Well, Don. It really depends on what you want to get out of postgrad, I believe. If you're in it for the fame and glory (or just a good PhD), and are fairly happy working on something "general" (well... it's going to be specific, but not perhaps as much as if you had a specific pet topic from the start), then just apply for the schools you consider to be ranking best, and a few "easier" schools. If, on the other hand, you have a specific topic you really love, then a good course of action will be scrapping whatever rankings you have, and looking for specific professors which you think will help you the most in researching this topic. For example, let's say you're very interested in philosophy of mind, and you're considering applying to US colleges (same applies here, really...), but you don't really know what specific part of philosophy of mind you want to do a PhD on. You have a pretty good idea, but you don't have any specific pet projects. You could probably just work towards a first as an undergraduate, write up some good sample research proposals, and apply to Harvard, Princeton and Stanford and hope for the best. Maybe throw in applications for Berkeley or Santa Clara just to be safe (all of which would probably already have cost you £200... ouch). Then you'd have (arguably) good faculty, a good library, and a place of decent reputation to work in. That sounds like a healthy framework for making a name for yourself, or at least producing a good thesis. But let's say you're very passionate about some specific issues of Philosophy of Mind. You like certain aspects of the debate on dualism, you hold certain views on how intentionality works, you're adamant about a certain account of knowledge/other minds. As a result, you've come to read a lot of a specific philosopher's work, for example Dennett, and would like to work with that philosopher (or if he's dead, someone who shares your views). So in this case, your best course of action would be to disregard university rankings, and apply to Tufts. Although this university is definitely less famous than Harvard or Princeton (it's not bad at all either), you'd probably be a lot more productive and prolific by going there. So I suppose the key issue is finding a balance between a politically pragmatic choice (in that it's a matter of reputation) and a useful one... Of course, if you just happen to be infatuated with the theories of a professor who just so happens to be teaching at Oxford or LSE, than all's for the best. But what I suppose I'm trying to say is, you shouldn't let the reputation of the school you're applying to be your guiding light. Actually, as a philosopher, it'd probably be best if you took what the faculty of a specific school you're considering have to offer in terms of research interests, and how much they correlate with your own. If the local ethics buff is a Kant fan, and you're a bit more in tune with Hume, you're probably making a mistake by blindly applying there. Hope this helps, and best of luck with the application process. - Edward. On 8 Oct 2006, at 08/10/200623:18, D. T. wrote:
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