teaching verses reesearch school

[hume4life]

Whats the big difference between these types of schools in the realm of philosophy? And If there is a difference which schools are which?

[rising_star]

What do you mean? If you're applying for graduate programs, they're all going to be research schools, I'd imagine. If you're talking about work environment, at a "teaching school", the emphasis is on teaching undergraduates (maybe a 3-3 or 4-4 teaching load) while at a "research school", it would be a combination of teaching and research (with a 2-2 teaching load).

[hume4life]

I was reading a book on grad schools, can't remember what it was titled and this book gave me these two kinds of schools. The reason why I was asking this question is because I am trying to narrow down my search for schools to apply to. I have already been to the philosophical gourmet, which gives a very good list for philosophy schools and everything that one needs to know for deciding which school choose. My problem is that there are so many that I feel overwhelmed at my choices and cannot seem to narrow them down.

Bit off my original topic but since I just typed this long paragraph I will leave it alone. Then a secondary question which follows the one for which this topic was started is that how am I supposed to narrow down these schools? I am not 100% sure what I want to study in grad school and I am really open to any field of philosophy because I enjoy it all. It seems like I am just choosing schools at random off the top 50 list.

[Tayl0496]

I agree with Rising_Star's comment that if you're applying to graduate school in philosophy then all the schools you are applying to will be research schools. However, when you finish graduate school and apply for jobs, the divide between research and teaching schools will be more relevant. If your goal is to be teaching at a larger research school then certain schools are obviously better than others for placing their graduates in these positions... and as you review placement records -- and leiter's blog has some nice posts about tenure-track hiring this year -- you will notice at least some correlation between the perceived prestige of the department and it's ability to place graduates at larger research institutions.

In regards to your question of how to narrow down schools. While I definitely empathize with your openness to study any field of philosophy, I would really suggest doing some thinking on what a few of the fields are of most interest to you. If you really have absolutely no idea which areas are of most interest to you then I would suggest looking at some M.A. programs to hone in on your interests before going on to the PhD. Obviously, most students do not know exactly what they will end up specializing when they enter PhD programs, but as far as I have been informed... Adcomms want an applicant to communicate at least a general idea of what they would like to study without being set in stone. So, yet again, I would suggest trying to hone in on like 2, 3, or 4 areas that are currently of the most interest to you then looking at the philosophical gourmet's specialty rankings to find the schools that are strong in these areas... go to there websites and read through the professors bios/CV's and see if they seem like they are doing work that is of interest to you and if you could see yourself working with them. Then, try to get a sense for how the department is in areas outside of these 3 or 4 areas that are of most interest to you... just in case you end up completely changing your study during grad school. After you have applied I would suggest actually searching out various articles/books written by the professors at the departments to get a better idea of their work and how you would fit.

As a final note, I would also suggest not taking the gourmet report as being 100% authoritative on which schools are best and which schools you should bother applying to. The gourmet report is not designed without its biases, and is not without its flaws -- although it is a good place to start. For example, if you are interested in studying various figures like Sartre, Heidegger, Derrida, etc. then the gourmet report might not be the best resource. I actually, for various reasons, accepted an offer from an unranked program (although ranked well in my perspective area of specialty and in another area of interest) over offers from 4 different ranked programs. The smaller size and informal feel of the department will give me more one on one time with the professors, better funding/lower cost of living, and actually the placement record was on par with the ranked programs (actually better than 2 of the ranked programs) -- all factors that are not captured by the report. Yet again though, I do not want to undermine the gourmet report's usefulness, I just want to stress it should not be thought of as 100% authoritative. Also remember to apply many places because the admissions to Phd programs in philosophy is quite competitive.

I hope that is at least minimally helpful to you. I know the application process can be quite stressful. Good luck to you.

[thepoorstockinger]

Maybe the book was referencing the difference between types of degrees. i.e. a taught MA program (where you have coursework plus a major paper) vs. some programs which are purely research (i.e. periodic meetings with an advisor, optional lectures and seminars but mostly self directed research).