<p>Which school have a great philosophy department? Price is not an issue.</p>
<p>Ivy. 10 char</p>
<p>NYU has the best.</p>
<p>Rutgers, Princeton, NYU have the best grad programs. I don't know how that translates into undergad, but you might want to consider what areas of philosophy you are interested in and then fous on the schools that are strong in those specialities.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, Pitt has a very highly ranked Philosophy department.
<a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Ephilosop/undergrad/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.pitt.edu/~philosop/undergrad/index.html</a></p>
<p>Harvard, Oxford have large qualit programs in philosophy.</p>
<p>Something called the "Philosophical Gourmet Report" rates these five as "excellent": London School of Economics; Princeton; U Washington, Seattle; U Michigan, Ann Arbor; and U Pittsburgh. The most recent report from the National Research Council has Princeton no. 1 and Pittsburgh no. 2.</p>
<p>Search through past threads. The same thing is posted often.</p>
<p>Don't confuse a place that is GREAT for graduate students to necessarily be GREAT for undergraduates. Worry a lot about fit, as there are MANY top programs for undergradutes.</p>
<p>The University of Toronto almost certainly has the best philosophy department in Canada.</p>
<p>Undergrad philosophy is very hard to judge. The Philosophical Gourmet recommends a specific approach: <a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/undergrad.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/undergrad.asp</a> or </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>