Who should consider an M.A. program in philosophy? Three categories of students who ultimately want to get a Ph.D. and pursue an academic career might benefit from such programs: (i) students whose undergraduate major was not philosophy; (ii) students who majored in philosophy at universities with philosophy departments outside the mainstream of the profession; and (iii) students who majored in philosophy, have a solid grounding in the various areas of philosophy, but who studied philosophy at smaller colleges and universities, or at institutions with weak academic reputations (students should consult their departments to find out whether graduates of their schools have been able to gain admittance to Ph.D. programs of their choice). Students in each category may be both qualified and able to get into the Ph.D. programs of their choice; but students who fit into one of these categories may be more likely to have trouble getting into Ph.D. programs and may be good candidates to benefit from M.A. programs.

A good M.A. program will provide many benefits: it will allow a student to get a basic grounding in philosophy or expand the breadth of her existing knowledge; to develop increased familiarity with current debates in philosophy; to prepare and polish written work in philosophy that will be useful in the applications process for Ph.D. programs; and to get to know some established philosophers who can then provide meaningful letters of recommendation for Ph.D. programs.

Among terminal MA programs, the top program in the U.S. (in terms of faculty quality) is clearly Tufts University. (In Canada, the top program is probably the one at the University of Victoria, though there are fewer terminal M.A. programs there [that is, fewer graduate programs that offer only the M.A.], and many Canadian students earn the M.A. en route to the Ph.D.) After Tufts, several other terminal MA programs have very strong faculties: University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Virginia Poytechnic Institute & State University, Northern Illinois University, and University of Missouri at St. Louis. University of Houston and Georgia State University are arguably comparable to the top five as well. Rounding out "the top ten" for terminal MA programs are Western Michigan University and Texas Tech University. Texas A&M University, which now has a PhD program, continues to offer the terminal MA and is worth investigating for that purpose as well. Of these programs, Wisconsin/Milwaukee, Georgia State, Northern Illinois, and Texas A&M all have notable offerings in Continental philosophy as well.

Other M.A. programs not noted here do have particular strengths, e.g., Colorado State University in applied ethics. But the programs ranked here generally have faculties that compare favorably with existing PhD programs. Students should, however, investigate the success of all MA programs in placing their students in top Ph.D. programs. Georgia State has a model site providing this information, and students should ask all MA programs for comparable data: http://www.gsu.edu/%7Ewwwphl/philosophy.html (click on MA program, and then "placement").

Many Ph.D. programs also admit M.A. students. Students should be more wary of the M.A. programs at schools in roughly the top 25 that grant the PhD: often M.A. students take a back seat to the Ph.D. students (in terms of faculty attention), and students with weak philosophy backgrounds may find the pace and level of seminars geared to Ph.D. students daunting. Students considering M.A. programs in top-ranked Ph.D.-granting institutions should investigate the situation of M.A. students at the school carefully before enrolling. However, some PhD programs that are less highly ranked, but still have strong faculties, may in fact turn out to be good choices for the MA.

Many students also report to me having had a good experience by studying for the B.Phil. or M.Phil. degree at Oxford, before applying to Ph.D. programs.