Philosophy departments in the most prestigious U.S. universities typically have sufficient resources to fund most of their graduate students throughout their PhD’s. In these universities, successful applicants are offered fellowships for one or two years, followed by three or more years of teaching assistantships. During fellowship years, grants are provided for both fees and maintenance without any teaching responsibilities on the part of the student (maintenance grants range between $9000 – $15500); during TA-ship years, students normally do two terms of teaching alongside their own courses and research.

In other universities, however, funding is not so readily available for students starting their PhD degrees. In most cases a small number of fellowships (perhaps only one or two) are awarded each year that will support the student for the first year or two, but other students must pay their own way at first. Still, after the first year or two, TA-ships are generally offered to most students who are succeeding academically. Each department has information on their own website about how much funding is available. Should you apply to a university in which you might have to fund yourself through the first two years, you should find out about the relevant fee costs. Fees are sometimes high (from roughly $5000/year at a state university such as the University of California to $20 000/year and upwards at private institutions; but the latter typically offer much more financial support to graduate students). Also, many universities charge more for international or out-of-state students. However, attractive foreign or out-of-state applicants are frequently offered a waiver of the extra fee, so that they are liable only for the domestic or in-state tuition fees.

Departmental funding for candidates pursuing a Masters (M.A.) degree is not usually available. If you intend to pursue an M.A. degree, a good place to look for funding is the Fulbright Commission, which promotes UK - U.S. educational exchange.

The total length of a PhD degree in a U.S. university is 5 years, although in practice, the only universities (that I know of) that cut funding or the availability of TA-ships after the fifth year are Princeton and Chicago. If your thesis needs a sixth, seventh or eighth year to complete it, teaching assistantships are generally available, provided you are making satisfactory progress with your work.

It is a fair bet that sending carefully prepared applications to 10 graduate schools of your choice will result in at least one of them admitting you to their PhD programme. The best thing to start with is to spend a lot of time researching the information available on the universities and departments that interest you. The cost of applying to 10 schools tends to amount to $800 – $1000 (roughly £600), so you want to only apply to schools that you would be happy to attend, and that suit your philosophical interests. First and foremost, sending an incomplete or half-hearted application is a waste of time, money and effort – both yours and the institution’s.

You should therefore reserve plenty of time for the application process. It is probably a good idea to start at least 4 months in advance of the deadline dates for applications, which tend to range from 1^st December to 15^th January. Depending on your workload with your current course, you might want to extend this time. I cannot overstress the importance of sending a serious, enthusiastic and carefully prepared application. U.S. graduate schools value their students and their input to the philosophical community, and are keen to get able and hard-working students into their ranks. It matters to them who they choose. Your complete application should communicate that you are a desirable addition to the department.

A complete application usually includes GRE (Graduate Record Examination) test results, academic references, a writing sample, a personal statement, academic transcripts, and an application form + any additional forms required by the graduate school. Applicants whose first language is not English may need to provide TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores as well. In addition, some schools require curriculum vitae. This guide to applying to graduate schools in the U.S. is intended to give you advice and links related to all these parts of the application, and some more besides.

A good place to start your research into prospective departments is the Leiter report. It offers biannually updated information about philosophy departments and major faculty moves in the English-speaking world, with main focus on the U.S. (although there is a curious lack of information on Canadian departments!). You can view breakdowns of programmes by specialties; if your special interest is in philosophy of language, say, you can find out the dozen or so departments with special strengths in that area. There is also an overall ranking, with the philosophical superpower of NYU at the top, followed by the top 25 U.S. departments. Clicking on the name of a university in the overall rankings list will take you straight to the university’s philosophy department homepage. You should carefully research the faculty interests as well as any information on additional application materials that each department may require.

When researching the department websites, you should also find out about the structures of the programmes offered by different departments, as they vary somewhat from department to department. Generally, the first two years of a PhD are coursework-based: students attend graduate level seminar courses and produce papers relating to the course material. After this, PhD students in most programmes must 'Qualify', usually via an examination, sometimes by an extended paper (of something like 10-15,000 words). Success at this stage signals advancement to the thesis stage of your PhD, in which case you will acquire a supervisor and start researching your thesis topic. Failure to qualify is usually compensated for by the award of an M.A. degree.

Some departments also have requirements for logic and/or foreign languages. If there is a language requirement, students have to learn either French, German, Latin or Greek to a level in which they can satisfactorily read philosophical texts written in that language. The logic and language requirements are generally satisfied during the first or second years of graduate school.

Back to the Leiter report. Do read the general information it offers on applying to graduate schools. However, do not take anything the Leiter report says as scripture. The report is useful, if only for the easy links it provides to department homepages, but there is quite a lot of disagreement over how accurate the rankings actually are, and whether they reflect the genuine strengths of departments. If you want to be meticulous, do read the information available on how the rankings are constructed. But even if you don’t do this, at least keep in mind the general caution that the Leiter report is not wholly uncontroversial as a source of information on the strengths of specific departments. For this reason also, it is most important that you research carefully the faculty interests of each department you might apply to.

Many U.S. graduate schools require GRE test results as part of the application. The GRE test is a standardised test designed to measure the abilities of all graduates, regardless of their field, in tasks of general academic nature. It is not an intelligence test. Rather, it is supposed to measure the extent to which undergraduate education has developed your skills in abstract thinking, both verbal and quantitative. In addition, it tests for argumentation skills in topics of general interest (non-specialised topics – you won’t be asked to write about the fluctuating electromagnetic fields in deep space; although if it is relevant to the question at hand, you can).

You can access the website giving detailed information on the GRE tests at www.gre.com. (Go to ‘Test Takers’.) It is important that you register for testing well in advance. In order for the results to reach the institutions you are applying to by their deadline dates, it is recommended that you have taken the test by 1^st October. (This is also advisable so that you can concentrate on getting on with any current coursework you may have!) If you are in the UK, you will probably have to travel to London to take the test. The test costs $110 – $130 to take – a rip-off, I know – and there are several unpleasant things about it that you should know. Actually, there is probably nothing about the test that could be described as pleasant, but don’t worry, it’s not all that horrible either. The GRE test is difficult to do well in if you have not practiced, but on the other hand, you are just about guaranteed to do well if you have practiced a lot. It is best to find out about the (unpleasant) details about the test from the GRE website. However, here is a brief outline of what to expect.

The verbal tests come in 4 different varieties of multiple-choice questions, and two different writing tasks. The multiple-choice questions involve:

• Antonyms (opposites) ß difficult
• Word pairs ß difficult
• Reading comprehension ß easy
• Filling in gaps in a passage ß easy

The Antonym and Word pair tasks are designed to measure both vocabulary and abstract reasoning with semantic relations. In the Antonym task, you will be presented with a word and a choice of four alternative words, one of which is most closely opposite in meaning to the original word. In the Word pair task, you are presented with two words that exemplify a relation, and with four alternatives, one of which most closely exemplifies the same relation. So you’ll have to figure out both what the relation in question is, and which other word pair is an example of that relation. The difficulty in these tasks is not in the actual abstract reasoning; it is in understanding the words involved. The words used in these tasks tend to be rarely used in common parlance or even academic texts, and for this reason practicing these tasks with a dictionary, a book of synonyms and antonyms, and a lot of patience, is necessary (unless you have a vast vocabulary and a lot of confidence).

The two writing tasks are:

• Constructing and presenting an argument (for philosophers: an opinion piece) about a topic of common interest (in 45 minutes)
• Analysing an argument as to its validity and soundness, and presenting counterexamples and objections (in 30 minutes)

The second of these tasks tends to be easy for philosophy students, for obvious reasons. The first, on the other hand, you need to be careful with. Do not try to write an impressive philosophical argument about whether or not the oil industry should be scaled down (or whatever the topic you are hit with), unless you happen to have one in mind already for that particular topic. The task is easier to perform in a non-philosopher mindset. Just show them that you can think about an issue from different perspectives and present an opinion about it clearly. Philosophy graduates tend to get themselves caught up in too much thinking about the topics. Since there is a strict time limit, the best thing to do is to go with a gut reaction and just start writing about that (in a clear and coherent way, of course).

The quantitative tasks involve basic A-level (or equivalent) mathematics and statistics. You can download a booklet from the GRE website that tells you all the things you need to cover for the test. A word of warning: the booklet does indeed cover all the areas you need to master in order to do the test, but the practice tasks in the booklet are somewhat easier than some of the tasks you will encounter in the test. So do make sure you are completely comfortable with all aspects of the maths involved before you go to the test.

There is a downloadable practice test programme on the GRE website. There are two or three complete practice tests on it, plus practice tasks on each question type. It is a good idea to look at some of the practice tasks first to get an idea of what is involved, and then go and do some revision. Don’t do the first practice test until you think you can do fairly well at it. Then do some more revision, and do the second practice test a couple of days before your actual test.

Top graduate schools tend to admit only candidates who scored in the 90^th percentile in their GRE tests. Philosophy students often score higher than students from other fields in the verbal tasks, and lower than natural science students, but higher than students from most other fields, in the quantificational tasks. So, being a philosophy student, you shouldn’t be too worried. However, even if your GRE scores are for some reason disappointing, do not despair. Admissions committees sometimes overlook relatively low scores in an otherwise excellent application, if it is brought to their attention in a covering letter that the GRE scores do not reflect your true standard and philosophical potential (such claims need, of course, be substantiated in the rest of the application, especially in the writing sample). Note also that not all philosophy departments require GRE scores from their applicants. Two prominent examples are MIT and Cornell.

Given that (i) you have your degree results (or at least current transcripts) to send to the graduate schools along with the rest of your application, and (ii) your writing sample communicates much more about your philosophical potential than the GRE test ever could, you might wonder what the point of the GRE test is. The need for such a general test arises largely from the fact that degree examination results are not standardised in the U.S. in the same way as they are here in the UK. In the UK we have external examiners in an attempt to ensure that a 1^st from Oxford means approximately the same thing as a 1^st from London Metropolitan University (even if this attempt is not wholly successful). In the U.S., there is no such system of external examiners. A 2ii from Harvard might be better than a 1^st from South Dakota University, or it might not: the person in South Dakota might be extremely gifted and might have gotten a 1^st from Harvard as well, had he attended Harvard. But South Dakota being a university of somewhat lower academic standard than Harvard, the person who got a 1^st from there might also have gotten a 3i from Harvard for all we know. Since degree results thus fail to differentiate between candidates, admissions committees narrow down the pool of applicants mainly by looking at their GRE scores. Admissions committees do read writing samples and personal statements with extreme care, but only in the case of applicants who have made it past the initial screening. This is why it is important to flag unrepresentative GRE scores in an otherwise good application. Failure to do so may mean that your sparkling writing sample will not be read.

Most graduate schools ask for three academic references. These must be from people who have recently taught, tutored or supervised you. Some schools require you to fill in a reference slip giving the details of your referee, together with the option of waiving your right to see your academic reference later on, should you be admitted. Do sign the waiver. Academic references are supposed to be confidential, and an open reference is as good as no reference. Not signing the waiver looks odd and communicates distrust between you and your referees. If you are confident enough to apply to graduate schools, you should be confident enough that your referees will give you an honest evaluation.

It would be to your advantage if at least one of your referees were a professor. Ask for references from people who you value academically, who are in good standing throughout the academic community, who you get along with well enough, and who know your work to a degree that will allow them to comment on your academic abilities in some depth. The referees themselves should already know approximately what is involved in giving an academic reference, and often the reference slips that you hand in to your referees come with quite specific instructions.

Ask for the references to be returned to you in signed and sealed envelopes, so that you can send them off together with the rest of your application. Sending everything off at the same time minimizes the risk of things getting lost in the mail, and makes processing the applications easier. However, be careful about where you send things. Some graduate schools want the references and writing samples to be sent directly to the department, and the rest of the application elsewhere. Always follow mailing instructions closely.

The usual requirement for U.S. applications is one sample of philosophical writing, 20-25 pages in length (this is c.8000 – 10 000 words). You may have written a dissertation of about this length already, or you may have ideas for extending one of your shorter coursework essays. However, it is a good idea to try and start writing from scratch, even if the theme of your paper is similar to that of your dissertation. This is because your writing skills will have improved since then, and you do not want to restrict your thinking by trying to follow a framework you laid down previously. Indeed, you may find that after about a month or so of working on your writing sample, your views on the topic as well as your writing skills have developed so much as to make it the best option to start re-writing the whole thing again. You should not be afraid to do this. Writing becomes easier the more you do it. If you find yourself staring at the screen scratching your head for a week, there is no chance of you spoiling your paper by starting it all over again.

As with any philosophical paper, write a lot about a little. Your writing sample should be a careful examination of a fairly circumscribed subject. Literature surveys, no matter how erudite, will not convince admissions committees of your philosophical promise. Independently and clearly argued theses will. Ideally a writing sample does two things. First, it shows that the candidate is able to understand, analyse and criticise a relatively demanding philosophical text. Second, and most important, it shows that the candidate is capable of sustained independent philosophical argumentation. Remember, you are applying to graduate schools because you want to do philosophy. So show them that you have enthusiasm and potential for doing it.

Ask someone to read your text and make critical comments. Working on something for a long time makes you blind to errors and gaps in the argument. Give a draft that you are fairly satisfied (or stuck) with to a friend or a helpful lecturer, and take a couple of days off from looking at your paper. When you come back to it and receive comments, you will likely be either unstuck or unsatisfied with what you wrote previously – either way, you will have received an indication of which way to develop the paper.

Some details of practical import:

• No spelling mistakes! Admissions committees do not bother reading the rest of the paper if they find an error in spelling or grammar (or so I have heard). You may become a bit paranoid about checking the text over and over again for missing words and misspellings that escape the computer spellchecker because they are actually another word. I know I did. But try not to overdo it. Get someone else to proof-read your paper.
• Use U.S. spelling for U.S. applications.
• Remember to check each graduate school’s requirements as they may differ slightly. For instance, they may want specific details displayed on the header of each page; usually your name, date of birth and a little piece of information like ‘programme of intent: PhD/Sage School of Philosophy’.

I cannot overstate the importance of the writing sample. Writing 25 pages of your own philosophical stuff may sound daunting, but you are likely to find that a thorough analysis of any interesting philosophical issue fills 25 pages easily enough. Above all, strive for clarity. Make sure that every sentence says what you want it to say, leaving no room for ambiguity. Do not try to impress with dextrous use of language. Be clear about what the aim of the paper is (this should be the point of the very first paragraph), and make sure every paragraph has a clearly identifiable point and role in the argument. Ask a question that clearly pertains to what you wrote before, and proceed straightforwardly to answer it. You must know why you are writing what you are writing at any given stage of the argument; if it might not be obvious to the reader, tell them by including lots of pointers and short recapitulations in the text.

The personal statement is perhaps the most difficult part of your application. Writing about yourself is hard. Writing about yourself in a commending, yet non-boastful way seems near-impossible. But if you are applying for a graduate course, you hopefully think that you are an able candidate. In your personal statement, you should communicate that you have thought about your strengths and weaknesses seriously, and that in view of these strengths and weaknesses, you judge that you are capable of doing philosophy well.

So think about the things that make you an able candidate. Then think about the things that you should really improve on. Try writing about the negative things in a positive light, recognising that they are your weak points, but also implying that you are taking steps (or at least know how) to deal with them. Be honest. And let me add – ‘honest’ in this context means not lying. It is ok to omit mention of every single weakness you might think you have; you don’t want to appear overly insecure. In any case, chances are that the weaknesses you perceive in yourself are not as real as you think. So concentrate on one or two points that you can present in a positive light as challenges you are working on.

There are some guides available in the web for writing personal statements, some of which are quite good, and some of which are atrocious. The samples of personal statements that I came across were almost invariably horrible – too sentimental or flowery, and too long (most personal statements should be approximately 500 words in length – about 2 pages of double-spaced text). There might be some good samples out there as well, but it is perhaps a good idea to try and not work on the basis of someone else’s personal statement anyway. The personal statement should bear a stamp of you on it. Do look at samples if you like, but the best personal statement you can write is one not modelled on anyone else’s thoughts but yours.

Links:

Here is a dreadful personal statement. I hope you’ll agree.

Here is quite a good personal statement, although it is not very engaging.

I’ll leave writing the excellent personal statement up to you, but Here is a good and concise guide that tells you what to do and what to avoid.

Graduate schools sometimes want you to answer certain set questions in your personal statement. Be sure to answer these fully but succinctly. Most admissions committees want to read about the following things:

• Why do you want to do graduate study? What are your academic interests?
• Why is the department in question a good department for you? Why are you a good candidate for that particular department?
• Are there any particular people in the department that you are interested in working with? If so, don’t be afraid to name them. Doing so is a good way of showing that you have thoroughly researched the faculty interests and thought about your suitability for that particular department. (Having said that, don’t start trying to flatter anybody, either the institution or any individual person.)
• How does studying in this department fit in with your long-term plans? How is it a continuation of what you have learned as an undergraduate?

The personal statement should not read like a research proposal. Nor should it read like your life story. Do not write about why you think Scanlon is wrong or about how your mother inspired you to work hard and be humble. Write about what you have been up to philosophically and why, and what you would like (better – intend) to do next. Show your enthusiasm and commitment. The personal statement is the admissions committee’s way to get to know the side of you that will matter to them most – you as an academic person.

Let them know that you are hard working, serious and enthusiastic about philosophy. But do not do this by saying "I am hard working, serious and enthusiastic about philosophy". Instead, make this the message between the lines of your personal statement. You should only actually write sentences with substantive content. A straightforward and informative personal statement that steers clear of platitudes speaks volumes about your commitment and academic personality. Everyone wants to convey that they are enthusiastic, committed and able. You should be the one that stands out of the crowd by conveying these things without actually saying them.

Further, ask yourself these questions:

• Is your academic record exceptional in some way? For example, have you transferred to another university in the middle of your degree? If so, tell them why. If you transferred for personal reasons, do say what these reasons were, but do not go on at length about them. Make a point of presenting the transfer in a positive light with regard to your academic career.
• Have you worked to support yourself financially while studying? Let them know.
• Have you got any special academic achievements, for example, philosophy prizes? Be sure to mention these.

• ‘Personalize’ your statement for each graduate school, or write separate ones. The personal statement is a communication between you and this particular graduate school. The admissions committee wants to feel like you are talking to them. If you have done your research on the departments you are applying to, you should be able to judge the changes you should make to your personal statement when applying to different schools.

Whatever you write, do not repeat information available elsewhere in your application. You don’t want to bore the admissions committee. The personal statement is where you have a free reign to present those aspects of you that are relevant to the application, but that didn’t have a slot reserved for them in the application form.

Some graduate schools prefer to use online applications, whereas some prefer traditional paper applications. It is a good idea to check the preference of the department before using one or another method of application. For example, the graduate school at Cornell has an online application available, but the philosophy department prefers you to download an application form and send it via snailmail.

Whatever method of application you use, you will incur significant costs. Application fees tend to range between $40 and $80 per application, and even if you apply online, you will still have to send your writing sample and other supporting documents in the mail. Reserve at least three weeks for mail delivery to the U.S.; more if you are sending things around Christmas time. There is the option to FedEx-ing your application materials over, which takes only 24 hours, but this is extremely costly (c. £25 per delivery – and yes, I know this because I had to do it).

Check whether you have to send things to two or three different addresses within the school. Make sure the right things go in the right packages. Each school’s application instructions will give details about where to send what. Read these and other information carefully before completing the application.

• It might be a good idea to contact faculty members or other representatives of the department. The application process is highly personalized, and very different from applying for an undergraduate degree. Depending on the department, you might find that you have established email correspondence with some people before even sending away your application. If you correspond with a faculty member, do not get overly informal or chatty. Be friendly, but do not address them using their first name even if they sign their emails with it. It is safer to stick with ‘Dear prof. X’.
• Don’t send anything the application instructions don’t ask for. If sending a CV is optional, and you haven’t got an impressive academic CV conveying information not given in other parts of the application, then don’t send your CV. However, some schools do want to see all applicants’ curriculum vitae. The next section gives advice for undergraduates composing an academic CV. For those already graduated or in graduate education, writing an academic CV is slightly easier.
• Ask for academic transcripts from all of your current or former higher education institutions well in advance. Usually they should reach you in 2-3 weeks. And ask for plenty of copies. Many graduate schools want you to send 2 or even 3 copies with your application.

Composing an academic CV is hard, especially if you are an undergraduate. You have to really scrape the barrel. However, go for a simple layout with clearly divided sections and short, snappy bullet points of information. The difference between the CV of an established academic and an undergraduate should be in the content of sections, not in the form of the CV. The best you can do is to show them you know how to present information about you in a clear way, whatever this information amounts to.

Here is a link to a sample undergrad CV. It is a word document that you can edit if you wish to use the same layout and fill the spaces with your own information.