admissions for Philosophy PHD program

Graduate School
1

<p>Anyone know anything about the admissions process for philosophy phd programs? From what I know GPA and grades in philosophy play a large role in this.</p>

<ul>
<li>I was wondering if anyone would know how intently the admissions committee’s would focus on the difficulty of philosophy classes taken.
-Particularly I was wondering if they could do this by looking at course levels.
-And for that matter are course levels universal? Some colleges will have 100 signifying intro level, then 200 then 300; but from what I understand a lot of colleges attribute random numbers or a different system. So perhaps schools can’t go by this.
-and if they do go by this, is it pretty much the case that 100 level means intro.</li>
</ul>

<p>I’m questioning whether to take a 100 level class in philosophy in my senior year in order to get another A in philosophy. But if an admissions committee would necessarily view this as a student taking a very easy class then obviously I might rethink this. I wonder if they could make that assumption though because the course is intro to political philosophy which is a distinct subset of philosophy which isn't offered in an upper level class. If such a situation happens often then perhaps they understand that and are hesitant to attempt to distinguish difficulty of classes.</p>

2

<p>Take the course. You’re analyzing this way too much. If political philosophy is interesting to you, don’t you think the intro course would be a good place to start? Also, course numbers are not universal, which is why your transcript will have course titles.</p>

3

<p>It seems that course numbers aren’t universal. but then again everyone would understand the 100,200, 300 system right? so if it were clear that’s how a certain college did it, then it seems like they would be able to make a pretty good guess how hard the class was.</p>

<p>ultimately it boils down to:

  1. do these committees make any assumption on difficulty of classes?
    typically 100 level classes are viewed as first year classes so it could look odd.
  2. would there likely be a certain number of easy classes that would be tolerated?
    If this were my second one i’m guessing it’d be ok
  3. would the timing matter?
    while it’s my second 100 level class. it will be in the senior year, which would be unusual. so maybe i’d be better off taking something else.</p>
4

<p>I second Neurograd. Take what you want. Obviously, a schedule chock full of introductory courses won’t do; however, one intro course, in an area related to what you wish to research, is fine. It won’t look strange at all.</p>

5

<p>As long as you’re not just taking it because it’s easy. Grad schools are less GPA and GRE-focused than one might think; they rely a LOT on recommendations and on previous work. If you’re balancing that easy class out with 4 tough ones, no big. But if you look like one of those kids who graduated with a 4.0 because you took easy classes all the way through (which is admittedly tough to do with a philosophy major at a good college), that’s bad.</p>