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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 M.A. programs, the top program in the country (in terms of faculty quality) is Tufts University. After Tufts, several other terminal M.A. programs have very strong faculties: University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, and Northern Illinois University. Rounding out "the top eight" terminal M.A. programs, in terms of faculty quality, are Georgia State University; University of Houston; University of Missouri, St. Louis; and Western Michigan University. Other programs worth considering for students with the right interests would also include California State University, Los Angeles; Colorado State University (esp. for applied ethics); and Texas Tech University.
Even among the top eight, it is probably worth noting that these programs have different areas of excellence. Very roughly, these are the primary areas of strength of the various terminal M.A. programs (though bear in mind most of these programs have broad coverage beyond the areas noted):
Georgia State University: Political and Legal Philosophy; History of Philosophy (ancient, Kant, and post-Kantian Continental philosophy).
Northern Illinois University: Metaphysics & Epistemology; Philosophy of Language, Mind & Psychology.
University of Houston: Philosophy of Cognitive Science; Logic; Early Modern Philosophy.
University of Missouri, St. Louis: History and Philosophy of Science (including cognitive science), Ethics, Metaphysics, Aesthetics.
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee: Philosophy of Language & Mind; History of Philosophy (esp. early modern, Marx, Frankfurt School).
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University: History & Philosophy of Science (incl. cognitive science); Moral & Political Philosophy.
Western Michigan University: Metaphysics; Philosophy of Religion; Applied Ethics.
Tufts University: Philosophy of Language, Mind, and Cognitive Science; Moral & Political Philosophy.
Texas A&M University, which now has a PhD program, continues to offer the terminal M.A. and is worth investigating for that purpose as well. Students should investigate the success of all M.A. programs in placing their students in top Ph.D. programs. Georgia State has a model site providing this information, and students should ask all M.A. 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 Ph.D.: 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 Ph.D. programs that are less highly ranked, but still have strong faculties, may in fact turn out to be very good choices for the M.A.
Many students also report to me having had a good experience by applying for the B.Phil. or equivalent degrees at various English schools— Oxford, St. Andrews, LSE, UCL, Birkbeck are among the attractive choices—before applying to Ph.D. programs. And in Canada, among schools that offer only the terminal M.A. (but no Ph.D.), the Universities of Manitoba and Victoria have probably the strongest faculties.
As in the U.S., it may also be worth considering the less highly ranked Canadian PhD programs which offer the terminal MA, and which, in some cases, may have good track records with their MA graduates in terms of PhD placement. Simon Fraser, Calgary, and Dalhousie
are often mentioned in this regard.
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