<p>Out of these schools, which one has the most respected anthro, philo, and foreign lang undergrad programs?</p>
<p>UMichigan (deferred)
UChicago (deferred)
Earlham (awaiting decision)
Illinois Wesleyan (accepted) - supposed to have good philosophy
Beloit (accepted) - good school for philosophy?
Wheaton IL (awaiting decision)
Denison (RD) - supposed to have good philosophy
Wooster (awaiting decision)
Grinnell (RD) - supposed to have good languages
Oberlin (RD)
Kenyon (RD)</p>
<p>I think I can narrow it down to three.....:)</p>
<p>The only two schools i’m (vaguely) familiar with and can recommend (for philosophy) are Michigan and Chicago (and i’d recommend them respectively.) Although having a better grad. program doesn’t mean you should always pick one uni. over another. (as in the case with Michigan and Chicago.) Michigan’s grad program for philosophy is also better than Harvard’s. That obviously doesn’t mean you should go there over harvard though. </p>
<p>schools that are strong in (analytic) philosophy are typically also strong in languages since analytic philosophy is strongly focused on language. And luckily, most departments emphasize an analytic curriculum. Realize that if you want to go into academia, you should go into a well respected university since academia is highly superficial. The only other school that’s probably recommendable than the other two i mentioned is Oberlin, but i’m unfamiliar with it or its programs.</p>
<p>Kenyon has very strong languages. When I visited and did an interview, my interviewer was majoring in Greek and Russian and he spoke very highly of his classes and professors. My dad also went there and took Spanish and said the classes are excellent - very immersion-y. You might look up Kenyon’s intensive language model, if you’re interested. REALLY cool. </p>
<p>That said, UChicago and UMich definitely have well-respected programs in just about everything. But Kenyon is a well-rounded little school and is certainly nothing to balk at. I know it has a good religious studies department so I’m assuming there’s quite a bit of overlap into the philosophy department in terms of quality.</p>
<p>Grinnell is extremely strong in both languages and anthropology. I don’t know anything about the philosophy department but I’d assume it’s fine.</p>
<p>i looked at their faculty: it’s TINY; it’s only 6 people. And of those 6, two do religious studies (and probably ethics/theology) and one does cognitive science (and probably phil. of mind)</p>
<p>courses offered look good, but probably not strong enough for someone who wants to go into academia (doesn’t seem strong in logic, phil. of lang. for example, or metaphysics/epistemolgy)</p>
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<p>i looked at their faculty and it does look fairly good. Strong in gender/feminist studies and phil. of mind it seems.</p>
<p>In regards to the overall department, my comments are similar to my concluding remarks on Beloit.</p>
<p>One thing that may be worth mentioning: of the phil faculty at Beloit, one went to Northwestern, one went to Chicago, and one went to Harvard.</p>
<p>Also, what kind of jobs would a PhD in anthro or a PhD in phil lead to? I definitately want to travel…that’s the only thing I can see myself doing in the future…</p>
<p>Size isn’t everything. It is a good idea to study the background of the faculty at a small college to make sure someone shares you’re interest. My son rejected several LACs because he didn’t think it would be a good fit for their history departments. </p>
<p>However, some small colleges have been producing higher number of PhDs in science and engineering proportionally than major research universities. I wouldn’t think it would be that different for non-sciences. </p>
<p>A PhD in philosophy will get you a professorship at a university. Having looked at the placement record of the “big three” in the US for Philosophy - NYU, Rutgers, Princeton (in that order). I would never recommend going anywhere but NYU for Philosophy PhD if you want to be guaranteed a job. NYU’s placement record is phenomenal. Princeton’s… not so much.</p>
<p>That said, the faculty at University of Michigan is leaps and bounds above the faculty at Chicago. For this year, University of Michigan’s median ranking (4.5 out of 5.0) was tied with Rutgers and Princeton and 0.5 lower than NYU (Who scored a 5.0 out of 5.0 for the last… 7 years); while the mean ranking was 0.1 lower than Princeton and 0.2 lower than Rutgers, and 0.5 lower than NYU. Michigan comes just short of making the “big three”. Michigan has, in the past, ranked in the big three, but only because of tie one year. Rankings 4-6 switch-up relatively regularly. Only NYU, Rutgers and Princeton remain stable as being 1, 2, and 3, respectively. </p>
<p>Chicago, on the other hand, comes in at #20 with a mean score of 3.4 and a median score of 3.5. This essentially means that University of Michigan is in a category above Chicago.</p>
<p>But what do these rankings all mean? The rankings were complied by many philosophers who were asked to “Please give your opinion of the attractiveness of the faculty for a prospective student, taking in to account (and weighted as you deem appropriate) the quality of philosophical work and talent on the faculty, the range of areas the faculty covers, and the availability of the faculty over the next few years.” Essentially, the rankings show the talent of the faculty, wherein the higher the ranking, the more world-renonwn philosophers hold professorships at that school. </p>
<p>Does this mean that the faculty at Chicago isn’t good? Of course not, Chicago has some great faculty. They just are not as well-known, published or well thought of as the faculty at Michigan. </p>
<p>Personally, I would choose Michigan if you were looking to study philosophy at the graduate level. Namely because you’ll be learning under more renown faculty - i.e. reading the essays/books of your professors. I personally chose NYU over ivys due to the philosophy department’s faculty, but that’s just me. There won’t be much of any distinguishable difference between the education you receive at Chicago vs. Michigan. The difference will come from what type of questions you/your fellow students ask of your professors - wherein I suspect the faculty at Michigan to be slightly more capable. Also, a letter of recommendation / application to study philosophy at the graduate level would mean more coming from University of Michigan vs. Chicago.</p>
<p>I do plan to go to grad school, and I’d like to go to a respected one so I CAN get a job. However, getting into a respected grad school takes a special undergrad program, I would think…if I major in something like anthro of phil, I hope I don’t get tied down with a family during grad school lol. I shouldn’t, if I plan to graduate undergrad in 4 years. 22 is young!!!</p>
<p>You don’t need a special undergrad program to get into graduate school. For example, just a regular philosophy major can get you into the philosophy PhD program at NYU. In fact, some PhD candidates at NYU didn’t even major in philosophy, but rather, studied strongly related things to philosophy. (I.e. an English major who dealt mainly with philosophical works). However, if you’re interested in something like anthropology of philosophy, by all means, study it. But remember, a degree in anthropology, even if it is anthropology of philosophy, may not qualify as analytic enough to enter a PhD program in philosophy.</p>
<p>I would advise you to worry about the quality of the grad school when you are ready to go to grad school. For undergrad, go to the place you like the most because you will most likely do the best there and doing well in undergrad will out weigh doing avg at a school with great grad faculty. In any event, my son has looked at LACs in the midwest and thought highly of both Oberlin and Kenyon, but I cannot comment on the strength of their philo, lang, or anthro departments (he wants to major in math/physics). The one suggestion I would make for undergrad is to go to a school that requires a senior thesis (know Wooster and Kenyon do, not sure about the others), which will be good prep for grad school and might help you get in.</p>
<p>I just went to the U of Chicago Philosophy Department grad student listing…here is a sampling of some undergraduate degress for their grad students…</p>
<p>BA, Philosophy and Economics,Tel Aviv University
B.A. (2003) and M.Phil. (2006) from the University of Sydney
Hamilton College, B.A., New School for Social Research, M.A
B.A. in Philosophy from Penn State University
BA in philosophy, Wheaton College (IL)
BA (Philosophy, Cognitive Science), Simon Fraser University
B.A. Comparative Literature, Stanford University
B.A. in Philosophy (with highest distinction), Berkeley
University of New Hampshire, B.A. (History and Philosophy)
Gustavus Adolphus College, BA
BA in Philosophy & Classics, UT Austin
B.A., Philosophy and Classics, Loyola University New Orleans
Auburn University</p>
<p>Just shows you the wide variety of majors and schools that all grad programs are filled with. Any of your college choices will serve you well going forward.</p>
<p>In terms of languages, it depends on which one(s) you want to study. Oberlin is much stronger in Asian languages than either Grinnell, Beloit or Kenyon, but doesn’t offer much in the way of Arabic or Hebrew.</p>
<p>Beloit offers intensive eight-week summer programs in Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic, each equivalent to two semesters of study; levels 1 through 4 are offered.</p>
<p>my ‘tiny’ comment wasn’t meant to imply that bigger faculties are better. But in general a larger faculty will be more balanced. </p>
<p>A good faculty in philosophy, at least now, will generally consist of people who are skilled in logic/math/set theory; people who are good at phil. of lang/phil. of mind/metaphysics/epistemology; people who are good at ethics/poitical philosophy; someone who’s good at philosophy of science; and people who are good at various historical parts of philosophy (i.e. ancient/medieval/modern) one might also include analytic philosophy, but most people who teach in analytic philosophy are aware of its history (e.g. Frege/Russell/Wittgenstein.) and someone who does Kant.</p>
<p>None of the tiny departments i looked at were this balanced. Although i’m sure that Chicago and Michigan meet these requirements. And Oberlin might as well.</p>
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<p>Many universities can guarantee ‘jobs.’ It should be noted that of all the people who received their PHDs at NYU, none of them are tenured. (unfortunately, i don’t know which are adjunct or assistants or part-time or tenure track.) NYU most certainly has the top philosophy department right now, but it’s new, and it doesn’t come anywhere close to being as distinguished as the other top departments (e.g. Harvard, UCLA, Princeton, Oxford, and maybe even Cuny.) </p>
<p>i’m not sure about princeton’s job placement records lately but princeton is probably the most influential university in philosophy in terms of producing top professors (e.g. John Rawls, Tyler Burge, and many of the professors at NYU) and has had many of the top professors of the last century associated with it (e.g. Saul Kripke, David Lewis) the only other university that’s even in its league is Harvard, placing a ton of PHD candidates as well.</p>
<p>Not trying to be an elitist here, but Chicago isn’t an elite graduate school in philosophy. At least from it’s history on philosophical gourmet, it’s never broken the top 15. Leiter notes that people getting tenure track jobs have typically been in the top 14 or higher. </p>
<p>This post is dated, but from what i’ve learned by speaking with my professors, it still seems pretty accurate (matters might be even more grim now):</p>
<p>At UCLA, for example, the last two hires have both been from rutgers, which is number 2 in the U.S., and probably the best school in the world for philosophy of language (which UCLA specializes in)</p>
<p>Also, if you notice, most of the people who went to unknown undergraduate schools had to supplement them with an MA. And the ones that didn’t major in philosophy went to well rounded schools like Stanford (and probably had a really high GPA.) </p>
<p>One of the grad. students here at UCLA went to Minnesota State, only got accepted into MA programs, and had to supplement his education with an MA at Brandeis. And, after applying to like 20 grad programs, UCLA was the best one he got accepted into, which is why he came here.</p>
<p>My overall point still stands. I think the only schools that are on the list trusted to give a sufficient education in philosophy will probably be Chicago and Michigan, and maybe Oberlin. Everything else will probably have to be supplemented with an MA at another school.</p>