M.A. Placement Record
Summary
Since 1995, 119 students have graduated with an M.A. in philosophy from Virginia Tech. Approximately 90% of the students who have applied to Ph.D. programs have been admitted with funding. We have placed students in a number of leading philosophy Ph.D. programs, including Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Indiana, Duke, Arizona, Brown, Notre Dame, Toronto, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, and Rutgers.
Students who do not wish to study philosophy at a doctoral level have been successful in pursuing other careers, both in other academic disciplines (Anthropology, Public Policy, and English, for instance) and outside the academy in the public and private sector (in computer-related fields, education, and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), among others). We are proud of our placement record for both groups of students.
The average number of students graduating each year throughout the existence of the program is 7. In the last five years, this has risen to between 7 and 11 students a year.
Acceptances are to Philosophy Ph.D. programs with funding unless noted. Beginning 2012 (and in some cases 2011), we record every program into which the applicant was admitted. Before that, we recorded only the program in which the applicant enrolled.
Placement
| Graduation Year and Thesis Title | Philosophy PhD Applications |
Subsequent Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | ||
| “On Distinguishing the Meaningless from the Meaningful” | Yes |
Attending University of California (Irvine) Logic and Philosophy of Science Department, also accepted University of California at San Diego, City University of New York Graduate Center, University of Notre Dame. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Attending University of Oklahoma, also accepted University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University, and Purdue University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Attending University of Oklahoma, also accepted Purdue University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Attending The Ohio State University. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Accepted, Virginia Tech Center for Public Administration and Policy; on the waitlist at Denver School of Public Affairs. |
| “On What We Confront in Perceptual Experience” | Yes |
Accepted at Boston University. |
| Thesis option | Yes |
No news. |
| Thesis option | No |
TBD. |
| Thesis option | No |
TBD. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
TBD. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
TBD. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
TBD. | 2012 |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Attending University of Washington at Seattle. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Cambridge University (without funding) and Georgetown University (on waitlist for funding). |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Teaching Philosophy and English at Avon Old Farms School, Avon, Connecticut. |
| “Examining the 'Adam Smith Problem'” | No |
Instructor, Lynchburg College. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
M.A. program in Philosophy of Biology at Exeter University. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector. | 2011 |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Research Coordinator, Social Clinical Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Virginia Tech. Beginning Ph.D. Fall 2013. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Rutgers University. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
University of Chicago, Public Policy, MPP. |
| A Veritable Jekyll and Hyde: Epistemic Circularity and Reliabilist Theories of Justification | Yes |
Purdue University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Attending the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, also accepted University of California at Irvine and The Ohio State University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of South Carolina. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Attending University of Toronto, also accepted University of Michigan, Cornell University, and University of Pittsburgh History and Philosophy of Science. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Virginia. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Rice University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Arizona. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Instructorship at University of Toledo |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Virginia Tech, STS Ph.D. |
| 2010 | ||
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Ohio State University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of California, San Diego. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Virginia Tech, Planning Governance and Globalization Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
University of California at Irvine, Biology Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
St. Louis University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Ohio State University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Southern California. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Buffalo. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Arizona. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
University of Nevada, Reno, Mathematics MA. |
| Non-thesis option | -- |
-- |
| Non-thesis option | -- |
-- |
| 2009 | ||
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Brown University. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
University of Virginia, Law School |
| A Critique of Langton on Kantian Substance | No |
Ph.D. plans deferred |
| Supervaluationism, Penumbral Connections, and the Nature of Higher-Order Vagueness | No |
Instructorship at VT |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Virginia Tech, ASPECT Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Oklahoma. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
George Mason University, Law School |
| Inescapable Wrongdoing and the Coherence of Morality: An Examination of Moral Dilemmas | No |
Instructorship at VT |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Declined Ph.D. acceptances in favor of law |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Private sector |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector |
| 2008 | ||
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Indiana University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Southern California. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
UC San Diego. |
| What Dolphins Want: Animal Intentionality and Tool-Use | Yes |
Virginia Tech, STS Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Washington University, St. Louis. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Virginia. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Indiana University, HPS Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Cardozo Law School |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector |
| A Davidsonian Response to the Dead Metaphor Problem | No |
Private sector |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Private sector |
| 2007 | ||
| A Modifier-Based Philosophy of Whole Number | Yes |
Princeton University. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
UNC Chapel Hill, Medicine |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Michigan State. |
| Between Hull and a Hard Core: Varying Patterns in the Evolution of the Darwinian Research Tradition | Yes |
University of Connecticut. |
| Creating a Community of Equals: Luck Egalitarianism, Democratic Equality, and the Significance of the Choice/Circumstance Distinction | Yes |
UNC Chapel Hill, Master of Library Science |
| Non-thesis option | No |
U.S. Military |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private Sector |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private Sector |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private Sector |
| 2006 | ||
| Scientific Realism and the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements | Yes |
Duke University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Wisconsin. |
| Visiting Graduate Fellow | Yes |
University of Toronto. |
| On the Moral Legitimacy of States and the Morality of Killing in War | No |
Private sector |
| Non-thesis option | No |
U.S. Military |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Virginia Tech, Veterinary Medicine |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Teaching at New River Community College |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Public sector |
| 2005 | ||
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Toronto. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Washington. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Teaching at Ulster County Community College |
| Understanding Dead Languages | No |
Private sector |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Public sector |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of British Columbia. |
| Experience and Pictoral Representation | Yes |
Washington University, St. Louis. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Public sector |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Virginia Tech, ASPECT Ph.D. |
| 2004 | ||
| Animating the EPR-Experiment: The Case for Objectivity in the Search for Bell Violations | Yes |
Columbia University. |
| Objectivity in Feminist Philosophy of Science | Yes |
Duke University, Classics Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Emory University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Virginia Tech, STS Ph.D. |
| Pragmatic Epistemology, Community, and the Problem of Solipsism | No |
University of Indiana Law |
| Non-thesis option | No |
University of Kansas, Law School |
| Non-thesis option | No |
U.S. Military |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector |
| 2003 | ||
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
Cornell University. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of California, Irvine. |
| Respecting Citizens, Protecting Capabilities: The Role of the State in a Liberal Society | Yes |
University of Maryland, Education Policy Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Educational Policy Ph.D. |
| 2002 | ||
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Texas. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
UC San Diego. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Notre Dame. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
CUNY Graduate Center. |
| The Argument from Species Overlap | No |
Private sector |
| The Moral Status of Non-Human Animals | No |
Private sector |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
STS Ph.D, Post-Doc at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Ethics Faculty, West Point |
| 2001 | ||
| Contractarianism and Moderate Morality | Yes |
University of Maryland. |
| Rawls, Liberalism, and Leisure | Yes |
University of Virginia. |
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector |
| The Ontology of Persistence | Yes |
Syracuse University. |
| A Solution to "The Problem of Socrates" in Nietzsche's Thought: An Explanation of Nietzsche's Ambivalence Toward Socrates | Yes |
DePaul University. |
| Nietzsche’s Notes, Nietzsche’s ‘Philosophy’ | Yes |
Private sector |
| 2000 | ||
| Sextus Empiricus and the Skeptic’s Beliefs | Yes |
Ohio University, English Ph.D. |
| No Degree | Yes |
Uniiversity of Washington. |
| 1999 | ||
| The Tension Between Falsificationism and Realism | No |
Private sector |
| Socrates' Conception of Knowledge and the Priority of Definition | No |
Cato Institute/George Mason University, Economics Ph.D. |
| Explanations of the Success of Science | No |
Private sector |
| Royce and Perry on Idealism and Realism | Yes |
University of Utah. |
| Kant's Doctrine of Schemata | No |
Virginia Tech, MPA |
| 1998 | ||
| Situated Cognition, Dynamicism, and Explanation in Cognitive Science | Yes |
Washington University, Ph.D. |
| Soldiers, Self-Defense, and Killing in War | No |
Ethics Faculty, West Point |
| Empirical Meaning and Incomplete Personhood | Yes |
University of Illinois, Chicago, Anthropology Ph.D. |
| 1997 | ||
| Non-thesis option | No |
Private sector |
| Kant's Critical Attitude Towards The Only Possible Argument | Yes |
Emory University. |
| Quality and Competence: An Analysis of the Role of Mill’s Qualitative Hedonism on his Conception of Representative Democracy | Yes |
University of Virginia Law and Philosophy, J.D./Ph.D. |
| Non-thesis option | Yes |
University of Kentucky. |
| Hyperadaptation: Another Missing Term in the Science of Form | No |
Private sector |
| 1996 | ||
| Meaning, Functions, and the Promise of Indicator Semantics | Yes |
Declined acceptances in favor of the private sector. |
| Autonomy and Neutrality in Liberal Political Thought | Yes |
University of Illinois, Chicago. |
| 1995 | ||
| Regarding Descartes' Meditations as Meditational | Yes |
Purdue University. |
| Descartes and Tradition: the Miracle of the Eucharist | Yes |
Virginia Tech, STS Ph.D. |
| Ludwik Fleck and his Concept of a Scientific Fact | Yes |
Northwestern University. |
| The Role of Welfare in an Egalitarian Metric | Yes |
University of Kentucky. |