Fall 2016 Applicants: Introduce Yourselves

[bravesball]

@FoxAndChicken what are you interested in relating to philosophy and logic? I'm interested in those too, specifically formal epistemology/epistemic logic because I eventually want to get into epistemic game theory. 

[FoxAndChicken]

4 hours ago, bravesball said:

@FoxAndChicken what are you interested in relating to philosophy and logic? I'm interested in those too, specifically formal epistemology/epistemic logic because I eventually want to get into epistemic game theory. 

I really enjoy studying the interactions between math and language, especially looking at what kinds of things you can take for granted in a math proof but not language. I also really enjoy modal logic. (I had a math friend read over my writing sample for graduate apps and her response was "It looks great to me! Though you spelled 'model' with an 'a.'"... Wut.) I like Kripke's hierarchy of frames, and wonder if their is something analogous to other areas of logic. There definitely is in Abstract Algebra! 

I haven't done a ton with formal epistemology, though one of my letter writers is in the field. I went to a talk she gave and received a free copy of her new book! It's quite excellent but also I don't feel qualified to read it.  I hope to learn more about epistemology in graduate school though!

Edited February 1, 2016 by FoxAndChicken

[philstudent1991]

Happy February y'all. Hopefully the month we've all been waiting for. May the force be with us all.

 

[AnotherKantFan]

CANNOT wait to get my first reply...

[FoxAndChicken]

1 minute ago, AnotherKantFan said:

CANNOT wait to get my first reply...

Don't you mean you KANT wait? 

...

Sorry.

[AnotherKantFan]

Arrrghhh noo I missed an opportunity to make this perfect Kant joke! (It's my favourite.) Awesome. Glad I'm not the only one who loves it.

[FoxAndChicken]

1 minute ago, AnotherKantFan said:

Arrrghhh noo I missed an opportunity to make this perfect Kant joke! (It's my favourite.) Awesome. Glad I'm not the only one who loves it.

Hahaha but in all seriousness, I have six assignments due this week, and I'm sitting here refreshing my email. My first notification isn't even projected to be out until the twelfth. 

[samori]

Yes! Let us usher in February with the constant refreshing of emails that delights us all so very much!

[AnotherKantFan]

10 minutes ago, FoxAndChicken said:

Hahaha but in all seriousness, I have six assignments due this week, and I'm sitting here refreshing my email. My first notification isn't even projected to be out until the twelfth. 

Oh, sorry to hear this Well, if it makes you feel better, my first predicted result is TOMORROW! But since it's still v. early in California right now, I'll start getting nervous around 8pm my time  

[AnotherKantFan]

6 minutes ago, hot.glass said:

Yes! Let us usher in February with the constant refreshing of emails that delights us all so very much!

How about: a combination of refreshing emails AND logging into the various admissions accounts? 

[samori]

1 minute ago, AnotherKantFan said:

How about: a combination of refreshing emails AND logging into the various admissions accounts? 

In regular intervals, of course!

Except that one I forgot my password for. That one is doomed.

[FoxAndChicken]

6 minutes ago, AnotherKantFan said:

Oh, sorry to hear this Well, if it makes you feel better, my first predicted result is TOMORROW! But since it's still v. early in California right now, I'll start getting nervous around 8pm my time  

Berkeley? I applied to their LMS program, which gets less applications, but also accepts less people. Of course, it's hard to figure out when they'll be releasing information, since it varies so much year to year. Timezones are so weird. But during the application process, it kind of worked in my favor.

I realized Stanford needed physical copies of my transcript the Friday before my app was due, so I overnighted it and got an email around noon (my time) on the Tuesday they were due that my package couldn't be delivered. I called them like "Uh, yes. It can be. I saw the tracking thing. My package is DOWN THE STREET from where it needs to be. It's still 9AM! You could walk it there if you were feeling particularly motivated. I could probably even pay one of my friends who attends Stanford to go and collect it from you and hand it to the department. YOU WILL GET IT TO STANFORD TODAY OR FACE MY WRATH." What I actually said to the mail people was "Is there anything you can do? It would be really helpful." And it turns out they knew exactly where it needed to go, and were just being pedantic about the way it was addressed. Fortunately, it was also still like early o'clock, so they delivered it and my application was all in on time. Whew. 

[AnotherKantFan]

5 minutes ago, FoxAndChicken said:

Berkeley? I applied to their LMS program, which gets less applications, but also accepts less people. Of course, it's hard to figure out when they'll be releasing information, since it varies so much year to year. Timezones are so weird. But during the application process, it kind of worked in my favor.

I realized Stanford needed physical copies of my transcript the Friday before my app was due, so I overnighted it and got an email around noon (my time) on the Tuesday they were due that my package couldn't be delivered. I called them like "Uh, yes. It can be. I saw the tracking thing. My package is DOWN THE STREET from where it needs to be. It's still 9AM! You could walk it there if you were feeling particularly motivated. I could probably even pay one of my friends who attends Stanford to go and collect it from you and hand it to the department. YOU WILL GET IT TO STANFORD TODAY OR FACE MY WRATH." What I actually said to the mail people was "Is there anything you can do? It would be really helpful." And it turns out they knew exactly where it needed to go, and were just being pedantic about the way it was addressed. Fortunately, it was also still like early o'clock, so they delivered it and my application was all in on time. Whew. 

Well...Stanford's admission people assured me hard-copy transcripts can be late! All this stress for nothing

[FoxAndChicken]

Just now, AnotherKantFan said:

Well...Stanford's admission people assured me hard-copy transcripts can be late! All this stress for nothing

I didn't know that. T_T Though my backup plan was to call the department, at which point they probably would have told me that. Instead, I was chastised by a lady at the mail office who told me if I was going to mail more things to Stanford Admissions, to ensure I put the address down correctly.  But she got them to deliver it, so it was fine. 

[philosophe]

On 1/31/2016 at 6:52 PM, bravesball said:

@FoxAndChicken what are you interested in relating to philosophy and logic? I'm interested in those too, specifically formal epistemology/epistemic logic because I eventually want to get into epistemic game theory. 

Me too! I really want to learn formal epistemology/logic. I've been reading some primers on my own but it would be great to get in somewhere that has a class. 

[bravesball]

@philosophe

awesome! I'm lucky enough to be taking a graduate seminar on formal epistemology this semester which has been great so far. Although the content we're looking at is pretty specific to that professor's areas of interest for research so there's a lot of formal epistemology I won't see in the class.

 

[ktvton]

I received my B.A. in philosophy from UC Berkeley in Spring 2015. Currently, I'm working as a philosophy writing tutor for the department.

I was born and raised in Vietnam; I came to California as an international student in 2011 and I also applied to grad programs as an international student.

My main areas of interest are ethics, metaphysics, and history of philosophy.

Right now I am thinking about what to do with my life if I get rejected from all the programs I applied to.

[Dialectica]

Sorry to bump this, but I'm getting so anxious awaiting a response, so this gives me something to do. It's plausible that those in my program will know who I am—alas.

I was present on grad cafe in 2013, applying to MA programs. I ended up at a Leiterific MA program, with which I was very happy.

Here I am again, this time applying to PhD programs. I am, like many, very anxiously awaiting a response from Wisconsin, Virginia, Indiana, and UNC at the moment. The silence thus far is excruciating. 

Good luck, everyone! Thanks for making the wait entertaining!

[dgswaim]

3 minutes ago, Dialectica said:

Sorry to bump this, but I'm getting so anxious awaiting a response, so this gives me something to do. It's plausible that those in my program will know who I am—alas.

I was present on grad cafe in 2013, applying to MA programs. I ended up at a Leiterific MA program, with which I was very happy.

Here I am again, this time applying to PhD programs. I am, like many, very anxiously awaiting a response from Wisconsin, Virginia, Indiana, and UNC at the moment. The silence thus far is excruciating. 

Good luck, everyone! Thanks for making the wait entertaining!

Hey! I remember you from 2014! Good luck!!

[Dialectica]

1 minute ago, dgswaim said:

Hey! I remember you from 2014! Good luck!!

Likewise! It looks like we've got some overlap; maybe (fingers crossed) I'll see you at Indiana or Wisconsin! Good luck to you as well!

[thehegeldialectic]

Hey everyone, I'd like to introduce myself.

1. I have a 3.64 GPA (3.94 philosophy) in undergrad. I wrote my honors thesis on Being and Time.

2. I'm interested in Heidegger, Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, continental philosophy, and 19th century German philosophy.

3. I'm applying to 10 schools (although DePaul never got one of my transcripts and didn't look at my app so 9), haven't heard anything back. The stress of this process is driving me crazy.

[oldmanPhDStudent]

On February 10, 2016 at 11:14 PM, Dialectica said:

Sorry to bump this, but I'm getting so anxious awaiting a response, so this gives me something to do. It's plausible that those in my program will know who I am—alas.

I was present on grad cafe in 2013, applying to MA programs. I ended up at a Leiterific MA program, with which I was very happy.

Here I am again, this time applying to PhD programs. I am, like many, very anxiously awaiting a response from Wisconsin, Virginia, Indiana, and UNC at the moment. The silence thus far is excruciating. 

Good luck, everyone! Thanks for making the wait entertaining!

I'm also applying to Virginia, so right there with ya!

[oldmanPhDStudent]

11 minutes ago, oldmanPhDStudent said:

I'm also applying to Virginia, so right there with ya!

I just saw this over at Philosophy Admissions https://philosophyadmissions.wordpress.com/page/2/

"Virginia has released acceptances a few days ago on February 5th via email. Congratulations."

Not sure that bodes well...

[brando84back]

Hey all! I guess I'll introduce myself.

1. I have a 3.63 GPA with (3.77 in B.S. Mathematics). I am going to graduate with a B.S. Mathematics and a Philosophy minor. I have enough credits to be a bachelor in Philosophy. I wrote my Philosophy thesis on J.G. Fichte and my Math thesis on Dirichlet's Problem.

2. My areas of Interest are: German Idealism (J.G. Fichte), 19th Century Philosophy, Existentialism, Berkeley's infinitesimals, Philosophy of Math, Category Theory, Complex Analysis, and PDE. Recently, I have been reading Heidegger. Wittgenstein isn't very appealing yet to me. I really like extrapolating the mathematical frameworks of philosophers and putting them to the test mathematically. 

3. I am applying to 6 schools in Philosophy and this is my first ever application cycle. So yes, I am a bit nervous. I know my AOIs may be out of the mainstream, but I think this makes me stand out as an applicant.

Good luck to all!

[FoxAndChicken]

7 hours ago, brando84back said:

Hey all! I guess I'll introduce myself.

1. I have a 3.63 GPA with (3.77 in B.S. Mathematics). I am going to graduate with a B.S. Mathematics and a Philosophy minor. I have enough credits to be a bachelor in Philosophy. I wrote my Philosophy thesis on J.G. Fichte and my Math thesis on Dirichlet's Problem.

2. My areas of Interest are: German Idealism (J.G. Fichte), 19th Century Philosophy, Existentialism, Berkeley's infinitesimals, Philosophy of Math, Category Theory, Complex Analysis, and PDE. Recently, I have been reading Heidegger. Wittgenstein isn't very appealing yet to me. I really like extrapolating the mathematical frameworks of philosophers and putting them to the test mathematically. 

3. I am applying to 6 schools in Philosophy and this is my first ever application cycle. So yes, I am a bit nervous. I know my AOIs may be out of the mainstream, but I think this makes me stand out as an applicant.

Good luck to all!

Hi! I'm a logic major, and one of my big interests is philosophy of math. I keep going back and forth as to whether the admissions people will receive my application well. I have letters of recommendations from people they probably know, but I have a lower GPA because the math department really did a number on my GPA before I was used to college mathematics. (I went to a very literature/history/classical education heavy high school, and they weren't big on math or science.) I'm taking an independent study on math logic right now, and I'm supposed to find out everything I can about hyperoperations. They're SO COOL. Did you apply to Berkeley LMS?