tnkertom

As a graduate of Miami Ohio's MA program myself, I want to second what sarahmagdalene has to say about it, and add some of my own thoughts. First, since they're so hard to get away from in the academic game, here are my states: 3.9 undergrad GPA, 3.9 MA GPA, 1400+ GRE (I only took the test once, at the end of undergrad, and have used the same score every time I applied). My research interests are German Idealism, phenomenology, and psychoanalysis. The first time I applied to PhD programs, I was 0/9, so the next year I applied to MA programs, and got into Miami with a generous funding package. Last spring, I was accepted by 7/14 of the PhD programs I applied to. Miami's program is designed to give students a deep background in the central figures of Continental philosophy, and they do their job extremely well. They are one of the few MA programs that offers full funding to a high proportion of their admitted students, and the professors there are extremely active in their fields (which means well-connected, too). If you're interested in studying Continental philosophy, then it's really a good idea to apply to this program in case you don't make it into a PhD program on the first try. You'll come out of it with a much better chance the next time around, and a wealth of knowledge and experience that I would not be willing to trade for avoiding the trauma of my first round of rejections from PhD programs.

Miami U of Ohio is another good option if you're looking for a strong MA program in philosophy with funding. It's a 2-year, dedicated MA program, so you don't have to compete with PhD students for professors' attention, and they offer pretty generous assistantships combined with a good teacher training program. I was 0/10 the first time I applied to PhD programs, in 2009. Now I'm just finishing up my degree at Miami, and I got 7a/2w/5r in my applications to PhD programs for next fall.