Philosophy, MA

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The MA program can be completed either entirely through course work or through a combination of course work and thesis preparation.

Admission Requirements

Students seeking admission must have a BA degree, including the equivalent of 30 credit hours in philosophy. Students who lack this preparation must make up deficiencies either before or during graduate study. In the latter case, students will be admitted only conditionally, pending removal of the deficiencies. Deficiencies may also be designated in cases where a student’s background does not include a sufficient number and range of courses in Western philosophy. The GRE General Test is required of all program applicants to whom it is accessible.

Degree Requirements

To be eligible for conferral of the MA degree, a student must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.3 while completing at least 30 credit hours of course work, at least 18 of which must be in courses numbered 600 and above. In addition, students submit three papers written for PHIL courses for a culminating exam, which includes an oral component. This does not apply to students taking the MA thesis option. Also required for the MA degree are four semesters (or the demonstrated equivalent) of at least one philosophically significant language other than English: typically classical Greek, Latin, French, German, Arabic, classical Chinese, Japanese, Sanskrit, or Pali.