Standard requirements for admission are an undergraduate degree with a major or minor concentration in philosophy, a strong academic record, particularly in philosophy courses, and a good performance on the Graduate Record Examinations. In addition to the items the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences requires for a complete application - GRE scores, official transcripts, statement of purpose, and application fee - we ask you to include with your application three rather than two letters of recommendation (to be submitted electronically through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences online application system); letters from philosophers who have taught you will carry more weight than those from people outside the discipline. We also ask you to send separately to the Philosophy Department, whose address is given below, a sample of your philosophical writing. We urge you to choose a paper or part of a paper or thesis that shows you as a philosopher and as a potential graduate student to best advantage; a focused paper displaying your philosophical understanding, reasoning, and argumentative skills would be a good choice for this purpose.
Your application must be received by January 5 of the year in which you want to start graduate work in order for you to be considered for financial aid. Applications coming in later than this date will be considered for admission but not for financial aid.
Specific questions about admission to the graduate program in philosophy should be sent to Mitch Green . (But please check the Frequently Asked Questions section of this page before doing so.)
You should read the Graduate Admissions Catalog, available online.
You may obtain an application form in any of three ways:
1. The easiest way is to download an application from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. You can fill this in on the screen, print it, and then mail it to the Graduate School along with all other application materials, with the exception of your writing sample. (The writing sample should be sent directly to the Department of Philosophy, whose address is given below.) All materials other than your writing sample should be sent to the Office of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, whose address is also given below.
2. Alternatively, you may fill out the application form online and submit it electronically. (Click here to download an application.) If you do this, then as with Option 1, all materials other than your writing sample should be sent to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and your writing sample should be sent to the Department of Philosophy.
3. You can e-mail the departmental
secretary to request an application.
Department of Philosophy Address:
Department of Philosophy
120 Cocke Hall
University of Virginia
PO Box 400780
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4780
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Address:
Graduate Admissions Office
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
437 Cabell Hall
P.O. Box 400773
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4773
We do not attach decisive importance to any one factor but instead weigh all
five sources of information present with the application: the writing sample,
letters of recommendation, GRE scores, grades in courses (particularly grades
in philosophy courses), and statement of purpose, normally in roughly that
order from most to least important. A weakness in one area can be
counter-balanced by strength in another: modest GRE scores can be made up for
by a fine piece of writing, an ill-chosen writing sample by strong letters and
GRE scores or grades. We are trying to form an estimate of how you will do in a
demanding graduate philosophy program, and we look at all the evidence
available. The strength and reputation of your undergraduate college can also
carry some weight, but we are well aware that outstanding philosophers have
come from colleges with modest reputations. We are also looking for evidence
that you have a deep and genuine interest in doing philosophy; you are unlikely
to have the motivation and commitment to carry you through the difficulties of
pursuing a philosophical career unless you have such an interest.
In recent years, the average GRE scores and GPA's of those offered admission
have been as follows: verbal GRE, 650; quantitative GRE, 690; undergraduate
GPA, 3.74; GPA in the major, 3.87; GPA in the final two years, 3.8. We receive
over one hundred applications in a given year, and make approximately ten
offers of admission. With few exceptions, these offers come with full financial
support consisting of tuition remission and a stipend.
Aside from applications to the J.D./M.A. program, we treat all applications
as applications to the Ph.D. program and, unlike some departments, do not
regard the M.A. as a different program with lesser qualifications required.
Ph.D. students normally get an M.A. along the way to a Ph.D., although some
students decide, or the faculty helps them decide, that an M.A. is as far as
they should go. If you want to do only an M.A., you should make clear in your
statement of purpose that this is the case and why. If you are applying with
the intention of getting an M.A. here and transfering to another University to
complete the Ph.D., you should list yourself as an applicant to the Ph.D.
program.
The University requires a minimum TOEFL score of 600. In philosophy, perhaps
more than in some other subjects, it is necessary to have a mastery of English
in order to participate intelligently in seminar discussions, write good
papers, and lead discussion sections and grade papers as a Teaching Assistant.
Even if you want to specialize in a technical subject like logic, it is
necessary to do much work in areas that will require an understanding of the
subtleties of the English language. For these reasons, we would like to see a
higher score than the minimum and will in no case recommend admission for
anyone who scores below 600. We do understand, however, that applicants for
whom English is a foreign language cannot be expected to do as well on the
verbal part of the GRE test as native speakers do. Indeed, we understand that
international students, whether English-speaking or not, who are unused to
standardized tests like the GRE's and have not been coached in strategies for
taking them as have many American students, cannot be expected to do as well on
them as some American students do. We make the appropriate allowances for
this.
Admission decisions are made first, then aid decisions. Usually by March 1 offers of aid have gone out to the top applicants. Anyone offered admission by March 15 is high on the list for aid if and when it becomes available, and it becomes available only when someone initially offered it decides to go somewhere else. Across the country, the strongest applicants, at least as perceived by philosophy departments, have received a number of offers from among which they must choose. Often such decisions are not made until the first two weeks of April, at which point there are further offers, often a cascade of them, from this and other departments. Hence if you were offered admission by March 15, there is a good chance that some aid will become available.
Keep the Graduate Admissions Director informed of your interest, preferably
by e-mail; he can tell you where you stand and what your chances are.
In late February and early March we send out acceptances to our top
applicants and rejections to those with no chance of admission. The rest are
put on a wait-list, pending the results of our first round of offers. We
sometimes make a few further offers of admission from the wait-list, but not
many. The chances of financial aid for anyone on the wait-list are slim. Again,
the Director of Graduate Admissions can tell you where you stand and what your
prospects are. If you have a very strong interest in joining our program, you
should let him know.
Applicants who have been accepted in the first round of admissions offers
are invited to come to the University for a weekend in March to meet faculty,
already enrolled graduate students, and other applicants also considering
whether to join the program. At present, we can subsidize travel expenses of
some of the top applicants up to $500. Any applicant is welcome to visit the
department at any time on his or her own and will usually be able to talk to
the admissions director, other faculty members, and graduate students, as well
as see the facilities of the department and the University. It would be wise to
advise the admissions director of such a visit.
The program can in principle be completed in four years, and some students
have managed this. But we consider five years to be standard: any student good
enough to be admitted should be capable of completing the program in five years
of full-time work. (Obviously, part-time attendance, leaves of absence, or
other special circumstances could extend the number of calendar years it takes
to get the degree.) Beyond five years, there is no presumption of eligibility
for financial aid. Students with an M.A. in philosophy from another institution
are expected to complete the requirements and finish the program one year
earlier than those who enter without an M.A.
The department has a Placement Director and Placement Committee to assist graduates in finding academic employment. Placement services include departmental compilation and mailing of student dossiers, committee review of dossiers and letters of recommendation, regular advising and placement meetings to prepare prospective job candidates, departmental representation at major philosophical conventions, mock job interviews, and financial assistance to help defray the costs of job-hunting and presenting papers at conferences. Graduate students also receive assistance in the preparation of papers for presentation and publication. (Click here to take a look at the departmental guide for job-seekers.)
Graduate teaching is taken very seriously in the department, and almost all
graduate students will either serve as teaching assistants, teach small courses
of their own design, or both during their time in the program. Teaching
assistants serve as discussion leaders and graders for sections of (primarily
introductory) lecture courses. Graduate students may also submit to the faculty
proposals for teaching small courses of their own design, either during the
normal academic year or the summer. Three or four such courses are typically
approved for each semester, and this way of acquiring pedogogical experience
has proven to be a significant credential for our job seekers.
Click here to see our placement record since 1994.