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Graduate School in Philosophy

The only good general advice about graduate school in philosophy that we can give you is that if you are considering continuing to study philosophy after Hiram, then you should talk with one or more of us as soon as possible. Each person situation will be signficantly different. Nevertheless, I offer some preliminary and general comments on this question below.

Should you go to Graduate School?

There are, of course, many excellent reasons to consider further study in philosophy. Here I will comment on the three most prominent.

Jobs in Academia

The blunt and inescapable fact is that jobs in academia are scarce and the number of well qualified applicants are many. This, by itself, is not a reason to dissuade you from considering graduate school. Nonetheless it should be considered very carefully if your primary reason for going to graduate school is to enter academia. For more on the conditions in the profession see the useful information at the American Philosophical Association's Data on the Profession

Jobs Beyond Academia

As surprising as it may be to many who are unfamiliar with philosophy, graduate school in philosophy can be valuable preparation for many careers. In fact, according to the American Philosophical Association about 20% of Ph.D's in philosophy are employed outside of education (What Philosophy Ph.D.'s are Doing). You may want to consider an M.A. in philosophy depending upon your interests. See Other Career Possibilities

Personal Reasons 

Traditionally, a good liberal art does not necessarily need to be justified through its ability to help you earn money : If it is a liberal art, its cultivation is valuable for its own sake. There are many intrinsic reasons to choose to continue your education. In some ways these are perhaps the best reasons to choose to continue to study philosophy. Nevertheless, you must consider very carefully whether your love of the discipline is enough to commit you.

Choosing Programs

This is where things start to get very tricky. Which programs you apply to will depend upon several factors:
  1. Qualifications (see below as well): You must judge your qualifications against those of the best philosophy students in the country (and beyond). Our strongest students are accepted to very selective philosophy programs. We suggest you talk with us about this aspect of your application. Ideally you must match your qualifications with programs of the appropriate level of selectivity. This is hard to do. There is an annual program "ranking" published by Brian Leiter called the Philosophical Gourmet (Also see NYU's Real Guide and Hartman's Continental Rankings). This can give you a clear idea of which programs have the strongest reputation. There is, however, a great deal of scepticism (curiously lacking among many of the proponents of the exercise) about the project of ranking philosophy programs and comparing the "quality of the faculty" on which these rankings are putatively based. The American Philosophial Association has a judicious view of the matter (Rankings of Departments and Programs ). Also note the useful link to philosophy department web pages at Link. In addition the American Philosophical Association has useful list of programs in Bioethics, most of which are housed in Graduate Philosophy departments.
  2. Interests: Different departments have strengths and weaknesses in different areas of philosophy. If your underlying interest lies with Heidegger then you should choose a department that has people specializing in Heidegger and not a supposedly higher ranked department without strengths in Heidegger. Ultimately you are choosing people to write a dissertation with--make sure they share your interests. The only way to determine this is by talking with people (us and others) and examining the faculty at each program carefully. (Ideally visiting the department as well).
  3. Other constraints: There are often other constraints such as geography that need to be considered as well.


It is probably wise to apply to a range of programs (6-10) with different degrees of selectivity.

The Application

If you are tempted by the possibility of graduate school there are a few things to consider. For the most part your application will be judged on the following grounds (not necessarily in this order):
  1. G.P.A. (The higher the better of course). We strongly recommend that you write an honors thesis if you are considering graduate school.
  2. G.R.E. Score (Take early, take often).
  3. Letters of Recommendation (Strong letters from people who know your work well are best).
  4. Writing Sample (Very important. Must show evidence of scholarly abilities. Choose carefully and revise often.)
  5. Additional Relevant Activities (Presenting papers or commenting at conferences (see NEOPC), philosophy forum, among others).
  6. Research Interests (You should have a good idea what you want to study and match your interests with the right programs).

The Process


As soon as you decide that graduate school in philosophy is for you, you should come and talk with us. In addition you shuld begin to focus on the six parts of the application enumerated above. The following is an ideal time-frame for applying to graduate school. The earliest application deadlines are usually around the end of December (there may be a few earlier), the latest will be February 1-10.

  • Spring of Junior Year: Meet with us and start to consider how to strengthen your application. Begin researching programs. Identify potential writing sample and get comments from us for summer revisions.
  • Beginning of Fall Senior Year: If you haven't already, take the G.R.E. Take lots of philosophy courses. Finalize list of 10-15 possible schools and show us. Request information and application materials from all schools.
  • October of Senior Year: Notify your letter writers. Provide complete list of schools, DEADLINES, all necessary materials. (see note below).
  • Thanksgiving of Senior Year: Final list of schools and assemble all application materials. Give final draft of writing sample for comments.
  • December of Senior Year: Make sure G.R.E.'s, transcripts, and letter writers are all coming along. Write application essays.
  • January and February: Send off applications on time and monitor progress of applications (i.e. check that the materials are being received). Double check with letter writers if necessary.
  • March: Wait
  • April: Start planning.


Many people find it preferable to take a year off before applying. This gives you the benefit of your whole senior year on your transcript and quite likely also several promising writing samples from either your classes or your honors thesis.