Suggestions?

[thatsjustsemantics]

Hello,

I'm an undergraduate at a small, liberal arts college. I have three years of experience as an undergraduate teaching assistant. GPA: 3.8x, and I am registered to take the GRE in May. I have given one presentation at an undergraduate conference in San Diego, and I have given a talk at a graduate student conference at the Uni. of KY.

My writing sample is on a modern semantic paradox, which I compare and contrast to resembling paradoxes in some of Plato's dialogues, and then I offer a direction towards thinking about this paradox that doesn't "solve" them, but at least makes them less problematic (hint: I will bring in R. Brandom's Inferentialism). This would signal my desired AOI's in the philosophy of language, the history of philosophy (esp. compare and contrast between ancient and modern philosophy), and paradoxes in general. Elsewhere, I also want to write about counterfactuals and meta-ethics -- which I think is really tied into the phil. of language.

Given these interests, and given that my gpa makes me at least "creditable" as a candidate, should I apply to PhD programs, or should I only apply to MA programs? There are only three schools which I believe (feel free to contradict that) would be a good fit for me given my interests, which are UT@Austin, Princeton, and UNC; but my chances at these schools are discouraging. Where else would I look into given my interests, especially MA programs with: (1) some strong faculty in my AOI, and (2) funding that won't lead me to consider prostitution (Tufts is out).

I've been lurking around for a little bit, and I think that a lot of people here give wise comments. I'm clueless, and my faculty is small (3 professors) who have been out of the scene for a while, but they come from strong departments back in the 70s/80s/90s.

 

edit: I should mention that I am an "under-represented" candidate (hint: Middle-Eastern ethnicity), and have attended Rutgers' Institute for Diversity in Phil. I have a modest connection to one of the professors there, although that professor is outside my AOI; will be considering applying there as well.

edit#2: I also think UPitts, UMich, and other schools strong in Phil of L and Ancient would be good for me; but these are Leiter Celebrated schools, what schools that are great but I don't know about should I look into?

Edited March 22, 2015 by thatsjustsemantics

[sidebysondheim]

First off, you should definitely apply to some PhDs, I think. Just make sure to apply to MAs as well (someone else should give advice on which ones). The number of schools you apply to, however, depends entirely on how much money you have to spend or if you can get some form of fee waiver. 

[herenowagain]

"should I apply to PhD programs, or should I only apply to MA programs"

 

My sense is that it is becoming less and less common for students to be accepted into a PhD program without a MA first. Maybe 75% of incoming PhD students already have a MA from a terminal MA program while 25% are fresh out of undergrad (note: I am making up these numbers, this is just my sense). 

 

Nevertheless, I would suggest that you apply to both MA and PhD programs.

 

For MA programs, I've met many PhD students from Western Mich and Georgia State, each of whom seem like they benefited greatly from their MA programs. 

 

I would suggest you apply in the range of 10-20 programs. I

 

I would talk to your letter writers about where to apply. Their letters will carry more weight for programs that know them. That can help add schools to your list.

 

The most important thing is your writing sample. Your GPA and GRE scores just need to be good enough that they aren't a red flag. 

 

Departmental fit is hugely important. If you can tailor each of your "statements of purpose" to each department you apply to, you greatly increase your chances. 

 

Lastly, this process is a lottery. That's why it is important to apply to many many programs. You will get rejected for a number of reasons having nothing to do with your qualifications. E.g. the professor you said you wanted to work with there is hated by the other faculty, the area you work in is an area the department is moving away from, your writing sample defends a position your reviewer hates and can't take seriously, due to budget cuts the program must accept fewer people this year, etc. 

 

I'd apply a few programs in each range area on the Leiter Report (1-10, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, and terminal MA programs) that fit your interests. And maybe apply to just the 3-4 best fits in the 1-20 range. 

Edited March 22, 2015 by herenowagain

[ianfaircloud]

The size of your liberal arts college is less important than its reputation generally. Check your college's Wikipedia page to see whether it's ranked by any of the major surveys. It's not a perfect tool, but if your college appears in the top-50 or so of these rankings (e.g. US News Liberal Arts), that could be helpful. In my conversations with professors, most of them tell me that the institutional reputation helps them to know how to read the GPA.

 

You should apply both to PhDs and to MAs. I recommend that you apply to all of the top MA programs, including Tufts. I would put off thinking about the financial side of it for now. Cross that bridge when it becomes necessary. It sounds like your interests lie in ancient, modern, metaethics, and language. Given those interests, there are certainly more than just a few good departments for you. Few people apply only to three or so programs. If you want the best chance of getting admitted somewhere, you really need to apply broadly. If you're unsure where to begin in the search, the lazy but effective place to begin is with Brian Leiter's Philosophical Gourmet Report. It's an imperfect way to start thinking about the whole range of programs with strengths in your areas of interest.

 

You mention that you are a member of an underrepresented group. If you are a member of an underrepresented group, you may want to mention this in your applications. Most American departments encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups, and the data suggests that (all other things held equal) members of underrepresented groups are more likely to be admitted to strong programs than non-members.

 

Best of luck to you!

[NathanKellen]

I'd strongly suggest you consider UConn as a possible choice, although it doesn't necessarily fully tick all your boxes. Let me do a quick rundown, and let's see how it sounds:

 

1. Paradoxes - UConn is one of the best (if not the best) place to study paradoxes in the world. We have a number of logicians (amongst the most of any department in the US), all of whom work at least somewhat on paradoxes, some of which work primarily on paradoxes.

 

2. Philosophy of Language - UConn has a strong philosophy of language faculty, including the logicians above, but also adding people like Dorit Bar-On, Mitch Green, Bill Lycan and Michael Lynch.

 

3. Counterfactuals - UConn has an extremely strong linguistics department, especially on the semantics side, where counterfactuals are often worked on. Our interdisciplinary Logic Group is composed of philosophers, linguists, mathematicians, psychologists and law scholars, and fosters inter-departmental research. In linguistics I know Magdalena and Stefan Kaufmann have worked on counterfactuals, and as noted above we have Bill Lycan, who literally wrote the book on counterfactuals (for a period of time).

 

4. Metaethics - we have several people interested in metaethics both broadly and narrowly construed, including Dorit Bar-On, Paul Bloomfield and Michael Lynch.

 

5. History of Philosophy - this is definitely the place where we have least specialty in your interests, but it's not a lost cause. We have two very good modern scholars in Don Baxter and Lionel Shapiro. We don't have anyone who specialises in ancient philosophy as a primary AOS, but there are a couple professors with interests and who teach it (Don Baxter, Lionel Shapiro and Sam Wheeler).

 

Anyways, given how specific your interests are, UConn does a fairly good job (IMO) of covering your bases, which strikes me as good enough for an application.

 

Feel free to ask any questions here, via email (nathan.kellen@gmail.com) or via PM, either now or during next season.

[thatsjustsemantics]

NathanKellen,

Thank you for your insightful response. I looked at the program, and the strength of your department is clear. However, I shy away from logic and philosophical logic -- not out of disrespect, but because I am interested mainly in material inferences in philosophy, and not formal inferences. Moreover, I am not confident in my logic. I took a symbolic logic course and an independent study in non-standard logics (modal, temporal, fuzzy), and the latter left me quite bewildered at times. In other words, I don't think I would be ready for a good logic program. 

 

Ultimately, I think I would enjoy studying under Dorit Bar-On, upon initial review, and Lycan, but I'm worried that I wouldn't be able to make excellent use of a fantastic logic program, and even if I were to try, I don't think it would take me very far; do these anxieties make sense?

[NathanKellen]

NathanKellen,

Thank you for your insightful response. I looked at the program, and the strength of your department is clear. However, I shy away from logic and philosophical logic -- not out of disrespect, but because I am interested mainly in material inferences in philosophy, and not formal inferences. Moreover, I am not confident in my logic. I took a symbolic logic course and an independent study in non-standard logics (modal, temporal, fuzzy), and the latter left me quite bewildered at times. In other words, I don't think I would be ready for a good logic program. 

 

Ultimately, I think I would enjoy studying under Dorit Bar-On, upon initial review, and Lycan, but I'm worried that I wouldn't be able to make excellent use of a fantastic logic program, and even if I were to try, I don't think it would take me very far; do these anxieties make sense?

Those concerns make sense. I just thought that because you said you were interested in paradoxes and counterfactuals that the logic-y stuff might interest you. It's worth noting that we of course have plenty of resources to help people up to speed on logic (including a required grad seminar in logic, and various other introductory courses in our department and in linguistics and math), so it's not that one requires a bunch of logic just to begin. There are many people here who don't do any logic at all as well - it's not that we're a logic only program or something like that.

 

The anxieties make sense, and not everyone has to be interested in or good at logic! You might want to see how much logic you're committed to in virtue of your research interests you've listed, though. There's little work that can be done in counterfactuals, for example, without some semantics knowledge, and likewise for most of the paradoxes I'm aware of. The history stuff is all clear of course.

 

Hope this helps!