2024 Best Colleges for Philosophy

SUMMARY

A degree in Philosophy is a valuable choice and usually a required first step for students wishing to enter a career as a corporate ethics lawyer, a college professor, or a philosophical writer. In fact, nationally, philosophy is fairly common being the 62nd most popular degree. Last academic year alone, there were 8,093 philosophy graduates. In-state tuition for philosophy at private institutions is, on average, 4.6 times more costly than their public fellows.

With a staggering 816 universities having programs for this degree odds are that any colleges you are looking at will have an option for you. If you're looking to surround yourself with other philosophy majors, consider looking at colleges in California which have the most students admitted to philosophy annually. Zooming out, the top region to pursue philosophy is in the Mid East region with Columbia University in the City of New York, New York University, and University of Pennsylvania best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the best conference to major in philosophy is the Pacific-12 Conference with University of Arizona, University of California-Berkeley, and University of California-Los Angeles representing the conference. On that topic, our belief is that the best school for philosophy is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You might also want to check out our list of the best colleges.

The overall 'best' school might not actually be the 'best' school for you. There can be lots of facets to weigh when selecting school. Things such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food could change your decision of which university to attend. Here at authority.org, we've weighed the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which philosophy school is home to the best campus, the winner is Harvard University. If you are very interested in which university has the top campus, we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, government databases, student reviews, and more in order to compare every U.S. major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our well researched list for the schools with the best student life&nbsphere and from that list, our pick of the school with the best student life for philosophy is Cornell University. Are you curious why? Continue scrolling to learn more about Authority's top choices. Many of our conclusions just might shock you.

If cost is a significant deciding factor in your decision on where to go to university, you might consider avoiding Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspis the most expensive college for philosophy, at least for out of state students. We do have an entire page for the most expensive&nbspcolleges that could put the expense at Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspinto perspective. For more context, you may want to know that philosophy is the 13th most expensive major in America, with an average associated cost of $54,300. To zoom out a little, the most costly state for philosophy in the nation is Vermont with tuition and fees at the main three universities Middlebury College of $55,790, Saint Michael's College of $45,050, and tuition and fees at University of Vermont of $45,050. Even more broadly, the most costly region of the country for philosophy is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Amherst College with a cost of $57,640, Tufts University with a cost of $57,324, and Brown University with a cost of $57,112.

Our cheapest region for philosophy is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Nazarene Bible College with a cost of $8,880, Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, and Utah Valley University with a cost of $15,872. In better news, the most affordable college for philosophy is University of California-Santa Barbara. Authority.org's comprehensive list of the most affordable colleges can be explored here.

In-state learners can expect to pay around $10,400 for a degree in philosophy. The price grows substantially to an average of $25,400 for the out-of-state public-school student. As such, you might be interested in our selection for the college representing the best value for philosophy: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through this link you can find our comprehensive list of the universities we believe to be the best value&nbspin general. With that said, this discussion is predicated on being an out-of-state student. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition is considered, as such, we are using out-of-state tuition as the baseline.

Earnings for philosophy students differ widely, but within two-years of graduation graduates will often make around $53,200. There is much variation in salary; top positions can bring in up to $111,500. Even straight out of school, the lowest end jobs within the philosophy space earn $25,100, which is an alright wage. The top earning graduates from philosophy graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand if you are looking for colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The overall diversity of philosophy stands pretty high, ranking within the 81st percentile of all majors. The school with the highest composite diversity for philosophy is Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand here you can find our comprehensive list for the schools with the most diversity. The financial diversity of the Philosophy major is only in the 21st percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 70th percentile. White undergraduates compose the largest proportion at 54% of students majoring in philosophy. Additionally, 64% of undergrads pursuing a philosophy degree are men.

The median ranking of philosophy professors is 4.2 stars, a rating which is 5% greater than the median score for every major; which is a good score. If you are curious about the most popular philosophy instructor in the nation, consider looking up Eileen Rabach from Santa Monica College. It might surprise you, but the best rated philosophy instructors by student are at St Petersburg College. As we including data other than just rankings it becomes clear that the college with comprehensively the best instructors for philosophy is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One can find more detail on our evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, as well as some of the best examples of professors in the country.

Finally, the most difficult university to get into for philosophy is Stanford University. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we do have an extensive page for the hardest colleges to get into. But, we do hope you understand that looking at higher education with context primarily shaped by superlatives might create problems. We encourage you to read our more nuanced pages on individual colleges and peruse some of Authority's insightful background pages on essential details to look for as your college search develops.