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Placement of M.A. Graduates

Over the past decade, the department has awarded 104 M.A. degrees. Seventy-six (76) of those 104 graduates chose to apply to Ph.D. programs in philosophy. Of those 76 graduates who applied to Ph.D. programs:

  • 70 (or 92%) were admitted to a Ph.D. program in philosophy
  • 61 (or 80%) entered one of the top-fifty Ph.D. programs in the United States (as ranked by The Philosophical Gourmet Report) (Two students who entered the Ph.D. program at University of Toronto, whose rating is equivalent to a top-twenty U.S. program, are included in this count.)
  • 7 (or 9%) entered other Ph.D. programs in the United States that The Philosophical Gourmet Report considers good in its national ranking of programs by specialty area.

Seven (7) of our 104 graduates over the past decade immediately entered teaching positions in philosophy at community or four-year colleges upon completing the M.A. (though some subsequently entered doctoral programs), three (3) accepted positions teaching in high schools, and twelve (12) entered graduate or professional programs in fields other than philosophy. The remainder have pursued a variety of career paths, having been greatly enriched by their experience at NIU.

Detailed Placement Record, 2004-present

Each table below provides placement outcomes for the graduating class of that year. The column on the left indicates whether a graduate applied to Ph.D. programs in philosophy.

App? Title of Writing Sample Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered Other Career Path or Comment
2013
Yes Against Nelson's Proposal for Descriptivists University of Colorado at Boulder  
No     Undecided
Yes Ockhamism and Causal Determinism University of Toronto  
Yes Descriptions, Communication, and Shared Content Indiana University at Bloomington  
Yes How to Resolve the Justification Problem for Gibbardian Expressivism Without Going Hybrid Brown University  
Yes The Cognitive Realist Account of Propositions University of California at Santa Barbara  
Yes Intention and Resolution in a Two-Stage Newcomb's Problem University of Southern California  
No     Entering a Catholic Benedictine Monastery
Yes Redundancy, Prosententialism, Actuality, Non-Redundancy University of Toronto  
Yes Hitchhiker's Guide to Time Travel University of Illinois at Chicago  
Yes Knowledge in an Ontologically Minimal World University of Colorado at Boulder Deferred admission for one year
Yes Are Psychological Theories of Personal Identity Supplemented with Constitution a Viable Account of Human Persons' Deeper Kind?   Pursuing a career in health care
2013 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Carnegie Mellon University, City University of New York, Georgetown University, Northwestern University (3), Ohio State University, Purdue University, Rice University, SUNY Buffalo, University of California at Davis, University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at San Diego, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (3), University of Missouri at Columbia, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, University of Notre Dame (2), University of Wisconsin at Madison, Washington University in St. Louis (2)

App? Title of Writing Sample Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered Other Career Path or Comment
2012
Yes A Prosententialist Account of Vagueness University of Southern California  
Yes Intrinsicality for the Metaphysically Grounded Rutgers University  
No     Private sector
Yes The Semantics and Pragmatics of Empty Names University of Maryland  
No     Waited to apply to Ph.D. programs with class of 2013 (listed above)
Yes Against the Minimalistic Reading of Epistemic Contextualism University of Southern California  
No     Private sector
Yes From Internalism to Instrumentalism and Its Normative Implications Rice University  
No     Waited to apply to Ph.D. programs with class of 2013 (listed above)
Yes Knowledge and Explanation Indiana University at Bloomington  
Yes Can Moral Value and Obligation Be Determined By Merely Possible Gods?   Teaching at College of DuPage
2012 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Cornell University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (3), Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Virginia, University of Toronto, University of Calgary, University of California at Davis

2011
Yes Questioning Schaffer’s Aristotelian Metaontology University of Massachusetts at Amherst  
Yes Assertion, Knowledge, and the Belief that One Knows Indiana University at Bloomington  
No     Teaching philosophy at University of Montevallo; waited to apply to Ph.D. programs with class of 2013 (listed above)
Yes A Case for the World State   Entering M.A. program in International Relations at Columbia University
Yes Throwing the Game: Causation as Influence and the Problem of Preemption University of Virginia  
Yes Title not available University of Wisconsin at Madison  
Yes Intuition Skepticism: Against Arguments from Disagreement Ohio State University  
No     Private sector
Yes Determinates, Determinables, and Realization: Two Scientific Cases Considered University of California at San Diego  
No     Law school
No     Private sector
2011 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: University of Maryland, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of British Columbia, Northwestern University, Purdue University, Syracuse University, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Miami, University of Calgary, University of Connecticut

2010
Yes Against the No Past Objection University of California at Riverside  
Yes Whatever Could Be Caused Must Actually Be Caused Rutgers University  
Yes How the Mind Can Survive a (Total) Change of Its Parts University of Southern California  
Yes Quietism Is a Humanism: Putnam Against Unconscious Absolutism Johns Hopkins University  
Yes An Old Problem for Pritchard’s New Anti-Luck Epistemology University of Colorado at Boulder  
Yes Art, Meaning, and Allusion: Strengthening Hypothetical Intentionalism University of Maryland  
Yes Modality and the Mind-Body Problem University of Nebraska  
No      
2010 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: University of Maryland, Syracuse University, Florida State University, Ohio State University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Northwestern University, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Washington

2009
Yes Worldbound Individuals in Armstrong's Truthmaker Theory University of Texas at Austin  
Yes Reflective Reasons and Valuable Justification: Against the Knowledge Norm of Assertion University of Colorado at Boulder  
No     M.A., Anthropology, NIU
Yes A Consistent Triad: The Possibility of God's Libertarian Freedom in Creating the World University of Notre Dame  
Yes Which Duty? Which Conception of Humanity? A Critique of Christine Korsgaard's The Sources of Normativity Purdue University (declined) Ph.D., Political Science, NIU
Yes Kant's Limited Retributive Thesis   Ph.D., Political Science, NIU
No     Teaching at Hiawatha High School (IL)
Yes The Normativity of Truth University of Utah  
No     Contributing Editor, News and Stories, Calvin College
Yes Overcoming Explanatory Exclusion University of Arizona  
Yes Minimalism and the Value of Truth: A Reply to Lynch University of Colorado at Boulder  
Yes A Minimalist Response to Wright’s Inflationary Argument University of California at Riverside  
2009 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: University of Southern California, University of California at Irvine, University of California at San Diego, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Washington University (St. Louis), City University of New York, Georgetown University, University of Virginia, University of Maryland, Syracuse University, University of Miami, University of California at Davis, Florida State University, University at Buffalo, Temple University, University of Cincinnati, and Southern Illinois University

2008
Yes The Dimensional View of Realization: Successes and Failures University of California at San Diego (deferred)  
Yes Does the Theist Have an Epistemic Advantage Over the Atheist: Plantinga and Descartes on Theism, Atheism, and Skepticism Rutgers University  
Yes God, Evil, and Closure University of Notre Dame  
Yes Justification, Truth, and Bergmann's Theory of Justification Ohio State University  
Yes The Attenuated Ramblings of a Madman: Feyerabend's Anarchy Examined University of California at Davis  
Yes Title not Available   Th.D., Theology, Boston University
Yes Epistemic Choice and the Consequence Argument University of Nebraska at Lincoln  
Yes An Internalist Commitment to Morality Syracuse University  
No     Permanent faculty member at Hinsdale Central High School (IL)
No     Teaching at Kishwaukee Community College (IL)
Yes Title not available Florida State University  
Yes Berkeley's Notions, Perception, and Method University of South Florida  
No     Ph.D., Physics, NIU
Yes Mental Causation and B Emergentism University of Maryland at College Park  
Yes Essentialism and the Necessity of Identity University of Arizona (transferred to UNC Chapel Hill)  
2008 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Indiana University at Bloomington, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brown University, Cornell University, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Rochester, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Miami, City University of New York, University of Florida, Purdue University, Arizona State University

2007
Yes Knowledge and Certainty: The Case Against Dogmatism Indiana University at Bloomington  
Yes Freedom Doesn't Come Cheap: The Problem of Properly Ignoring Causal Explanations within a Contextualist Account of Freedom University of Wisconsin at Madison  
No     Teaching full time at Waubonsee Community College (IL)
Yes Keeping Utilitarians Honest: Why Utilitarianism Fails as a Normative Theory Florida State University  
Yes Integrity in Kant's Moral Philosophy Tulane University  
Yes We Know Not of What We Speak: Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Religion   Ph.D., Theology, Marquette University
Yes Contextualist Accounts of Freedom Cannot Solve the Problem of Free Will University of Washington  
No     Teaching at Hinckley-Big Rock High School (IL)
2007 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: University of Maryland at College Park, University of Rochester, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, University of Kansas, Marquette University, Loyola University of Chicago, University of California at Davis, Syracuse University

2006
Yes Problems with Situationism and First-Person Deliberation Florida State University  
Yes Denying Denial: Dretske's Denial of Epistemic Closure University of Notre Dame  
No     M.A., Anthropology, NIU
Yes Aristotle's Understanding of Plato's Meno University of California at Berkeley  
Yes Self-Deception and Emotion University of Wisconsin at Madison  
Yes Title not available University of Wisconsin at Madison  
No     Teaching at Moraine Valley Community College (IL)
Yes Much to Do About Suffering Michigan State University  
No     Teaching at College of DuPage (IL)
No     Teaching at College of DuPage (IL) and NIU
No     Ph.D., Political Science, NIU
Yes Title not available University of Massachusetts at Amherst  
2006 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: University of Maryland at College Park, University of California at Irvine, University of California at Riverside, University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown University, Rice University, Boston University, Villanova University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Washington, University of Rochester, University of Indiana at Bloomington, University of Florida, Johns Hopkins University, Bowling Green State University

2005
Yes Questioning Physicalism: Can We Adequately Define "Physical"? University of Wisconsin at Madison  
No     Private sector
Yes Exhuming Conclusive Reasons University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  
Yes Title not available Ohio State University  
Yes On Reaching Closure University of California at Davis  
No     Private sector
Yes Title not available Purdue University  
Yes An Examination of Hume's Account of Sympathy University at Albany (SUNY)  
No     Taught at Kishwaukee Community College (IL) and Sauk Valley Community College (IL)
Yes Title not available Indiana University at Bloomington (HPS)  
2005 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Brown University, University of Notre Dame, University of California at San Diego, University of California at Riverside, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Rochester, Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas at Austin, Syracuse University, University of Iowa

2004
No     Returned to law practice
No     Law school
Yes Title not available Rice University  
Yes Title not available Florida State University  
Yes Title not available University of Iowa  
Yes Title not available University of Missouri at Columbia  
No     Law school