Monday, June 02, 2008

Grad School admissions

Eric Schwitzgebel has put together a report on Grad School admissions. Read it here:
More Philosophy Ph.D. Admissions Data from U.C. Riverside
It is pretty daunting. McDaniel has little, if any, prestige. His analysis of how that hurts you is pretty much right on- we are not known to the admissions committee, there is a suspicion that grade inflation is higher at small schools for good students due to the lack of competition, and, as he puts it: "talented students will find it easy to get top grades and it may be rare for them to have their feet held to the fire about their essays, may not get the harsh and detailed criticism necessary to transform those essays into excellent writing samples". That is true - I try to offer the same level of critique whether you get an 'A' or an 'F', but I often fail to do so for the top grade papers. We're hoping that the new Jr. Level writing requirement will address that somewhat. And we're probably going to institute a new 'directed writing' class for students interested in grad school.

No comments: