<p>I don’t really want to go to a huge institution (I like Bowdoin and Princeton), and I was wondering if it was a good idea to major in philosophy at a smaller school.</p>
<p>Denison is definitely your best bet. Without question.</p>
<p>Their PPE (Philosophy, Political Sxience, and Economics) degree is stellar.</p>
<p>Well…I kind of don’t want to have a degree in the other two parts (political science is far too political for me) and economics would be a side interest. Also, I abhor Ohio. Too much family there. But thanks for the suggestion- anything helps!</p>
<p>Let me rephrase my question: can I go to a school like Bowdoin and be satisified with their philosophy curriculum?</p>
<p>^ My personal opinion would be that Bowdoin is a bit thin in philosophy given the overall outstanding reputation of the school. Some good people on the philosophy faculty, to be sure, but not enough of them, and not much breadth or depth of course offerings. Go to the college websites and compare Bowdoin’s philosophy faculty and course listings to, say, Swarthmore, Amherst, and Wellesley. I think it will quickly become apparent what I mean. It’s not so much the size of the school. Some LACs, like the three just mentioned, have terrific philosophy departments. Others don’t. It’s spotty, which means you’ve got to pick your sports carefully. Bowdoin is better than most, but IMO not in the same league in this field as Amherst, Swarthmore, or Wellesley.</p>
<p>My dad is an economist. He says “Colby has a good lil Econ department.”</p>
<p>Nyu…</p>
<p>Thank you so much! It’s such a difficult process. I think I’m going to stick with Bowdoin, because I don’t REALLY KNOW what I plan on doing, right? Most people change their minds, and I don’t want to go and change my mind over something like this. The only majorly depressing point is the fact that Denis Corish is now retired-he’s reigning “emeritus” now-and he was pretty much my dream professor at Bowdoin.</p>
<p>I know I can always transfer later, and I think I’ll have a pretty good grasp on what I want to do by taking the lower level courses.</p>
<p>I know this is kind of off topic, but U of Minnesota above Penn in econ?? Really?</p>
<p>^MinnesotaTwins,
I wouldn’t put the University of Minnesota ahead of Penn for undergrad economics (note we’re talking about the econ department in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences here, not Wharton which is a separate entity). But Minnesota is right up there. Many would put its econ faculty in the top 10 nationally. What you’d need to investigate is how much exposure you’d get to the faculty as an undergrad, as opposed to courses taught by TAs. I think its econ faculty is one of Minnesota’s crown jewels. </p>
<p>^^ alexandrafitzmor,
I think it’s probably wise not to make a decision on where to attend college on the basis of a single department, because most people do change their minds at least once between the time they’re HS seniors and when they finally need to settle in on a major in college. On the other hand, my D’s strategy has been to eliminate schools that don’t have or are weak in a half dozen or so fields she might be interested in. I think it could be very frustrating to choose a school despite weakness in a field you think you might want to pursue, only to find later that you really did want to pursue it and your school doesn’t have much to offer. That said, I think Bowdoin is a terrific school overall and I certainly understand why you might be attracted to it.</p>
<p>Yeah- my first choice was always Princeton, but what is unattractive to me about that school is the lack of education for the sake of education, and a predominance of brand-name appeal to students. In a lot of ways, Bowdoin is like Princeton without that brand-name appeal, and it feels a lot more like I’m guaranteed an education there. On the other hand, with Princeton’s incredible Phil/Econ departments, I’m wondering what comes first now…anyhow, I’m applying to both schools, so I’ll see how it turns out.</p>
<p>Thanks SO much for your insight. It is so awesome getting posts from CCers like you- so much thought put into them!</p>
<p>Determinist philosopher Baruch Spinoza would say that your college choice has already been made but has not yet been revealed to you by God/Nature.</p>
<p>Since you want to study philosophy…</p>
<p>Ahahaha…
I’ll take that one with a (few) grain of salt.</p>