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

Graduate Studies

Contact Us

Application Questions
philosophy@niu.edu
815-753-0333

Graduate Advisor
Prof. Lenny Clapp
Zulauf 903
lclapp@niu.edu