Texas A & M

[UndergradDad]

Anyone familiar with their Phd program? I am guessing it is not that well known but wondering if it is a decent program. 

[hector549]

1 hour ago, UndergradDad said:

Anyone familiar with their Phd program? I am guessing it is not that well known but wondering if it is a decent program. 

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 program work primarily in the continental tradition, though this is by no means universal.

The downsides of the program that I'm aware of would be: placement, funding, location, and the second master's requirement. Placement isn't great, the stipend is small (about $13k) taking into account the cost-of-living for the area, and some people might find the area to be unexciting (College Station is a college town, kind of isolated from major urban areas, , summers are hot and humid, etc). The location wasn't a big deal for me personally, but if you get in, it's something worth thinking about.

A&M also requires that students do a master's in an area outside of philosophy. This is obviously a bunch of extra coursework, could potentially greatly extend your time-to-degree, and when I looked into options for degrees related to my philosophical interests, there weren't really good options. For example, there's no linguistics, German, or psych master's offered at the university. That being said, my understanding is that the students who are doing continental/historical work take care of the requirement with coursework in Early Modern Studies or English. You might also not care so much about the extra time if you haven't yet gotten a master's. For me, though, the better part of two years of extra coursework was not appealing, especially since I had just spent two years getting an MA. In any case, definitely keep that requirement in mind, especially taking into account satisfying it in a way that works with your area of interest.

My two cents:  I would've gone there and dealt with the drawbacks since there are good people there to work with in my areas of interest, but I ended up going with another program that I felt was a better fit for me and had better placement. But if it fits your areas of interest, by all means, apply.

Edited November 28, 2019 by hector549

[Olórin]

I'm torn because my anecdote is snobbish. It was once recommended to me as a good backup for people interested in continental philosophy. I did not apply. And that's my anecdote.

[UndergradDad]

Hector549-thanks for your detailed reply.That was very helpful!

Olorin-no problem and I get it. As Hector 549 noted it sounds like they don’t have a great placement rate so I understand why you would call them a backup.