hector549

I think that this is going to depend greatly on the MA program. At my MA program (not Tufts), almost no one was from an unknown school. Most students had a degree in philosophy from at least a reasonably well-known public or private university, and a number of students had gone to top institutions--both top in terms of PGR and also in terms of overall US News rankings. There were also a few of us who had turned down ranked PhD offers to do the MA first (I was one). There were, of course, some students from relatively unknown schools, and several from non-philosophy backgrounds, but they were t

Different institutions have different requirements for waivers. Some will ask for the FAFSA SAR report, some that you receive SNAP or other benefits, some that you have participated in certain programs, and a few will want your tax returns. For those schools that require the FAFSA SAR, they're going to look at your EFC (expected family contribution). If you're independent on the FAFSA, then your parents' income won't need to be included in the SAR calculation, so you'll likely be eligible since your EFC will be very low. If you're a dependent for tax purposes, though, then I doubt that yo

There are some major problems with this list. U. Penn is "strongly recommended" for studying continental philosophy? Western Michigan, Houston, and Rutgers are "recommended"? These are good programs, but are strongly analytic in orientation. Why are Houston and West Mich listed under the "recommended" PhD program list and then also under the MA program list? These departments only offer the MA, not the PhD, and are fully analytic programs. There are other issues as well. Why is Washington State Pullman listed? They have no grad program in philosophy at all. American U. is listed as a "str

Keep in mind the PGR is a reputational survey, and the subfield rankings roughly reflect things like how many people are working in a particular subfield at a given department, and things like faculty research output. I'm not in metaphysics, but Cody Gilmore is, to my knowledge, a well-known metaphysician. The only dedicated metaphysician at Madison is Alan Sidelle from the looks of things. I'm sure he's a fine scholar as well, but if you look at both their publication histories, Gilmore's is more extensive/has more prestigious pubs/etc. This is probably the reason why Davis is ranked for

I applied there in the past, and I know someone there. I don't know all the in's and out's of the program, but I'd say that it's a good program depending on area of interest. I'd say it's strongest for certain areas of continental philosophy (Hegel, Nietzsche, I think there's someone who does French phenomenology, etc.) and logic/phil. of math, but there are also a bunch of ethics people and a well-known philosopher of mind. They used to be great for pragmatism as well, but their senior scholar in this area (John McDermott) recently passed away. From what I understand, many students at this pr

More recent data from ETS say people intending to study philosophy who take the GRE have a mean verbal score of 159 and quantitative score of 154. What we can infer from that about people who actually apply to grad programs is a different question. A few programs have average scores of accepted applicants on their websites. e.g., Notre Dame, UCSD, Mizzou, and Chicago, to name a few, though it's hard to know how up-to-date this info is. My two cents to @Prob and anyone else: don't sweat the quant score too much. If it's in at least the 50th-60th percentile range, that's sufficient. I certa

Duns Eith has good advice. To add a few thoughts: I think it can be hard sometimes for North American departments to evaluate universities that aren't in the world of Anglophone philosophy. That being said, don't be afraid to apply to a spread of programs. I knew folks from my MA department and at my current PhD program who didn't get their undergrad degree from Anglophone programs. If you're interested in phil of action, apply to FSU, Riverside, Cornell, etc., as well as some places in your sub-field ranked higher on the overall rankings. There are great people at lots of different plac

@Mahdi Ahmadi @CynicismJX I think you folks may want to use links to a Google doc rather than trying to attach files to your posts.

This is important. These pay-to-play programs don't post placement because their purpose isn't to get students into good programs, their purpose is to make money. And their placement is undoubtedly poor as a result. I know several people who went to MAPH who got into PhD programs. This doesn't mean that going there is a good idea. For one thing, it is obscenely expensive. Check out the link; tuition for the one-year program is $60,300. Add another $15-20k to live in Chicago for a year, and you're looking at close to a six-figure investment for a program that doesn't even give you their

A number of the top schools have terminal MA programs. However, these are by and large cash-cow programs. They're used to generate revenue for the department and keep seminar enrollments high. It's not a good idea to go to such programs because the PhD students at such departments get all the faculty attention and department funding. Seminars will also be designed with the training and experience of PhD students in mind. These programs get away with what is, to be candid, a predatory money grab because students will pay the exorbitant tuition, blinded by the Chicago/Stanford/etc. name, no

This board has been getting quieter every year for at least the last few years that I've been using it. I'm not sure exactly why, other than maybe people have been using FB in lieu of these kinds of forum sites. That being said, people inevitably start joining later in the app season when they start stressing about apps, and it'll probably pick up then. Also, a few of us who are more seasoned have stuck around to answer questions, like @Duns Eith@Marcus_Aurelius@maxhgns@Glasperlenspieler etc.

It's not unusual to have some second thoughts about grad school. I think most grad students have some doubts from time to time. Wait at least until your first year is over if you can before you tell your department. Half a semester isn't long enough to sort out how you feel about what you're doing, nor to settle into a new town/department/etc. It's also not unusual for students to change their minds and leave PhD programs with an MA, so don't feel like it's unethical or that you'll be burning bridges by doing so.

I've heard of people making the jump to philosophy with a religion MA. It can be done. That being said: have you taken a reasonable number of philosophy courses? Philosophy-adjacent courses like theology or English aren't necessarily going to mean much to philosophers. Admissions committees are going to want to see some exposure to higher-level courses in philosophy in some breadth, particularly if you're aiming for PhD programs rather than an MA. Relatedly, can you get letters from philosophers? You'll want to do so in order to be most competitive (again, MA programs are a bit more flexible i

One thing to keep in mind with respect to your undergrad transcript is breadth. It sounds like you've already taken plenty of courses in your primary interest (ethics/moral philosophy) and perhaps fewer in other areas, so it might make sense to keep branching out a bit and take another course in an area that is unfamiliar to you (language or perception). This has the advantage of making you more a more well-rounded applicant, and--who knows--you might discover a new interest. Having more options for letter-writers and writing samples is also always good, and in that respect a seminar on langua

Speaking in terms of institutional and program reputation, ASU would be the best. How well that would translate in terms of an online degree program, I'm unsure. However, ASU has some name-recognition in academic philosophy because it has a graduate program in philosophy with some areas of particular strength (though unranked), and more generally is a decent, reasonably well-known large public university. The other schools will not have any such name-recognition. I can't speak to the online aspects of any of these programs, but I would ask you this--why do you want to pursue an online pro