<p>My high school career was academically mediocre, and I'm now a student at UCSC. I've been doing much, much better in college, but have missed my opportunity to transfer to a more respected university (I would have had to apply at the beginning of my first year; I'm a second year Junior and few schools accept Senior transfers). The dream is to get a PhD in Philosophy from Berkeley. There are a number of less lofty places I would be happy with, but I love Berkeley dearly, especially the philosophy program. Given that I'm going to be obtaining my B.A. in Phil at UCSC, would I have a better shot at a top-ranked PhD program if I first went into a Masters program? In other words, are Philosophy M.A. programs typically easier to get into than PhD programs, and would completing one significantly boost my PhD application?</p>
<p>Tangential question: Is there anything wrong with applying to two different graduate programs at the same school?</p>
<p>From what I know (full disclosure: I’m an undergraduate student who’s going to major in philosophy too, and has done a lot of reading on PhD rankings and so on), Master’s programs don’t help you that much; in fact, for some departments they might hinder you (I don’t really know why, but it’s just like how you don’t really need to be submitting papers to undergraduate journals…it usually doesn’t help, and sometimes it hurts). I’ve heard stories about getting into good PhD programs from not-so-great undergrad institutions, too. What’s important in philosophy is to write a really good research paper (Honors thesis, a program like that), have really good recommendations, and ideally have a contact from within the grad schooli.e. Berkeley.</p>
<p>Is there anyone at your current school who went to Berkeley? Befriend him. Do you have a chance to study abroad in Oxford/Cambridge/another important philosophy place? Use it. Have you thought of a research topic? Start writing it! </p>
<p>To actually answer your question, having a MA probably won’t actually help you (from what I know, let others correct me), and it won’t boost your application. But if you can’t get into a top PhD program, use the MA to your advantage and write a great thesis. But beware: Don’t settle for a mediocre (below top-20) PhD programyou won’t have much of a chance at an academic job, and it won’t be worth the money. Which reminds memake sure it’s funded.</p>
<p>My 2 cents.</p>
<p>Don’t shell out money if you can for a humanities MA. See if any MA-granting only institutions (not schools with doctoral programs) offers any funding. If not, you’re best off doing the very best you can and take a year off to apply.</p>
<p>To answer your question in the best way possible, answer this: what do you want to do with a PhD in philosophy?</p>
<p>OH AND the Philosophical Gourmet has some great/complex advice about MA programs.</p>
<p>[The</a> Philosophical Gourmet Report 2009 :: MA Programs in Philosophy](<a href=“http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/maprog.asp]The”>http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/maprog.asp)</p>