boo on you personal statement.

boo on you.

three guesses as to what i'm trying to do right now.

i tried drinking some wine to facilitate the process. now, i'm afraid i might be sobering up. but... in a last ditch effort i am going to try and write my personal statments (or, at the very least, some thoughts that can be transferred) in blogger because somehow, this is a less intimidating screen than that white, blank appleworks screen. so here goes.

question #1 - why do you have such a shoddy undergraduate gpa, dani? and what changed?

i began my undergrad as a physics major. physics appealed to me in its attempt to answer fundamental questions about the structure of the world. however, while i was intrigued by the questions being raised, the dry, mathematical answers of physics left me wanting more. i was unhappy in physics, but i was unwilling to switch to a 'fluff' major.

by my junior year of college, it was clear that i had to leave the sciences - my lack of interest in my physics classes was manifesting itself in a poor gpa and i was beginning to fear that i would become locked into an unfulfilling careerpath. during my sophomore year i had taken courses in history and philosophy that had piqued my interest, and i began to seriously consider switching majors. one night, after attending daily mass with fr. jenkins (a philosophy professor and the future president of UND), i told him of my dilemma and asked what i should major in. after thinking for a moment, fr. jenkins responded, "philosophy." i replied, "ok," and began filling out the necessary paperwork a few days later.

altough my decision to major in philosophy was made rather capriciously, i have no doubt that it was the correct one. the next three semesters (my last as an undergraduate) were by far the best of my collegiate career. i flourished in my classes and was on the dean's list for each of those last three semesters. since then, i have gone on to pursue a master's degree from wmu. my time at western has increased my knowledge (esp. in contemporary analytic philosophy) and sharpened my skills as a philosopher. i believe that my performance as a masters student at western and during the final semesters at notre dame are indicative of my ability to suceed in a philosophy phd program.

question #2 - why do you want to study philosophy/what do you want to study?

i am interested mainly in ancient greek philosophy. specifically, i want to focus my studies on plato, particularly on his later dialogues (sopist, statesman, theaetetus, etc.). the issues that interest me in these later dialogues are issues dealing with plato's metaphysics and ontology: what is the onotological status of the Forms? how exactly do they relate to (or interact with) sensible things? are there any sort of intermediary objects between Forms and sensible things? these and other questions have motivated me to pursue a phd in ancient philosophy. eventually, i hope to secure a tenure-track position at a university where i can teach and continue to study plato.

ok, i think this is it for now kids. please comment. this is by no means final... i just needed to get some thoughts down... and any feedback you can give me would help. and yeah, i realize it all prolly sounds stuffy. but really... how do you write about yourself without sounding stuffy?