<p>I’m Looking to get a PH.D in Philosophy and I’m trying to find a college that would be right for me. Would anybody have some tips that would help decide which college would be best for me? My interests in Philosophy are Religion, Politics, Morals, Law, and Science.</p>
<p>You need to start by discussing your goals for your Ph.D. program with your own professors. They have will have good ideas for you.</p>
<p>You might want to move/repost this to the Grad School forum where you’ll get the most helpful replies. The above post is certainly the right place to start; your current faculty. You will also want to identify your research strengths and interests to find departments with the right professors and programs for you.</p>
<p>US News Best Graduate Schools for a start</p>
<p>schools granting the most philosophy/religion PhDs in a recent year</p>
<p>88 Oxford Graduate School
30 Claremont Graduate University
21 Marquette University
20 Vanderbilt University
20 Emory University
19 Boston University
18 Harvard University
16 University of California-Santa Barbara
14 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
13 University of Virginia-Main Campus
13 Baylor University
13 SUNY at Binghamton
13 Fordham University
13 CUNY Graduate School and University Center
13 Indiana University-Bloomington
12 The University of Texas at Austin
12 Yale University
11 Princeton University
10 Temple University
9 University of Wisconsin-Madison
9 Cornell University
9 University of Chicago
9 Iliff School of Theology
9 University of Denver
8 Stanford University
8 Rice University
8 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus
8 University of Pennsylvania
8 Duke University
8 Columbia University in the City of New York
8 University of Iowa
8 Southern Illinois University Carbondale
8 Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
7 Purdue University-Main Campus
7 Tennessee Temple University
7 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
7 Stony Brook University
7 Drew University
7 Calvin Theological Seminary
7 Andrews University
7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7 Boston College
7 University of Notre Dame
7 Georgetown University
7 University of California-Berkeley
7 California Institute of Integral Studies
7 Arizona State University
6 Washington University in St Louis
6 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
6 Northwestern University
6 University of Florida
6 University of Colorado Boulder
6 University of California-Riverside
6 University of Arizona
5 Ohio State University-Main Campus
5 University at Buffalo
5 Rutgers University-New Brunswick
5 Johns Hopkins University
5 Loyola University-Chicago
5 University of Illinois at Chicago
5 University of Hawaii at Manoa
5 University of South Florida-Main Campus
5 University of California-Los Angeles</p>
<p>Thanks everyone I appreciate it!</p>
<p>Don’t go by the number of schools that grant PhDs in philosophy each year. That’s only an indicator of the size of the program, but a bigger program isn’t necessarily a better one.</p>
<p>Here is the link to the National Research Council’s rankings for doctoral programs in philosophy:
[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Philosophy - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Philosophy”>NRC Rankings Overview: Philosophy)</p>
<p>The S-rank is the ranking of programs based on criteria that scholars in the field value. The R-rank is based on characteristics that faculty consider top-notch. The S-rank and R-rank are slightly different but not significantly in most cases (although in some it is, like Binghamton). Note that the NRC takes forever to release rankings and this is based on data collected in 2005-2006, so it’s a bit out of date (almost 10 years at this point - and they only released the data 3 years ago, lol). This is why rankings should be taken with a grain of salt; don’t take the rankings in terms of absolute numbers, but as a rough idea of the comparative quality of programs.</p>
<p>There’s also a consortium called the Philosophical Gourmet that does their own rankings. These rankings are of faculty quality and reputation.
[The</a> Philosophical Gourmet Report 2011 :: Overall Rankings](<a href=“http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp]The”>http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp)</p>
<p>There’s also a page explaining what the rankings mean and how they were compiled.</p>
<p>The most important thing is fit. This is a bit different in the humanities; in the sciences and social sciences, you need a scholar who does research that is similar to yours, who can mentor you in that particular area. In the humanities, I think you still do need a scholar who has a similar theoretical approach to you and who investigate areas that are relevant to your interests. So when you look through programs’ departments, look at the faculty who are there and the kind of research/scholarship they do. Also look at the classes and resources offered in each department. What are the libraries like? Are there any archives or special collections that will be useful to your work?</p>