top philosophy program interrogation list

[MorganFreemanlives]

Alright, it seems my idea of listing all the top departments and listing qualities like 1.atmosphere 2. particular niches 3. informal info not otherwise available and so on seems desired by a few of you so im starting this post

 

i will list the top 50 programs and you guys add commentary on whichever universities you are acquainted with. i will add the information to the list myself but if you can try to make it copy/paste friendly for me that will make my life easier. i will start with just top 50 in the gourmet but will expand to canada, and UK/australia as times passes by

 

please keep information either factual or if anecdotal make sure its true direct or close to direct acquaintance and up-to-date. some pro and cos would also be welcome but nothing too overly harsh in name of fairness.

 

 1           New York University

2             Rutgers University , New Brunswick

3             Princeton University

4             University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

5             Harvard University

               University of Pittsburgh

7             Massachusetts Institute of Technology

               Yale University

9             Stanford University

               University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

11           Columbia University (incl. Barnard)

               University of California, Los Angeles

               University of Southern California

14           City University of New York Graduate Center

               Cornell University

               University of Arizona

               University of California, Berkeley

18           University of Notre Dame

19           Brown University

20           University of Chicago

               University of Texas, Austin

22           University of California, San Diego

               University of Wisconsin, Madison

24           Duke University

               Indiana University, Bloomington

               Ohio State University

               University of Colorado, Boulder

               University of Massachussetts, Amherst

29           University of California, Irvine

               University of Pennsylvania

31           Northwestern University

               University of California, Riverside

               University of Maryland, College Park

               University of Miami

               Washington University in St. Louis

36           Georgetown University

37           Johns Hopkins University

               Syracuse University

               University of Virginia

40           Carnegie-Mellon University

               University of California, Santa Barbara

               University of Illinois, Chicago

43           University of Washington, Seattle

44           Boston University

               Florida State University

               Rice University

               University of California, Davis

               University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul

               University of Rochester

50           University of Connecticut, Storrs

               University of Missouri, Columbia

[NathanKellen]

So I can offer basically any info requested about UConn. You can ask here or send me an email at nathan.kellen@gmail.com.

For what it's worth, I think UConn has a great philosophical community with strong connections to other departments and an extremely active graduate community.

[MorganFreemanlives]

 the point of this post  is to make this information accessible for everyone to make judgements accordingly. i understand the need to not look like you are thrash talking your department, so only mentioning the positives you recognize is totally acceptable too.

 

the other reason i think this is important i because unlike information shared privately, other members can concur, offer an alternative opinion and we get a more comprehensive take on each place

[NathanKellen]

 the point of this post  is to make this information accessible for everyone to make judgements accordingly. i understand the need to not look like you are thrash talking your department, so only mentioning the positives you recognize is totally acceptable too.

 

the other reason i think this is important i because unlike information shared privately, other members can concur, offer an alternative opinion and we get a more comprehensive take on each place

That's right, and I totally agree with that. But I also don't want to be that guy who sits here advertising stuff that no one wants to read, so I figured I'd be more passive.

 

But I'll give a quick spiel:

 

As far as UConn's community goes, I think we're a great place. We have a growing department of excellent people, including lots of young, energetic researchers. We have lots of events, including: an interdepartmental Logic Group (primarily with maths and linguistics), an excellent CogSci program, Dorit Bar-On's NSF funded research group on Expression, Communication, and the Origins of Meaning (ECOM) and half a dozen or more reading and research groups each semester (this semester for reading groups: Kevin Scharp's Replacing Truth, Ruth Millikan's new book draft, homotopy type theory, medieval philosophy, ethics and Wittgenstein). Students are very keen to work together and help each other with research, and we have plenty of ways to do that, including a mini-conference with 12 speakers this upcoming Saturday, as well as running series during the semester.

 

The downsides to UConn are there, but not related to philosophy at all in my opinion. They have to do with our outrageous fees ($1200 a semester) and living in Storrs, which isn't for everyone. But most of us sacrifice something, and as far as sacrifices go these are pretty acceptable.

[Kantianisms]

How is UConn for ethics and political philosophy?

Also, could you elaborate on the downsides of Storrs?

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

UMass: strong faculty in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, gender studies and epistemology. Has almost no resources unfortunately. No air conditioning or TV or stuff like that. Tiny library. You should see how crappy our building is. :<

 

But we're moving in 2016 I think.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Chiki

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

Oh, we're also much stronger in philosophy of language recently. We have our own Frege expert, Kevin, along with others proficient in philosophy of language and logic.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Chiki

[NathanKellen]

How is UConn for ethics and political philosophy?

Also, could you elaborate on the downsides of Storrs?

Yup, can do!

 

As far as ethics and political philosophy go we're a burgeoning department. We have 4 faculty that primarily work in those areas, two senior and three junior: Paul Bloomfield (senior), Lewis Gordon (senior) and Hallie Liberto, Suzy Killmister and Daniel Silvermint. I quite like all four people and think they do a lot of good work. Paul works primarily in metaethics, defending moral realism and virtue ethics sympathetic accounts. Lewis' work is quite well known in the continental tradition and he's the leading figure in Africana existentialism, but his work is also in social and political philosophy as a whole. Hallie is now working on a new theory of promising which she is getting a lot of attention for - she's currently on a prestigious fellowship year at Princeton's Center for Human Value for that work. Suzy works on autonomy and political philosophy and has a cross-appointment with UConn's famous Human Rights Center.  Daniel works on oppression and well-being and is also a cross-appointment, this time with Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

 

All five people are quite keen on working with students and very active in the department. We just started a new draft workshop group in moral and political philosophy for grads and faculty and have a longstanding ethics reading group as well. In addition to these the department has an "Injustice League" Lecture Series which brings together people working on non-ideal theory in moral and political philosophy. ILLS has several speakers a year as well as an annual workshop; this year's topic is 'Dominating Speech' with Ishani Maitra and Jason Stanley headlining. You can learn more here: http://philevents.org/event/show/15122.

 

As to Storrs - it's quite rural and very small. There's not much to do which is good in the sense that you can get a lot of work done, but there's no nightlife to speak of. Most people move to nearby towns, e.g. Willimantic, which have their own set of problems (being further from school, being a bit shadier, etc.).

[MorganFreemanlives]

this is a pretty good start, i will prob wait till friday to pu all the info we have up but i will try to put up something at the moment.

 

i love the info we have gotten but for all subsequent posters, please put a very short 2-4 sentence long concise summary of all you had to say at the end of your post  so i can just copy and paste to the list. that way i dont have to nitpick what gets to go in the pragmatically limited space for each school and what doesnt. it also would save me lots of time and effort.

Edited August 27, 2014 by HegelHatingHegelian

[overoverover]

I don't feel comfortable giving out a public pros and cons list about my current program, but I do want to say that if anyone has questions about Boston University they're free to PM me.

[Gnothi_Seauton]

UNC is a really exciting place to do philosophy.  There's always a lot going on.  The department brings in cool speakers at least once per month.  In addition, every October, the department hosts the Chapel Hill Philosophy Colloquium, which is a weekend-long event bringing in about 5 philosophers from around the country to give talks.  I don't remember everyone on the list this year, but that info is available online.  In addition, Geoff Sayre-McCord and Simon Blackburn run a metaethics workshop each December.  Again, I don't remember all the participants this year, but I think Russ Shafer-Landau, Jamie Dreier, and Jonathan Dancy are among them.  

 

The environment in the department is quite collegial.  The faculty members are always around and happy to chat with grad students.  The courses themselves are, so far anyway, quite good.  One really cool feature is that each Fall, the department runs what's called a "Summa Seminar," which is a class on some topic of contemporary interest.  It brings in speakers to talk about their latest work on the issues raised in class.  Geoff and Simon are currently running one of these things and three people (one each from Pitt, Princeton, and NYU) are coming in to talk about their work in metaethics.  Alan Nelson ran one on Kant and Locke last year.  It's a cool opportunity to meet people in other departments.

 

There are several reading groups at any one point.  I think Alan Nelson is currently running one on Hume's Treatise.  Tom Hill is going to start one soon on the topic of his APA Presidential Address.  That should be fun.  I think Marc Lange ran one over the summer.

 

The grad students are very friendly.  My cohort is already pretty close, which is really nice.  I don't get the sense that the environment is competitive.  

 

As far a "niches," I would say anyone interested in moral philosophy, metaphysics, early modern, and general philosophy of science would do especially well coming here, but Chapel Hill's placement has been pretty strong across most major areas.  I would not apply here or attend if you have serious research interests in Continental.  No one in the department really does Continental and topics in Continental are taught very infrequently.  I think there was a Hegel seminar a year or two ago, but I don't know of another example of a vaguely Continental topic being taught.  

[NathanKellen]

As an attendee of UNC Jr (UConn having recruited Bill Lycan half time plus Keith Simmons and Dorit Bar-On) I can also attest to UNC being a good program, even despite their losses. Hiring Gillian Russell was a great move and although it isn't quite the philosophy of language/logic powerhouse it used to be I'm sure that students would still be well served by applying there.

[MorganFreemanlives]

UPDATE

 

at someone' s brilliant suggestion and my  stupidity of not realizing that i cant edit the first spot lol. i made a public google doc were we can all post to the list anonymously (pfft chickens). this way, cons can be expressed without suspecting the philosophy NSA will track down your ip adresses and write you a bad letter for critiquing their faculty lounge and lack of aethetics courses.

 

link will  be posted shortly.

Edited August 28, 2014 by HegelHatingHegelian

[MorganFreemanlives]

here it is. please dont abuse the anonymity.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y4gSAHp68oPDVvux5piIe_bVkwPEnJtjjjM-0L3Qibk/edit?usp=sharing

[overoverover]

Well, looks like people are responding well now that it's a Google Doc. Excellent!

[Kantianisms]

Arizona is one of the schools I am considering. Somebody mentioned that placement is poor. Could that be elaborated on? Is that a symptom of the program? If so, what may be the cause? Is it that Arizona is such an awesome state that nobody wants to leave and are willing to take lower prestige jobs? Or does the program truly not prepare students well for the job market? Is it similar for most advisors, or do some advisors have better placement records?

[overoverover]

Arizona is one of the schools I am considering. Somebody mentioned that placement is poor. Could that be elaborated on? Is that a symptom of the program? If so, what may be the cause? Is it that Arizona is such an awesome state that nobody wants to leave and are willing to take lower prestige jobs? Or does the program truly not prepare students well for the job market? Is it similar for most advisors, or do some advisors have better placement records?

Just did some googling and found this: http://philosophy.arizona.edu/node/560

Looks like Arizona has decent placement, but not always at research institutions. Fair amount of visiting lecturers (but that's common these days). Then again, some of their graduates seem to be teaching at places like Georgetown and Monash—both good!

I think it's important to remember that this document is basically all anecdote. It has to be taken with a grain of salt. 

[MattDest]

Arizona is one of the schools I am considering. Somebody mentioned that placement is poor. Could that be elaborated on? Is that a symptom of the program? If so, what may be the cause? Is it that Arizona is such an awesome state that nobody wants to leave and are willing to take lower prestige jobs? Or does the program truly not prepare students well for the job market? Is it similar for most advisors, or do some advisors have better placement records?

 

I'm just starting the program, but all of the evidence I have so far indicates that the students are more than prepared for the job market. The climate here is absolutely amazing. I've been in a lot of different department atmospheres, and this is one of the most friendly places I've been. 

[ungerdrag]

If anyone has any questions about MIT, I'd be happy to answer them! For what it's worth, I think everyone who gets in there should go, unless they have unusually good reasons to prefer somewhere else. (E.g., they want to work on Plato.) I've heard plenty of other philosophers express the same opinion -- even philosophers at other top departments.

Edited September 10, 2014 by ungerdrag

[MorganFreemanlives]

hey underdrag, since you have insider information from MIT, do you have any information on why MIT  changed back to requiring GRE by any chance? i will be curious to know their reasoning.

[ungerdrag]

That's a great question, HHH. I never asked, but I can ask someone this weekend at the department retreat and get back to you.

[MorganFreemanlives]

That's a great question, HHH. I never asked, but I can ask someone this weekend at the department retreat and get back to you.

i will be very grateful if you can find out.

[MorganFreemanlives]

jut an update folks. we have been doing quite well but we still have a significant amount of universities with no entry. please help out with some of entries.

[ungerdrag]

hey underdrag, since you have insider information from MIT, do you have any information on why MIT  changed back to requiring GRE by any chance? i will be curious to know their reasoning.

 

Okay, this is an absurdly late response, but I finally remembered to ask someone the other day. It looks like it was pressure from the administration that did it.

[PreciselyTerrified]

I'm at Rutgers right now. I love, love, love it. We have some of the most brilliant, kind people I've ever met. It's a really strong and positive community. There are times when everyone on the floor must be stressed out beyond belief, yet people still manage to be supportive and fun to be around. Another nice thing about Rutgers is that the department is so big, you're bound to find people you mesh well with, and if there are people you don't mesh so well with, you don't have to be stuck dealing with them all the time. But I want to reemphasize that the people are great.