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How do philosophy majors use their degrees after graduation?
A degree in philosophy provides a strong liberal arts education which serves as an excellent foundation for life-long learning and advancement in one’s vocation. Philosophy is respected as an especially challenging major that unites the precision and analytical rigor of the natural and social sciences with the verbal skills, creativity, and imagination emphasized in the humanities and arts. As a result, philosophy majors acquire skills that equip them very well for a wide variety of fields in an employment market that demands adaptation and change. UD philosophy graduates lead lives of leadership and service through many different professions and careers.
Before surveying the professions in which UD philosophy majors have found a home and made a mark, consider the following data from the U.S. Department of Education:
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On the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), philosophy majors nationwide consistently achieve among the highest scores of all majors. Philosophy majors have as good a record as political science majors in admission to top law schools. (At UD, roughly half of our philosophy majors go on to law school.)
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Philosophy majors outperform all other disciplines on the verbal portion of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). Outside the natural sciences, only philosophy and economics majors significantly beat the national average on the quantitative sections of the GRE.
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Only philosophy majors and biology majors, as groups, perform significantly better than the national average on the LSAT and GRE exams, and the highest performers on the Graduate Management Aptitude Test (the GMAT, for business school) are philosophy, mathematics, and engineering majors.
For more information about the general uses of a philosophy degree, see the American Philosophical Association’s publication, Philosophy: A Brief Guide for Undergraduates.
To become a professional philosopher who teaches and conducts research at a college or university, one must hold a doctoral degree. Some of our graduates have gone on to strong graduate programs in philosophy and have become our colleagues in the academia. Currently, UD philosophy majors are pursuing doctoral study at some of the top graduate schools in the country, including the Universities of Michigan, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, and Vanderbilt.
Many of our majors pursue vocations outside of professional philosophy. Most work in one of six areas:
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