Graduate Placement

The table below provides a record of placement outcomes for graduate students (only) in the MA program. Data are for any/all students who have applied—whether successful or not—for further academic study based on their MA degree. ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵ that opted not to pursue further academic study are not listed. Data are complete from the present back to 2008. Each placement prior to 2008 is verified; however, unsuccessful applicants are unknown. A note about placement from 1988–2008 follows. For additional information, see our Alumni page.

Graduation YearThesis Title or Writing SamplePlacement
2025–2026On Plato’s Phaedo and TimaeusMS, Tufts University [Biomedical Sciences]
2025–2026
 		PortfolioPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine [Philosophy]
2025–2026Unifying Epistemic OpacityPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵDavis [Philosophy]
2025–2026Locke on Substance Kinds and Human MindsLecturer, Cal State Long Beach [Philosophy]
2024–2025Descartes on the Nature of AnimalsPhD, University of Texas Austin [Philosophy]
2024–2025All the Luster and Light: Malebranche on the Problem of Moral Evil and the Image of GodPhD, Indiana University [Philosophy]
2024–2025PortfolioPhD, Arizona State University [History & Philosophy of Science]
2023–2024Aristotle on Loving Friends: Individual Virtues and IntimacyPhD, Florida State University [Philosophy]
2022–2023Impossibly Immoral Fictions and How to Understand ThemPhD, Saint Louis University [Philosophy]
2022–2023Color as Form: Segmentation as the Primary Role of Color VisionLecturer, Cal State Long Beach [Philosophy]
2022–2023Comprehensive Exams 
2021–2022Defining and Refining Naturalist RealismPhD, University of Pennsylvania [Philosophy]
2021–2022Moral Objections to Moral RealismPhD, University of Texas Austin [Philosophy]
2021–2022Berkeley on God’s Knowledge of Sensible ObjectsPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵRiverside [Philosophy]
2021–2022Comprehensive ExamsResearch Coordinator, Center for International Trade and Transportation
2020–2021Casting Light on the Search for Engrams: The Reductionism-Mechanism DebatePhD, University of Pittsburgh [History & Philosophy of Science]
2020–2021On Multi-Dimensional Gradability: A Refutation of the False Dichotomy in Knowing HowPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine [Philosophy]
2020–2021Exploring the Differences between Moral and Nonmoral TestimonyPhD, University of Memphis [Philosophy]; transferred to
PhD, Purdue University [Literature & Philosophy]
2020–2021al-Ghazali on Occasionalism, Natural Science, and Miraclesdeclined offer of doctoral admission [Religious Studies]
2019–2020Relevant Features that Could Qualify Artificial Intelligence Systems as Persons with Moral StandingPhD, University of Wisconsin [Philosophy]
2018–2019Language, Nature, and Meaning in LifePhD, University of Cincinnati [Philosophy]
2017–2018The Basis of Moral ValuesPhD, University of Connecticut [Philosophy]
2016–2017An Empirical Look at the Transparency of Perceptual ExperiencePhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵSan Diego [Philosophy]
2016–2017Scientific Realism and the Geometric Structure of Physical TheoriesPhD, University of Minnesota [Philosophy]
2016–2017Absence Causation in Mechanistic ExplanationPhD, University of Colorado [Philosophy]
2016–2017Priority and Its Role in Descartes’s Cosmological ArgumentPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵRiverside [Religious Studies]
2014–2015Overcoming the PresentLecturer, Cal State San Bernardino [Philosophy]
2014–2015Tracing and Offloading: A Neo-Lockean Reply to JohnstonPhD, University of Kansas [Philosophy]
2013–2014Comprehensive ExamsLecturer, Long Beach City College [Social Sciences]
2013–2014The Doxastic Conception of DelusionPhD, University of Wisconsin [Philosophy]
2012–2013Comprehensive ExamsJD, Loyola Marymount [Law]
2012–2013O’Connor’s Agent-Causation Theory of Free WillPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵDavis [Philosophy]
2011–2012Manipulation and Moral ResponsibilityPhD, Purdue University [Philosophy]
2011–2012Dirty Hands, Virtue Ethics, and ConsequentialismPhD, Syracuse University [Philosophy]
2010–2011The Role of Intuition in Philosophical Theory ConstructionPhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [Psychology]
2010–2011Nietzsche as Cultural PhysicianJD, University of Southern ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵ[Law]
2009–2010A Defense of Mackie’s Error TheoryPhD, University of Western Ontario [Philosophy]
2008–2009A Defense of Davidson’s Dissolution to the Problem of Global SkepticismPhD, University of Utah [Philosophy]
2007–2008Worldmaking and Exemplification in Theater-to-Film AdaptationsPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵLos Angeles [Cinema Studies]
2007–2008Back to the Future: A Modern Natural Law Understanding of the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789PhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine [Philosophy]
2006–2007Pyrrhonian Skepticism and the Problem of the CriterionPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine [Philosophy]
2005–2006Comprehensive ExamsPhD, Cal State Long Beach [Education]
2005–2006The Supervenience Interpretation of Biological Fitness and Scientific UnderstandingPhD, York University [Philosophy]
2005–2006New Foundations for Philosophy of MindPhD, Florida State University [Philosophy]
2005–2006Explanation in BiologyPhD, University of Minnesota [Philosophy]
2004–2005Musical Ontology and the Epistemological TurnPhD, Indiana University Bloomington [Philosophy]
2004–2005Comprehensive ExamsPhD, University of Southampton [Philosophy]
2002–2003A Philosophical Defense of Bilingual EducationPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine [Philosophy]
2002–2003Trouble in Paradise: The Factual Problem of Minority Rights Justification in Normative Political TheoryPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine [Philosophy]
2002–2003Two Studies of Paul Churchland’s Eliminative MaterialismPhD, Florida State University [Philosophy]
2002–2003On Plantinga’s Case Against NaturalismPhD, Purdue University [Philosophy]
2001–2002The Fool in Thomas Hobbes’s LeviathanPhD, University of Southern California
2001–2002Knowledge of the Mind: A Defense of Descartes against MalebranchePhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine
2001–2002Martin Heidegger: Dwelling and Its Ethical ImportPhD, University of Texas Austin [Architecture]
2001–2002Critical Social Theory: Essays on Power, Knowledge, and ConsciousnessPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine [History]
2000–2001Locke, Nozick, the Descriptive Model of Rights, and the Limits of Private PropertyMA, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵDavis [Political Science]
2000–2001Becoming Responsible for Emotion-Motivated ActionPhD, State University of New York Albany
1999–2000The Logic and Rationality of ParaconsistencyPhD, University of South Africa Pretoria
1999–2000Plantinga and Warranted BeliefPhD, Purdue University
1999–2000Using the Will to Power to Shape Authentic SelvesPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵRiverside
1999–2000Vagueness in Language and Law: Blurring the Semantics-Pragmatics DistinctionPhD, University of Ottawa
1999–2000The Realism-Antirealism Debate and the Big Bang Model in CosmologyPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵSan Diego
1999–2000Three Treatments of Scientific ExplanationPhD, University of Southern California
1998–1999Putnam’s Puzzle: An Attempted Exorcism in the Philosophy of LanguagePhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵSanta Barbara
1998–1999The Realism Debate: Two Interpretations of Quantum TheoryPhD, University of Southern California
1997–1998Seeing Our Way through RelativismPhD, Washington University St. Louis
1996–1997Toward a Phenomenology of ObligationPhD, Boston College [Philosophy]
1996–1997When Seeing is Believing: Bas van Fraassen and the Observable/Unobservable DistinctionPhD, University of Toronto
1996–1997Distanciation and Appropriation: Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology and the Challenge of EvilPhD, Fordham University [Philosophy]
1995–1996The Role of Cumulative Case Arguments in Theistic and Naturalistic ExplanationsPhD, University of ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵIrvine
1994–1995Chaos, Complexity Theory, and the Free Will/Determinism DebatePhD, University of Maryland

Prof. Hersch at Virginia Tech has helpfully analyzed MA placement data () from AY21–25, which locates ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵ in the top-7 MA programs in the United States in terms of placement PGR score:

MA Placement Data AY21-25
MA Placement Data AY21-25 Median
MA Placement Data AY21-25 Mean

Finally, a review showed that 127 MA degrees were awarded during the period 1988–2008. Although data are incomplete, a (conservative) review revealed the following results:

  • 58 of the 127 graduates chose to apply to doctoral programs.
  • 53 (or 91%) of these 58 were admitted to a doctoral program.
  • 45 of these 53 were admitted to a PhD program in Philosophy, and 7 were admitted to doctoral programs in other disciplines (e.g., Law, Education, Film Studies).
  • 30 of the 45 admitted to a PhD program in Philosophy (67%) were admitted to one (or more) of the top-fifty PhD programs in the United States (as ranked by the 2011 ).
  • Of the 69 graduates that chose not to apply to PhD programs, at least 21 (or more than 30%) went on to teach Philosophy as Full- or Part-time Adjunct Professors or Lecturers at various universities and community colleges around the United States and Canada.