<p>Two things about Philosophy PhD’s:</p>
<p>1) They are some of the most notoriously hard to get into, even at third tier schools. I think the only area that is consistently harder is Clinical Psychology.</p>
<p>2) Admissions depend little on quantitative factors such as grades or GRE scores. The person who wrote the above story about his/her rejection experiences said something to the effect of “I had above average GRE scores and almost all “A’s” in undergrad.” That is great if you are applying for hard sciences, but it doesn’t mean much when applying for a Philosophy PhD. I am fairly sure she would have gotten in on one of the three tries if she had letters of recommendation saying “This student is extremely smart” rather than “This student got alot of A’s.”</p>
<p>PhD’s are always hard to get into, with hundreds of qualified applicants applying for very few spots. How some people still find a way to say “How on EARTH did I not get in?” shocks me. PhD’s are NOT masters programs–you don’t just show up with solid grades and good LOR’s and get accepted. Very qualified people get rejected from PhD programs all the time, especially Philosophy PhD’s.</p>