WHY MAJOR IN PHILOSOPHY?
WHY NOT?
The only really good reason to major in philosophy is that you
love the subject.
The only really good reason not to major in it is that you
don't.
BUT WHAT CAN I DO WITH A DEGREE IN
PHILOSOPHY?
(For a quick answer, click here to
see what some of our alumni are doing.)
If you think that philosophy isn't a practical major, consider the
following:
- Philosophy majors do exceptionally well on the GRE. According to a
study of GRE scores from 1988-1991:
- Philosophy majors had the highest mean verbal score of students in
all majors.
- Philosophy majors had the second highest mean analytic score of
students in all majors.
- Philosophy majors had a higher mean quantitative score than all other
humanities and social science majors.
- A 1994 study shows that Philosophy majors also do very well on the
LSAT.
- The mean LSAT for Philosophy majors is higher than it is for both
Political Science and Pre-Law majors.
- The mean LSAT score for Philosophy majors is the fifth highest for all
humanities and social science majors. (The highest are Linguistics and
Classics.)
- You might also be surprised at how well Philosophy majors do on the GMAT. The following information is for tests administered from 1991-1996.
- The mean score on the GMAT is higher for Philosophy majors than for any type of Business major (Accounting, Finance, Mangement, etc.).
- Outside of the hard sciences, Philosophy has had either the first or second highest mean score on the GMAT each year.
- Including the hard sciences, the mean GMAT score for Philosophy majors is fourth or fifth highest of all majors.
None of this proves that if you major in Philosophy you will ace these exams, but it gives you good reason to think it won't hurt! And you will learn things that will be useful no matter what you do.
- Skills gained by philosophy majors are useful in almost any career.
- The ability to think logically.
- The ability to analyze and solve problems.
- The ability to assess to pros and cons of proposed solutions.
- The ability to write and speak clearly, attending to details.
- The ability to ask the right questions.
Skills such as these allow a person with a background in philosophy to
take on new responsibilities and to adapt to new careers more readily than
those whose training has been tightly focused on very narrowly defined
career goals. To get the best of both worlds, a number of our majors minor in
fields more obviously connected to the careers they intend to pursue.
To get an idea of what some previous philosophy majors are actually doing,
and what they say they've gained from the degree, click here.
You might also find it interesting to check out our
Alumni
Newsletter.
(I will include the statistics on the MCAT as soon as I can find
them.)