Need Advice: Grad Admissions from non-Phil background

[schmidttg1]

TLDR: I have been working in business the last 8 years. Have been taking online Phil classes for last 2 years and would like to pursue more seriously by applying to terminal MA programs. Current phil dept will not give online students letters of recs. What should I do?

I have been in industry for 8 years post-undergrad (investing business) in US. I took a few (12 credits) philosophy classes in undergrad, while majoring in business, and had always loved them.

Over the last 2 years, I had some pretty significant personal life things happen that made me question the meaning of my work (this work that I had previously thought was my "vocation.").

To do some soul searching, over the last 2 years I have been taking online MA Phil classes. This hobby has blossomed into something I would like to take more seriously, culminating in getting a paper published in a well respected journal. I would like to apply to more serious MA programs to pursue next steps. The difficulty I'm running in to is the Phil Dept of my current program will only supply letters of recommendation if I am an in-person FT student, which I am not.

Any advice on how to get letters of recommendation, or how to approach the application process without recs?

FYI, I also posted this today on Reddit (but haven't gotten any responses), but any and all advice would be welcome.

[mostlygoo]

Not sure how much advice I can give, but I was in a similar spot, applying to Phil programs after many years out of school (in engineering) and without even a Phil undergrad. I ended up taking a few in-person grad classes (as a non-matriculated student) partly to see how much I liked the class environment after being so long away, and partly to try to secure at least one decent rec letter writer. That did happen, but I always knew I would likely need strong non-academic recommendations as well, especially for programs that asked for three letters. (This was last year btw, and I did get accepted into three middle-of-the-road MA programs.)

Others may have more guidance on the relative importance of the letters themselves. But I'll add two more things. I'm good friends with a professor (in another field) who is on the review committee at his school, and his take on it is that the recommendation letters rarely make an impact one way or another. Obvious exceptions are if you have incredibly well-known and well-respected profs writing your letters. But for him they're more of a box to be checked. (Again, different department though.) The other thing I'll add is that if you're applying to a program that does tend to admit "non-traditional" students, and talks about diversity of experience on its website (or directly if you communicate with the DGA before applying), then having at least *some* non-traditional recommendations isn't going to be unexpected. They might even help if you're leaning into your experience outside academia and philosophy.

So my advice would probably depend on your timing. If you want to apply this season, then I'd say your best bet is to try to secure really strong non-academic recommendations from people who can talk about things that actually do matter in graduate school -- critical thinking, collaborative/collegial attitude, insightfulness, creativity and so on. And give the applications a shot, maybe with a supplemental note to explain the lack of academic recs. If that doesn't work, you can see if there's a way to take in-person classes somewhere, *or* reach out to some of these online professors before registering for other classes, and ask about their personal policy. (Maybe there's still a way to get the recommendations you need by asking your recent profs in the right way, but I'd have no idea how to even attempt that.)

Good luck to you!

[eternal]

Agreed with the above. That's strange policy on behalf of your department, but you can try to make do with recommendations from others professors/mentors/peers. I've met people with online degrees who were admitted into MA programs, so it's not out of the question, especially if you've been doing well in your classes. Your main goal should be to have a solid writing sample, and a statement of purpose that explains your situation as well as your aptitude for continued study of philosophy.