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Applying to Anglophone PhD Programs from Continental Europe

Brian Leiter

A student in Europe writes:

I'm currently a sophomore student of philosophy at a European university, and I'm hoping to go to grad school in some other country once I'm done with my bachelor (3 years/180 ECTS degree). I'm worried because philosophy is a single subject degree here, which means that all of my courses will be in philosophy (including logic). I have come to understand that most universities expect their students and grad school applicants to have a broader undergraduate background. (Or a more modest background in philosophy; I'm not quite sure which one is to be emphasized.)

So what I would like to hear is what admission commitees in other places – especially in the US and the UK – think of applicants with this kind of narrow (or deep?) training. I myself will have ¼ of my courses in logic and the other ¾ in philosophy (and a thesis). But I wont have anything else. If this is seen as something bad, is there anything I could do to improve my chances?

 My impression is that many American PhD programs generally appreciate the more intensive training undergraduates get in other countries, and that lack of a "broader" background rarely counts against them.  But what do other readers think?  Signed entries will be preferred.

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10 responses to “Applying to Anglophone PhD Programs from Continental Europe”

  1. Adam Hogan

    I'm not on an admission committee. I am a recently admitted, American student – into an American program.
    Your narrow background could be viewed as positive by American programs. However, there are many other considerations for someone in your position.
    The courses you have taken, and how well you have done in them is going to be a bigger factor to most American programs (I cannot speak to UK programs). Since you're going to need a GRE score, doing as well as you can there will help too; while there's several differing opinions on this, I would suggest trying to achieve a score no less than in the 90th percentile, or higher on all portions.
    Your writing sample should be tailored to the schools you are applying; it will greatly help if your writing sample treats a current debate that is relevant to some of the faculty at each of the schools. Regardless, the sample should be well written (clear, concise, and show your ability to think clearly).
    I will forego any discussion of letters or recommendation, statement of purpose, as you can find very helpful information about those on both this blog, and The Splintered Mind blog.
    Perhaps your biggest concern should be funding. You'll need to spend considerable time unearthing if particular schools have funding for foreign students, and if so, how much. This can be difficult, as the schools themselves may not know until after the April 15th deadline. Either way, it's in your best interest to fully understand a school's policy concerning foreign students.
    I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

    Reply
  2. Jo Wolff

    I can't imagine that this would be a problem at any programme in the UK. The majority of our graduate students at UCL probably took a single honours Philosophy BA degree, the main exception being those who took PPE at Oxford. But even these students generally have taken as much Philosophy as they could.

    Reply
  3. Gary Kemp

    And UK Honours Degrees in Philosophy involve not but philosophy in the final two years.

    Reply
  4. Alastair Norcross

    It wouldn't be a problem at my University (Colorado). As for funding, I don't think we make any distinction between US and foreign students. If you're admitted to the Ph.D program, you are funded. This is fairly common. I am British, did my undergraduate work in England, and graduate work at Syracuse, and was fully funded the whole time. There was never any suggestion that my foreign citizenship affected my funding. I had to sort out my own visa status, but I don't remember that being too difficult, just a lot of waiting in line at embassies or consulates or whatever. Of course this was nearly thirty years ago, but I don't think much has changed (perhaps more recent foreign graduate students in the US can correct me). There have been reports of difficulties with funding for foreign students in Canada, but those xenophobic Canadians are far less enlightened than we socially aware, liberal-minded, welcoming Americans. What? Oh, right.

    Reply
  5. Gary Kemp

    'nothing but', not 'not but'. Or I could claim I meant to write 'now't but', but I don't want to be an linguistic imposter.

    Reply
  6. Charles Pigden

    I don't think a straight philosophy degree would be a problem for someone wanting to do a PHD in either Australia or New Zealand. Nobody batted an eye-lid about the fact that I had done a nothing-but-philosophy BA hons at Cambridge before going on to do a doctorate at la Trobe in Melbourne in the '80s. I'm pretty sure that on this point attitudes have not changed since then.

    Reply
  7. Nick Munn

    Further to Charles' point, Australian and NZ universities (with the recent exception of the University of Melbourne which has moved towards a US style broad undergraduate course system) actively encourage their own undergraduates to focus on a single discipline. As such, many students come out having done primarily philosophy, particularly at 2nd/3rd year level. This tendency is pronounced amongst those who want to go further in Philosophy.

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  8. Yale Grad Student

    At Yale, there are quite a few students from Continental Europe in the PhD program. We may be atypical in this respect, due to Yale's strength in early modern philosophy, an area that is perhaps stressed more heavily by undergraduate programs in Continental Europe than elsewhere. However, it nevertheless shows that a good Anglophone program (and one with a very small entering class, usually of no more than 5 students) has been happy to admit students from Continental Europe.

    In general, my impression is that since the writing sample and letter of recommendation are by far the most important things in admissions, the exact nature of which courses you have or haven't done is of relatively little importance. And to the extent it is, I very much doubt that having done *more* philosophy than other things would be looked on as a disadvantage.

    Reply
  9. Eric Schwitzgebel

    I've served on the UC Riverside admissions committee off and on for 15 years. I have never heard anyone complain that a foreign applicant has too much philosophy and not enough of anything else. There are other hurdles for foreign applicants, though. Among them: disincentives built into some schools' admissions package funding structures, difficulty evaluating foreign transcripts, lower likelihood of foreign letter writers being known to members of the admissions committee, and subtle (or not-so-subtle) cross-cultural differences in philosophical writing styles and letter writing styles. These factors in combination result, I suspect, in non-Anglophone applicants being somewhat disadvantaged by the process at most U.S. schools.

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  10. French Grad student

    I second Eric Schwitzgebel: other factors are likely to weigh much more heavily than having done only philosophy. I once applied to a bunch of US (top-15) PhD programs, and failed for various reasons, some of which were all my fault. But, having later talked with the director of the admissions committee of one of these PhD programs, I got the sense that among those reasons, most important was their ability to assess my credentials. That is, they need to know you're nicely fitted for the English-speaking, analytic system. So they need to know who your recommenders are, and the latter need to know what the committee's expecting. Your "contrinental" background in philosophy must look like a non-continental one. Your transcripts must be easily interpreted. And you must demonstrate a strong competence in the philosophical writing style of the kind of programs you're applying to. Needless to say, you need already have been deeply trained to US- (or UK-, or Australia/NZ-) style analytic philosophy; not merely willing to be so trained.

    Reply

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