<p>Is it acceptable to get your B.A. in political science and then to try to enroll in a doctorate program in philosophy or religion?</p>
<p>Sure, provided that you have a fair amount of coursework under your belt in those other areas or you can show an admissions committee what your experience and training could contribute to the discipline in question. While it's more common for grad students to have majored in their discipline as undergrads, every program has a few people who come from some other background. (It happens in law and medical school as well: Philosophy and history majors have the greatest success of any applicants in applying to medical school, according to MSAR.)</p>
<p>What could I do to make myself stand out because I had not taken religion courses while an undergrad. I'd like to do American religion and I studied American political science and history in undergrad, would that be viewed as relevant coursework?</p>
<p>You should probably check with departments at schools you are interested in. Most require that you have a certain number of credit hours in the discipline, in this case philosophy. How many philosophy credits do you have? Poli sci and history generally will not count. Ex. UVa requires a major or a minor in philosophy, but will also consider an equitable number of courses. UCLA simply states that you can be admitted conditionally upon strengthening your philosophy background. University of Illinois specifies particular courses as prereqs. So you really have to identify the programs you're looking at and find out their requirements. If you don't have much of a philosophy background, you'll likely have to take some post-bac classes to get accepted to a philosophy program, or possibly an MA program will take you, as they aren't as stringent in their requirements. Again, this depends on what you have already taken. If you already have quite a few philosophy courses under your belt, you don't really have to worry.</p>
<p>Some of the graduate students in my philosophy classes were not philosophy majors as undergraduates. One, actually, was a political science major, and didn't have a strong background in philosophy. He went to Harvard, though, and is extremely articulate, so I am certain he had a top-notch writing sample. Philosophy programs put a huge emphasis on recommendations. While it is not necessary to get a famous philosopher to write your rec's, someone who is qualified to assess your philosophical aptitude, perhaps a political theory professor, should be writing your letters. It can be done. </p>
<p>Getting a PhD in philosophy is no mean task. You will do well to take some upper level philosophy courses before committing to a doctoral program. And, as intimated by Desp, you should look at individual departments and their requirements. But, more important, you should make sure that studying philosophy is really the right track for you, and I think it dubious to make this assumption without substantial coursework in the field. I do not know much about religion programs, or about how much you've studied philosophy, I just thought I would share my two-cents. Good luck.</p>