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.
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 and 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.
Among schools that do not offer the PhD or MA in philosophy, those with the best philosophy faculties are: California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth 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, for example: Amherst College, Reed College, Barnard College, Swarthmore College, Haverford College, Mt. Holyoke College, Smith College, Pomona College, Occidental College, Trinity University (San Antonio), Brandeis University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Massachussetts at Boston, Colgate University, Oberlin College, Virginia Commonwealth University, California State University at Northridge, College of William & Mary, Wesleyan University, New College (South Florida), Bates College, Western Washington University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Franklin & Marshall College, Colby College, Davidson College, and Kansas State University among others. 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.
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 the programs in Group 1-3, with the remainder coming from other ranked programs. 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.
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.
Back to top
|
