I am a freshman right now and I am looking to transfer for another school. Personally, I know I will major in astrophysics and also with a great interest in continental philosophy, especially phenomenology and existentialism. I am not pretty sure which universities are best at these two projects, though I have done a lot of research. Of course, I would prefer school that I stand a chance to transfer into.
Here is my list of school:
1,University of Arizona
2,California Institute of Technology
3,Ohio state university
4, UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley,UC Los Angeles
5,University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
6,Penn state university
7,Boston University
8,Chicago
9,Harvard
10,Cornell
11,Colombia university
12, Rice University
I would say I mostly want to go to Colombia university, BU, and UCB, which have the best undergraduate program for my major and I like those cities. However, UCB and Colombia university are too selective, which leave BU the only practical choice. What do you Guys think? Is there any school I overlooked? I don’t know how is rice university’s program.
Why would Caltech be on this list? You likely won’t find their philosophy offerings to be very robust.
What school are you at now? What is your GPA? What were your HS stats? What is your home state? What is your financial situation? Do you have SAT or ACT scores from your original admission? Are you a US citizen or green card holder?
Just letting you know, if you’re serious about going to Columbia University, you should make sure you have the name right. I’m guessing you’re not looking to apply to South American universities as an international student….
I see. I add Caltech simply because it has one of the best astro program.
I am an international students with no green card. I am at Rutgers now, which a current GPA 4.0 and is likely to be higher than 3.7 at the end of my freshman year. My HS stats is not ideal, with only gpa around 3.0. My SAT is 1350 and I don’t really want to take it again. Thus, I want to go to school don’t take SAT as an important factor. I guess I will transfer 2020 Spring though, though UCB and Colombia university don’t accept spring transfer.
Hey there! I can speak a bit to continental philosophy. First of all, it’s worth noting that Arizona, Caltech, UCLA, Santa Barbara, Ohio State, Umich, Harvard, Cornell, and Columbia don’t have many offerings in existentialism and phenomenology. All of those are predominantly analytic programs, and amongst them Columbia is probably the school with the most people who work in continental stuff. But even there, there’s only one guy who works on phenomenology full-time (Taylor Carman), and he primarily is invested in Heidegger’s work.
Generally speaking, the schools that have more focus on phenomenology and continental traditions will be found on spep.org. They’re schools like Rice University (Which has Steven Crowell, a very important commenter on Heidegger and Husserl), Penn State, Vanderbilt, Emory, DePaul, and Fordham. Boston University might very well be a good choice, though their offerings in continental philosophy tend to be oriented more toward 19th century stuff than 20th century phenomenology. Can I ask what your career plans are? If you plan on pursuing a PhD in philosophy, it’s actually best to go to an analytic program (generally speaking) which has some people working in continental thought, since that just opens more doors. Anyways, feel free to PM me; I’m an undergraduate, but I’ve long wanted to pursue a PhD in philosophy and I’ve accumulated a bit of information along the way.
Thank you for replying! I actually decide to pursue an astrophysics PhD.
I think that Umich, UCB have some courses covering phenomenology. Indeed rice university is a choice for me. I think BU also have one or two professor focus on phenomenology.
Are there no emphasis on phenomenology in UCB and Cornell philosophy program?
The two professors who have some interest in phenomenology at UCB are Alva Noe and Hans Sluga. However, it’s very unlikely you’re going to be able to get a full, deep education in phenomenology there, since both of those professors are primarily focused on other things. You can see in the Fall & Spring 2019 courses that there aren’t any courses specifically on phenomenology and existentialism, though there is one course on Nietzsche.
Cornell is probably even worse. There’s one professor, Michelle Kosch, who has an interest in Kierkegaard, but she’s published mostly on the German Idealists. Cornell isn’t bad for continental in general, but you’re not going to find much on phenomenology and existentialism.
The best places to study continental thought are generally somewhat off the radar. They’re places like Vanderbilt, Emory, DePaul, Penn State, The New School for Social Research, Boston University, and Boston College. Northwestern and Georgetown are decent too, though they’re very selective.
I appreciate your help!
But only few schools are both good at astrophysics and continental philosophy. I will definitely try to transfer to BU though. I will also try Cornell, and probably UCB.
I have to ask what is wrong with Rutgers. It is very respectable, and with high grades and a good Physics GRE score, you should have good PhD program chances.
I totally agree that Rutgers is a good school for physics. But Rutgers astrophysics program isn’t that good, and its philosophy program barely has any continental emphasis.
Also note that Rice U and Caltech and both small, Caltech smaller, and they do not take many transfer students, maybe one or two a year.
Look at bigger public programs in physics, and astrophysics. U of Colorado Boulder, U of Texas Austin,
U of Maryland College Park. They all take transfers, and all ranked well in physics and astrophysics.
I don’t know what they have for philosophy, but some classes.
You really can get a physics degree then go for a PhD in astrophysics. You will need to attend REUs in the branch of physics you are interested in, those are summer programs at other universities and competitive for admission.
you can do one REU after sophomore year, and one after junior year and that will help your grad school application.
You will also need to study for the Physics subject GRE exam , offered in spring and fall. Need to take it spring of junior year, see what you are missing, then take again, for most students.
Astronomy and physics department at Cornell is very very strong. Its better to major in physics, and take a lot of math if you want a PhD in any branch of physics.
How about physics&astronomy program in BU? And Umich?