The pandemic has had a significant impact on the budget of the State of Maryland and consequently on the University of Maryland and the Department of Philosophy. In these difficult times, we are committed to ensuring the continued support of our current graduate students. We also aim, if possible, to offer teaching opportunities to recent graduates. Accordingly, we will not be accepting new PhD students in the fall of 2021. We will, however, continue to accept applications for our MA program, which does not come with guaranteed funding. These changes will allow us to meet our existing commitments and to guard against adverse events in the future.
Students normally enter the doctoral program without a masters degree, but the masters may be earned on the way to the doctorate. The doctoral program is suitable primarily for students who wish to embark on a career in teaching and research at the college or university level. Students should apply for the masters program if they wish just to deepen and expand the knowledge they gained as undergraduates, or if they wish to develop competence in philosophy to apply to some other professional field.
Ph.D. program candidates should normally have a high grade point average and have completed at least 18 credit hours (or the equivalent) of philosophy, including one course in logic, one in ethics, one in epistemology, metaphysics, or philosophy of mind, and two courses in the history of philosophy.
M.A. admission requirements are less stringent than those for admission to the Ph.D. program, although still competitive (again, only a small number are admitted each year). The same supporting documents must be provided.
The Department especially welcomes applications from women and members of minority groups that are under-represented in the profession.
The deadline for applications is January 7th for entry in the following Fall. The department does not normally admit graduate students for entry in Spring.
Financial Aid
The following items are normally required of all candidates:
- A completed application form, containing a short 'statement of purpose'. This can be downloaded from the Graduate School website at http://www.vprgs.umd.edu/ or completed online.
- Official transcripts of all degrees obtained or in the process of being obtained.
- Three letters of support from previous instructors.
- GRE examination results.
- TOEFL examination results (for applicants whose first language isn't English)
- Writing sample in philosophy (normally one or two essays, totaling no more than twenty to twenty-five pages).
For information and application forms for the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, see:
http://www.gradschool.umd.edu/welcome/welcome.html
If you are submitting any application materials in paper form, please send all items to the following address:
University of Maryland College Park Enrollment Services Operations Rm 0130 Mitchell Building College Park, MD 20742, USA.
In some rare cases the GRE requirement may be waived (e.g. for overseas students in countries where the test isn't offered). And the TOEFL requirement may also be waived for students who have, e.g., been educated in English.
All candidates should ensure that we have a reliable email address at which they can be contacted at short notice. Initial offers of admission are likely to be sent out by early to mid-March. We will aim to keep all candidates informed of the status of their application. Please do not hesitate to contact us about the status of your application if you have not heard from us by March 15.
Contact address: Hallie Liberto, Director of Graduate Admissions, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742, USA, liberto@umd.edu.
