Program Overview

Degree candidates must have received a bachelor's degree from a recognized institution. Although an undergraduate degree in philosophy is not required for admission to the M.A./Ph.L. program, where deficits exist, students will be required to make them up through additional graduate coursework in select philosophical disciplines, or up to eight upper-level undergraduate courses including one course in symbolic logic, before regular standing as an M.A. or Ph.L. candidate is achieved.

Degree Requirements

  1. Candidates must complete, in residence, two semesters of full-time study (or the equivalent). A minimum of eight three-credit graduate courses is required. Students may not repeat a graduate philosophy course in order to raise their grade.
  2. M.A. or Ph.L. degree candidates must complete all degree requirements within three years after admission to the program.
  3. Candidates must present a thesis, the title of which is to be submitted for approval by the faculty (topic approval form can be found here.)
    a. In order to hold the M.A. Oral Examination (see below), the thesis must first be approved by the director and the reader, and the final manuscript of the thesis must be deposited with the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies. Those hoping to be counted among May graduates should be aware that the School of Philosophy's deadline for deposit of the thesis is one week prior to the final date for depositing theses and dissertations identified on the University's Academic Calendar.
    b. Detailed instructions about the preparation of the final copy and other procedures may be obtained from the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies.
    c. Six credits are awarded for the thesis upon the completion of all other requirements for the degree.
  4. An oral examination, of one hour, before four members of the faculty. The oral examination must take place before the end of the second semester after the semester in which the student completes all required coursework.
  5. Students are permitted to do doctoral coursework before all requirements for the M.A. are completed, but such coursework neither entails admission to the Ph.D. program, nor itself constitutes an argument for admission to the Ph.D. program.