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.

2025
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.

2024
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

2023

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)

2022
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).

2021
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

2020
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)

2019
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

2018
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

2017
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

2016
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

2015
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