Acceptance Thread

[Dysexlia]

3 hours ago, Coconuts&Chloroform said:

Ha - hopefully that's exactly what they do!

It just goes to show: you can get into PGR top 3 schools from an unranked undergrad.

This makes me feel very hopeful!

[akraticfanatic]

I applied to the PhD at BU, but was accepted to the MA with no funding. Still nice to have another acceptance for the sake of my ego, but I don't really want to be $100k in debt just for a MA, so I'll be declining unless I somehow get some decent need-based grants. I got an informal email from the department head that basically said "Congratulations, but don't do it." 

2r/0w/0a out of 3 for PhD 
0r/0w/2a out of 5 for MA/MS 

[Coconuts&Chloroform]

57 minutes ago, 753982 said:

With respect, I doubt anyone's ever claimed that you can't get into top programs from an, as you call it, "unranked" (not sure what you mean by that - PGR unranked or  something else) undergrad - just that it's quite unlikely. And a school's being PGR unranked doesn't necessarily say anything about its overall prestige - see, for example, Dartmouth, Williams College, Swarthmore, and so on. They are rather prestigious schools, yet they're not PGR ranked. Since you never introduced yourself to the forum and haven't really posted any personal information thus far, one can only speculate, but my suspicion is that you're not coming from a school as unprestigious as the ones from which other unsuccessful applicants have originated and may (for whatever reason) have strong reasons to believe your dossier is unusually strong (a 170 V can't hurt, but perhaps there's something else that's good about your dossier you'd rather not mention for anonymity's sake, like a double major in neuroscience or something). I would certainly be interested in knowing at least a rough sense of the ranking (e.g. "it's in the 80-90 range of US News' national rankings") of the school to which you went for undergrad. Congratulations on your success, but I would certainly be skeptical of your n=1 meaning much without more information about your background.

Thanks for your kind words.

I'm not wedded to the implicature that salient people believe one can't get into top programs from an undergraduate institution that isn't PGR-ranked. Nor would I claim that my background lacks prestige: my undergraduate institution is ranked around the 50 range in the US News rankings, my recommenders are fairly well-connected, and I have - not to boast - a record that includes multiple awards, TAships and fellowships as an undergraduate. However, my intention in writing my post was not to offer my own case as evidence to disconfirm the claim that nobody can get into a top PGR program from a PGR-unranked undergraduate program. My intentions are not epistemic. Rather, my intention was to give hope to and soothe the anxieties of other applicants who lack confidence just in virtue of knowing that they're coming from an unranked undergraduate program. In order to achieve that, there's no need to cite rigorous large-n studies and develop methods for ranking the relative prestige of schools relevant to PhD applications in philosophy.

I should note, however, that my understanding is that the prestige of one's undergraduate institution is relevant only inasmuch as having gone to a presitigious, PGR-ranked department gives one the opportunity to take graduate-level courses with well-known professors in well-known programs. Swarthmore, e.g., for all its prestige, does not afford anyone that opportunity, so I'd suspect that its prestige is not highly relevant to PhD applications. On the other hand, an undergraduate who went to NYU, e.g., but did not take any graduate-level courses, would probably not fare much better than any applicant from Swarthmore.

[joshmyers]

Accepted to NYU today. I'm still shaking! Got rejected from a lot of lower-ranked programs, which just goes to show the amount of randomness in this whole process. Still, I am ecstatic. 

[753982]

1 hour ago, Coconuts&Chloroform said:

Thanks for your kind words.

I'm not wedded to the implicature that salient people believe one can't get into top programs from an undergraduate institution that isn't PGR-ranked. Nor would I claim that my background lacks prestige: my undergraduate institution is ranked around the 50 range in the US News rankings, my recommenders are fairly well-connected, and I have - not to boast - a record that includes multiple awards, TAships and fellowships as an undergraduate. However, my intention in writing my post was not to offer my own case as evidence to disconfirm the claim that nobody can get into a top PGR program from a PGR-unranked undergraduate program. My intentions are not epistemic. Rather, my intention was to give hope to and soothe the anxieties of other applicants who lack confidence just in virtue of knowing that they're coming from an unranked undergraduate program. In order to achieve that, there's no need to cite rigorous large-n studies and develop methods for ranking the relative prestige of schools relevant to PhD applications in philosophy.

I should note, however, that my understanding is that the prestige of one's undergraduate institution is relevant only inasmuch as having gone to a presitigious, PGR-ranked department gives one the opportunity to take graduate-level courses with well-known professors in well-known programs. Swarthmore, e.g., for all its prestige, does not afford anyone that opportunity, so I'd suspect that its prestige is not highly relevant to PhD applications. On the other hand, an undergraduate who went to NYU, e.g., but did not take any graduate-level courses, would probably not fare much better than any applicant from Swarthmore.

Though you didn't say anything that would disagree with this, I suspect the datum relevant to graduate admissions in philosophy is how well regarded a school is in a very general sense. Surely a Swarthmore graduate would be perceived much more favorably than someone from Cal State LA, though, yes, I agree that a Cal State LA student could compensate some for a lack of prestige by taking graduate-level courses. Being able to get into a selective school for your undergraduate degree, the thought goes, says something about your suitability for top graduate programs. This is why I suspect a Swarthmore or Williams College graduate would be very unlikely to be negatively affected by a lack of prestige, and, as you say, would probably be interpreted similarly to someone from NYU (although NYU is very well regarded for philosophy and has some famous professors, which might provide a slight edge to someone with no history of graduate coursework if those professors were among their recommenders). I take it that the suggestion to take graduate-level courses is more relevant for people from schools like UC Riverside, which is outside of the top 100 of US News but ranked in the PGR, and Cal State LA in that someone from those schools could add a lot to their app by taking those courses. Someone coming from one of those schools, though, with no history of graduate-level work, would be worse off, ceteris paribus, than someone from an elite school (say, ranked in the top 50 by US News in its national or liberal arts rankings).

Edited March 4, 2017 by 753982

[Coconuts&Chloroform]

1 hour ago, joshmyers said:

Accepted to NYU today. I'm still shaking! Got rejected from a lot of lower-ranked programs, which just goes to show the amount of randomness in this whole process. Still, I am ecstatic. 

Congrats!

Question: did your online application status change to 'accepted' today? I didn't get a call, but am wondering whether there's any reason to still hold out hope, as my status hasn't changed yet.

[joshmyers]

2 minutes ago, Coconuts&Chloroform said:

Congrats!

Question: did your online application status change to 'accepted' today? I didn't get a call, but am wondering whether there's any reason to still hold out hope, as my status hasn't changed yet.

Thanks My application hasn't changed yet. The phone call mentioned that I should get official notification around Monday, so perhaps it will change then.

[Coconuts&Chloroform]

11 minutes ago, joshmyers said:

Thanks My application hasn't changed yet. The phone call mentioned that I should get official notification around Monday, so perhaps it will change then.

Cool. Last year, when they accepted me to their MA program, a faculty member who I won't name gave me a call telling me that I could probably do better than their MA and was 'strongly encouraged' to reapply to their PhD program - so if I don't get good news on Monday, I'll be pretty pissed. Well, it's not like anyone can be that pissed about not getting into NYU, but still. Congrats again. Go celebrate!

Edited March 4, 2017 by Coconuts&Chloroform

[cogsguy]

I got into Stanford yesterday! So stoked!

[HollyJ]

On 2/13/2017 at 8:17 PM, SamStone said:

...a vanderbilt notification? (why does it say notified/posted Feb 14?)

That was me who posted the Vanderbilt notification, in case the poster is still wondering. I'm a Canadian applicant, and I also found it weird that the survey decided to send me a day into the future. I've always wanted to time travel. 

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

3 hours ago, HollyJ said:

That was me who posted the Vanderbilt notification, in case the poster is still wondering. I'm a Canadian applicant, and I also found it weird that the survey decided to send me a day into the future. I've always wanted to time travel. 

Did you graduate from Degrassi by chance?

[Dialectica]

Wow. Surprised to see Indiana release via post this year. Anyone want to claim the acceptance? I'm hoping the absence of a letter is only explained by my location. 

Edited March 5, 2017 by Dialectica

[Duns Eith]

I heard thru the grapevine that they have done calls as well. FB group?

Anyway. I just checked the mail in light of that post 15 min ago. Nada.

[To φ or not to φ]

To the person who received the acceptance letter from Indiana Philosophy, when was the letter posted out? A week ago?

[eeeeeeeeeeeee]

To those asking about Indiana: I don't know when the letter was posted. I'm abroad, and my dear mother opened it for me. It arrived Saturday in Wisconsin. Not sure if they called as I wouldn't have been able to receive it.

[eeeeeeeeeeeee]

And I've now received an acceptance email from Indiana.

[To φ or not to φ]

Congrats, and thank you, @eeeeeeeeeeeee!

[Duns Eith]

5 hours ago, eeeeeeeeeeeee said:

And I've now received an acceptance email from Indiana.

Congrats!

[ThatDeleuzeGuy]

I got a letter in the mail from University of New Mexico around Feb 24th rejecting me from the PhD but admitting me to the MA.

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

Did anybody else apply to Tulane? I got a solicited email from the DGS that they will be releasing their results this Friday. I honestly have no idea if Tulane gets a lot of applicants or is a fringe school. I'd be really happy to go there, in either case. Plus NEW ORLEANS!

[goldenstardust11]

44 minutes ago, Schopenhauerfanboy said:

Did anybody else apply to Tulane? I got a solicited email from the DGS that they will be releasing their results this Friday. I honestly have no idea if Tulane gets a lot of applicants or is a fringe school. I'd be really happy to go there, in either case. Plus NEW ORLEANS!

I didn't wind up applying but it was on my list for a while. There are some pretty cool people working there  Good luck! (also... Yeah. New Orleans!)

[sleepingsusurrus]

2 hours ago, Schopenhauerfanboy said:

Did anybody else apply to Tulane? I got a solicited email from the DGS that they will be releasing their results this Friday. I honestly have no idea if Tulane gets a lot of applicants or is a fringe school. I'd be really happy to go there, in either case. Plus NEW ORLEANS!

 

I applied to Tulane.. but now my whole week will be waiting for Friday! 

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

2 hours ago, sleepingsusurrus said:

I applied to Tulane.. but now my whole week will be waiting for Friday! 

What area did you apply for? 

[Ibycus]

5 hours ago, Schopenhauerfanboy said:

Did anybody else apply to Tulane? I got a solicited email from the DGS that they will be releasing their results this Friday. I honestly have no idea if Tulane gets a lot of applicants or is a fringe school. I'd be really happy to go there, in either case. Plus NEW ORLEANS!

One of my friends is a first-year in the Tulane PhD program working primarily with Ronna Burger and Richard Velkley. I'm a big fan of Ronna's Bible lectures on Youtube! 

[sleepingsusurrus]

2 hours ago, Schopenhauerfanboy said:

What area did you apply for? 

phil of mind, but also some metaphysics, interested in working with Morris and Velkley

Edited March 6, 2017 by sleepingsusurrus