No Wait List This Time!
Barb and I went to see STOMP last night (I'll leave it up to Barb to tell you about it), and when we got home afterwards, a phone message from Arizona was waiting. I spoke to their Director of Grad Studies this morning and they have offered me admission in addition to financial support. The money will come in the form of a Teaching Assistantship over 5 years (roughly $15 000/year). It also includes at least a partial tuition waiver, but a full waiver is not guaranteed. (Although I was told that the dept was able to cover everyone's full tuition last year.) This is a bit of a hit, seeing as I have been offered a very generous fellowship from UIC, and if accepted to Michigan or UNC, the money would be much better than at Arizona.
Arizona is another very strong department and they have excellent people doing exciting work in my area. They also place their Ph.D.'s in jobs well. I've also heard that they have a great departmental culture. So, there are a lot of plusses to Arizona. It is (finally) comforting to have a solid offer from a department I would be very happy to go to. (This is not the case with UIC. If UIC were my only offer I would willingly go, but perhaps a little disappointed that things didn't work out at better places.)
By the way, if you're wondering what it means to say 'Dept. X is very strong' or 'Dept. Y is better than Dept. Z', here is one (very influential) overall ranking of philosophy depts based on faculty reputation and here is a ranking of the strength of philosophy depts in my particular sub-area. Although rank is not the only factor in making a decision---one must also think about money, departmental culture, job placement record, degree requirements, location, etc.---it is certainly important insofar as it helps group depts together into first, second, and third tier categories. Of the schools I've heard from, UIC is borderline 2nd/3rd tier, St. Andrews is a solid 2nd tier, Arizona is a high 2nd/arguably low 1st tier, UNC is low to mid 1st tier and Michigan is high 1st tier.
Anyway, the news seems to be pouring in now, so updates should be coming quite frequently.
Arizona is another very strong department and they have excellent people doing exciting work in my area. They also place their Ph.D.'s in jobs well. I've also heard that they have a great departmental culture. So, there are a lot of plusses to Arizona. It is (finally) comforting to have a solid offer from a department I would be very happy to go to. (This is not the case with UIC. If UIC were my only offer I would willingly go, but perhaps a little disappointed that things didn't work out at better places.)
By the way, if you're wondering what it means to say 'Dept. X is very strong' or 'Dept. Y is better than Dept. Z', here is one (very influential) overall ranking of philosophy depts based on faculty reputation and here is a ranking of the strength of philosophy depts in my particular sub-area. Although rank is not the only factor in making a decision---one must also think about money, departmental culture, job placement record, degree requirements, location, etc.---it is certainly important insofar as it helps group depts together into first, second, and third tier categories. Of the schools I've heard from, UIC is borderline 2nd/3rd tier, St. Andrews is a solid 2nd tier, Arizona is a high 2nd/arguably low 1st tier, UNC is low to mid 1st tier and Michigan is high 1st tier.
Anyway, the news seems to be pouring in now, so updates should be coming quite frequently.
posted by David Wiens at 2:44 p.m.
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