2016 Acceptance Thread

[currentphilgrad]

Congrats to all the NYU acceptances! You've won!

[kant_get_in]

Big day on the results page. Congrats everyone. 

[Hadeel]

Why have I not received a Yale rejection yet? Do they not send out all rejection emails at once?

 

My bad, I was looking at the wrong result page. 

Edited February 26, 2016 by Hadeel
Mistake

[FregePhil]

Congratulations to all those admitted. I didn't get admitted anywhere this season despite applying to fifteen places. I guess my WS was plain boring and lacked creativity. But I feel good that those admitted are much more competent; and all the people here are so cool. Good luck for your future journey!

[ibnbattuta]

I urge those of you who were given offers of admission to input the stipend information at http://www.phdstipends.com/ .  Knowledge is power.

[502845824]

6 hours ago, ibnbattuta said:

I urge those of you who were given offers of admission to input the stipend information at http://www.phdstipends.com/ .  Knowledge is power.

I'm very skeptical of stuff like this. What good can come out of it? The only thing I can see happening is that X at University of Y will look up his/her school and compare/contrast with A, B, and C, who were also admitted. This will accomplish one of two things -- X will realize he/she is being paid poorly in comparison, and hence will be bummed the fuck out; or X will see that he/she is being paid more than his/her peers, and will pat himself/herself on the back and move along. Neither of those is particularly beneficial to anyone. 

In fact, I can foresee one other use: A student might use the site, find out he/she is being paid poorly, and then attempt to bargain/negotiate a better offer, which the program will resent. That would benefit no one and very well might harm the student.

Edited February 27, 2016 by oldhatnewtricks

[MVSCZAR]

4 minutes ago, oldhatnewtricks said:

I'm very skeptical of stuff like this. What good can come out of it? The only thing I can see happening is that X at University of Y will look up his/her school and compare/contrast with A, B, and C, who were also admitted. This will accomplish one of two things -- X will realize he/she is being paid poorly in comparison, and hence will be bummed the fuck out; or X will see that he/she is being paid more than his/her peers, and will pat himself/herself on the back and move along. Neither of those is particularly beneficial to anyone. 

In fact, I can foresee one other use: A student might use the site, find out he/she is being paid poorly, and then attempt to bargain/negotiate a better offer, which the program will resent. That would benefit no one and very well might harm the student.

And there's at least a fourth use: You can look through the site and ask yourself repeatedly why you didn't study engineering instead.

[502845824]

5 minutes ago, Abendstern said:

One of my offers specifically says to let them know if I'm considering choosing another program due to financial considerations so that they can have the opportunity to respond. Of course you can't go in and demand more money in an ungrateful way, but at least  some departments are open to the discussion. Funding is a big deal. I think it's good to know what good compensation versus bad is, and to then make an informed choice about your program based on that. You're going to find out who is on fellowship and who is TAing during those years very quickly once you arrive for orientation. Might as well find out now.

That is totally true, and I agree with you. But the point of that site isn't to compare your funding at X with your funding at Y. Presumably, both X and Y told you directly about your funding package, so you have all you need to compare X's offer to you with Y's offer to you. The only point of that site is to compare your offers with offers received by others. And no program will up their offer to you because someone else got a better one. So the site doesn't help negotiate offers.

[ibnbattuta]

38 minutes ago, oldhatnewtricks said:

I'm very skeptical of stuff like this. What good can come out of it? The only thing I can see happening is that X at University of Y will look up his/her school and compare/contrast with A, B, and C, who were also admitted. This will accomplish one of two things -- X will realize he/she is being paid poorly in comparison, and hence will be bummed the fuck out; or X will see that he/she is being paid more than his/her peers, and will pat himself/herself on the back and move along. Neither of those is particularly beneficial to anyone. 

In fact, I can foresee one other use: A student might use the site, find out he/she is being paid poorly, and then attempt to bargain/negotiate a better offer, which the program will resent. That would benefit no one and very well might harm the student.

When considering whether or not to apply to grad school at all it can provide information about stipends which are not provided on websites.  Furthermore if one is wait-listed they can get a rough idea of what funding is like to compare other offers they may have received.  To be honest a lot of this info can be found on a particular program's website, so the idea of being bummed out/boastful about it doesn't really hold water.  Just in general it is good to be as well-equipped as one can when considering going down this road.

 

To each their own I guess, but during my application cycles I was always curious as to what sitpends were like.  Also I think it is just interesting to know the different stipends across different fields and at different universities.

[MVSCZAR]

1 hour ago, ibnbattuta said:

To each their own I guess, but during my application cycles I was always curious as to what sitpends were like.  Also I think it is just interesting to know the different stipends across different fields and at different universities.

Well, if it helps, if I combine all of my offers, I'd be able to afford to rent a studio in NYC, no utilities...

[PrimeMumble]

8 hours ago, oldhatnewtricks said:

I'm very skeptical of stuff like this. What good can come out of it? The only thing I can see happening is that X at University of Y will look up his/her school and compare/contrast with A, B, and C, who were also admitted. This will accomplish one of two things -- X will realize he/she is being paid poorly in comparison, and hence will be bummed the fuck out; or X will see that he/she is being paid more than his/her peers, and will pat himself/herself on the back and move along. Neither of those is particularly beneficial to anyone. 

In fact, I can foresee one other use: A student might use the site, find out he/she is being paid poorly, and then attempt to bargain/negotiate a better offer, which the program will resent. That would benefit no one and very well might harm the student.

You are skeptical because you don't have kids or a wife to support with your stipend, I guess. Money really matters when you need to take care of someone more than yourself.

And extra information is never harmful. We should know this as philosophers.

[759]

Anyone hearing back from UConn?

[Chrysippus'Doge]

58 minutes ago, WVE said:

Anyone hearing back from UConn?

Not a peep. Just that one weird post last Sunday night which I'm honestly a little skeptical of. 

[Siegfried42]

For you people waiting on UC-Riverside - it looks like there's a post up on the board! Not sure if it's genuine, since it's a Sunday afternoon, but you never know. Admissions committees, after all, work in mysterious ways. 

[machineghost]

I perused their history and it isn't uncommon for them to admit folks over two or three days and, apparently, using different notification schemes in one application season, e.g phone and personal email and impersonal email. Good times ahead.

Edited February 28, 2016 by machineghost
mobile site inserted a bunch of quotes

[Marx]

Did anyone hear from CUNY yet?

[quinnp]

13 hours ago, WVE said:

Anyone hearing back from UConn?

 

12 hours ago, Chrysippus'Doge said:

Not a peep. Just that one weird post last Sunday night which I'm honestly a little skeptical of. 

Sorry I was that weird poster! I received an email from Mitchell Green last Sunday. It's strange not to have seen anyone else on gradcafe claim another UConn acceptance. I guess they must have been very quietly excited, like me.

[AmandaEvans]

Just got into UT Austin!! Very excited. I was also awarded the Provost's Graduate Excellence Fellowship :):)

Does anyone have any insight as to which one is better, Notre Dame or UT Austin? I know on Philosophical Gourmet they're tied for ranking, which makes it tough.

[jacbarcan]

Still very interested to hear who got the Riverside acceptance. 

[Siegfried42]

6 minutes ago, AmandaEvans said:

Just got into UT Austin!! Very excited. I was also awarded the Provost's Graduate Excellence Fellowship :):)

Does anyone have any insight as to which one is better, Notre Dame or UT Austin? I know on Philosophical Gourmet they're tied for ranking, which makes it tough.

That's awesome, congrats!! Sounds like you have a very enviable choice to make . As to your question: this depends very heavily on your areas of interest and the people you'd like to work with, especially since their general ranking is identical. What area of philosophy would you like most to work in? Also, the fact that Austin is providing you with a fellowship is worth some consideration too - it will presumably allow you some more financial freedom and time to do academic work. 

[AmandaEvans]

Thank you!!

I'm constantly torn between metaphysics and philosophy of mind, which makes it tricky. I don't know much about UT Austin's metaphysics department (I have some research to do), but I know Notre Dame is strong in that area. On the other hand, my advisor told me to apply to Austin in the first place because of its strength in philosophy of mind.

An added consideration is that I'm attending Notre Dame for undergrad. So branching out is probably another tally in favor of Austin, but who knows.

[Dialectica]

Anyone have reason to think Austin spreads out its acceptances?

[Siegfried42]

2 minutes ago, Dialectica said:

Anyone have reason to think Austin spreads out its acceptances?

Not sure about this but note that fellowship nominees are almost always notified ahead of other admits, so there is definitely no reason to presume rejection yet!

Also: Michigan is on the board...anybody able to claim it? 

[dgswaim]

27 minutes ago, AmandaEvans said:

Thank you!!

I'm constantly torn between metaphysics and philosophy of mind, which makes it tricky. I don't know much about UT Austin's metaphysics department (I have some research to do), but I know Notre Dame is strong in that area. On the other hand, my advisor told me to apply to Austin in the first place because of its strength in philosophy of mind.

An added consideration is that I'm attending Notre Dame for undergrad. So branching out is probably another tally in favor of Austin, but who knows.

Well... Galen Strawson...

[AmandaEvans]

2 minutes ago, dgswaim said:

Well... Galen Strawson...

True!! And I happen to love him. I honestly had forgotten he was there until just now. Hahah this is definitely a point in favor of Austin. Especially since van Inwagen (who I love as well) is semi-retired at this point.