Graduate Placement
Graduate Placement
The table below provides a complete record of placement outcomes for graduate students (only) in the MA program beginning in AY09–10. Data are for any/all students who have applied, successful or not, for further academic study based on their MA degree. Unless otherwise indicated, results are for doctoral admissions in Philosophy, and included full funding. Not listed are students that opted not to pursue academia beyond the MA. For additional information, see our Alumni page. A note about placement from 1988–2008 follows.
| MA Graduation Year | Thesis Title or Writing Sample | Placement |
|---|---|---|
| 2020–2021 | exact title tbd (epistemology) | PhD, University of California Irvine |
| 2020–2021 | exact title tbd (phil neuro) | PhD, University of Pittsburgh HPS |
| 2020–2021 | exact title tbd (epistemology) | PhD, University of Memphis |
| 2020–2021 | (metaphysics) | |
| 2019–2020 | Relevant Features that Could Qualify Artificial Intelligence Systems as Persons with Moral Standing | PhD, University of Wisconsin |
| 2018–2019 | Language, Nature, and Meaning in Life | PhD, University of Cincinnati |
| 2017–2018 | The Basis of Moral Values | PhD, University of Connecticut |
| 2016–2017 | An Empirical Look at the Transparency of Perceptual Experience | PhD, University of California San Diego |
| 2016–2017 | Absence Causation in Mechanistic Explanation | PhD, University of Colorado |
| 2016–2017 | Scientific Realism and the Geometric Structure of Physical Theories | PhD, University of Minnesota |
| 2014–2015 | Overcoming the Present | PT Lecturer, Cal State San Bernardino |
| 2014–2015 | Tracing and Offloading: A Neo-Lockean Reply to Johnston | PhD, University of Kansas |
| 2013–2014 | The Doxastic Conception of Delusion | PhD, University of Wisconsin |
| 2013–2014 | Comprehensive Exams | PT Lecturer, Long Beach City College |
| 2012–2013 | Comprehensive Exams | JD, Loyola Marymount |
| 2012–2013 | O’Connor’s Agent-Causation Theory of Free Will | PhD, University of California Davis |
| 2011–2012 | Dirty Hands, Virtue Ethics, and Consequentialism | PhD, Syracuse University |
| 2011–2012 | Blameworthiness and Manipulation | PhD, Purdue University |
| 2010–2011 | The Role of Intuition in Philosophical Theory Construction | PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 2010–2011 | Nietzsche as Cultural Physician | JD, University of Southern California |
| 2009–2010 | World-Making, Exemplification, and Film Adaptations | PhD [Cinema], University of California Los Angeles |
| 2009–2010 | A Defense of Mackie’s Error Theory | PhD, University of Western Ontario |
| 2008–2009 | A Defense of Donald Davidson’s Dissolution to the Problem of Global Skepticism | PhD, University of Utah |
| 2007–2008 | Back to the Future: A Modern Natural Law Understanding of the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 | PhD, University of California Irvine |
| 2005–2006 | New Foundations for Philosophy of Mind | PhD, Florida State University |
| 2005–2006 | Explanation in Biology | PhD, University of Minnesota |
A review showed that 127 MA degrees were awarded during the period 1988–2008. Although some data is incomplete, a (conservative) review revealed the following results:
- 58 of the 127 graduates chose to apply to doctoral programs.
- 53 (or 91%) of these 58 were admitted to a doctoral program.
- 45 of these 53 were admitted to a PhD program in Philosophy, and 7 were admitted to doctoral programs in other disciplines (e.g., Law, Education, Film Studies).
- 30 of the 45 admitted to a PhD program in Philosophy (67%) were admitted to one (or more) of the top-fifty PhD programs in the United States (as ranked by The Philosophical Gourmet Report).
- Of the 69 graduates that chose not to apply to PhD programs, at least 21 (or more than 30%) went on to teach Philosophy as Full- or Part-time Adjunct Professors or Lecturers at various universities and community colleges around the United States and Canada.