In the process of applying to graduate school, you will need to make many decisions, not the least of which being whether or not you are indeed applying. These decisions have immense consequences on how your life will be in the next few years. We believe that all such decisions should be personal, made with the best knowledge of your own individual situations and the situation of the world. Since we don’t know you nearly as much as you know yourself, we will refrain from issuing direct advice as much as we can (while asking for your excuse of our occasional slips of tongue). Instead, we aim to present you with as much information as we can in regards to “the situation of the world” in professional philosophy.
Almost everything we say here rest on someone else’s good, hard work, for which links will be provided. While we do hold our own opinions regarding some of the sources we list, we try to only voice those that have been publicly voiced by others elsewhere.
Here is a list of the topics included in this section:
- Choosing whether to apply at all — what can you do with a philosophy PhD?
- Choosing which program to apply (1) — rankings and their rationales
- Choosing which program to apply (2) — terminal master’s, should you do it?
- Choosing which program to apply (3) — European and Australian programs
- Choosing where to go once you’re accepted — decoding the financial package and trouble-spotting the campus visit
Finally, here is a spreadsheet of various programs, their requirements, and their deadlines that is continuously updated and maintained by Lindsay Whittaker, a graduate student at the University of Washington.
wonderphilosophy 