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M.A. Students and PhD Applications

Brian Leiter

An M.A. student writes:

I'm a second-year master's student, and I'll be applying to PhD programs this December. I know that this is the time when you get asked questions concerning the application process because students are trying to get ready, so I figured I would ask away in benefit of both myself and all the other PhD hopefuls. So, here I go: 

(1) How much does an MA in Philosophy help or hurt an applicant?

(2) What's the order of importance in your department concerning the writing sample, letters of recommendation, statement of purpose, GRE scores, cv, and institution where applicant is from?

I know that a lot of us would benefit from any information that faculty would be willing to share, especially given the highly competitive nature of the whole process. This blog is a great resource tool for us applicants, and we greatly appreciate it.

On (1), it seems to me the only way an MA can hurt is if the student has done poorly in the MA program (thus revealing that they aren't cut out for PhD study), or if the MA program is quite poor–but anyone applying from any of the PGR-noted programs needn't worry about the latter.

The second question is harder, and answers may vary as between individual philosophers, as well as institutions.  As a general rule-of-thumb, I'd offer this:  GRE scores are probably least important, constituting a kind of floor (if they are too low, the school may be a bit nervous), but that's it–no one is being admitted to PhD programs based on their GRE scores.   GPA, and the institution the GPA is from, along with the letters of recommendation (esp. when they are from philosophers that the program knows), are very powerful screening devices, and will determine which applicants have their writing samples read carefully.   The statement of purpose can do more to disqualify than qualify a candidate for admission:   admissions committees to read it to see whether the student's interests are actually a good fit.  If they're not, an otherwise strong application can go by the wayside.

Comments are open; signed comments preferred.  I'd encourage philosophers to post to say that my comments, above, describe accurately their own admissions practices; or that my comments misdescribe their admissions practices, but are probably true of many other departments; or to say that I've misdescribed not only their admissions practices but admissions practices generally!  Philosophers outside the U.S. (the admissions processes I know best, needless to say) are also invited to comment on pertinent differences in their practices.

 

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34 responses to “M.A. Students and PhD Applications”

  1. Jorgen

    As an undergraduate who is also applying to graduate programs right now, I worry about just how much the applicant's undergraduate institution counts in favor of, or against, them. I will be graduating from a university that most people will have never heard of. I would like to hear more about what others think regarding undergraduate institution. (E.g. I know that a stellar writing sample helps, etc., but certainly there are many great writing samples, so what if two equally stellar writing samples surface, one of which comes from Harvard, whereas the other comes from a little-known state school in Kentucky – does institution weigh heavily in scenarios such as this?) Also, I would like to hear what others think about undergraduates who attend summer programs in philosophy, and, if such things actually grab the attention of admissions committees, and, if so, how much (or how little)?

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    I am sure Prof. Leiter is correct that GRE scores matter very little in *admission* decisions, but I do want to point out that they can make a big difference in *funding* decisions. In particular, GRE scores are one of the major factors administrators use to compare candidates in different disciplines when awarding university-wide fellowships. I'm quite certain that my high GRE score played a significant role in my receiving a university fellowship, worth $8,000 more per year than the typical department fellowship at my PhD program.

    BL ADDENDUM: This is a quite important and correct point, and I am glad the commenter called attention to it. University-wide fellowships almost always have GRE cut-offs, and often take into account the strength of the GRE score.

    Reply
  3. Rebecca Kukla

    My sense is that there is a pretty definite, uniform way of weighing these various components of the application, and I think I pretty much agree with Brian. Statements of purpose and GREs can only rule you out. They can make you look dumb or ill-suited to the department but no one is impressed by their being extra-good. Then GPA, letters of recommendation, and strength of background in philosophy are all thrown together into some complicated, inarticulate mix through which it is decided who will be taken seriously enough to have her or his writing read. And then it is all about the writing sample- if you've made it this far, that's the most important part of the file by far. If you have a real cv with conferences or publications or major academic awards, this is a really nice plus, but it is not at all required at even the best schools. Nothing else that could go on a cv would interest an admissions committee – unless you won a Nobel prize or something, no one cares about service, hobbies, volunteer work, other work experience, etc.

    As for Jorgen's questions above …

    I've been in the profession for 15 years and don't know what kind of summer programs you are talking about. I'm trying to imagine what sort of program you have in mind and whether it might be the kind of thing that would impress me on a grad application and I am drawing a blank. So I am inclined to say no, they don't grab attention. But that could very well just be my ignorance.

    My sense on the undergraduate institution issue is that most people, faced with two otherwise equal files, one from Ivy League U and one from Southeast Midwest State Tech (Tinytown Campus) would give only a small bump if any to the one from the better school. The problem is earlier: equally smart students will tend to come out with a stronger file if they came from a better school. In general – and of course there are exceptions – they will have much stronger, more well-known letter-writers; they will tend to have gotten more current and knowledgeable advice about how to professionalize themselves and put together a writing sample that engages with current debates; they will have likely had access to a wider range of philosophy courses that cover material more rigorously and in ways more relevant to contemporary debates, and – very importantly – they will have had the benefit of hanging out with and co-learning with much stronger fellow students. I really think that this is why students from strong research-intensive schools end up with a huge advantage – it's not random snobbery on the part of admissions committees, nor is it that great students can't come out of little-known schools (they can and do).

    Indeed, were I to see a file coming out of SMST(T) that really did compare well with a strong file coming out of Ivy U in all other respects, I would probably give a bump to the former over the latter, as I would be genuinely impressed that the candidate had compensated for all these differences in conditions.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I am now in a ranked program, but can speak from my own experiences in applications and admissions.

    I went to a liberal arts college ranked in the top 25 (for what that may be worth), but was told by someone at one top 10 program that my school was considered weak compared to where they drew most of their applicants.

    On GREs, someone at another top 10 program – and I don't even bother to track how many sections of the GRE there are from year to year anymore, there were 3 at the time – told me the only candidates they were looking for at for admission had 2300+.

    Reply
  5. Jorgen

    Rebecca,

    Thanks for the comments. The types of summer programs I was referring to for undergraduates are, for instance, University of Colorado's summer seminar in philosophy (where undergraduates can attain 3 graduate-level credits with a letter grade, and graduate-level experience over the summer). Another being UPenn's summer workshop in cognitive science, and yet another being Rutgers' summer institute for diversity in philosophy, and so on. I believe there are other such opportunities outside of the US, but no specifics come to mind.

    Reply
  6. M A Richards

    I'm interested to hear how persons applying from outside the US to US institutions are considered during admissions and whether they may be subject to any novel pitfalls. Does being an outsider make a difference? Do things like possessing a green card help?

    Reply
  7. Rebecca Kukla

    Jorgen,

    I guess I would see such seminar activities as adding to background in philosophy (one of my categories above), which could be important if you come from a school with limited offerings in core areas of philosophy. But I wouldn't see them as an important independent plus beyond that. But again that's just me – I feel more confident about the rest of my post reflecting wide-spread views in the field.

    But here is an important possibility: I mentioned above that people from obscure schools are disadvantaged when it comes to getting letters, as admissions committees don't likely know much if anything about their letter-writers. Such summer seminars, I presume, could be an excellent chance for someone from such a school to make connections with and later ask for letters from well-known philosophers. This could be a very large plus.

    Reply
  8. Anon

    I'd like to echo Richards question but with a slight twist.

    I graduated from a good American university but went on to do a Masters in a French university unknown in the States. I have done well in the French program (which focuses on both the analytic and other traditions). This year I am applying to doctoral programs in the PGR top 50, and I wonder if Americans who go to non-anglophone institutions would be evaluated more or less favorably.

    How would admissions committees evaluate such applications, all things being equal (excellent writing sample, good grades, high GRE scores)? Would these candidates be seen as having done something difficult, something which promotes intellectual diversity, as I would (perhaps naively) hope, or would they manifest uncertainty for being difficult to evaluate?

    Reply
  9. J Samuel

    I've heard the same advice regarding GREs from several sources: a low score can disqualify you but above a certain point the actual number is irrelevant. I have even found a few places where someone took a stab at giving an approximate lowest-acceptable-score in verbal and math, which I forget but I think it was somewhere in the 1200 range. However, I have been unable to find anyone with a recorded opinion of how high an analytic writing score must be to keep an applicant in the running, and as a potential applicant with a reasonably good score in the former category (around 1400 although I forget the exact number at the moment) but only a 4.5 in the writing section, I'd in need of some advice regarding whether or not to retake the GRE. On the one hand, I would think that if my writing sample is good enough to get me in, no one will care about my writing score since clearly an actually sample says more about my ability than a score that corresponds to ETS's standards, but on the other hand my training is essentially in analytic writing and it's conceivable that a low score in this area is a cause for concern in an application reviewer.

    For what it's worth, I'll most likely be applying to MA programs this year so I'm especially concerned with their standards.

    Reply
  10. Tim O'Keefe

    This is really a point regarding admission *to* an MA program (as opposed to from MA to PhD) but re: Jorgen's question:

    Accomplished applicants from Southeast Midwest State Tech (Tinytown Campus) are often some of the best candidates for admission to good MA programs. Such applicants can gain admission directly to excellent PhD programs, but they're at a disadvantage compared to folks coming from more prestigious places, and a couple of years at an MA program can help give them the seasoning and/or credentialing to improve their PhD prospects. Some of GSU's best students have come from this pool, and it's satisfying to help ameliorate the impact lack of undergrad pedigree has on them.

    Reply
  11. Rebecca Kukla

    @ Tim O'Keefe: Word. The MA program can provide just the sort of professional polish and credentialing that can be hard to come by at SMST(T).

    @ J Samuel: Yeah, no one cares.

    Reply
  12. Anonymous

    Another note on the GREs: I am also told that the percentile scores are more important than the raw numbers. This matters because the math and verbal scale quite differently. A 700 verbal score will put you into about the top 3%. A 700 math score, on the other hand, will put you roughly, in the top 25%.

    Reply
  13. Anonymous

    To J Samuel,

    I am currently a grad student at a 10 ten PGR program and my analytic writing score was a 4.5. From what I've been told my professors at my current department and my undergraduate institution, if the rest of your application is strong the committee will be looking at your writing sample which is a much better indicator of your ability to write philosophy than the GRE is.

    Reply
  14. Sam

    I'm curious about the relation between the GRE Quantitative Reasoning (math) section and coursework in formal logic. Specifically, might an A in a graduate level logic course satisfying the program's logic requirement offset a weak GRE math score? Such a scenario would seem to point to the *timed* aspect of the GRE giving the student trouble, not the material itself. Or is the GRE simply an effort to get a standard measurement of students?

    Reply
  15. Geoff

    I have admissions experience in a strong MA program and wanted to echo anonymous 2:28: the relevant numbers for us on the GRE are the percentiles, not the raw numbers. So there are many varieties of "1400": a 700 on the verbal is a MUCH better score than a 700 on the quantitative (currently 97th vs. 70th; see http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table1a.pdf ). A 4.5 on the writing section is the 67th percentile, while a 5 is 84th (http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table1b.pdf ). That's a big half point!

    (Hope this isn't too off-topic, Brian—I realize the original poster was asking about PhD admissions.)

    Reply
  16. Paul Weirich

    GRE scores are not included in nominations for university fellowships at the University of Missouri. Besides GPA and letters of recommendation, undergraduate awards help a nominee win a fellowship. The Philosophy Department uses GRE scores to decide about admission and a teaching assistantship, but GPA and letters are more important. The writing sample, besides demonstrating qualifications, shows whether the student's interests fit the department well.

    Reply
  17. Anonymous

    Another point worth making in regard to applications – one which I don’t hear *terribly* much about in such discussions – is just what sort of coursework is taken as an undergraduate, and how that can influence admissions decisions. By this I don’t mean, necessarily, courses in philosophy rather than from other departments (e.g. biology or history), though too little of straight philosophy can surely pose similar problems. It’s rather the issue of what *sort* of philosophy one has studied as an undergraduate (and, before someone leaps on this, I’m not talking about the old Conti-versus-Anglos rag). I have heard from my friends and acquaintances at other PGR top-15-or-so departments that pretty much everyone there had serious coursework in “analytical” (or, better, mainstream, contemporary) philosophy as an undergraduate (e.g. the standard fare of “Philosophy of Language,” “Philosophy of Mind,” “Epistemology” etc.); in most instances, their courses tended to focus on contemporary issues and approaches, and were not just historical in nature (e.g. theories of knowledge in antiquity). My other friends, who largely landed in lower ranked schools though with similar grades, tended to have taken courses primarily on historical figures – Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Kant, etc. – and had coursework which wasn’t especially concerned with contemporary debates, even in their respective sub-specializations (e.g. Kant studies). This seems – only anecdotally, of course, and that might be worth naught – to confirm something I read in Gross’ biography of Rorty (if I recall correctly), to the effect that the major Anglophone depts. in Rorty’s day considered seriously only those students who had solid coursework in the contemporary debates (something like the issues of the last 15-20 years of J.Phil.); otherwise, it was presumed that it would just take too much to bring students up to speed.

    So I wonder if some of the faculty members might comment on this: is a certain kind of coursework looked for in an application? And, if so, what sort? And might this explain, at least partly, why it’s tougher for students from smaller schools, whose courses don’t tend to focus so much on the issues du jour, or those who don't go in for a lot of contemporary work in undergrad., to crack the top of the PGR?

    Reply
  18. First-Year MA Student

    With respect to what PhD admissions committees are looking for in students coming from MA programs: breadth or depth? My undergraduate background is entirely historical and as I have been planning out my MA program (which is strongly oriented towards contemporary analytic philosophy) I've been wondering whether I should focus in my areas of interest or whether I should attempt to have a broad background before (hopefully) joining a PhD program.

    On the one hand, I'm serious about my field (epistemology) and want to show that I know what I want to do in a PhD program. On the other hand, I don't want my lack of exposure to, say, metaethics, to be a major strike against my application.

    Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

    Reply
  19. Nate Bice

    I'd like to add a quick plug for the CMU Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology: http://www.phil.cmu.edu/summerschool/

    I attended that program in the Summer of 2008, and subsequently applied to PhD programs in Philosophy that Fall. I'm now in my second year at Columbia and am having a blast. Anyway, I think that program gave me a huge confidence boost, among other things. Also, it was my first experience being surrounded by other people as obsessed with Philosophy as I was, and for three weeks! Many of these people are still close friends of mine. I received a ton of great advice from a couple Philosophy grad students who attended the program that year. Furthermore, tuition and accommodations were (and are) provided for everyone accepted into the program!

    I've heard similar good things about the UC-Boulder summer program.

    Reply
  20. Anon MA Student

    Will taking time off between the MA (at a PGR-noted program) and applying to PhD programs hurt an applicant's chances? Specifically, taking two or three years off for mostly irrelevant/non-academic employment or volunteer work while continuing to study philosophy on one's own. (As an aside, is there such a thing as relevant, non-academic employment? Would working for Amnesty International for a few years between the MA and PhD actually help a student whose focus is human rights or international justice?)

    Reply
  21. Anon grad student

    @Anon, November 01 at 08:26 AM
    Speaking from personal experience only, I can tell you having spent some time in France could only hurt your application to the extent that your credentials will be hard to assess, your (French) recommenders mostly unknown and your ability to do graduate work in philosophy in the Anglo-saxon academia at least not enhanced by your stay in a French university. But your having graduated from an American university, and depending on what you did (and whom you worked with) in France, that should not hurt you at all.

    I graduated from a French 'Grande école' and the University of Paris quite the best one can, spent a year visiting in a great American university (where I was lucky to have a professor write a letter for me) and wrote a writing sample on an issue in contemporary ethics. For what it's worth, I feared all factors were likely to hurt me (4.5 on the analytical section of the GRE, average sample, 'continental' background…), but I seem to have been screened out from the beginning: academic record was hard to assess, two French (hence unknown) letter writers. That's what I've been told by one of the member of the admissions committee who offered me admission to their (unfunded) MA program (which I turned down to get back to France, having already done MA(s) in France).

    That's only *my* case, and I know of several French students who got in outstanding programs (better prepared, more analytical from the onset, better economy…). What I want to point out is how harder it is for applicants from non-anglophone-like European countries than from others to get in, other things being equal. It requires much much more money, time, networking and collecting hidden information. I'd be curious to hear from similar experiences since I myself suffered from some lack of information. I guess the most plausible reason why I was not admitted is that I was not good enough. But I have the impression other non-strictly individual factors come into play.

    Reply
  22. Michael Kremer

    I generally agree with Brian's comments on the process. There is a detailed description of how we do admissions at the U of Chicago here: http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/prospective/admissions.html which also contains a good deal of useful advice.

    I would add two comments of my own. (1) I think we tend to discount the GRE writing score since we find that the score does not correlate in any meaningful way with our judgment of a student's writing based on the writing sample. My impression is that this part of the GRE is graded by people (English graduate students or professors?) who are not interested in the same writing skills that we are. (2) We do impose a somewhat higher standard on the writing samples of students who have been in an MA program, especially a two-year MA program where they have had a full year to polish their writing sample, as opposed to applicants who are still in their undergraduate institutions and are probably therefore just sending the best paper from their coursework in the first half of their senior year. By the same token we would hold applicants who are applying after graduation from their undergraduate institution, and may be submitting a finished senior thesis or a paper they have been able to polish for a long time, to a somewhat higher standard. Having said this, I hasten to add that we admit students from MA programs pretty much every year. And we often advise our own undergraduates to apply to graduate school only after graduation.

    Reply
  23. M Kopec

    Concerning (1): I did a terminal MA at a PGR ranked program, and it seemed that students who came late to philosophy did better come application time than those who had an undergraduate major in it from a weak program. Those that did the best at getting into top 10 PhD programs were students who did their undergrad work in a quantitative field, and pursued the MA to fill in the gaps.

    Here’s a piece of advice I’ve given friends of mine (I’d like to know if others think it is good advice). If a student who majored in philosophy at an unknown school is interested in a technical field (like philosophy of math, physics, cognitive science, logic, etc.), it may be better for that student’s long term goals if she takes an MA in the subfield of interest instead of philosophy. This may be true for those interested in some other subfields as well (like classics for those interested in ancient philosophy and history of science for those interested in general philosophy of science, there are probably others).

    For example, while a student interested in philosophy of language may not be able to get into a top PhD program in philosophy because of her undergraduate institution, she may be able to go to a very good MA program in linguistics and take some philosophy courses while she does it, sometimes fully funded. Some such programs regularly offer cross-listed philosophy courses that count towards the MA. Having the technical background would look very good to top programs (since many graduate students simply can’t handle the more technical aspects of philosophy these days), and these programs often correlate with very good philosophy programs (thus filling the need for famous letter writers, if those courses can be fit in).

    In addition, philosophy graduate students interested in these technical subfields might find they have to take courses in other departments to improve their technical competence (sometimes, they even take MAs in them). Therefore, taking the MA in the technical field first might actually cut down the time to finishing the PhD in philosophy. My experience was that only a few philosophy courses transferred from the MA to the PhD anyway (though this does depend on the department).

    Reply
  24. Margaret Atherton

    Students applying from MA programs can learn a lot from department websites that include information about the previous education of their current graduate students. For example, while Michael Kremer (who handily provided a link) is quite right that many current UChicago graduate students have MAs, the vast majority either have MAs from Chicago itself or from abroad. There seem to be many fewer students admitted from traditional US MA programs.

    Reply
  25. Cody Sexton

    I am at a small liberal arts school in Virginia getting ready to start the application process for Ph.D. programs. Is there anyone out there who can speak more about undergrad (or MA) course selection having an effect on Ph.D. admissions? Someone mentioned earlier that people who focused more on contemporary material fared better in the admissions process. I am very interested in ancient philosophy and will be applying to schools who have strong programs in that area. Will not taking an epistemology or analytic philosophy course hurt my chances for admission into an ancient philosophy program? I know that people who study history of philosophy often have other areas of interest, but the focus is still on the history of philosophy.

    Reply
  26. Michael Kremer

    Just to set the record straight concerning Margaret Atherton's claim that "while Michael Kremer (who handily provided a link) is quite right that many current UChicago graduate students have MAs, the vast majority either have MAs from Chicago itself or from abroad. There seem to be many fewer students admitted from traditional US MA programs" — she is I think getting her data from http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/graduate/currentstudents.html.

    The information at that site is however both incomplete and misleading. Some students are identified as having an MA from Chicago who in fact acquired their MA along the way to a Chicago PhD, having been admitted with just a BA or BSc. In the 8 years I have been here we have admitted only one student from our current MA program in the Humanities. Meanwhile two students who we admitted with Tufts MA's in that time (and are still with us) are unaccountably not identified as such on the website. The website does identify current students with MAs from the New School, Stanford, Columbia, Santa Cruz, Boston University, and NYU, so that makes 8 current students with MAs from other US institutions. There are plenty of students with MAs from foreign institutions, but I count only about 10 of these, and many of these students are natives of the countries where they did their MAs (e.g. Israel, Turkey, the UK).

    So I don't think Atherton's claim about "the vast majority" is borne out by the facts.

    Reply
  27. Margaret Atherton

    Thanks very much for the clarification (and I would be very happy to hear more about other programs who didn't lay themselves open to my gaze.) Just one further observation about what Michael Kremer tells us about Chicago–I do note that the 8 students listed got their MAs from programs that also offer Phds, and not from terminal MA programs.

    Reply
  28. Anon undergrad

    I am an undergraduate coming from an Ivy university that has a strong philosophy program. I am starting to apply to PhD and MA programs and am curious as to how graduate schools view blemishes on a students transcript. By 'blemishes' I mean a semester or two in which the student did not display his or her best work due to circumstances out of his or her control (i.e., death in the family, serious health problems, etc.). Can this be explained away in a personal statement? Or will the file automatically get tossed when admissions officers see a slightly lower GPA and some kinks in the transcript? Also, will the school that the student has a BA from help allay any concerns?

    Reply
  29. Eddy Nahmias

    To Anon undergrad, bad semesters can and should be honestly explained in the personal statement. However, it will help if at least on of your letter writers backs up the explanation. That will both remind the committee members of the issue (or inform those who do not read personal statements) and ensure them that your explanation is legit.

    Reply
  30. Charles

    Concerning the "bad semester," will a break in enrollment, followed by a significant improvement, make any difference? To clarify, my first two years of undergraduate study were terrible. Now, in Afghanistan, nearing the end of four years of military service, I can't help but think that my youthful indiscretions will prevent me from pursuing an academic career. I'll be returning a little older and, hopefully, wiser. Assuming the next two years are close to perfect, do I still even have a chance?

    Reply
  31. Eddy Nahmias

    Charles, I would certainly hope that programs would overlook early difficulties if there are explained away to some extent and then entirely overshadowed by "close to perfect" later years, especially if most of the work in philosophy occurred in those later years and the letter writers indicate that the potential to do graduate-level work is there.

    Reply
  32. blindobserver

    I had a quick question about retaking the GRE exam.

    Currently, I'm a senior philosophy major at a small, 1200-student liberal arts school, and I'm in the process of applying to graduate programs.

    My GPA is 3.97 total with a 4.0 in philosophy classes. I am set up to receive good letters of recommendation, and I think my sample paper is also very decent.

    A few weeks ago I took the GRE and scored 1410 on the combined verbal+quantitative but a sad 4.5/6 on the essays.

    Is it worth investing another $160 to retake the GRE in order to improve a poor 4.5 writing score (and risk scoring lower on the V+Q)? I am trying to get into a top 20 program.

    I would appreciate any advice. Thanks.

    BL COMMENT: I think it would be an utter waste to retake in order to try to get a better writing score. I don't know of any programs that gives that much weight when they have an actual writing sample in hand.

    Reply
  33. Undergrad

    I am an undergrad at a top 25 liberal arts college and have studied for a year at Oxbridge. I am strongly considering applying to a Cambridge masters program in history of political thought. Assuming strong letters, scores, grades, writing samples, etc., how would having studied political philosophy so historically affect my chances of admission to top US analytically-orientated programs? I am hoping to pursue a JD/PhD and to specialize in political and legal philosophy, as well as metaethics. From what I know now, I would describe my philosophical orientation as 'pluralist', leaning towards the analytic in ethics, though I also very much enjoy the historical approach to political theory. Maybe this distinction matters less for someone interested in ethics/political/social philosophy?

    Would I be better served to apply to PhD programs in political science (theory) even if my intellectual orientation is entirely theoretical? Or, given that I want to study political and ethical theory, could I possibly find an intellectual niche at the analytic likes of Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, etc?

    Thanks!

    Reply
  34. K. Pogin

    I'm hoping someone is still reading this other than all of us desperate applicants–I'm wondering if anyone could answer a question about letters of recommendation. I have three letter writers who are philosophy professors I took classes from, but I'm wondering if, for the programs that accept more than three recommendation letters, it would be a bad idea to include recommendation letters from professors outside of philosophy?

    I double majored and minored, and as it turned out I have a couple of professors from my other major and minor who are much better acquainted with my work, and capabilities as a student, than the philosophy professors I took courses from, other than the three who are already writing letters for me.

    Reply

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