<p>When I Google this I don't get much; there is a much greater focus on graduate programs. Ideally I'd like a really intellectual environment, so a selective school, midsize, and metropolitan, but tell me the best even if they don't fit my criteria. </p>
<p>I really like learning and I've always been a skeptic looking to make sense of things. High school is not a good environment for me; I want a very different feel when I go to college. I plan on going for the sake of learning and growing as an individual, not just because I think it'll get me a higher paying job. For these reasons, I think philosophy suits me. However, I am not absolutely committed to studying it, I am also interested in film, poli sci and social sciences in general, and foreign service.</p>
<p>Based on the following criteria: mid-sized, metropolitan, good philosophy dept., I think you should check out Tufts and Georgetown. Both are very strong in political science and IR as well.</p>
<p>Though perhaps larger than what you’re looking for, Rutgers and NYU both have great philosophy departments. NYU is also great for film studies (probably polysci and social sciences too, I just don’t know). I agree with Tufts and Georgetown too.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. My list up to this point was: UPenn, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, NYU, UChicago, Columbia, USC, and UVA. I’m pretty sure as an out of state student I can’t get into UVA and I decided I probably don’t want a large state school, and USC is across the country so it’s probably a no-go. I’ve already visited Penn, Georgetown, Hopkins, and UVA. I don’t have portfolio to speak of, and the NYU and USC programs are uber-selective. Remember, the schools don’t have to match my criteria exactly, I’m still figuring out what I want.</p>
<p>Any idea what “kind” of philosophy you’d like to do?</p>
<p>Here’s what I mean: some departments are really logic oriented, and they do philosophy in a way that is almost scientific. There are definite wrong answers (and right ones too, although people might not know what they are). Other departments are less logic-y.</p>
<p>Here’s another thing to think about: some of the best (i.e. hottest, trendiest, most well-connected, etc.) profs are at places with grad programs. However, if you go there you may never interact with them. That’s not an absolute rule - but it does happen. At an undergrad only place you can be sure you’ll work closely with your profs.</p>
<p>A third thing - at a place with a grad program, the profs will tend to be more state-of-the-art researchers. At a place that is undergrad only, they will tend to be teachers first and researchers second.</p>
<p>Departments also have strengths and weaknesses in terms of areas - some focus on ethics, others on political philosophy, others tend to have an historical focus, etc. Most programs do several things well, but no program does everything well.</p>
<p>My high school doesn’t offer any courses in philosophy, so I’ve never taken one and am not exactly sure what I want subject-wise. I really like seminars, I learn best when I can interact back-and-forth with my teacher and classmates. I don’t think logic will be my focus – I’m good at math but don’t like it. I do have interest in history and politics, as well as morality and ethics. I think I’d find epistemology interesting but don’t know much about it.</p>
<p>You might consider Notre Dame – they have a very highly ranked graduate program and all undergrads are required to take 2 semesters of philosophy so there is a robust undergraduate curriculum. Areas of particular strength include 19th and 20th century philosophy. It is the largest philosohy faculty in the US, I believe, with an excellent undergraduate program. </p>
<p>While ND has graduate programs, its focus is undergraduate education – under 10k undergrads.</p>
<p>South Bend is not exactly a metropolitan community but it is 90 minutes from Chicago.</p>
<p>A little small, but St. John’s College in Baltimore (there is also a New Mexico campus). Talk about learning for learning’s sake!</p>
<p>Not a fit for you (on the other side of the country, expensive for out of staters), but UC Riverside, of all places, is a great philosophy department.</p>
<p>Leiter has his head up his butt, and not for the first time. He puts Harvard (6500 undergrads) in the same “larger” category as Michigan and Texas (~40,000 undergrads), rather than grouping it with Brown (6300 undergrads)? He suggests that graduate students will be doing “much of the teaching” at Harvard in a way that’s comparable to Texas, but not comparable to Yale?</p>
<p>Please. I’m not expert in philosophy departments, but this error calls all his other advice into doubt.</p>
<p>^ I agree with most of what Leiter says, though I think he exaggerates the degree to which philosophy courses at major universities with top-ranked departments are taught by grad students. That was not at all my experience at Michigan when I was an undergrad there some years ago. Curious to see whether it had changed, I carefully went over Michigan’s 2010-2011 philosophy course offerings a few weeks ago. What jumped out at me was, first, that ALL philosophy faculty teach undergraduate as well as graduate courses; indeed, they ALL teach MORE undergraduate than graduate-level courses. Second, well over 90% of the philosophy courses are taught by regular faculty, not grad students; as best I could tell, only a few entry-level courses were taught by grad students, and for undergrads coming in through the honors program even the entry-level courses are taught by full-time faculty. Third, ALL philosophy majors are REQUIRED to take graduate–level courses by the time they’re seniors, and there’s no upper limit on the number of such courses they can take if they’re up to the intellectual challenge. To that extent, the undergrad-v.-grad distinction is somewhat phony, and Leiter’s caveat quite overblown—at least for Michigan. I’m not saying it’s that way at all major universities with top philosophy faculties (Michigan’s is currently ranked #5 in Leiter’s Philosophical Gourmet). But it’s worth doing some careful examination school by school before falling for the broad-brush stereotype that you’ll be taught by grad students if you attend a major university.</p>
<p>I generally agree with Leiter’s suggestions on how to evaluate the strength of a college’s philosophy program if that college doesn’t have a grad program. For those that do have grad programs, however, the graduate rankings are essentially a proxy for faculty strength, and so long as you’re confident that as an undergrad you’ll be taught by the same faculty, it’s a pretty good starting point for investigating undergrad programs as well. The best ranking for philosophy grad programs is Leiter’s Philosophical Gourmet ranking, based on a comprehensive survey of full-time faculty in the field. Find it here:</p>
<p>The only thing I’d add is that it’s always risky to decide on a school based on its strength in a single field. Surveys show that most college students change majors at least once. You may be determined to study philosophy now, but you may find it less interesting once you’ve actually taken a few courses. Or other academic interests may overtake it. Or your career plans might push you in another direction. For those reasons, I’d encourage the OP—and others in the OP’s position—to look for schools that are strong not only in philosophy, but across-the-board. In that vein, I’d be a little wary of placing schools like Rutgers and Pitt in the same category as a Princeton, Harvard, or even Michigan, because while Rutgers and Pitt do have outstanding philosophy departments (#2 and #4 respectively in Philosophical gourmet), their other offerings are a little more uneven, with fewer top 10 or top 25 programs in other fields.</p>
<p>I’ve heard great things about the philosophy dept at Calvin College. Probably overlooked by many because of its religious affiliation, but seriously a contender for one of the very best undergrad philosophy programs in the country. Students from other schools transfer to Calvin just to major in philosophy there.</p>
<p>I did. I went to grad school and I ended up teaching as well. I wouldn’t encourage you to go where I went however, and so I’ll remain silent on where it was. </p>
<p>I think there are LOTS of places where it would be great to be a philosophy undergrad. Frankly, all you need are a few profs (some very good departments only have 5 or 6!) who are active in the profession (and hence are a little bit hip to the current scene in philosophy) and a solid core of students who like to talk about things.</p>
<p>Students get admitted to the TOP graduate programs from all sorts of undergrad backgrounds - including liberal arts colleges with a mostly regional reputation and state schools in flyover country - which I think shows you that there is a lot of excellence to go around.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d look for places I might be interested in for other reasons, and then check out the philosophy department website. Is there a student magazine? Do they have an ethics bowl team? Do kids go to conferences? Is there a weekly club? How many majors are there? That should give you a pretty good idea of how lively it is.</p>
<p>Considering your interest in learning for the sake of learning, and wanting an environment that is intellectual that also includes a lot of professor/student interaction, I’d recommend you look into small liberal arts colleges or small universities that have a liberal arts college feel. I’m thinking of schools like St. Johns College, Chicago, Reed, Pomona, Brown, etc.
I can only speak from my experience at a large research university, and like the previous post got2begreen made, you really have to know what kind of philosophy you are interested in or could be interested in. Browse through course catalogs, or a school’s class offerings per semester(the former could differ greatly from the latter-that is a catalog can list a lot of courses, but when you come to the class offerings and schedules, some of the courses could be rarely offered).
A lot of the schools considered to have the “top/best” philosophy departments are analytical schools which places much emphasis on logic and language. That type of philosophy, in my opinion, is very dry and pedantic. That is not to say that there isn’t anything to learn from it, there is, but that type of philosophy is so far from what I think philosophy should be as a “humanities” department. </p>
<p>Also, another thing to consider is that most top schools, whether research universities or liberal arts colleges are going to be strong in almost all of their departments. Going to the best school across all/most disciplines will allow you to switch into an equally strong or stronger department if you find that philosophy, as a major, isn’t for you. Having that flexibility will be important, especially considering your interests in other disciplines. If you honestly want to learn for the sake of learning, research top schools that care about its undergrads and student learning. Some of the top schools, who care more about research and its graduate students, will not give you the type of environment you want. You may find more pre-law students in those type of philosophy departments that are simply interested in using it as a preparation for entrance to a law school than actually learning for the sake of learning.
Other schools that comes to mind, that may be worth researching, are Claremont Colleges, more specifically Pitzer and Pomona.</p>
<p>I’m a current philosophy at NYU and love it. Granted, it’s a large department so not exactly what you’re looking for. However, a lot current philosophy comes from NYU. Another bonus of the department being large is that there are a lot of professors, which means a large variety of classes are offered each term. For a number of my classes the professor teaching the class is the one who wrote the paper. This isn’t true for all classes. As was previously stated though, you prefer a smaller college, which if you do, NYU is not for you. My classes take place in decently large lecture halls (usually 20-50 students). If you’re looking for a small college with great philosophy, then some of the highly ranked liberal arts school are most likely more up your alley - Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore. As for which colleges I would recommend (I don’t know your stats, so I’m not sure what’s in your league) HYPSM, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown. If the size of the school is not a very important factor, I would include UMich, NYU, Cornell, UPenn.</p>
<p>I’d like to tip my hat to you (I don’t even wear hats), but for real I have gone 2 years through college and I am going to major in Philosophy as soon as I transfer. I think your head is in the right place in your reasons behind obtaining an higher education, so few people go off to college today with the first goal of becoming a more well rounded, articulate person. Typically the first thing that anyone I’ve met thinks of is finding a major that fits a certain job criteria. While finding a practical way to apply your education to financial gains is obviously imperative, I think to many people let financial pressures hinder their educational growth. I digress.</p>
<p>I have gone to Community College for the past two years after spending a couple years working a full time job as an Audio Engineer. I have spent these past 2 years taking all sorts of Liberal Arts/ Gen.Ed classes to get a feel of what I wanted to pursue more. I would encourage you to do the same, your first two years your going to have to take these classes anyway wherever you go, and I think it gives you time to test the waters of Philosophy if you think it’s something you want to pursue as a major. </p>
<p>Im really in a different boat than you, Im going to transfer to a public school out of state somewhere most likely in the SUNY system. I would just like to add that any school with a strong liberal arts department is probably what you should lean towards, you will have good and bad professors no matter where ever you go. However, I feel for Philosophy the Professor and the students are what will make the class interesting and liberating for you. Considering I have found that in even a CC, I think it’s bogus to think you need to go to some Elite school with prestige to find a good Philosophy department. </p>