Michigan Recap
[I tried posting this 5 days ago but had troubles. So, here it is. Sorry for the delay.]
So, the visit to Michigan went really well. The students and faculty were all really welcoming, the facilities were pretty good, Ann Arbor is a cool little town, etc. My itinerary was jammed quite full with meetings on Thursday. It was actually a little odd how everyone's meetings with faculty were scheduled. It was a bit like speed-dating--you walked into their office, chatted with them for half an hour, and then, no matter where you were in the conversation, they were shuttling you off to the next faculty member. I understand why things were like this: they had 25 prospectives wanting to meet with multiple faculty members and they needed a way to make sure that everyone got to meet who they wanted to meet. But it did feel odd. I cracked the speed-dating joke to one of the faculty members as I was leaving our meeting and she thought it was true.
I had one main worry about Michigan coming into the weekend: would I be able to find faculty to advise me in the kind of research I want to do. At Arizona, this would be no problem; the political philosophy faculty there are all doing work that significantly overlaps with my interests. At Michigan, although there are certainly faculty who do political philosophy, it wasn't clear to me just from looking on the web that those people's research overlap with my own. But this fear was alleviated during my visit. There are certainly people I could work with who would be fantastic advisors. So, now our decision just got more difficult--if I get an offer, that is.
And this looks like a good possibility. I had a really good, candid chat with the director of grad admissions, Eric Lormand, during the weekend and he feels pretty confident that they will dip in to their waitlist sometime this week. If, in fact, this happens, I'm quite certain that I will get one of the first spots. I was able to meet with three members of the admissions committee and I think I made a good impression with all of the them, so I think my name will be placed near or at the top of the waitlist. We'll see. Eric told me that he thought he would be sending out more offers in the next few days.
What will happen if I do get an offer? We'll find out soon enough.
By the way, I turned down UIC last night. So, if no offers come through from Michigan or UNC, then I will certainly be going to Arizona (as it's the only offer I still have).
So, the visit to Michigan went really well. The students and faculty were all really welcoming, the facilities were pretty good, Ann Arbor is a cool little town, etc. My itinerary was jammed quite full with meetings on Thursday. It was actually a little odd how everyone's meetings with faculty were scheduled. It was a bit like speed-dating--you walked into their office, chatted with them for half an hour, and then, no matter where you were in the conversation, they were shuttling you off to the next faculty member. I understand why things were like this: they had 25 prospectives wanting to meet with multiple faculty members and they needed a way to make sure that everyone got to meet who they wanted to meet. But it did feel odd. I cracked the speed-dating joke to one of the faculty members as I was leaving our meeting and she thought it was true.
I had one main worry about Michigan coming into the weekend: would I be able to find faculty to advise me in the kind of research I want to do. At Arizona, this would be no problem; the political philosophy faculty there are all doing work that significantly overlaps with my interests. At Michigan, although there are certainly faculty who do political philosophy, it wasn't clear to me just from looking on the web that those people's research overlap with my own. But this fear was alleviated during my visit. There are certainly people I could work with who would be fantastic advisors. So, now our decision just got more difficult--if I get an offer, that is.
And this looks like a good possibility. I had a really good, candid chat with the director of grad admissions, Eric Lormand, during the weekend and he feels pretty confident that they will dip in to their waitlist sometime this week. If, in fact, this happens, I'm quite certain that I will get one of the first spots. I was able to meet with three members of the admissions committee and I think I made a good impression with all of the them, so I think my name will be placed near or at the top of the waitlist. We'll see. Eric told me that he thought he would be sending out more offers in the next few days.
What will happen if I do get an offer? We'll find out soon enough.
By the way, I turned down UIC last night. So, if no offers come through from Michigan or UNC, then I will certainly be going to Arizona (as it's the only offer I still have).
posted by David Wiens at 1:16 p.m.
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