<p>What are the best schools to major in Philosophy? I've seen lists of the best grad schools, but I can't seem to find almost any information on undergrad. </p>
<p>If anyone knows, I would really appreciate it...! If not, then too bad for me.</p>
<p>What are the best schools to major in Philosophy? I've seen lists of the best grad schools, but I can't seem to find almost any information on undergrad. </p>
<p>If anyone knows, I would really appreciate it...! If not, then too bad for me.</p>
<p>Sorry, I don't have any links and can't remember many off of the top of my head. I know that both Harvard and University of Arizona have great philosophy programs. I believe that Harvard is top.</p>
<p>A general rule of thumb follows: If the college, as a whole, is one of the best in the nation, the undergraduate philosophy program will be one of the best in the nation.
That being said, Yale has a better program than Harvard...</p>
<p>Neither Harvard or Yale are the top. Try NYU, Rutgers, Princeton. They are the top graduate programs. This may or may not translate into strong undergrad programs. <a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.htm</a></p>
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UNDERGRADUATE STUDY</p>
<p>Over the years, many high school students or their parents have contacted me to inquire how to use the Report with respect to choosing an undergraduate institution. The first point to make is that the focus of this Report is on graduate study only: Pittsburgh may have an outstanding philosophy department, but it might make more sense for a good student interested in philosophy to do his or her undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins or Amherst, where student-faculty ratios are more favorable, and where there is a stronger focus on undergraduate education. Many faculty at major departments did not do their undergraduate work at institutions with top-ranked PhD programs. The tenured faculty at Michigan , for example, did undergraduate work at Harvard (2), Swarthmore (2), Wesleyan, Tulane, Oberlin, Amherst, Berkeley, and John Carroll, among other places. Texas faculty did undergraduate work at Yale (4), Princeton (3), Haverford, Drew , Cal Tech, Missouri , Michigan State , Brown, UVA, and Columbia , among other places. There are eminent philosophers--who have held or now hold tenured posts at top ten departments--who did their undergraduate work at the University of New Mexico, Queens College (New York), and the University of Pittsburgh. It is possible to get good philosophical training in many undergraduate settings.</p>
<p>High school students interested in philosophy would do best to identify schools that have strong reputations for undergraduate education first. Only then, should they look in to the quality of the philosophy department. Some ranked PhD programs have good reputations for undergraduate education, like Princeton , Yale, Brown and Rice, among many others. The larger universities (like Harvard or Michigan or Texas ) tend to offer a more mixed undergraduate experience, largely due to their size. Since much of the teaching at those institutions will be done by graduate students, it pays to go to a school with a strong PhD program, since that will affect the intellectual caliber of teachers you will encounter.</p>
<p>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 Massachussetts 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.</p>
<p>You might also consider contacting the philosophy department at an undergraduate institution you are considering to inquire about where graduates have gone on for PhD study. A school like Reed sends more students on to top PhD programs than most universities with top twenty philosophy departments; that says something important about the quality of the philosophical faculty and curriculum. Amherst also provides interesting and impressive information about its alumni in academia: see <a href="http://www.amherst.edu/%7Ephilo/alumni.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.amherst.edu/~philo/alumni.html</a>.
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<p>Search for the various threads about it. Many are on this site.</p>
<p>Fordham is well-known for its philosophy department.</p>
<p>I would also look at some smaller liberal arts colleges like Reed College or St. John's College. In colleges like these, the entire student body is exposed to philosophical discussion often. It would be nice to live in a small community of thinkers...if that's what you are looking for. They are good for graduate schools also, if you look at the stats. I am planning to attend graduate school for philosophy or literature, so I was also concerned about your question.</p>
<p>reed statistics on liberal arts colleges
<a href="http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html</a></p>
<p>Can anyone think of any kind of opportunity that might be closed to a philosophy major, but available to a political science major?</p>
<p>"Practical information?" Just kidding. I can't think of anything in particular, although I assume some jobs require you to hold information studied in poli sci classes, but you can probably pick it up on your own, or, better yet, take a few poli sci classes (if they interest you) while still majoring in philosophy. That's the great thing about majoring in something- it doesn't mean you can't take classes in other subjects. At most schools, generally about a third of your classes will be required to occur in your major, and then, fulfilling various requirements for about a fifth to a third. With the rest, you generally get to take what you want. yay.</p>
<p>Maybe there's somethings you can't do after majoring in philosophy that you could do after majoring in poli sci. Anybody know?</p>
<p>nspeds, where are you?</p>
<p>Sorry to resurrect this (and thanks to everyone who responded the first time).</p>
<p>I just wanted to ask if anyone here is majoring in philosophy at the moment and what their experiences have been like (maybe DRab or nspeds etc. who I've seen around). What college do you go to? What kind of classes are you taking (what focus in philosophy)? And most importantly, how are you liking it?</p>
<p>Also, if anyone is planning on being a philosophy major, it would be cool to hear where you want to go for college.</p>
<p>I <em>hope</em> someone answers this.</p>
<p>Here is a link:
<a href="http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publications/pdf/nrc_rankings_1995.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publications/pdf/nrc_rankings_1995.pdf</a></p>
<p>I've considered a major in philosophy, although I think it's more likely I'll minor in it. I'm only a freshman, so I've only taken a few classes. I'm rather fond of ancient philosophy, so that would be my area of focus. Alternately, I may major/minor in classics and take courses in ancient philosophy. Philosophy makes my head hurt sometimes, but I appreciate how helpful it is. The logic we learned as part of the intro class has been unbelievably helpful, and I actually get a lot more out of literature now. I'm reading *Walden<a href="thus%20my%20location">/i</a>, and Thoreau makes repeated references to philosophy. In his chapter on Beans, he says he doesn't know why he plants beans because he's a Pythagorean. I actually understand the reference! :)</p>
<p>What college do you go to? What kind of classes are you taking (what focus in philosophy)? And most importantly, how are you liking it?</p>
<p>Berkeley. So far, one survey of Ancient philosophy (we talked about the pre-socratics a bit, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and read hundreds of pages from Plato and Aristotle) and History of Modern (so far, we've read Descartes, talked about the "New Science" and how it differed from an Aristotilean conception of the world, and we will read some Kant, Spinoz, Hume, and Berkeley). I don't really have a focus yet, but I quite enjoy the classes and the reading. I don't find any subject more interesting as philosophy. Although I've enjoyed each and every class I've so far had, I couldn't imagine studying many other subjects primarily.</p>
<p>haha DRab...i was enrolled in History of Modern Philosophy here at Penn but i dropped because i couldn't get into it, but..</p>
<p>The syllabus included the EXACT same pholosophers that you mention....just thought that that was kind of cool.</p>