Recent Changes to Graduate Programs Prospective Students Should Know

Created
Thu, 08/12/2022 - 01:46
Updated
Thu, 08/12/2022 - 01:46
Prospective philosophy graduate students are currently checking out information at department pages, discussion forums, and sites that collect data and opinions, deciding where to apply or what to think of the places to which they’ve already applied. Yet is that online information up to date? For various reasons, there can be a significant lag between changes to departments and the online availability of information about such changes, and sometimes, those changes might be relevant to someone’s decision about where to apply. So I thought I’d open up a space for people to share news of such changes, be they good or bad or unclear. What kind of changes? Here are some examples: A faculty member won a grant and there will be opportunities for incoming graduate students to work as research assistants on their project The university/college/department is expecting budget cuts/extra money that will affect the funding it can offer graduate students in the future or its funding for departmental programming A philosopher is retiring or leaving or being hired by the department (if you’re the faculty member or a chair of one of the relevant departments, feel free to comment; otherwise, those with this kind of info should email it to me privately first as the relevant parties may have good reasons to not share it yet) Changes to departmental or university policies that affect graduate students (e.g., program requirements, health insurance, availability of summer teaching, etc.) Thanks for your help in sharing information of this sort. I understand that some commenters may wish to use pseudonyms when providing this kind of information, particularly if it is unwelcome news. That is alright, but you need to enter in a working email with your comment (the email address is not published) so I can follow-up with you if need be, prior to publishing your comment. If you have commented using your real name and a particular email address before, to maintain your pseudonymity I’d urge you to comment with an alternate email address this time (as sometimes the commenting system does not register changes to name/email pairings).