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<p>Inaccurate posts reflecting negligible thought beg for correction. If you cannot deal with it, then do not beg for disabuse.</p>
<p>...and by the way, you committed a logical fallacy; however, I will not ruin your dreams of philosophical excellence. Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with the basics prior to being placed in a more 'advanced' program.</p>
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he's going to gtown, I think he had 1480 SAT (800 verb, 680 Math). Really low GPA like 2.3~ maybe. I have no idea his college stuff, but transferred into gtown which is very difficult to do.
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<p>1490 (800V690M, 3.92 College GPA)</p>
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Like what? It was my understanding that even 4.0s with outstanding GREs, ug preparation and recs wouldn't have a snowballs chance at PNR type PhD programs without an outstanding sample or published work.
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<p>Though work samples are good indicators, it depends on what your focus is. Philosophers who go into graduate studies know beforehand under whom they would like to work. A coherent and specific goal that is preemptively formulated will contribute significantly to one's chances in graduate school admissions in philosophy. For example, a person applying to MIT for ethics would probably not be admitted because MIT's department is predominantly focused in philosophy of language and linguistics. </p>
<p>Also, I know numerous students with less than perfect GREs and GPAs who were admitted into Harvard's and Yale's programs. Generally, admissions officers and philosophy faculty are looking for students who are congruent with the goals of their philosophy program. My former professor, who attended an unknown Christian school, was chosen above applicants from Harvard, Columbia, and the like because his philosophical and overall beliefs regarding intellectualism fit perfectly. Admissions officers are not only looking for good GPAs, GREs, recommendations, and writing samples, they are looking for an attitude that is agreeable.</p>
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I believe Cornell was 25th on the feeder, which isn't terrible considering they LACs were included. The rank is comparable to its USNews rank (which is probably to low) when you figure in all the additional schools it is competing against. I don't remember seeing Syracuse on the list, but that may be more a reflection of the calibre of the average Syracuse student.
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<p>On that list, Cornell is ranked lower than institutions, which are ranked lower than Cornell in USNews. This includes Rice, Georgetown and so forth, and it is really quite appalling. That is not to say that Cornell is not good at placing students; what I am trying to argue is that you will only encounter a significant advantage if you get into Harvard or Yale. Looking at that list, the lower in rank you go, the more minute the discrepancy of percentages between schools. However, Harvard is quite salient with approximately 20%. </p>
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I have a hard time believing a law school would take a 3.8/170 from Syracuse over a 3.6/170 from Cornell. Then again, you may know more about law school admissions than I.
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<p>There is more to it than that, I think. I do not think a 3.6GPA/170 from a hotel management major would be prefered to a 3.8/170 from a philosophy major at Syracuse. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that Syracuse is a well regarded school. It is not as recognized as Cornell or Harvard or Yale, but at the same time, it is not some random community college. I honestly do not think transferring to Cornell will provide an advantage in law school admissions, and applying for only that purpose is idle at best. </p>
<p>The difference in caliber among philosophy departments is insignificant when taking into account that the poster is an undergraduate. He probably has no focus, and judging from the smattering of research he has displayed, odds are he does not know what Cornell specializes in...
For basic undergraduate training, if the school is respectable, you are fine. If you peruse the examples I provided above, you will see that the most famous professors did not attend Harvard, or any school near that caliber, for their undergraduate studies. </p>
<p>I had a long discussion with a professor at Rice, and he was actually the first to convince me that lower ranked schools on USNews still may have excellent philosophy programs. The example he provided me was UT - Austin, whose program, for graduate studies at least, is much better than Rice's. USNews rankings have a tendency to distort how good a school's philosophy department is. If the poster, and Aika, were seriously concerned about getting into a good department (even though any respectable institution is sufficient for undergraduate studies), they would be considering schools such as NYU and Rutgers, both of which consistently rank higher than Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and especially Cornell. Indeed, Derek Parfit is now visiting at Rutgers! Now who would not want to work under Derek Parfit? </p>
<p>This is inane. Many people claim that they want to go into a 'better philosophy department' without even a smattering of what constitutes a 'good' philosophy department or knowledge of the process. Instead of arguing with me, consulting a philosophy professor may be your next best option. Or... you could live in apathy, which seems to be the general trend on this forum.</p>
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I actually got this link from one of your old posts. And I know it doesn't actually prove anything. But 44 is still a lot more than 1, even when you consider the difference in the size of the schools.
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<p>It is a good general indicator, but I think that, given the enormous student body of Cornell, it would be better to scrutinize their pre-law website and obtain numbers regarding how many applied, and among those, how many were accepted. From Syracuse, it could have been one student accepted out of four (25%), and from Cornell, it could have been 44 students accepted out of 1,000!</p>
<p>I do not know how one could berate Syracuse's philosophy program. They, in fact, host an annual world-renowned continental philosophy conference. If I am not mistaken, even Jacques Derrida attended.</p>
<p>This is not to say that I actually like... that.... other .... philosophy.</p>