just a matter of seeing whether or not UW-Madison or Purdue happen to offer me anything or not, and if they don't I'll be heading to USF! No matter what I'm very happy!

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