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Find a great program you will love in Philosopy accredited degree programs. Are you interested in Philosophy grad school? Make sure to check out the listings on this page. We have many relationships with many more top schools. Why pursue a graduate degree in Philosophy? Depending on which Philosophy grad school you attend, your experience may be different. Philosophy graduate programs vary. Some programs touch on history, others religion, and others on the evolution of thought itself.
How do our great thinkers puzzle through the concepts of war, emerging technology, sweeping change, life itself? How can you become one of these great thinkers yourself? Successful Philosophy graduate program students can become experts at argumentation and idea analysis. They can make for strong, informed, and debaters. Philosophy graduate program students may come away with backgrounds in logic, metaphysics, and even mathematics. They can become the pillars of ethical thought or political ideology. Throughout their studies, Philosophy graduate program students engage always in thinking, thought, and the exchange of ideas both ancient and new.
Types of Philosophy Graduate Programs PhD Philosophy Programs & Masters Philosophy Programs Considering a? Those who study PhD philosophy programs and earn a PhD in philosophy tend to pursue careers in teaching.
Many PhD philosophy graduates aspire towards careers as University professors themselves. They might then create their own Philosophy PhD program! Considering a? We have many to choose from such as a Master of Arts in Philosophical Studies and Masters of Philosophy. Each of these programs cover various specializations.
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Hi, I am currently a senior in high school. I am trying to look for the best/top philosophy programs for undergraduate students. So far, I think NYU, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Columbia have the best programs. However, I noticed that some philosophy programs are geared towards a more logical perspective, in that the programs concentrate more on the mathematical/scientific side of philosophy.
I am the exact opposite; I would like to study morality, ethics, and epistemology, even religion, of philosophy. Could anyone give me some top colleges that is geared towards moral philosophy than logical philosophy?
You can see specialty ranking breakdowns by department here: I personally would go with NYU as my #1 choice (I'm obviously biased because I came to NYU for philosophy). You have a very interesting mix of schools on your list. Your have Harvard and Yale, but not Princeton? Princeton is one of the 'big boys' of philosophy. The 'big boys' include NYU (1), Oxford (2), Rutgers (3), Princeton (4). Both Harvard and Yale are a step below the four schools mentioned above (in terms of faculty).
Hopkins is definitely an outlier, being 3 tiers lower than NYU or Princeton and 2 tiers lower than Harvard and Yale. Rankings can be seen here. Given your interests, I think Upitt or Michigan or Wisconsin would be the best places for you, they easily are the cream of the crop of ethics and political philosophy in the US, with the exception of NYU and Princeton, although I feel like you wouldn't be getting bang for your buck there and the professors are not nearly as attentive to undergraduates.
Note that, if you're going to do philosophy, you are going to learn logic eventually, it doesn't matter whether you do the most incredibly humanistic, touchy feely philosophy imaginable, it's going to be assigned because you must be capable of making rational argumentation and understanding philosophical research. I wouldn't worry that much though, you'll probably start to like logic once you are introduced to it more and more. I think this (rj's post) is a bit misleading. Leiter himself says that duke, amherst, etc are excellent schools to go to as an undergrad for phil, since if you want to get into a good graduate program, the things they look at are what many other grad schools look at, prestige of institution, grades, etc. If you want to take a very research oriented bent towards philosophy, then the PGR guide is a good guide (that's why I recommend pitt and mich and such). However, if you're aim is just to get a regular phil course and go to grad school in it or anything else, you ought to go with US News. I don't think your intention was to mislead the OP, and I think the PGR should always be posted in a thread requesting help on choosing a phil grad program,.with qualification.
The reason being that the PGR doesn't even claim to be a ranking of the strongest graduate programs, let alone the strongest undergraduate programs. What it claims to rank is the strongest graduate.faculty., as you mention in your own post. This is an important distinction because.faculty.
quality is a ranking based on research, not teaching skill (many faculty at top schools do no teaching at all). An undergraduate at say, rutgers, is actually extremely unlikely to get into a top ranked pgr school (even rutgers itself!) for grad school. Evidence for this can be seen just by going to the website of any top graduate school, you will see most of the grad students hail from places like Harvard, Princeton, Amherst, and the standard US news fodder, that's precisely why Brian Leiter advises that undergraduates just go to top ranked undergrad schools if they want to maximize their chances of getting into grad school.
Listen guys, there is a special place on the Leiter report for undergrad: 'Over the years, many high school students or their parents have contacted me to inquire how to use the Report with respect to choosing an undergraduate institution. The first point to make is that the focus of this Report is on graduate study only: Pittsburgh may have an outstanding philosophy department, but it might make more sense for a good student interested in philosophy to do his or her undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins or Amherst, where student-faculty ratios are more favorable, and where there is a stronger focus on undergraduate education. Many faculty at major departments did not do their undergraduate work at institutions with top-ranked PhD programs.
Masters Program Philosophy
The tenured faculty at Michigan, for example, includes folks who did undergraduate work at Wesleyan, Tulane, Oberlin, and John Carroll, among other places. The tenured faculty at Texas includes folks who did undergraduate work at Missouri, Michigan State, and UVA.
There are eminent philosophers—who have held or now hold tenured posts at top ten departments—who did their undergraduate work at the University of New Mexico, Queens College (New York), and the University of Pittsburgh. It is possible to get good philosophical training in many undergraduate settings.
High school students interested in philosophy would do best to identify schools that have strong reputations for undergraduate education first. Only then, should they look in to the quality of the philosophy department. Some ranked PhD programs have good reputations for undergraduate education, like Princeton, Yale, Brown and Rice, among many others.
Philosophy Department Rankings
The larger universities (like Harvard or Michigan or Texas) tend to offer a more mixed undergraduate experience, largely due to their size. Since much of the teaching at those institutions will be done by graduate students, it pays to go to a school with a strong PhD program, since that will affect the intellectual caliber of teachers you will encounter. Among schools that do not offer the PhD or MA in philosophy, those with the best philosophy faculties would probably include: Amherst College, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, Reed College, University of Vermont, Western Washington University, and Wellesley College. The colleges in the Claremont system (Claremont-McKenna, Pomona etc.) have, collectively, excellent faculty resources for philosophy students as well. Needless to say, many other good liberal arts colleges and universities that only offer a B.A. Have strong philosophy faculties (i.e., faculties doing philosophical work at the research university level) and offer good undergraduate programs.
In general, when looking at the philosophy department of a liberal arts college or university without a graduate program, you should look at two things. (1) Does the department provide regular offerings in the history of philosophy (ancient, modern, Continental), formal logic, value theory (moral and political philosophy), and some combination of metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. You will need courses in most of these areas to be adequately prepared for graduate study, not to mention to get a serious education in philosophy. (2) Where did the faculty earn their PhD?
The majority of the faculty at any good department should have earned PhDs from well-ranked programs (as a rule of thumb, those in the top 50). If significant numbers of faculty earned their PhDs elsewhere, be wary. Some liberal arts colleges, even some very good ones, have philosophy faculties that are now pretty far on the margins of the discipline.
You might also consider contacting the philosophy department at an undergraduate institution you are considering to inquire about where graduates have gone on for PhD study. A school like Reed sends more students on to top PhD programs than most universities with top twenty philosophy departments; that says something important about the quality of the philosophical faculty and curriculum.
Amherst also provides interesting and impressive information about its alumni in academia: see. ' Personally, Reed is just as high on my list with schools like Columbia and U of C for this reason alone. Reed will most likely send more grad students to Harvard than Harvard. Edit: Although, most 'good' programs specialize in analytic, which is far from your 'moral' philosophy. Of course you'll learn it, but you will be analyzing argument after argument.
Also, if you plan on actually becoming a philosopher, good luck studying continental.
Length of the Degree and Financial Aid One of the first important characteristics of a graduate degree is its length. When it comes to Ph.D. Degrees, U.S. Departments have longer curricula (roughly between four and seven years) and usually offer multi-year financial aid packages; other countries have different systems, and it is most common to find three-year Ph.D. Programs (most U.K., French, German, and Spanish institutions are of this sort), some of which offer financial aid.
The can be decisive to most students. The situation of fresh philosophy Ph.D. Graduate is quite different from Law School or Medical School graduates. Even when successfully securing an academic job upon completion of the degree, a fresh philosophy Ph.D. Would struggle to pay a hundred thousand dollars in loans.
For this reason, unless of exceptionally favorable economic conditions, it is recommendable to embark on a graduate only if proper financial aid is secured. For instance, philosophy departments at and have significantly transformed their reputation over the last ten to fifteen years, and in the past few hiring seasons, their graduates were among the most sought out on the market.
Specialty It is, however, important to choose a program that suits the interest of the prospective student. In some cases, relatively more peripheral programs can still constitute the best choice. For instance, for a student interested in phenomenology and religion, Belgium, offers an excellent program; or, offers an excellent choice for philosophy of mathematics. It is essential to end up in a place where the perspective student can intellectually engage on her/his research areas with at least one faculty member – even better if there is a small group of faculties who are interested.
Working Conditions Finally, enrolling into a graduate program means oftentimes to relocate: a new country, a new city, a new apartment, new colleagues await the perspective candidate. It is vital to consider whether the working conditions are suiting for you: can you really thrive in that environment.
Some Departments So, which are the hottest departments? This is a million dollar questions. On the score of what we said above, much depends on the interests and preferences of the applicant. Having said this, it is relatively safe to assert that some departments have had a greater impact than others in disseminating philosophical ideas, influencing citizens in other academic and non-academic institutions.
In no particular order, we shall recall Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, University of Pittsburgh, M.I.T., University of Pennsylvania, U.C.L.A., Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Brown University, University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Cornell University, Yale University, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Notre Dame, Duke University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Ohio State University, University of Rochester, U.C. Irvine, University of Southern California, Syracuse University, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Rice University, Rutgers University, New York University, City University of New York. The Rankings A number of rankings of philosophy departments and graduate programs have been compiled over the past few years.
The most influential is probably the, edited by professor Brian Leiter of University of Chicago. The report, based on the evaluation of three hundred faculty members, contains also a number of useful additional resources for prospective students. More recently, the has aimed at offering an alternative perspective on the strength of the various philosophy departments. This guide has the merit of focusing on a number of areas of research that are not given center stage in Leiter’s guide; o the other hand, the placement record of most of those institutions is not as impressive as the top-ranked institutions in Leiter’s report.
Another ranking that deserves some attention is the, edited by graduate student. Borghini, Andrea. 'How to Choose the Best Philosophy Graduate Program.' ThoughtCo, Oct. 5, 2016, thoughtco.com/best-philosophy-graduate-programs-2670678.
Borghini, Andrea. (2016, October 5).
How to Choose the Best Philosophy Graduate Program. Retrieved from Borghini, Andrea. 'How to Choose the Best Philosophy Graduate Program.'
(accessed February 13, 2018).
Here's a little thing that might help you out. In addition to reading all of this website, you should read the criticisms of its Ph.D. As far as undergraduate work in Phil is concerned, they are right on target. The undergrad area - Here is what it says if people are too lazy to click the link: UNDERGRADUATE STUDY Over the years, many high school students or their parents have contacted me to inquire how to use the Report with respect to choosing an undergraduate institution. The first point to make is that the focus of this Report is on graduate study only: Pittsburgh may have an outstanding philosophy department, but it might make more sense for a good student interested in philosophy to do his or her undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins or Amherst, where student-faculty ratios are more favorable, and where there is a stronger focus on undergraduate education. Many faculty at major departments did not do their undergraduate work at institutions with top-ranked PhD programs. The tenured faculty at Michigan, for example, did undergraduate work at Harvard (2), Swarthmore (2), Wesleyan, Tulane, Oberlin, Amherst, Berkeley, and John Carroll, among other places.
Texas faculty did undergraduate work at Yale (4), Princeton (3), Haverford, Drew, Cal Tech, Missouri, Michigan State, Brown, UVA, and Columbia, among other places. There are eminent philosophers-who have held or now hold tenured posts at top ten departments-who did their undergraduate work at the University of New Mexico, Queens College (New York), and the University of Pittsburgh. It is possible to get good philosophical training in many undergraduate settings. High school students interested in philosophy would do best to identify schools that have strong reputations for undergraduate education first. Only then, should they look in to the quality of the philosophy department. Some ranked PhD programs have good reputations for undergraduate education, like Princeton, Yale, Brown and Rice, among many others.
The larger universities (like Harvard or Michigan or Texas ) tend to offer a more mixed undergraduate experience, largely due to their size. Since much of the teaching at those institutions will be done by graduate students, it pays to go to a school with a strong PhD program, since that will affect the intellectual caliber of teachers you will encounter. Among schools that do not offer the PhD or MA in philosophy, those with the best philosophy faculties would probably include: Amherst College, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, Reed College, University of Vermont, and Wellesley College. But many other good liberal arts colleges and universities that only offer a B.A.
Have strong philosophy faculties as well (i.e., faculties doing philosophical work at the research university level), for example: Barnard College; Bates College; Brandeis University; California State University at Northridge; Colby College; Colgate University; Davidson College; Franklin & Marshall College; Haverford College; Mt. Holyoke College; Iowa State University; Kansas State University; New College (South Florida); North Carolina State University; Oberlin College; Occidental College; Pomona College; Smith College; Southern Methodist University; Swarthmore College; Trinity University (San Antonio); University of Alabama at Birmingham; University of Delaware; University of Massachussetts at Boston; Vassar College; Virginia Commonwealth University; Wesleyan University; Western Washington University; and College of Willliam & Mary, among others. (This list is not exhaustive; see below for how to evaluate other programs.) St. John's College, the 'great books' school at both Annapolis and Santa Fe, offers strong historical coverage of the field, but weaker coverage of contemporary philosophy; still, many St. John's grads do well in admissions to graduate school.
In general, when looking at the philosophy department of a liberal arts college, you should look at two things. (1) Does the department provide regular offerings in the history of philosophy (ancient, modern, Continental), formal logic, value theory (moral and political philosophy), and some combination of metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. You will need courses in most of these areas to be adequately prepared for graduate study, not to mention to get a serious education in philosophy. (2) Where did the faculty earn their PhD? The majority of the faculty at any good department should have earned PhDs from well-ranked programs (as a rule of thumb, those in the top 50). If significant numbers of faculty earned their PhDs elsewhere, be wary. Some liberal arts colleges, even some very good ones, have philosophy faculties that are now pretty far on the margins of the discipline.
You might also consider contacting the philosophy department at an undergraduate institution you are considering to inquire about where graduates have gone on for PhD study. A school like Reed sends more students on to top PhD programs than most universities with top twenty philosophy departments; that says something important about the quality of the philosophical faculty and curriculum. Amherst also provides interesting and impressive information about its alumni in academia: see. The main site - It's a great tool, but not perfect. I agree with mol10e in that you should look at many other things about the schools you might attend before you look into the department which you will probably spend time. Size and location, for instance, will rule out many schools, but some large schools have great philosophy programs and some have poorer ones, and the same is true of small schools. In general, though, at a smaller school or school with a smaller philosophy department, you will receive more personal attention, which is important and might make up for a 'weaker' department, because you might never get a chance to talk to the top profs at a huge and well respected school/department anyway.
Another thread Many fit the bill, but Princeton is historically strong, as are Harvard, UT Austin, Berkeley, Rutgers, NYU, U Pittsburg, U Mich Ann Arbor, U Chicago, Stanford, Columbia, MIT. Many really fit the bill, but it depends on what area of study you are most interested in. In addition, many will allow one to have a well-rounded education, even if they are not particularly strong in a given field.
If you are concerned with graduate study and areas of focus, this list might be most important to you. Notice even UCR is on the list for first in something. Many schools, even those not known for philosophy, will allow you to receive a broad education in general and also in philosophy.