Best Philosophy Dept.?

<p>What do philosophy majors typically do career wise?</p>

<p>They usually become jedis... However, others pursue carears in law; medicine; the sciences; and pretty much everything else. Keep in mind, though, one that majors in Philosophy must go onto graduate school to become successful. May the force be with you.</p>

<p>NO, one that majors in philosophy must not go on to grad school to be successful. However, in general, to do something with major xyz you must go onto graduate study, be it psychology, philosophy, or english. Plenty of people are successful without graduating college, some with only a bachelors, some with an additional doctorate, some with an additional J.D., . . . the list goes on. </p>

<p>My point is that if you want to do something relating to your field of major or concentration, chances are you have to go to grad school.</p>

<p>Here it is for undergrad study, which is what you guys are probably talking about </p>

<p>From the Philisophical Gourmet Report</p>

<p>BTW, if you're interested in grad program rankings, read them ALONG WITH criticisms of methodology. Enjoy</p>

<p>"UNDERGRADUATE STUDY </p>

<p>Over the years, many high school students or their parents have contacted me to inquire how to use the Report with respect to choosing an undergraduate institution. The first point to make is that the focus of this Report is on graduate study only: Pittsburgh may have an outstanding philosophy department, but it might make more sense for a good student interested in philosophy to do his or her undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins or Amherst, where student-faculty ratios are more favorable, and where there is a stronger focus on undergraduate education. Many faculty at major departments did not do their undergraduate work at institutions with top-ranked PhD programs. The tenured faculty at Michigan , for example, did undergraduate work at Harvard (2), Swarthmore (2), Wesleyan, Tulane, Oberlin, Amherst, Berkeley, and John Carroll, among other places. Texas faculty did undergraduate work at Yale (4), Princeton (3), Haverford, Drew , Cal Tech, Missouri , Michigan State , Brown, UVA, and Columbia , among other places. There are eminent philosophers--who have held or now hold tenured posts at top ten departments--who did their undergraduate work at the University of New Mexico, Queens College (New York), and the University of Pittsburgh. It is possible to get good philosophical training in many undergraduate settings.</p>

<p>High school students interested in philosophy would do best to identify schools that have strong reputations for undergraduate education first. Only then, should they look in to the quality of the philosophy department. Some ranked PhD programs have good reputations for undergraduate education, like Princeton , Yale, Brown and Rice, among many others. The larger universities (like Harvard or Michigan or Texas ) tend to offer a more mixed undergraduate experience, largely due to their size. Since much of the teaching at those institutions will be done by graduate students, it pays to go to a school with a strong PhD program, since that will affect the intellectual caliber of teachers you will encounter.</p>

<p>Among schools that do not offer the PhD or MA in philosophy, those with the best philosophy faculties would probably include: Amherst College, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College , Reed College , University of Vermont , and Wellesley College . But many other good liberal arts colleges and universities that only offer a B.A. have strong philosophy faculties as well (i.e., faculties doing philosophical work at the research university level), for example: Barnard College; Bates College; Brandeis University; California State University at Northridge; Colby College; Colgate University; Davidson College; Franklin & Marshall College; Haverford College; Mt. Holyoke College; Iowa State University; Kansas State University; New College (South Florida); North Carolina State University; Oberlin College; Occidental College; Pomona College; Smith College; Southern Methodist University; Swarthmore College; Trinity University (San Antonio); University of Alabama at Birmingham; University of Delaware; University of Massachussetts at Boston; Vassar College; Virginia Commonwealth University; Wesleyan University; Western Washington University; and College of Willliam & Mary, among others. (This list is not exhaustive; see below for how to evaluate other programs.) St. John's College , the "great books" school at both Annapolis and Santa Fe , offers strong historical coverage of the field, but weaker coverage of contemporary philosophy; still, many St. John's grads do well in admissions to graduate school.</p>

<p>In general, when looking at the philosophy department of a liberal arts college, you should look at two things. (1) Does the department provide regular offerings in the history of philosophy (ancient, modern, Continental), formal logic, value theory (moral and political philosophy), and some combination of metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. You will need courses in most of these areas to be adequately prepared for graduate study, not to mention to get a serious education in philosophy. (2) Where did the faculty earn their PhD? The majority of the faculty at any good department should have earned PhDs from well-ranked programs (as a rule of thumb, those in the top 50). If significant numbers of faculty earned their PhDs elsewhere, be wary. Some liberal arts colleges, even some very good ones, have philosophy faculties that are now pretty far on the margins of the discipline.</p>

<p>You might also consider contacting the philosophy department at an undergraduate institution you are considering to inquire about where graduates have gone on for PhD study. A school like Reed sends more students on to top PhD programs than most universities with top twenty philosophy departments; that says something important about the quality of the philosophical faculty and curriculum. "</p>

<p><a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"NO, one that majors in philosophy must not go on to grad school to be successful. However, in general, to do something with major xyz you must go onto graduate study, be it psychology, philosophy, or english. Plenty of people are successful without graduating college, some with only a bachelors, some with an additional doctorate, some with an additional J.D., . . . the list goes on. </p>

<p>My point is that if you want to do something relating to your field of major or concentration, chances are you have to go to grad school."</p>

<p>According to your premises, "chances are" if you are a business major you will have to go to grad school. I will promptly disprove that by appealing to all of the successful (materialistically speaking) undergraduate business majors. However, you did point out a hasty generalization that I made; your point is understood. </p>

<p>Now, I will point out another fallacy of yours, "to do something with major xyz you must go onto graduate study, be it psychology, philosophy, or english."
NO, you can do plenty with a Philosophy major without going onto graduate study. For example: examine your life, determine the assumptions that you naturally have, think outside of the box, etc... Philosophy is correlated to all aspects of life and to say that, "in general", you cannot do anything with it without going on to graduate study is grossly incorrect.</p>

<p>Now, in terms of material success one SHOULD go onto graduate study, do you agree?</p>

<p>THat is the case with most majors in the humanities, not just philosophy.</p>

<p>Safety- Clark University</p>

<p>It's their most popular major and they even have a statue of Freud</p>

<p>Or as their virtual tour says:</p>

<p>"The most obvious landmark in the Square is a statue of Sigmund Freud, dedicated in 1999. Clark was the only American university where Sigmund Freud lectured and was the only institution to give Freud honorary academic recognition in his lifetime. Clark's first president, G. Stanley Hall, invited Freud to speak on campus and in 1909, Freud presented his five "Clark Lectures" which introduced his theory to the United States. "</p>

<p><a href="http://www.clarku.edu/departments/philosophy/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.clarku.edu/departments/philosophy/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Although Freud was a philosopher, his contributions affect the field of psychology much more directly, and of those, many can neither be proven nor disproven, and many have been disproven in modern psychology.</p>