Hey friends,
I recently graduated from law school, and I have been thinking about going back to school next year for a philosophy PHD. I am looking for advice both spcifically about my prospect of admission and genearlly about the reasonableness of this life decision.
I have an undergrad degree in philosophy. I completed a law degree immediately after. Both universities I attended are somewhat prestigious (e.g., T20 Law School in the world). My grades were decent (~3.8 in undergrad) but nothing special. I don't have any publication, but I would consider myself a strong wrtier and several of my papers--including an undergrad honours thesis--were very well recevied by my professors. I can likely obtain a good reference letter from my law professors, and possibly one from my undergrad thesis advisor. I don't have a GRE score.
My academic interest is a mix of post-colonial theory, critical theory, and legal theories. My specialization in law school and my current job is international and constitutional law, which has some connections to my academic interest.
My questions are the following:
(1) Does my experience in law contribute to a philosophy phd in any way? or is it mostly detrimental that I did law school instead of an MA in philosophy and phil publications?
(2) Assuming I can dedicate the next few months to preparing for my applications (maybe try to get something accepted for publication?), do I have a good chance of getting into a reputable program that could possibly put me on a tenure track? I am willing to take some risks, but I cannot realistically give up my job to pursue this if there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
(3) I am quite out of the loop. Does the discipline as a whole still have interest in the areas of philosophy I want to pursue? I recognize the political reality has changed since I was an undergrad student, particularty in the United States.
Thanks in advance!
