[ADMIN NOTE: Originally posted 02/15/07. I'll probably move this forward a couple of times before grad school decisions are due in mid-April.]
It’s that time of the year, when students begin receiving offers from graduate programs. If you’re one of those fortunate enough to be in the difficult position of having multiple offers (or if you’re planning on applying to graduate school in the next couple of years), Keith DeRose’s “Thoughts on How to Choose a Graduate Program in Philosophy” is worth reading.
We not only welcome, but encourage, questions from current undergrads and comments from current grad students on how to make the best decision.
- Rico Vitz
It is indeed rather rare to have more than one or two offers with full tuition waiver and stipend; in my experience, the average is one. I’ve known people who were offered anywhere from zero to three ‘full ride’ opportunities, but usually it’s only one. If you are indeed brilliant enough to have two or three offers, then you should simply choose the school that is most suited to your scholarly interests. It can be very helpful to look through the c.v.’s of the faculty, to see what they’ve been publishing (and how much they’ve publishing), to see if you might want to work with them. Another key indicator is to look at what dissertations students are actually writing (i.e., on what topics), to see whether you would fit in at that particular school. Rankings of grad schools have never seemed particularly helpful to me, insofar as the lists are usually made by someone in one ‘niche’ (the lists in English are usually made by those biased toward Anglo-American philosophy), and thus they leave out a number of great programs. Ultimately it isn’t so much the school that you go to (though this isn’t completely irrelevant, of course), but your dissertation director and the people that you know; what will get you hired isn’t the fact that you’re “student from X school,” but that you’re “Dr. X’s student.” The academic dean of my college (Lloyd Chapin, at Eckerd College) told me that when hiring, 80% of the decision-swaying characteristics have nothing to do with where you went to school. It is far, far more important to be well-spoken, to have good references, to have a publication history, etc. So be sure to end up in a grad program where you’ll be happy, even if it’s slightly less prestigious. It’s also worth thinking about what sort of career you want, i.e., teaching-focused or publication-focused. If you want to focus on publishing, then the prestige of the program will matter somewhat more; the ‘big name’ schools want to hire famous (or soon-to-be-famous) scholars, not teachers.
As for advice on the earlier stage, i.e., ‘choosing a grad program’ in the sense of the application process, there are a few simple things that I wish I had known when I was first applying (which would be four years ago, now). As I’ve learned from conversations with people on admissions committees, the selection process is disturbingly random, but one constant is that GRE scores are given an absurd amount of weight (unjustly, I would argue; it’s a test that you can study for, and doesn’t necessarily reflect intelligence). It’s worth the time to invest in memorizing vocab words, taking practice GRE’s, etc. Often, the GRE score will decide whether or not you’re given a full financial aid package.
It’s also important to apply to as many schools as possible; my undergraduate mentor recommended 12, though I ended up doing something like 7 or 8. I wish I had applied to more schools, though; I aimed a little too high, and was only accepted to two schools (Boston College and Catholic University of America), and only received a ‘full ride’ from one. If I had applied to a few middle-tier schools, I would have had more options, or could have negotiated for more money, etc. (If schools know that you’re in demand, they’ll often make counter-offers, etc.; my college roommate received an extra $5000 per year from SUNY Stony Brook when they heard that Emory was interested in him).
The DeRose link (in the original post) is very helpful, he offers a lot of great advice; looking at the school’s placement rate is very important, as this will determine whether or not any given grad program will be able to get you a job. It’s also worth asking how many of those ‘placements’ are tenure-track positions.
I should note, though, that the Philosophical Gourmet report cited by DeRose is infamously unhelpful; as mentioned above, it’s one of those guides that is completely biased toward Anglo-American analytic philosophy, and thus doesn’t apply to everyone. There are some extremely good continental and Catholic schools left out of that list. My advice would be to ask the authorities in whichever area of philosophy that you’re interested in, email them and ask which programs would be most suited to your interests; or if this seems too daunting, ask your professors (it’s their job to tell you these things!).
Not to open Pandora’s box, but your last paragraph is curious to me. You write:
“I should note, though, that the Philosophical Gourmet report cited by DeRose is infamously unhelpful; as mentioned above, it’s one of those guides that is completely biased toward Anglo-American analytic philosophy, and thus doesn’t apply to everyone. There are some extremely good continental and Catholic schools left out of that list. My advice would be to ask the authorities in whichever area of philosophy that you’re interested in, email them and ask which programs would be most suited to your interests; or if this seems too daunting, ask your professors (it’s their job to tell you these things!).”
For those of us who do analytic philosophy, it seems that by your lights the PGR should be very helpful. That is because the PGR is simply an amalgamation of the advice of authorities in analytic philosophy. This is especially true, it seems to me, in the speciality rankings.