help us w college list for a philosophy major?

Anonymous
full pay boy, 1500 SAT as a junior is taking it again. 3.75 GPA for known private.

Philosophy is intended major, but would like a school that isn't so competitive that he'll be boxed out of internships by the Econ people - or that allows kids with good not great math skills to add some Econ or data science or something to philosophy so he can leave with a job.

Good school based ECs and paid summer jobs, but no competitive summer programs (yet, he applied to some for this year)

location - not west coast, but otherwise open. size - open.
Anonymous
I don't think the school has much of anything to do with the ability to get econ internships.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:full pay boy, 1500 SAT as a junior is taking it again. 3.75 GPA for known private.

Philosophy is intended major, but would like a school that isn't so competitive that he'll be boxed out of internships by the Econ people - or that allows kids with good not great math skills to add some Econ or data science or something to philosophy so he can leave with a job.

Good school based ECs and paid summer jobs, but no competitive summer programs (yet, he applied to some for this year)

location - not west coast, but otherwise open. size - open.

Your state flagship. Assuming the strongest programs are the usual suspects in national rankings.
Anonymous
Consider St. John's College for a strong foundation in philosophy.
Anonymous
Ivies/T15/T3 Lacs. For philosphy (or art history or english) majors to have the most success in the job market they need the name brand.
Anonymous
UVA. UChicago (ED1), Vassar.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Ivies/T15/T3 Lacs. For philosphy (or art history or english) majors to have the most success in the job market they need the name brand.


I dont think a 3.7 gets you in those
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ivies/T15/T3 Lacs. For philosphy (or art history or english) majors to have the most success in the job market they need the name brand.


I dont think a 3.7 gets you in those


It does from some private schools.
Anonymous
Philosophy doesn't sound like a good major for a mediocre student who won't have a future in a philosophy career. Take philosophy electives / minor.
Anonymous
Here are some less elite schools with elite philosophy departments: Pitt, Rutgers, CUNY, Arizona, UC-Riverside, CU-Boulder, Florida State.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Philosophy doesn't sound like a good major for a mediocre student who won't have a future in a philosophy career. Take philosophy electives / minor.


not sure a 1500/3.75 from known private is a mediocre student.

those kids get into T20 schools from our private.
Anonymous
Any Jesuit college will have a compelling and strong Philosophy dept and they run the gamut of competitiveness for admission. Boatload of options and geographical locs. Plus those nearby larger metro areas will have a strong network of alumni for jobs in business ex post facto. I’d investigate those kinds of school. Fordham, Loyola (Baltimore), St. Joe’s, Dayton, Marquette… the list goes on and on.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Philosophy doesn't sound like a good major for a mediocre student who won't have a future in a philosophy career. Take philosophy electives / minor.


not sure a 1500/3.75 from known private is a mediocre student.

those kids get into T20 schools from our private.


+2 The “medicore student” poster likely has a public school kid where the norm is all As. Even an A- is unusual at many DMV public schools.
Anonymous
Look closely at Hamilton. Hamilton is one of perhaps two or three schools in the U.S. to offer a general summer program in philosophy. This is noteworthy and reflects well on Hamilton’s philosophy program overall. In any case, whichever college your son attends, he may want to keep the program in mind:

https://academics.hamilton.edu/philosophysummerschool

With respect to your son's broader academic pursuits, Hamilton offers an open and accessible curriculum, an available data science major and a national-level economics program.
Anonymous
The Philosophical Gourmet Report has some useful data.

https://philosophicalgourmet.com/report-2022/undergraduate-study-2/

Also, when I was looking at this a year or so ago, I found a source that discussed undergrad options, but I can't find the link. It analyzed admissions to the elite U.S. phD programs and came up with a list of colleges that are successful in getting the students into them. "Elite" was defined by the author as top 25 “national research universities” or the top 15 “national liberal arts colleges,” plus NYU, Rutgers, Michigan, Pitt, and Reed due to the the top-five PGR ranking of their philosophy PhD programs.

All I have are my notes on it (apologies to source):

"Of the 183 students with listed U.S. undergraduate degrees, 106 (60%) hailed from the elite schools defined above.

Five universities contributed at least eight students to the list, that is, at least one student per examined PhD program: Berkeley (10), Chicago (10), NYU (10), Harvard (8), and Stanford (8). These five schools alone are responsible for 25% of listed students.

Several other elite schools contributed at least four students each: Rutgers (6), Princeton (5), Yale (5), Dartmouth (4), Reed (4), and Williams (4).

Each of the top ten ranked national universities contributed at least one student.

The full list of elite programs is: Amherst College (2), Berkeley (10) Brown (3), Carleton College (3), Chicago (10), Claremont McKenna, Columbia (3), Cornell, Dartmouth (4), Emory, Grinnell (2), Harvard (8), Haverford (2), Johns Hopkins (2), MIT, Northwestern (2), NYU (10), Penn (3), Pitt, Pomona, Princeton (5), Reed (4), Rutgers (6), Stanford (8), USC, Virginia, Washington U. St Louis, Wellesley, Williams (4), and Yale (5).

The full list of nationally ranked but nonelite schools is: Alabama, Arizona State (2), Auburn, Biola (2), Boston College, Brandeis (2), Cinncinnati, Franklin & Marshall, Furman, Houston, Illinois College, Indiana (2), Kenyon, Lafayette, Lewis & Clark, Marquette, Maryland-Baltimore County, Minnesota (2), Missouri-Columbia, North Carolina State, Northeastern (2), Oberlin (2), Pepperdine, Purdue, Sewanee, St Johns, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Stony Brook (2), UC Davis, UC San Diego (2), University of Missouri-St Louis, UNC Chapel Hill (5), UNC-Asheville, Union College, University at Buffalo-SUNY, Vermont, Wake Forest, Washington-Seattle, West Point, West Virginia, Westmont, Wheaton, Whitman, and William & Mary.

The top ten most awarded undergrad degrees in philosophy are Penn, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara (693), Boston College (654), UC Berkeley (644), Washington-Seattle (485), Wisconsin-Madison (478), UC Santa Cruz (468), Colorado-Boulder (428), and University of Arizona (426).

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