Welcome to our biweekly open post about Grad School applications, job hunts, and inside baseball in the profession. This post renews every 14 days. You can find earlier threads here.

We are trying to disentangle such questions from the Open Thread. In this thread, you are encouraged to ask all kinds of questions pertaining to professional development and life as a philosopher.
Questions about applications, job hunt etc. are no longer allowed in the ODT and only allowed in exceptional cases as standalone questions.

Resources for PhD Applications

Here is a list of guides and resources people found helpful in the past.

Word of warning: We generally advise you not to go to grad school unless you are either independently wealthy or can literally not imagine doing anything else with your life. That's because job prospects are terrible. Most PhDs end up as underpaid adjuncts or visiting professors. Professorships are scarce, and there is more luck involved with getting one than anyone would care to admit. For a recent (November 2020) look at the decline of academic jobs available in philosophy see this DailyNous post (and the comments are also instructive). Yes, this warning goes equally for Europeans. If this has not scared you away, read on. If you doubt this word of warning, here is the APA State of the Profession report should be helpful. See also the dailynous article on it.

The following is necessarily North America-centric. Feel free to comment with questions about other locations, too!

Overview of programs:

• The Spreadsheet edited by very kind grad students contains information about deadlines, fees, fee waivers, as well as funding estimates for Masters in North America. Now includes information on which departments don't accept applications this cycle.

"Rankings":

• The Philosophical Gourmet Report aims to be a ranking of English-speaking philosophy departments by reputation. The report should not be the end of your search for possible departments, but it can be a starting point when trying to find the departments strong in areas of interest to you. Please note that this ranking is focused on analytic philosophy; if your main interest is in continental philosophy, look elsewhere.

• The Pluralist's Guide highlights programs for continental philosophy and other areas.

• APDA ranks departments in the English-speaking world according to placement records, survey of current and past grad students, diversity and more. A short version of the "ranking" is on Dailynous

• A look at placement data by department

• Another, more comprehensive placement statistics (which is potentially hard to understand) with a word of caution on cross-atlantic comparisons

Guides to applying:

• Schwitzgiebel's 8-part series is fairly all-encompassing; I've heard some criticism of it at points. Be sure to discuss the content with your advisors. Some caution is necessary because other departments have very different selection processes from UC Riverside.

• Shorter guide by Hillman that outlines mostly the formal documents you need and how to narrow down where to apply.

• If you are in the US, form bonds with philosophy professors early and listen to their advise - but do not be afraid to run what you hear by other professors to make sure it is correct.

• If you are not in the US, the process will likely be rather different than described in the provided links. Please talk to your professors directly about what to expect, and don't forget to inquire what the funding opportunities are.

Other fora:

• The Graduate Applicant Facebook Group has some excellent current grad students providing advice, and are excellent to network with other applicants, talk about your fears and anxieties, and ask fellow applicants to give feedback on your writing sample. Please note that they require a short introductory message.

• Gradcafé has a philosophy forum run by nice people. It also has a page where users can report when they hear back from schools. Personally, I would advice against visiting this page since it will unnecessarily stress you out for all of spring.

Please note that your professors will have great advice, too. Network with them, get close to at least one of them and they'll mentor you as best as possible - plus you'll need letters of reference.

Godspeed, and good luck!