Following up on yesterday's post, a commenter there reported the following statistics: "Yale had 580 applications, NYU had 450, Rutgers had 350, all for 9-10 admits. MIT purportedly had almost 500 applications--while having 300ish in the past--for 8 admits." That is consistent with the anecdotal reports I have heard from elsewhere, also "top 10" programs. Notre Dame, a top 15 but not top 10 program, reported a 21% increase in applications.
What is going on? Philosophy departments are closing left and right, tenured faculty are being axed, this doesn't seem an obvious time for a huge explosion of interest in graduate study of philosophy. One possibility is that the difficult job market is leading more students to target the top programs, which have had and continue to have the best outcomes for graduates (i.e., not simply tenure-track jobs but tenure-track jobs at schools less likely to axe their philosophy programs--e.g., major research universities, elite liberal arts colleges). Some data on applications at PhD programs outside the top 25 or 30 might shed light on this hypothesis. Another possibility is that there is pent up demand for spots in PhD programs in the wake of the pandemic, when many students had their studies disrupted and some programs stopped accepting students.
Faculty involved in admissions can post without their name, but please use a real email address, which will not appear. Students may also post anonymously, but please use a real email address as well.
UPDATE: Over night, some comments were submitted to yesterday's thread that bear on the question raised here; for example:
Got an offer from two top 5 programs (PGR). Beyond what has been mentioned above, I personally see three reasons:
1. Many top programs got rid of GRE's as a requirement. I didn't do those either, and it was a major reason why I applied to US programs in the first place. I still think it was a mistake to get rid of them. (Yes, this has already been so when Covid was around, but also... Covid was around. So you'd expect much less applications then)
2. MUCH more anecdotal: My sense lately has been that many people have been expressing a growing appreciation for rigorous philosophy; feminist and trans issues, scepticism against science, conspiracy theories, certain geopolitical happenings; basically the topics people constantly talk about, are highly philosophical, and my personal experience was that from journalists over scientists even to my parents, people have been appreciating philosophy as a field much more. I'm wondering if you had similar experiences.
3. Perhaps the supreme court decision against certain forms of affirmative action motivated a lot of additional students to take their shot. I don't think this is too plausible, but reality is often counterintuitive. Only the numbers could tell. I can also personally say that two years ago, I was very sceptical to apply because of many DEI related issues. Those worries have reduced massively since. But maybe that's an internal development, not an external one.
It would be interesting to hear from others about what role, if any, these kinds of considerations played.
