<p>I know English is a popular major at Grinnell but how is the philosophy program? I am interested in both... also is double majoring a possibility?</p>
<p>I'm also interested in philosophy and considering Grinnell. I've looked at the courses offered in the department, and it seems pretty solid. Are you looking for a philosophy program focused on continental or analytical philosophy? I'd like a more balanced program between the two. From the course descriptions, it looks like Grinnell's is fairly balanced, so thats a good thing to me, but it is hard to tell just from the course descriptions.</p>
<p>Here's what someone else, whose father majored in philosophy at Grinnell, said in another post about the philosophy department:</p>
<p>The philosophy program has expanded in the last decade, adding several new faculty members. It offers an extensive range of courses and is viewed to be strong. The two most popular departments at Grinnell are history and biology. Grinnell College, as you may know, ranks very highly in terms of the graduates per capita who earn the Ph.D.</p>
<p>TalktoHerToniight,</p>
<p>My Dad graduated from Grinnell in the mid-70s with a double major in English and Philosophy. He says that English has always been a more popular major at Grinnell (with History and Biology) and thus is a larger department than Philosophy. He says that the Philosphy faculty is pretty well-rounded for a smallish department with a decent balance between historical courses (e.g. Ancient, Modern, etc.) and topic-focused courses (eg. Ethics, Philopshy of Mind) and between analytic and continental philosophy. BTW, smallish philosophy departments are typicall in most small LACs.</p>
<p>He recommends, irrespective of where you study philosophy, that you start with an good introductory course (or two) in logic (sometimes called Reason and Argument). He says this is equivalent to taking calculus before physics. Its foundational and will pay dividends as your advance in your coursework. He also says that Philosophy is a discipline that is core to a liberal arts education and is a major which marries beautifully with just about any other. He also says to sample other interesting departments at Grinnell such as Anthroplogy and Russian (both of which apparently rock). Don't settle in to one field (or two) too fast.</p>
<p>I aslo attaching links to some of Grinnell's philosophy faculty from RateMyProfessor.com. All of the following look like really great teachers.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>