2018 Philosophy Applicants, Assemble!

[tmck3053]

6 hours ago, genderphage said:

Heya gang,

thought I'd say hello, in the waiting period and only just found out about this place (maybe for the best), I just finished up my integrated Masters in Maths & Philosophy at Oxford, where I got kinda average grades (62 average in BA, 67 average in masters year [equivalent to 3.2 & 3.7]), but with a 72 in my thesis on Wittgenstein & Heidegger (with some Merleau-Ponty) on feminist epistemology of emotions (the main argumentative chunk of which I've sent as my writing sample), with GRE 170/169/5.5

 

At the moment main interest would be in continuing that approach from my thesis but talking about animals, so generally looking at more phil of mind stuff from combined analytic & continental perspectives, which made picking places harder - I always thought Wittgenstein was more popular than he actually is haha

 

I've applied to Harvard, Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, CUNY, Toronto, McGill, Stony Brook for PhDs, New School & Tufts for Masters, would probably go for Chicago if I got all my offers but not fully sure, will wait and see...

It's very true that Wittgenstein is not often so well-received in very analytic parts of the world - he was, after all, one of the strongest critics of analytic philosophy and would have completely derided many of their shining lights (Quine, Lewis, etc.) It does make it tough - it was nice for some of my applications to be able to be a bit more open about my interest in Wittgenstein - especially places like Chicago and Harvard. It's probably useless information for you now but Pittsburgh also has a huge interest in Wittgenstein what with McDowell and Brandom and co.

[Metanoia]

10 minutes ago, tmck3053 said:

It's very true that Wittgenstein is not often so well-received in very analytic parts of the world - he was, after all, one of the strongest critics of analytic philosophy and would have completely derided many of their shining lights (Quine, Lewis, etc.) It does make it tough - it was nice for some of my applications to be able to be a bit more open about my interest in Wittgenstein - especially places like Chicago and Harvard. It's probably useless information for you now but Pittsburgh also has a huge interest in Wittgenstein what with McDowell and Brandom and co.

I think you are right about UPitt's support for Wittgensteinian scholarship. Nevertheless, it may be worth keeping in mind that both Brandom and McDowell are likely to be quite close to retirement. 

[tmck3053]

24 minutes ago, Metanoia said:

I think you are right about UPitt's support for Wittgensteinian scholarship. Nevertheless, it may be worth keeping in mind that both Brandom and McDowell are likely to be quite close to retirement. 

Yes that's true - they both are quite old. That's what makes me hesitant about UPitt in the end. Plus Mark Wilson is getting quite old also.

[genderphage]

7 hours ago, tmck3053 said:

It's very true that Wittgenstein is not often so well-received in very analytic parts of the world - he was, after all, one of the strongest critics of analytic philosophy and would have completely derided many of their shining lights (Quine, Lewis, etc.) It does make it tough - it was nice for some of my applications to be able to be a bit more open about my interest in Wittgenstein - especially places like Chicago and Harvard. It's probably useless information for you now but Pittsburgh also has a huge interest in Wittgenstein what with McDowell and Brandom and co.

Yeah I was considering UPitt but went against it in the end because of lack of conty stuff, whereas Chicago has some if not as many as others

also I honestly went by where I could see myself living for the next five years, and Pittsburgh was not that haha

[Scoots]

19 hours ago, genderphage said:

Heya gang,

thought I'd say hello, in the waiting period and only just found out about this place (maybe for the best), I just finished up my integrated Masters in Maths & Philosophy at Oxford, where I got kinda average grades (62 average in BA, 67 average in masters year [equivalent to 3.2 & 3.7]), but with a 72 in my thesis on Wittgenstein & Heidegger (with some Merleau-Ponty) on feminist epistemology of emotions (the main argumentative chunk of which I've sent as my writing sample), with GRE 170/169/5.5

 

At the moment main interest would be in continuing that approach from my thesis but talking about animals, so generally looking at more phil of mind stuff from combined analytic & continental perspectives, which made picking places harder - I always thought Wittgenstein was more popular than he actually is haha

 

I've applied to Harvard, Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, CUNY, Toronto, McGill, Stony Brook for PhDs, New School & Tufts for Masters, would probably go for Chicago if I got all my offers but not fully sure, will wait and see...

 

Also all these people applying to dozens of places how do you afford it ??? I basically bankrupted myself applying to 10 which felt like loads!

Hey, coincidence, I used to study maths and philosophy at Oxford, but I switched as i found it too tricky...  I graduated from another Oxford philosophy joint school, and I’m also really into Wittgenstein. Also our GREs are very similar and we applied to most of the same places!

[LORDBACON]

21 hours ago, kretschmar said:

TTU was on my list until the final cut. I admit that it was a decision with overtones of regional snobbery. The program itself was attractive.

If that's regarding Lubbock not being everyone's first choice about where they'd like to live, then I understand.  GSU may have been a better choice instrumentally, but I only applied to one MA program and was not thinking in terms of maximizing PhD admissions outcomes in the future.  TBH convenience was a bigger factor than anything.  We're about to see how that plays out. 

[LORDBACON]

12 hours ago, genderphage said:

also I honestly went by where I could see myself living for the next five years, and Pittsburgh was not that haha

What if a department has a good continental program and it makes sense to apply for academic reasons, but you're fairly confident it would be a miserable existence?  That's where I find myself with one of my fall-backs.  Not sure that's a good enough reason for applying, since I'm not sure I'd wanna live there, but fortunately the fee was low. 

[jelris]

3 hours ago, wayfarin' stranger said:

What if a department has a good continental program and it makes sense to apply for academic reasons, but you're fairly confident it would be a miserable existence?  That's where I find myself with one of my fall-backs.  Not sure that's a good enough reason for applying, since I'm not sure I'd wanna live there, but fortunately the fee was low. 

As one of my professors once told me in regards to coming up with a list of schools to apply to: Don't rule out any place that, right now, you think you might not want to live in. Your expectations and priorities may change as you move further along in the application process.

[genderphage]

10 hours ago, jelris said:

As one of my professors once told me in regards to coming up with a list of schools to apply to: Don't rule out any place that, right now, you think you might not want to live in. Your expectations and priorities may change as you move further along in the application process.

Yeah this is v true! Although one thing I don't see changing tooo much is that I can barely stand any temperatures above 25 degrees and was going to apply to Emory until I looked at the temperatures in Atlanta haha (also affected not applying to Riverside in the end)

[thehegeldialectic]

On 1/26/2018 at 2:15 AM, genderphage said:

Yeah I was considering UPitt but went against it in the end because of lack of conty stuff, whereas Chicago has some if not as many as others

also I honestly went by where I could see myself living for the next five years, and Pittsburgh was not that haha

It's not that bad here. My wife hates it, my friend's wives hate it, but it's a cool city with a rich philosophical scene.

 

Edited January 27, 2018 by iunoionnis

[thehegeldialectic]

5 hours ago, genderphage said:

Yeah this is v true! Although one thing I don't see changing tooo much is that I can barely stand any temperatures above 25 degrees and was going to apply to Emory until I looked at the temperatures in Atlanta haha (also affected not applying to Riverside in the end)

Above 25 degrees? You must be ice man or a frost giant or something.

[PhiloStorian]

55 minutes ago, iunoionnis said:

Above 25 degrees? You must be ice man or a frost giant or something.

His location says Manchester, so 25' C = 77' F. Much more reasonable.

[LORDBACON]

12 hours ago, genderphage said:

Yeah this is v true! Although one thing I don't see changing tooo much is that I can barely stand any temperatures above 25 degrees and was going to apply to Emory until I looked at the temperatures in Atlanta haha (also affected not applying to Riverside in the end)

I applied to both of those schools as well as USF in Tampa.  Atlanta and Florida get blistering hot.  I see you're in Manchester which is funny because I just booked a flight there for end of May to meet up with my gf.  Open invite for a coffee or pints. 

23 hours ago, jelris said:

As one of my professors once told me in regards to coming up with a list of schools to apply to: Don't rule out any place that, right now, you think you might not want to live in. Your expectations and priorities may change as you move further along in the application process.

Thanks for the needed perspective.  It is helping.  The regret seems to be welling up more for not taking another long shot or two and applying to too many spep schools as fallbacks instead.  I'm seriously starting to doubt the quality of philosophical education I'd receive at some of them.  However some of my fallbacks are solid depts. 

[Zimmy64]

Hey Everyone,

I'm applying to philosophy Ph.D. and M.A. programs for Fall 2018 (political philosophy AOI). I'm hoping for the University of Arizona but it's very competitive and I'm not holding my breath. There are some things that give me some hope. Based on my research of the Departments and the work of the faculty there I think I would be a very good fit. I've read research by Jerry Gaus, David Schmitz, Steven Wall, etc and thought to myself this is exactly the kind of research I want to produce someday. Also one of my recommenders isn't well known but was taught by Jerry Gaus when he was in undergrad and David Schmitz and him have collaborated recently.

I've also applied to Brown, Georgetown, Virginia, Michigan, Duke, UNC, Tulane, BGSU, WUSTL.

My "safety" programs are all M.A. programs. Georgia State, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Northern Illinois University. I'm most likely going to end up at GSU and that's fine with me. A student from my undergrad alma mater got into GSU just last year and I've been told I'm better than she was and would be fine to go straight to a Ph.D. program. Given the option between GSU and BGSU, Michigan, Duke, Tulane, etc I'd rather go to GSU for two years and then try again for Arizona, Brown, UVA, Georgetown. GSU's placement rating is quite good particularly for those four programs.

At the moment applications are sent and I'm just waiting.