<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I was recently accepted as a transfer student to UCLA, CAL, and UCSD. I am curious for information from philosophy majors and those that know philosophy majors about how the program is etc. I know it is one of the top Phil programs in the country. I even emailed Brian Leiter and asked him his advice about which school to attend from my three choices and he said "UC Berkeley or UCLA".</p>
<p>Any help or random info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.</p>
<p>Every philosophy major I’ve spoken to has said the major at Berkeley is really difficult.</p>
<p>I have a friend who’s majoring/possibly minoring in Philosophy and she tells me her profs are often gone for conferences everywhere. Just look at the faculty list! Pretty impressive people.</p>
<p>I responded to your post in UCLA’s page.</p>
<p>^ i did as well. The universities are currently equally ranked. even in 06 (the most recent rankings before the current ones) UCLA was # 7 whereas Berkeley was # 12. UCLA’s had a way better department in general.</p>
<p>Since you’re reading Philosophical Gourmet (i assume that’s how you found out about brian leiter) i assume you’re going into academia. It’s worth noting that if you do, you’ll need a STRONG foundation in analytic philosophy since it’s dominant. This doesn’t say that berkeley doesn’t, or can’t, provide that (as i said, they’re ranked equally) but i think UCLA will do a better job of preparing you. That’s just my opinion though, go wherever you can see yourself doing better.</p>
<p>i don’t know if you know what you’re interests are, but i’d say if you’re into Phil. Of Lang, no doubt come to UCLA; If you’re into Phil. Of Mind, go to berkeley. I’m personally way more into Phil. Of Lang. than Phil. Of Mind but that’s just me.</p>
<p>as i’ve noted earlier, the department has extremely prestigious philosophers and has had many associated with it. They even have their own wiki page just for the professors of philosophy associated with the department:</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCLA_Department_of_Philosophy[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCLA_Department_of_Philosophy</a></p>
<p>but i’ll give you a quick rundown of some famous people:</p>
<p>current staff:</p>
<p>Barbara Herman (studied under John Rawls)
David Kaplan (studied under Carnap, who was a very famous student of Frege)
Tyler Burge (super famous Phil. Of Mind philosopher)
Donald Martin (very famous logician and set theorist)</p>
<p>associated staff:
Saul Kripke (The most famous philosopher alive today)
Bertrand Russel (one of the founders of analytic phil.)
Kit Fine (famous logician who taught at UCLA for nine years before eventually coming to NYU [top program in the country for phil.]
David Lewis (super famous metaphysician)</p>
<p>Doctoral Students:
Hilary Putnam (very famous philosopher who left harvard to get his PHD at UCLA)</p>
<p>i don’t know if berkeley has a comparable list, but as i said, UCLA is very prestigious for philosophy.</p>
<p>Good luck on your decision!</p>
<p>@ BeyPhy</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the help and time you put into that post. It definitely helped. My main interests are in political philosophy, ethics, and philosophy of science but it seems both schools are strong in this aspect.</p>
<p>Again, thank you for the help.</p>