Here are a few pictures taken during a hike in the mountains in Tucson.
Archive for March, 2006
I’ve actually been back from Tucson since Tuesday, but things have been crazy busy around here, so I haven’t had a chance to write about the trip until now. The visit was very good. The philosophy dept seems like a very cooperative and stimulating working environment; grad students and faculty interact as colleagues, not as teachers and students. Students and faculty alike were very warm and accommodating. The people who do political philosophy as their primary research area–Tom Christiano and Dave Schmidtz–are doing work that is right in line with my own interests, and both received rave reviews as advisors from students. Arizona has also recently hired two new political philosophers–Jerry Gaus and Connie Rosati–which greatly increases their strength in political philosophy. Before these hires, UA was widely regarded as one of the top 5 places to study political philosophy; after these hires, it may well be the best place to do so. Certainly, I would have numerous faculty to work with, and there is a good size group of students studying political philosophy as well.
My one concern with UA has always been the funding offer. Not that it was bad; it’s just that I have better offers. And I’m not even talking about absolute dollar amount. Arizona is offering $14 600/academic year (9 months) + the opportunity for summer teaching (and funding). This is livable in Tucson. My bigger concern was the lack of non-teaching fellowship years, which I have been offered at UIC and would be offered at Michigan and UNC if admission comes through. Basically, the advantage of fellowship years is that I would have time off of teaching to get my own research done and hopefully publish a few articles before hitting the job market. Well, I negotiated my way to at least two terms without teaching at UA–Dave Schmidtz is offering me a Kendrick Fellowship for one term of my first year and Tom Christiano has told me that he would hire me as a research assistant at some time after my first year, which basically means he would hire me to read and discuss articles with him. Since him and I are interested in similar questions, he would be paying me to do research I am interested in. Also, both Dave and Tom have been successful in helping their students win external fellowships while at Arizona, so this is a good prospect as well. In any case, the funding situation is much improved at Arizona, although still not as good as the other places.
Tucson was kinda cool. The city is actually a 3/4 million person suburb, so it’s really spread out (not cool). But, it is surrounded my mountains (beautiful!) and it’s a quick drive to get out to there for a hike. I did a hike while there and it was awesome–the desert landscape was definitely unique! One unusual thing about Tucson (at least, unusual to me) was the lack of grass on people’s yards–everything was basically sand. Anyway, Tucson is definitely livable–although a little far from home 
I’m off for my final trip on Wed.–to Michigan, then NYC, then Chapel Hill. I’ll return Apr. 5.
Now that we’ve heard some news from every school, here’s a quick round up of where we stand at each place:
Accepted
Arizona: with funding, but not sure about fellowships, etc.
Illinois-Chicago: with two years non-service fellowship and three years teaching assistantship; possibility of additional years of fellowship.
St. Andrews: no funding; declined offer.Wait Listed
Michigan: invited to visit; told I have a ‘good chance’ of eventually getting an offer.
UNC: invited to visit; told I have a ‘good chance’ of eventually getting an offer; have people turning wheels behind the scenes for me.
Maryland: not invited to visit; told I have a distant chance of being offered a funded position.
UCSD: just missed the initial cut; don’t know whether they will be doing an official wait list or not.Rejected
Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Oxford, Penn, Toronto: I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about these; after all, 3 of them are Ivies (Columbia, Cornell, and Penn) and the other 3 are quasi-Ivies as far as their international stature goes.
I’ve visted UIC and am going to Arizona Sunday. After I come back from Arizona, we’ll have a UIC-Arizona head-to-head and discard the loser. Then we’ll ride the winner until the April 15th deadline or until I get off one of the wait lists, whichever comes first. If I get off a waitlist, we’ll have another head-to-head with that school and Arizona, and keep eliminating schools in head-to-head contests until there’s one left standing by the 15th. The last one standing is the winner.
UPDATE (18/03): I guess I unwittingly showed my bias above (‘we’ll have another head-to-head with that school and Arizona’). What I meant to say was, we’ll have another head-to-head with the UIC-Arizona winner and whatever school’s waitlist I get off of. 
I’m back from Chicago. The trip went well. Actually, UIC’s stock has risen as a result of the trip. My meetings with potential advisors—all reputable political philosophers—went well. The students were friendly; the office environment was very collegial. The funding offer is really good. Chicago is a cool city, and would be a fun place to live.
But there remains a concern—job placement record. One of the (very important) consideration in making a decision is what kind of job prospects one will have with a degree from a certain school. By looking at their website, I could tell that UIC grads had trouble competing for the kinds of jobs I aspire to compete for. (I want to eventually end up at a research instution, which means a light teaching load and lots of research time.) My concern was confirmed by my meeting with the placement director at UIC. He flat out told me that my job prospects would be better if I went to any of my other options. Of course, he thinks UIC has its advantages (as do I), but he is realistic about the job market and UIC grads’ job prospects.
I visit Arizona on Sunday. After that visit (next week sometime) we will make a decision between UIC and Arizona—basically rule one out—and then wait to see what happens with the wait list.
Oh by the way, I declined St. Andrews’ offer today because they and I were unable to come up with enough funding to make it feasible to go there.
Penn had told me that all their offers and wait list notifications have gone out, and that I was on neither list. So I’ve heard from every school. However, I could still have more news coming–that is, I could find out that I’m no longer on a few of the several wait lists I’m on. So the waiting is not over yet…
I did a lot of waiting yesterday, so I can’t exactly say my day was eventful, since I wasn’t involved in many events. But my trip to Chicago definitely did not go as planned. To begin with, I had to take an earlier shuttle to Houston then I wanted to. My flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 2.30 pm, but the only shuttle I could get left our place at 5.00 am. So I was going to sit in the airport for about 7 hours. ‘Fine,’ I thought, ‘I’ll do some work.’ Then my flight was delayed 4 hours! Not a crisis, but I ended up sitting at the airport for 11 hours! I finally arrived at O’Hare in Chicago at 9.30 pm. But the train ride from the airport to my host’s place was an hour and a half. So from the time I left our place to the time I got to his place was 18 hours. I could’ve driven here in that time! Ironically, I saw Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for the first time a few weeks ago, and it has been playing on TV quite a bit recently. Why is this ironic? Because the movie is about the misadventures of two guys trying to get… where else? CHICAGO! It must be something about the city…
I did a lot of waiting yesterday, so I can’t exactly say my day was eventful, since I wasn’t involved in many events. But my trip to Chicago definitely did not go as planned. To begin with, I had to take an earlier shuttle to Houston then I wanted to. My flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 2.30 pm, but the only shuttle I could get left our place at 5.00 am. So I was going to sit in the airport for about 7 hours. ‘Fine,’ I thought, ‘I’ll do some work.’ Then my flight was delayed 4 hours! Not a crisis, but I ended up sitting at the airport for 11 hours! I finally arrived at O’Hare in Chicago at 9.30 pm. But the train ride from the airport to my host’s place was an hour and a half. So from the time I left our place to the time I got to his place was 18 hours. I could’ve driven here in that time! Ironically, I saw Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for the first time a few weeks ago, and it has been playing on TV quite a bit recently. Why is this ironic? Because the movie is about the misadventures of two guys trying to get… where else? CHICAGO! It must be something about the city…
I’m playing intramural flag football now. We had our first game yesterday. It was quite fun, but the game wasn’t very long—it only lasted 30 minutes. We lost 19-18 and had a chance with a hail mary at the end but it was intercepted. One major problem (for me) was the fact that I didn’t have cleats. The field was slick because of the dew (we played at 8.15p) and so I couldn’t make any cuts in my running shoes. I will definitely be getting myself a pair of cleats before our next game.
I’m playing intramural flag football now. We had our first game yesterday. It was quite fun, but the game wasn’t very long—it only lasted 30 minutes. We lost 19-18 and had a chance with a hail mary at the end but it was intercepted. One major problem (for me) was the fact that I didn’t have cleats. The field was slick because of the dew (we played at 8.15p) and so I couldn’t make any cuts in my running shoes. I will definitely be getting myself a pair of cleats before our next game.
I have now heard back from Oxford (finally), who officially rejected me. So, there’s only one school left to hear from—UPenn. I have no idea whether they have sent out their offers yet. Apparently some schools are still in the process of determining who they will make offers to. So it is possible that their admissions committee has not yet met.
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