philstudent1991

Philosophy can be a good preparation for many kinds of things, but not a direct preparation for anything in particular besides graduate study and perhaps law. One option would be a university press. They definitely appreciate the writing and critical reasoning skills developed by philosophers, and as a philosophy major I presume you appreciate the written word. If so, check out the American Association of University Presses website for job postings. The tech sector needs people with hard skills in coding of course, but they also need support personnel who are personable and can learn quickly. Philosophers often have a knack for learning, and those jobs can have good pay and growth opportunities. University administration also tends not to discriminate by major. Check the postings at your school, especially in entry level postings in your college or in general offices like undergraduate admissions or scholarships and financial aid. Technical writing can also be a skill philosophers excel in. But anyway, philosophy is not a good major for getting a job. It does have the highest LSAT scores of any major, and also enjoys very high GRE scores. It's very much an academic program rather than a job prep major, for better or worse. Good luck in your job hunt!

Yep, agreed with all this. I've never known someone who did 30. 15-20 though, sure.

Hey y'all, Good luck! I have an MA from a top program, applied to PhDs, got an offer but declined it to leave Philosophy. Feel free to PM me if you wanna talk about admissions, MA programs or the job market.

Pursuing a graduate degree in Philosophy is indefensible literally the only reason is that it is important to you personally.

Yep, apply to some great PhDs and apply to the great funded MAs (GSU, UWM, NIU, VA Tech, Houston and a few others). Be aware that at the strong MA programs, their students have a wide range of outcomes. Some students go to top 25 schools; some become baristas. I don't mean that disparagingly, it's just the truth. So take the placement for what it is and don't assume you'll be most like the best placements rather than the worst. Admissions is random, and being a fantastic applicant is a necessary but far from sufficient condition for admission.

Absolutely don't retake. Philosophy PhD and MA programs do not care about the GRE. Most would stop requiring it if the universities allowed them to. If verbal isn't 160+ and you aren't international, maybe, possibly then.

To get up to speed you'll want to look at Kant, Mill and Hume in terms of the classic canon, and maybe Nietzsche, Ayer, Mackie, Street, Singer for more contemporary treatments and the major critical movements.

Yes, I agree that the terminal MA is the way to go. Strong PhDs rarely admit anyone to their MA programs, and someone with your background is a better fit for an MA. But even so, you will need some philosophy coursework on your transcript. Auditing classes in Boston would be a great way to do this.

Headed to UConn!

Anyone planning on declining UMass?

I think that making more offers than one has room for makes sense, and then waitlisting. If you want 6, you could admit just six and waitlist the rest and run the risk of most of those six sitting on their offers and holding up everything. Or, admit like 15. You will almost certainly get more commitments more quickly and not have the same level of madness on April 15. The one downside is that more than you expect commit...but programs can be pretty confident about what their yield will be based on past years. But yes, this is bad news for waitlistees. You might think that for every declined offer one waitlistee will get a spot, but this might not be true. It might mean, as it sounds like is more like your case, that they made a bunch of offers and only if their yield is much lower than expected will they turn to the waitlist. But maybe I'm wrong! Good luck!

I hear good things about NIU, but I'm not really qualified to comment. It looks like NIU and GSU are on another level than CSU and SFSU in terms of placement. Apparently no one applied out from Colorado State last year, for example. So if that's important to you I gather GSU and NIU are better environments for that.

Don't do an MA unless they offer full tuition remission plus stipend. And I wouldn't go to a new MA program. Your interests don't look like a perfect match with GSU, but there are def folks there you could work with, and they have good placement, and they are funded, so that looks like your best bet out of those three.

That's just not compatible with the data.

Good GRE scores will never hurt you, but even perfect ones won't save you if you don't have pedigree.