- Department of Philosophy
- Graduate Studies
- Placement of M.A. Graduates
Placement of M.A. Graduates
Over the past decade, the department has awarded approximately 123 M.A. degrees. Roughly 87of those graduates chose to apply to Ph.D. programs in philosophy, and 74 of them (85%) were admitted to a Ph.D. program in philosophy with full funding. Twelve entered other graduate or professional programs, and several found employment in teaching positions. The remainder have pursued a variety of career paths, having been enriched by their study of philosophy.
Detailed Placement Record, 2015-present
Each table below provides placement outcomes for a year indicating whether a graduate applied to Ph.D. programs in philosophy. Unless otherwise indicated, doctoral admission included full funding.
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | Categories and Critical Attention | Indiana University at Bloomington |
Yes | Left Republicanism as a Critique of Liberalism | Fordham University |
Yes | Physiological and Psychological Explanation: Renewing the Debate with an Integrative Pluralist Framework | University of British Columbia |
No | N/A | Working full-time in Chicago |
No | N/A | Completing required military service; planning to apply to graduate programs in the future |
Yes | Slurring as Gesturing | University of Minnesota at Minneapolis-St. Paul |
No | N/A | Working in community college administration |
Yes | Metalinguistic Negotiation and the Epistemic Skeptic | University of Massachusetts at Amherst |
No | N/A | Secured employment as middle school history teacher in New York |
Yes | "You're a Boss B*tch!": Slurs, Perspectives, and Camaraderie | University of California at Santa Barbara |
Yes | Some Recombination, But Not Too Much | Indiana University at Bloomington |
Yes | Defending Multiple Realization in the Biological Sciences: A Science-First Approach | University of Illinois at Chicago |
Yes | Essay on modality |
Logic and Philosophy of Science MA program, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich (unfunded but tuition-free) |
Yes | A Solution to the Dimensional Closure Problem for Hybrid Expressivist Analyses of Slurs | Plans to work as adjunct instructor and apply to graduate programs in the future |
In addition to those listed above, 2025 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at the following institutions: Florida State University, Northwestern University, University of Iowa, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Utah.
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
No | N/A | M.S. program in computer science, Northwestern University |
Yes | The Problem of (Libertarian Free Will Responses to) Evil | Saint Louis University |
Yes | The Self-Defeat of Enoch's Indispensability Argument | Georgetown University |
Yes | Partially Aggregative Views, Ex Post, and Vaccines | Arizona State University |
Yes | Justification and Knowledge: The Internalism/Externalism Debate | University of Massachusetts at Amherst |
Yes | On the Philosophy of Mathematics: Godel's Incompleteness Theorems | Accepted a fully funded offer to Ph.D. program in pure mathematics at University of Colorado at Boulder; student applied to a few doctoral programs in philosophy and a few in math |
Yes | Appropriate Attitudes Towards Victims of Coercive Control | Plans to reapply to doctoral programs |
Yes | Misreading Strawson | Plans to reapply to doctoral programs and listed in 2025 (2025 outcome: entered Indiana University at Bloomington) |
Yes | Moore Problems for Expressivism? How Expressivists Can Meet the Challenge of Missing Moorean Infelicity | Johns Hopkins University |
Yes | “It's Not Racism, Just Facts”: An Account of Duplicitous Speech | Plans to take NIU graduate courses in gender studies and apply to doctoral programs; listed in 2025 (2025 outcome: entered University of Minnesota at Minneapolis-St. Paul) |
Yes | Personal Identity, Death, and What Ultimately Matters in Survival | Plans to reapply to doctoral programs |
No | N/A | Accepted teaching position at a great books charter school |
No | N/A | Unsure |
No | N/A | Planning to teach philosophy at area community colleges. |
2024 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Ohio State University, University of Arizona, University of California at Santa Barbara
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes |
Successful Equivocation |
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
Yes |
The E-Function of Assertion and its Norms |
University of British Columbia |
Yes |
The Cost of the Open Future: A Pathway to Eternalism |
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
Yes |
Is Modal Personism a Mere Prejudice? |
Rice University |
Yes |
Living without Hard Incompatibilism |
Dianoia Institute, Australian Catholic University (initial placement), since transferred to University of Southern California |
Yes |
The (Naive) Truth about Revising Your Logic |
University of Pittsburgh |
Yes |
Dialectical Theosis |
University of South Florida |
Yes |
This Street Fits No Pat Trick: In Defense of the Evolutionary Debunking Argument |
Rice University |
No |
N/A |
Freelance cinematography |
No |
N/A |
Currently office coordinator at community college; plans to teach and pursue administrative position at community college. |
Yes |
Against Cognitive Monism: Beginning to Appreciate the Evidence for Pluralism |
University of Western Ontario |
Yes |
Accounting for the Fluidity of Human Desires |
Pursuing teaching at community colleges; plans to reapply to doctoral programs and listed in 2024 (2024 outcome: entered Arizona State University) |
2023 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Arizona State University, Syracuse University, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, York University (Canada)
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | A Defense of Subjective Justification for Self-Defense | Purdue University |
Yes | Realist Worries About Ideally Coherent Eccentrics | Indiana University |
No | N/A | TBA |
Yes | On Pragmatic Encroachment and the Knowledge-Action Principle | Washington University, St. Louis; deferred one year |
Yes | Relational Equality or Distributive Equality? Two Approaches to Social Justice | University of Maryland |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs in philosophy and listed in 2023 (2023 outcome: entered University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) |
No | N/A | Teaching in Mexico |
Yes | Right Action from Competences | University of Kansas |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs in philosophy and listed in 2023 (2023 outcome: entered University of British Columbia |
Yes | When Standard Use Does Not Imply Literal Use: A Defense of Kripke’s Test | Plans to apply for graduate/professional programs |
Yes | The Equivalency of Standard Consequentialism and Rational Requirements | Rice University |
Yes | Essay in the philosophy of mind | Plans to reapply to doctoral programs and listed in 2023 (2023 outcome: entered University of South Florida) |
Yes | Self-Defeat and the Communitarian Account of Public Reason | McGill University (unfunded); declined fully funded offer elsewhere |
2022 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at (numbers in parentheses indicate admissions in addition to those listed above): Arizona State University, St. Louis University, University at Albany, University of Arizona, University of Nebraska, University of St. Andrews/Stirling (unfunded).
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | Public Reason, Self-Defeat and the Corollaries of a Commitment to Social Cooperation | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs and listed in 2022 (2022 outcome: entered Purdue University) |
Yes | The Benefit of the Doubt and the Presumption of Trust | St. Louis University |
No | N/A | Plans to pursue teaching opportunities |
Yes | Free Will in Madhyamaka Buddhist Philosophy | University of Chicago (Divinity School) |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs and listed in 2022 (2022 outcome: entered University of Kansas) |
No | N/A | Internship in art museum; plans to apply to doctoral programs in art history and/or philosophy for fall 2022 |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to law schools |
Yes | Against Positism | Indiana University at Bloomington |
Yes | Civic Friendship in a Pluralistic Society: Consensus or Convergence? | Plans to reapply to doctoral programs and listed in 2022 (2022 outcome: McGill University, unfunded) |
Yes | What Slurs Do Not Mean: In Defense of a Prohibitionist Account | Georgetown University |
No | N/A | Plans to work at a bank and apply to doctoral programs in philosophy |
No | N/A | Plans to work full-time and apply to doctoral programs in philosophy in the future |
In addition to those listed above, 2021 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs a: Georgetown University (one without full funding), Ohio State University, University of Arizona, University of California at Davis, University of California at Riverside, University of Notre Dame
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | Realist Worries About Ideally Coherent Eccentrics | Admitted to a doctoral program with full funding, but declined admission; teaching at community colleges; plans to reapply to doctoral programs and listed in 2022 (2022 outcome: entered Indiana University at Bloomington) |
Yes | The Metaphysics of Chaos Theory | University of Pittsburgh (HPS) |
Yes | The Benefit of the Doubt and the Presumption of Trust | Working at a day program for adults with disabilities; plans to reapply to doctoral programs and listed in 2021 (2021 outcome: entered St. Louis University) |
Yes | Mysteries and Free Will: Cracking the Case with Counterfactuals | Florida State University |
No | N/A | Accepted a fully funded offer to the Ph.D. program in Agricultural and Applied Economics at Texas Tech University |
Yes | Error 403: Epistemic Accessibility in the Best Systems Account of Lawhood | University of Washington (Seattle) |
Yes | A Rawlsian Argument for Universal Healthcare: A Multi-Principle Alternative to the Normal Function Account | University of Utah |
No | N/A | Also completed J.D. program at NIU; currently working as a licensed attorney |
Yes | Desire as a Normative Concept | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
No | N/A | Teaching at Clarke University; plans to apply to doctoral programs in philosophy in the future |
Yes | That’s Not What a Brain Is: Brains, Philosophical Methodology, and What We Are | Cornell University |
No | N/A | Accepted position as a software engineer in the private sector |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs and listed in 2021 and 2022 (outcome: entered McGill University, unfunded) |
Yes | Informed Consent to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Transference, Paternalism, and the Relations Between Them | Rice University |
Yes | Conciliationism and the Poverty of Reasons | Plans to reapply to doctoral programs in philosophy, and to apply to doctoral programs in political science and to J.D. programs |
Yes | Naturalistic and Existential Responsibility | Admitted to a doctoral program with full funding, but declined admission; plans to reapply to doctoral programs and listed in 2022 with writing sample titled “When Standard Use Does Not Imply Literal Use” |
In addition to those listed above, 2020 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Fordham University, Georgetown University (without full funding), Ohio State University, University of Arizona, University of California at Riverside, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Western University (Ontario, Canada)
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | Can "Scale" Replace "Level" in Scientific Practice? | Western University (Ontario, Canada) |
Yes | What "Must" and "May" Must Not and May Not Mean | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Yes | The Counterfactual Analysis — With a Twist | University of Notre Dame |
No | N/A | Adjunct teaching at area community colleges; applied to doctoral programs in philosophy for fall 2020 and listed in 2020 as |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs in philosophy for fall 2020 |
Yes | Two Objections to Goble’s Logic of "Good, Should, and Would" | University of Arizona |
Yes | Partiality, Attachments and Consequentialism | University of Maryland |
Yes | The Synthesized Self: Ismael, Kant, and the Self as a Collection | Plans to reapply to doctoral programs in philosophy in fall 2020 |
Yes | Love and the Worthy Intellectual Life | University of Oklahoma |
No | N/A | Master of Divinity, Fuller Theological Seminary |
Yes | Plato on Education: Political Matters Matter | Admitted to a doctoral program with full funding, but declined admission; plans to apply to doctoral programs in philosophy in Japan for fall 2020 |
In addition to those listed above, 2019 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Cornell University, Fordham University, St. Louis University, University of California at Irvine (Logic and Philosophy of Science), University of California at San Diego, University of Nebraska, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Rochester, University of St. Andrews (without full funding), University of Texas at Austin
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
No | N/A | Plans to apply to programs in veterinary medicine in the future |
Yes | Wave Function Anti-Realism | Indiana University, History and Philosophy of Science |
Yes | Future Bias and Presentism | University of California at Irvine |
Yes | Conversational Implicature as Atypical Coordination Equilibrium | Carnegie Mellon University |
Yes | On Being a Rational Animal and Public Reasons | Purdue University |
Yes | How (Not) to Handle Selfless Assertions | Rutgers University |
No | N/A | Entering M.S. in Public Policy program, Carnegie Mellon University |
No | N/A | Working as Financial Planner |
Yes | Loosening the Connection Between Virtue and Well-Being | University of Notre Dame |
No | N/A | Entering J.D. program, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law |
Yes | Defending a Mind-Dependent Account of the Context of Conversation | University of Iowa |
No | N/A | working in software development in the private sector |
Yes | Is Someone Out There? On Metzinger’s No-Self Alternative | University of British Columbia |
No | N/A | Applied to doctoral programs in philosophy for fall 2020; |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs in philosophy for fall 2019 |
Yes | Intellectual Love | Entering M.Litt. program in analytic theology at University of St. Andrews; applied to doctoral programs in philosophy for fall 2019 |
Yes | N/A | Applied to law schools for fall 2019 |
No | N/A | Applied to programs in social work for fall 2019 |
In addition to those listed above, 2018 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Bowling Green State University, Northwestern University, Syracuse University, University of California at Davis, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Pittsburgh, University of Rochester, University of Southern California, Washington University St. Louis, Yale University
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | Lexical Sarcasm, Grice, and Camp's Theory | University of California at Santa Barbara |
Yes | Resurrecting Davidson's Case Against Minimalism | Ohio State University |
Yes | Motivation, Normative Pragmatics, and Moral Discourse | University of Arizona |
Yes | Can Infinitists Handle the Finite Mind Objection and the Distinction Objection? A Dilemma for Infinitism | Rice University |
Yes | N/A | GRE tutor; plans to reapply to doctoral programs for fall 2018 |
Yes | Committed Uses and Faultless Disagreement | University of Texas at Austin |
Yes | Slurs, At-Issueness, and Questions Under Discussion | Rutgers University |
Yes | What's Wrong with Explaining Essence in Terms of Necessity? | Admitted to a doctoral program with full funding, but declined admission and will apply again in a year or two |
Yes | Consequentialism, Convention, and Character: How a Different Decision Procedure Aids Consequentialism | Washington University in St. Louis |
Yes | Getting Leibniz Out on the Cheap | University of Southern California |
Yes | Explanation and Similarity: Boris Kment and Meghan Sullivan's Competing Accounts of Closeness | University of Virginia |
No | N/A | Position with AmeriCorps VISTA at Western Illinois University at Quad Cities; applied to doctoral programs in philosophy for fall 2018 |
Yes | Culpability and Moral Ignorance: When We Should Have Known Better | CUNY Graduate Center |
No | N/A | Plans to apply to doctoral programs in 2017-2018 |
Yes | The Semantics and Pragmatics of Epistemic Possibility: Why Contextualism Might Be Right | University of Toronto |
Yes | The Viability of an Epistemic Constraint on Truth | Reapplied to doctoral programs in philosophy in 2018 |
No | N/A | Plans to apply for positions in community colleges teaching philosophy |
Yes | The Generation of Knowledge and Justification Through Testimony | University of Miami |
Yes | Modified Molinism and Compatibilist Middle Knowledge | Entering Ph.D. program in theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary |
Yes | Dispositional Essentialism, Directedness, and Final Causation | St. Louis University |
No | N/A | Entering J.D. program at University of Arkansas at Fayetteville |
In addition to those listed above, 2017 applicants were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Marquette University, Ohio State University, Oxford University, Purdue University, University of Arizona, University of California at Irvine, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Connecticut, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Edinburgh, University of Iowa, University of Miami, University of Nebraska, University of Reading, University of Rochester, University of Texas at Austin, Washington University St. Louis
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | Dialectical Justification, Sensitivity and Skepticism | University of California at Los Angeles |
Yes | Ethics, Intuitions, and Equilibrium: A Response to Peter Singer | Rice University |
Yes | Situationism and the Discerning Situation: The Need for Robust Character Traits | Washington University in St. Louis |
Yes | The Inheritors of Thieves: Settling the Debt | Marquette University |
No | N/A | Working as chess instructor |
Yes | Neuroscience, Psychology, and Causation: What Searle Got Right and Wrong About Neuroscience and the Problem of Consciousness | Applied to law schools for fall 2017 |
Yes | The Moral Precautionary Principle | St. Louis University |
Yes | Safe at Last: Extra-Safety and Closure | Indiana University at Bloomington |
Yes | Predicates of Personal Taste and Hare's Paradox | Reapplied to philosophy doctoral programs in 2017 |
No | N/A | Was admitted to several J.D. programs, but declined admissions; applied to seminaries for fall 2019 |
No | N/A | Applied to philosophy doctoral programs for fall 2017 |
Yes | Hi-Phi: Setting the Record Straight on the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness | TBD |
In addition to those listed above, 2016 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Bowling Green State University, Northwestern University, University of Arizona, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Miami, University of Missouri, University of Notre Dame
Applied to Ph.D. Program? | Title of Writing Sample | Philosophy Ph.D. Program Entered or Other Career Path |
---|---|---|
Yes | Agent-Causal Libertarianism and Control | Indiana University at Bloomington |
Yes | Contextualism Without Representation: A Response to the Meaning-Intention Problem | University of Arizona |
Yes | Trolleys and Transplants: Derailing the Distinction Between Doing and Allowing | University of California at San Diego |
Yes | Quasi-Realism and Objectivity | Georgetown University |
Yes | Does Moral Discourse Satisfy Cognitive Command? | Indiana University at Bloomington |
Yes | On Truth and Lies in a Non-normative Sense: A Reply to the Inflationary Argument | University of Connecticut |
Yes | Why the Totality State of Affairs is Not a Truthmaker for Negative Existential Truths | Cornell University |
Yes | Wielding the Self-Defeatingness Objection Against Consequentialism | Private sector (probably information technology) |
Yes | On Subset-Realization: Kim’s Dilemma and the Problem of Mismatching Powers | Washington University in St. Louis |
Yes | The Illusion of Freedom: Agent-Causation and Self-Deception | Entered M.Phil. program in philosophy at KU Leuven, Belgium; subsequently entered Ph.D. program in philosophy at KU Leuven |
No | N/A | TBD |
Yes | The Failure of Non-Cartesian Substance Dualism | University of Colorado at Boulder |
2015 graduates were also admitted to philosophy Ph.D. programs at: Baylor University, , Purdue University, University of California at Davis, University of California at Irvine, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Miami, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, University of Missouri at Columbia, University of Notre Dame, University of Southern California, University of Washington at Seattle
Contact Us
Application Questions
philosophy@niu.edu
815-753-0333
Graduate Advisor
Prof. Lenny Clapp
Zulauf 903
lclapp@niu.edu