<p>Seeking schools with strong if not top philosophy departments with seminar style classes. I know there's been post in the past, but they just mention schools some of which are naturally lecture base due to the school size and administration.</p>
<p>liek0806-- very limited experience here, with a soph son likely majoring in philosophy at Colgate. Seems like a strong department there, but I have no way of objectively knowing. I'd suspect the smaller schools like Colgate will have smaller classes, but I am not sure they would have more that are purely "seminar" format.</p>
<p>I see from Colgate's online course catalog ( Colgate:</a> Course Offerings ) that the 200 & 300 level philosophy courses (intro is a 200 level course) hold student number to 25 max, and the 400 level max is 8 to 15. Some 400 level courses are labeled as "seminar." In my experience, Colgate's offering of seminar courses is typical....a few at upper level only, but the size of the other classes is most definitely not your big "lecture" class. </p>
<p>If class size helps you judge the intimacy of the course types, you may want to check out some other school catalogs.</p>
<p>One other tidbit.....Williams is the only US college I am aware of that offers "tutorial" classes, like the Oxford system. 2 or 3 students with a prof. Sounds rigorous, but wonderfully academic!</p>
<p>You might want to check out St. John's College in Annapolis or Santa Fe for kicks.</p>
<p>But, that said, I think you can find discussion-based philosophy classes at a variety of schools.</p>
<p>Virtually any good LAC would have discussion-style philosophy classes, I would think. Back in the dark ages I took a philosophy class at Wellesley and that was the format.</p>
<p>You may already be aware of this, but The Philosphical Gourmet website gives advice on selecting an undergraduate department.</p>
<p>Reed College - all classes discussion based & excellent philosophy dept.</p>
<p>Be careful what you wish for. Sitting in a room with 12 19 year-olds blabbering on you might wish you were in a lecture hall taught listening to a professor who actually knows something.</p>
<p>Pick any of the top 40 LACs and you'll do just fine. Faculty are mostly interchangeable, having more to do with who was hiring at which college which year than anything else - they'll most all have their Ph.Ds from the same places. Some turn into wonderful teachers, some crappy ones, and some of the crappy ones may be doing more of the interesting writing and research.</p>
<p>Check out the University Of Pittsburgh since they have a top 6 philosophy program</p>
<p>for enjoyment, I tested mini's theory on the prof's PhD's coming from the same places for the top LACs....& I do believe that is largely correct. I checked out 20 or so top LACs.</p>
<p>PhDs from Pittsburgh are heavily represented, as well as UC Berkeley, Minnesota, some of the Ivy's, U Texas, and a few others. Interesting that the old guys seem to come from either Yale or Cornell....but there is no one LAC that I looked at that had profs from both.</p>
<p>Here's a list with prof count by LAC and by prof's degree institution....note that I did not discriminate in the count...visiting and emeritus included if they were listed....</p>
<p>AMHERST 8
Cornell 1
Harvard 1
unknown 6</p>
<p>BOWDOIN 5
Cornell 2
Boston 1
Princeton 1
unknown 1</p>
<p>CARLETON 9
Yale 3
McGill 1
MIT 1
Northwestern 1
U Mass 1
unknown 2</p>
<p>CLAREMONT M 9
UCLA 2
Chicago 1
Claremont Grad 1
Pittsburgh 1
Purdue 1
UC Berkeley 1
unknown 2</p>
<p>COLBY 5
DePaul 1
Indiana 1
U Hawaii 1
U Texas 1
unknown 1</p>
<p>COLGATE 14
Pittsburgh 3
Brown 1
Cambridge+MIT 1
Cornell 1
Georgetown 1
McGill 1
Northwestern 1
Notre Dame 1
Penn 1
U Texas 1
U Wisconsin 1
Vanderbilt 1</p>
<p>DAVIDSON 7
Boston U 1
Cornell 1
Edinburgh 1
U Colorado 1
U Mass 1
U Mich 1
UNC 1</p>
<p>GRINNELL 6
Boston U 1
Claremont Grad 1
Northwestern 1
Penn 1
Purdue 1
U Cinncinnati 1</p>
<p>HAMILTON 9
Syracuse 2
City U 1
Northwestern 1
Penn 1
Rochester 1
Syracuse 1
UC Berkeley 1
unknown 1</p>
<p>HAVERFORD 7
Boston College 1
Harvard 1
New School 1
Pittsburgh 1
UC Berkeley 1
unknown 2</p>
<p>MACALESTER 9
Cornell 2
U Minn 2
Harvard 1
Oxford 1
St. Andrews 1
U Mass 1
U Texas 1</p>
<p>MIDDLEBURY 8
Yale 2
Columbia 1
Emory 1
Harvard 1
U Minn 1
UNC 1
Wash U 1</p>
<p>POMONA 7
UCSD 2
Yale 2
NYU 1
Princeton 1
UC Berkeley 1</p>
<p>SWARTHMORE 10
Brown 1
Cornell 1
Gottingen 1
Indiana 1
Pittsburgh 1
Princeton 1
Stanford 1
U Mass 1
U Wisconsin 1
UC Berkeley 1</p>
<p>VASSAR 12
Boston U 1
Harvard 1
Oxford 1
Princeton 1
Rutgers 1
Stanford 1
U Mich 1
U Paris VIII 1
UC Berkeley 1
Yale 1
unknown 2</p>
<p>W & L 12
Yale 2
Boston U 1
Duke 1
Georgetown 1
Harvard 1
Iowa 1
McGill 1
Penn 1
U Illinois 1
U Minn 1
U Texas 1</p>
<p>WELLESLEY 13
Harvard 2
Princeton 2
Boston U 1
MIT 1
Southern Illinois 1
UNC 1
Western Ontario 1
Yale 1
unknown 3</p>
<p>WILLIAMS 9
Chicago 1
Columbia 1
Cornell 1
Georgetown 1
Northwestern 1
Notre Dame 1
Penn State 1
U Arizona 1
UC Berkeley 1</p>
<p>Here's some advice on studying philosophy at LACs from Brian Leiter, a highly regarded legal philosopher who teaches in the philosophy department and the law school at the University of Chicago, and who edits The Philosophical Gourmet, a widely cited ranking of philosophy graduate programs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
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 Massachusetts 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.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As for those "highly ranked graduate programs" to look for as LAC faculty credential, here's Leiter's list, compiled by survey of philosophy faculty:</p>
<p>1 NYU<br>
2 Rutgers
3 Princeton
University of Michigan
5 University of Pittsburgh
6 Stanford
7 Harvard
MIT
UCLA
10 Columbia University
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
12 University of California, Berkeley
13 University of Arizona
Notre Dame
University of Texas, Austin
16 Brown
Cornell
University of Southern California
Yale
20 University of California, Irvine
University of California, San Diego
University of Chicago
23 CUNY Graduate Center
24 UMass, Amherst
University of Wisconsin, Madison
26 Ohio State
27 Duke
Indiana University, Bloomington
University of Maryland, College Park
Penn
31 University of California, Riverside
32 Syracuse
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Miami
35 Johns Hopkins
University of California, Davis
University of Illinois-Chicago
University of Washington
39 Carnegie Mellon University
Georgetown
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Virginia
Washington University St. Louis
44 Arizona State
Florida State
University of Minnesota
University of Rochester
48 University of Connecticut
University of Florida
50 Boston University
Rice University
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
53 Northwestern University
University of Missouri </p>
<p>In my personal opinion, an LAC with fewer than 7 or 8 faculty will not be able to field courses in sufficient breadth or depth to adequately prepare the undergraduate for serious graduate work in the field--and even with that many faculty, getting a full range of courses may be a stretch. Of course, many philosophy majors do not pursue graduate studies in the field. Philosophy is excellent training for the study of law, for example. But for those with a real passion for the field, it's probably unwise to close the door to graduate study at a high level. </p>
<p>For the student who is determined to study philosophy, I would also not overlook the schools with strong graduate programs. although these are by and large bigger schools, most upper-level courses tend to be quite small even at the biggest schools, and even introductory course may be offered in small classes in honors programs and the like. As an honors program philosophy major at Michigan, I never had a class with more than about 20 students, and by my junior and senior year I was taking primarily graduate-level courses in one of the top philosophy departments in the nation</p>
<p>bclintonk, i've seen that information before, and that's been one of my concerns because for example UCLA, i was talking to a student who said a lot of the professors are too concerned with their own thing or are not interested in having discussion with students, as much as they are there to lecture, and leave, that or have TAs teach the classes for upper division work. Obviously UCLA Philosophy would look good on any resume, but for the sake of philosophy it defeats the purpose of what philosophy should be like(in my opinion).</p>
<p>Be slightly wary about The Philosophical Gourmet, since its rankings are analytically-biased---if you're into continental philosophy, you may want to do research into schools (course offerings and faculty) yourself.</p>
<p>^^ liek0806,
I can't speak to the situation at UCLA. I can tell you that my own experience at Michigan was that I never had a philosophy class taught by a TA. That was some years ago, but I just looked up the current term's roster of philosophy courses at Michigan, and as best I can tell only two of the 25 or so philosophy courses taught this semester are taught by TAs, and those are Intro to Logic and Intro to Philosophy, both taught in small sections. (Back in my day they were big lecture courses taught by professors with small recitation sections led by TAs, but the Honors Intro classes I had were small classes taught by professors).</p>
<p>I think this is something that varies a great deal by school. You need to investigate for yourself. Don't let stereotypes about big school fool you. They're often just dead wrong, especially in fields like philosophy which tned not to be overwhelmingly popular majors. A school like Michigan is justifiably proud that its philosophy department perennially ranks among the best in the country, indeed in the world. It invests heavily in recruitment and retention of a large roster of top-quality faculty, and because there are relatively few undergrad philosophy majors the student-faculty ratios in the philosophy department are comparable to those at the Ivies or top LACs. The advantage is that the depth and breadth of the faculty simply can't be matched by a smaller school. And for what it's worth, I always found the philosophy faculty friendly, approachable, and more than willing to help out a bright and eager undergrad with a passion for the subject.</p>