The historical comprehensive exams gave me a broad knowledge of the tradition that complemented the more contemporary analytic focus of the classes. The program taught me how to teach, not just how to research. Professors genuinely care about the students and go above and beyond to assist them in fulfilling their goals.
Students care about and support one another. In terms of academics: Gave me world-class instruction and guidance in whatever fields of study that interested me, with no politics or camps. In terms of job preparation: Fully prepared me to teach, to understand and maintain or even create an entire BA curriculum, to find and grow a community and support system. In terms of the experience of graduate school itself: Extremely supportive, joyful, enthusiastic, experience.
Huge growth intellectually and spiritually. Best years of my life as a student. Faculty and student colloquia, potlucks, poker nights, trips to the rodeo and the zoo, shared church life, vibrant discussion of academic and non-academic matters inside and outside the classroom. I became the man I am today, grown in knowledge, virtue and holiness, because of the people in and around that program and school. Placementwise, the program has done well in helping graduates get hired at church-related institutions.
With the current economic downturn, I worry that this approach will prove less effective. Two recent graduates who have been placed at Baptist institutions have recently lost their positions; however Catholic placements remain strong. In my time in the department, one concern students had was that faculty were primarily focused on their research projects such that working with students was secondary or even tertiary. The return of [name removed] to full time teaching in the department may help address this given [their] long-time focus on teaching and mentoring , but is still something worth considering.
The program is strongest at offering a supportive environment for graduate study and for preparing students to teach at teaching-first schools. There is a strong interest in Thomistic philosophy and also faculty strengths in Plato and Kierkegaard. Grad students are very congenial with a wide range of interests and a healthy sense of pluralism about the value of different interests.
For students interested in epistemology Northwestern is an incredible place to be, offering a striking balance and a deep bench of social and traditional analytic epistemology. In general, there are many opportunities to develop teaching experience and competency. The coursework requires that students study interdisciplinarily for some time, which is a strength in student training.
Student funding is competitive. And the placement record has been pretty decent, particularly considering the realities of the market. But I think overall the program is sound, although I think I emerged underprepared for research. I got my PhD in [year removed; prior to ].
Positive: teaching opportunities; Negative: few graduate courses and zero job placement help. Clashes among factions. In the early 90s NU was one of a handful of universities that taught both analytic and Continental traditions in 20th c. Unlike some similar programs, there was little sense of tension or hostility between the two camps. I hope it is still that way. It was a high profile program with excellent faculty and a very personal feel. It was also the best Continental Philosophy program in the country at that time, and the most pluralistic one.
There were excellent interdisciplinary opportunities across the campus. My fellow students were exceptional as well. Northwestern remains more pluralist than most departments. It lacks the depth it used to have in this respect, when I was trained there, but it offers students a good training that combines a sensible focus on professionalization with an eye opening and enriching historical and pluralist perspective that will help you see the forest and not just the trees that loom large in cutting edge work.
Not internally competitive -- i. When I was there, the program was very strong in phil sci physics and bio. But students left with an incredible historical education as well. Great student community, lots of research events, ideal for interdisciplinary projects I found the postgrad community extremely welcoming, supportive, and talented.
There was an excellent and productive relationship between faculty and the postgraduate student body. Excellent family housing and daycare for student-parents.
Excellent supervision in political philosophy. While the resources at Stanford are exceptional, the faculty support is not. There is more support for some areas e. The community of graduate students is one of the main strengths of this program as it is quite collegial and supportive. There are some good advisors here and professionalization advice is shared widely. There are many opportunities to meet outside scholars through the Center for the Philosophy of Science.
Pitt HPS has very good placement for students who make it through the program. The philosophy of science environment is top-notch for networking and fostering cutting edge research. The program is less successful in helping students find non-academic placement and the mentoring is often lacking or of a sink or swim variety.
Quality of the faculty was high; Quality of fellow graduate students was high; collegiality among graduate students was high; support from faculty and faculty advisers while in the program was high; support while on the job market was good; Pittsburgh is a pleasant and affordable city.
However, some of these advantages are "fragile" and can change with time as faculty and graduate students come and go. Support for students, even after graduation. Superb visiting scholars program at the Center for Philosophy of Science. The faculty and placement record speak for themselves.
For philosophy of science students two of the most valuable features of Pitt HPS that may not be immediately apparent were i the numbers of visitors passing through the Center for Philosophy of Science ii a decent size and friendly graduate student body working on philosophy of science at various stages of the program say people with whom you take graduate classes, learn from and bounce ideas off and get career advice from older students. This is an excellent department for students who are certain they would like to work in the philosophy of science.
It is not an appropriate choice for historians, or for those who have interests likely to develop in other areas of the discipline. This program is appropriate for students interested in technical work in philosophy of science, with secondary historical interests.
Students without background in a science should be prepared to get up to speed during their PhD. They were very encouraging of original thinking, seeking to develop my ideas, not just further their own intellectual agenda. They helped me to see myself as a professional and to pursue professional experiences, which was critical when I was on the job market. The pluralist course array was absolutely vital to developing flexibility in robust philosophical thought.
They encourage students to explore any philosophical school that may be fruitful to their questions. They also are more experienced and encouraging than most when it comes to thinking across disciplines.
The necessity of taking feminist courses made the graduate student community much more dynamic and engaging. The necessity of teaching duties was vital to my development as a professional teacher and as a thinker. At a previous institution, I had experiences with faculty openly hostile to one another, and they constantly dragged graduate students into it. While at my PhD granting institution, the faculty were professional and accessible, and any issues they had with one another were kept behind closed doors, making a very supportive environment for graduate students.
Also, the coursework is demanding and pluralistic. You cannot get through without being exposed to topics you may not otherwise have sought out, including things like feminist philosophy, not yet a staple in all programs.
Emphasis on pragmatism and engagement with social issues. Cross disciplinary. Clear writing encouraged. Many other interesting and committed faculty. I think the University of Oregon allows and supports grad students in pursuing a wide variety of projects and therefore generates some of the more creative dissertations. It also provides grad students with a lot of teaching opportunities, so grad students tend to be very competitive in the job market with respect to teaching jobs.
It is also the case that I and almost everyone I knew loved living in Eugene and it was so cheap! My only concern with the program is that few of the professors in the department do very much of what might be considered "mainstream" philosophy. So grad students being introduced to the discipline can sometimes come away with a slightly warped view of what the discipline is really like.
For example, the fact that American pragmatism is not a major sub-discipline was a shock to some going on the job market, as was finding out that what the majority of philosophers working on in areas such as philosophy of language, metaphysics, or epistemology is very different from what some of the professors at Oregon are doing or focusing on. The department is genuinely pluralistic, and I was exposed to a number of areas in philosophy I otherwise would not have encountered or taken seriously.
Most of the professors are also brilliant and legitimately care about educating students, both graduate and undergraduate, and they pass on the importance of that task to the graduate students. Like all programs, one or two professors stand out as not fitting this profile, but that in no way detracts from the great education you get there. The program is explicitly feminist and pluralist. It encourages students to explore various fields of philosophy and combine them in interesting and innovative ways.
The department also offers a variety of courses from non-Western traditions including Indigenous philosophy and Latin American philosophy. Faculty are invested in graduate student success and the community of grad students is friendly, supportive, and close. There are also lots of teaching opportunities for grad students. The program is quite unusual in that it is pluralist. I have found that this makes the graduates stronger, more flexible thinkers.
They are forced from day one to engage with others outside of their philosophical niche. Also, many of the works by students who attend this program are engaged with contemporary issues.
This seems to work well for them on the job market and in publishing. It is also important to note that students are required to take at least two courses in feminist philosophy. Ultimately this makes it a much more hospitable place to be a woman in philosophy. In my experience, the faculty are not trying to create clones of themselves or acolytes. They genuinely nurture the creativity of graduate students. I also found the learning environment to be mostly collaborative.
The faculty members are incredibly talented and are interested in building connections across their sub-fields, which engenders a culture of exploration and lively discussion. The placement rate of the department is also generally abysmal. During my time there, there was also nothing aimed at helping students find employment outside of academia.
I further developed my critical thinking skills, as well as research and writing skills. I also enjoyed the learning experience and found it intrinsically valuable. Having a PhD continues to be valued as a significant achievement in the context of my career. I am very glad that I did it. Large faculty, a lot of opportunity for different areas of study, a very good faculty.
Negatives: - Relations between students and faculty were often strained or toxic. Positives: - Lots of opportunity to pick up extra TA or Teaching work which you will definitely need, and may delay graduation. The department is very friendly, and the administrative staff is truly wonderful. It really is just an amazing place to be. The U of T Department of Philosophy is known for its large faculty. This is a major resource. For those who come into graduate school with a less-defined sense of what we want to work on, the size of the U of T faculty offers ample opportunity to learn about different areas from world-leading experts.
This means that you might start out in Ethics, get tempted by Ancient or Early Modern, and then end up doing something in Mind or Language or Metaphysics. I also found the departmental culture very conducive to getting good work done. The graduate student community is supportive, but not suffocating. Students are largely left to figure out their own path, both philosophically and socially, yet with the clear expectation that help will be there for them if they ask for it.
Teaching assistantships provide classroom experience. Traditionally, students in both the MA and Ph. The degree stresses both knowledge breadth and application in real-world contexts. Students complete the Ph. They develop essays that build their research and publishing expertise. They culminate the program with a dissertation. Degree-seekers may also earn an MA in philosophy on their path to the Ph.
Required Ph. Students complete 12 credits in one of two specializations: knowledge and representation or values and society. Doctoral students develop a dissertation on their chosen topic. They must pass both a comprehensive examination and Ph.
In exchange for either, participants may receive full or partial tuition waivers. The curriculum includes seminars, tutorials, and dissertation credit. Enrollees must pass an examination on their research topic before they write a dissertation. The department offers limited financial assistance that may include assistantships and fellowships.
Philosophy students at the University of Missouri receive extensive training in research and teaching from renowned faculty. Students study key areas such as ethics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and various specialties. Assistantships provide teaching experience and tuition funding. Fellowships may also provide tuition waivers and a modest stipend. The degree requires 90 credits that students complete on campus in Tampa.
Students complete two core seminars and choose a general concentration or concentration in philosophy and religion. The philosophy and religion concentration explores subjects such as religion in America, modern Christian thought, and studies in biblical archeology.
All students complete a comprehensive exam and a research dissertation. Teaching assistantships provide tuition waivers and stipends. The curriculum requires core courses in subjects such as the history of philosophy, metaphysics, and epistemology. A seminar develops teaching skills. To start, do current students and recent graduates recommend the program to prospective graduate students?
The average for all programs is "somewhat likely" to recommend 4. They are ordered below by topical cluster and then by average rating highest first. The majority of these programs are in the Core Analytic cluster dividing all programs into 8 clusters, the largest share end up in this cluster.
Of course, this is a rough guide to the overall topical focus of a program, some programs may be less of a good fit for a cluster than others, and many students and advisors in each program are likely to work on other topics. The cluster may nonetheless give a sense of fit for prospective students. Carnegie Mellon University 4. Racial and Ethnic Diversity An additional twelve are in the top 15 for percentage persons of color, listed in terms of percentage.
Socioeconomic Diversity An additional twelve are in the top 15 for percentage first-generation college students. Placement success can be measured in multiple ways. Included here is permanent academic placement rate, permanent academic placement rate into PhD-granting programs, and average salary. Note that I did include postdocs in this case. So I did my own analysis with the raw dataset used to generate the networks. And so on. This is actually a pretty close cousin to the problem that Google faced when it set up in the 90s.
There, the problem is to identify the most important websites. A first approximation might be that the most important sites are those which are most often linked to. A better approximation: the most important sites are those often linked to by other sites that are themselves often linked to. So we could just apply it to the APDA placement data.
But in any case, as Caroline notes above, the dataset probably includes postdocs. But never mind! So: suppose you were a bright undergraduate in , hoping to get a job at a department with a high PQR. Where do you apply? Ideally, a high-PQR department. So you could make lots of visits, look at information on the web, ask your undergraduate professors, try to talk to current students, etc.
Specifically and restricting attention to the US :. The original idea of PGR is that peer assessment of faculty quality is the best forward-looking predictor of placement placement itself being backward-looking, so that the placement data an undergraduate sees is very out of date by the time they get to grad school.
Well, if it was a predictor only because it was a causal agent, it would have to continue to be a causal agent for this decision to make sense. My name is Carolyn Report. I know that, but I was obviously typing on autopilot. No worries.
I know that; I was obviously typing on autopilot. But a there are various axes on which to assess the PGR. In which case present placement data will also not be predictive of future placement data. Obviously the latter could be rigid while the former shifts. Thank you so much for doing this! Thanks for the positive feedback! As someone who would have been happy in a teaching-intensive or research-intensive TT job, and who now will probably secure neither, I certainly would have liked to have had this information before going to grad school.
The nonsense about prestigious jobs versus non-prestigious jobs seems quite tone deaf to me, given the current state of the job market. Totally unclear. Princeton University. The report also includes a sorting of programs into different clusters by the keywords used to describe them, as depicted in the following dendogram: See p. Regarding areas of specialization AOS , the report finds p. Oldest Newest Most Voted. Inline Feedbacks. Reply to B 4 years ago. I suspect the APDA database is at least moderately biased in favor of better placement rates.
Reply to Postdoc 4 years ago. Carolyn Dicey Jennings. Hi Postdoc, We did not rely on reported placements by program officers. Reply to Carolyn Dicey Jennings 4 years ago. Carolyn, Is it not true that those programs were selected because they had placement pages and that the Proquest data was mostly? Carolyn D Jennings. In case you find data for other countries, here is what I have for our database: U.
Thanks Carolyn, You have helped assuage some of my concerns. Could you explain Appendix B to me? It seems there are a lot of programs not included. Postdoc, Thanks for pointing out Nottingham. I will add them to our list. Carolyn, Thanks for clearing that up. Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa. Reply to Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa 4 years ago. Justin Weinberg. Reply to John 4 years ago. Reply to Justin Weinberg 4 years ago.
I think the presentation in a ranked ordering is useless or worse. Reply to tern 4 years ago. Sara L. Dominic Lopes. Reply to S 4 years ago. Thanks, S!! Andrew Sepielli. Reply to Andrew Sepielli 4 years ago. Nick Byrd. This must have required an enormous amount of work and coordination with departments! Reply to Nick Byrd 4 years ago.
Hi Nick, Yes, it did. My collaborators and I worked very hard, but especially in the last month. And thanks for striving to publicize the data! Reply to Plotinus 4 years ago. Jonathan Schaffer.
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