Career/Advanced Study Opportunities
Philosophy is also for those who want to be among some of the
brightest students there are.
Law. An undergraduate major in philosophy is widely recognized as an excellent preparation for law school, and philosophy students regularly outperform almost all their peers on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Among law school applicants in 1997-98, for example, the average score for philosophy majors was 157, compared to 151 for political science majors and 146 for "prelaw" majors. (Source: Law School Admission Council)
Medicine. What is less well known is that philosophy students are admitted to medical school at a higher rate than students from almost any other major. For example, among applicants to medical school for 2000-2001, 60 percent of philosophy majors were admitted compared to 45 percent of biology majors and 50 percent of chemistry majors. (Source: Medical School Admission Requirements, 2002-2003, Association of American Medical Colleges)
Business. Thinking of getting an MBA? Philosophy majors
out perform business majors — and nearly every other major — on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).
Philosophy Graduate School. Those applying to master's and doctoral programs in philosophy—students who typically have majored in philosophy as undergraduates—score higher than students in any other field on the verbal reasoning and analytical writing portions of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). This means that philosophy students generally have better reading comprehension, as well as critical thinking and writing skills than students in other fields. Philosophy students also score higher on the GRE's quantitative reasoning test than students in any other discipline of the humanities or social sciences except economics.
What do you do with a Ph.D. in philosophy? Most teach at institutions of higher education, but some pursue other paths. Here's some
data.