Serious Advice needed: Graduate School in Philosophy

Graduate School
1

Hello everyone,
I want to pursue at least a master’s degree in philosophy at a top school. I love philosophy, however, my GPA in the major is low 3.5. I go to a small LAC and most of my professors are interested in continental philosophy and I have antagonize them- for being a firm believer in analytic philosophy-among other misunderstandings.

Right now I am in the first semester of my junior year. I am doing really well taking non-philosophy classes(although related like an independent study on linguistics.) I have gotten straight A’s and my overall GPA is 3.7. I could actually keep on taking more non-philosophy classes and bring my GPA to 3.8, even 3.9. However, I don’t know if this would be causing more harm than good given that my philosophy GPA wouldn’t improve.

I still have two years to go and two summers. However, I need to figure something out.

2

A 3.5 isn’t low - it’s absolutely fine, particularly for an MA program. You have time to raise it higher - and the higher it is, the more competitive you’ll be - but a 3.5 isn’t so low that you need to worry about not getting admitted because of it at most programs.

Perhaps try to do an independent study (with an analytic philosopher) and write something that could serve as a writing sample.