Placement

Since 1995, over 120 students have graduated with an M.A. in philosophy from Virginia Tech. Approximately 90% of the students who have applied to Ph.D. programs have been admitted with funding. We have placed students in a number of leading philosophy Ph.D. programs, including Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Indiana, Duke, Arizona, Brown, Notre Dame, Toronto, UC San Diego, University of California at Irvine, and Rutgers.

Students who do not wish to study philosophy at a doctoral level have been successful in pursuing other careers, in other academic disciplines (Anthropology, Public Policy, and English, for instance), and outside the academy in the public and private sector (in computer-related fields, education, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), among others). We are proud of our placement record for both groups of students.

Acceptances are to Philosophy Ph.D. programs with funding unless noted. Beginning 2012 (and in some cases 2011), we record every program into which the applicant was admitted. Before that, we recorded only the program in which the applicant enrolled.

Students Who Applied to Philosophy Ph.D.
Students Who Did Not Apply to Philosophy Ph.D.

THESIS TITLE	SUBSEQUENT STATUS
2019
Challenges to effective realism	Arizona State (History and Philosophy of Science)
Protein classification and natural kinds	University of Pennsylvania. Also accepted at Arizona State (History and Philosophy of Science); Duke University; Michigan State; University of Minnesota; University of Pittsburgh (History and Philosophy of Science); University of Washington, Seattle; University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Fair treatment of individual agents: a case against racial profiling	University of Southern California
When may police kill in self-defense? A special moral obligations argument against moral parity	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Also accepted at Georgetown; University of Washington, Seattle.
Paraphilias and the medicalization of criminal behavior	Instructor, Virginia Tech
2018
Adaptive preference tradeoffs	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Also accepted at Cornell University; Georgetown University; Syracuse University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Virginia.
Deceiving appearances: problems for the evidential insensitivity approach to phenomenal dogmatism	University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Also accepted at University of Virginia.
Adjusting credibility excesses for epistemic justice	University of Washington, Seattle
Philosophical zombies don’t share our epistemic situation	University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Problems for introspection as a basis for reasoning about the self	Instructor, Virginia Tech
2017
The epistemic and ontic conceptions of scientific explanation	University of California, Irvine (Logic and Philosophy of Science). Also accepted at Boston University; University of California, San Diego; University of Washington, Seattle; University of Western Ontario.
(In)justice in nonideal social worlds	University of Virginia. Also accepted at Syracuse University; University of Washington, Seattle.
The theoretical usefulness of pluralistic constitution theory	University of California, Santa Barbara. Also accepted at University of Edinburgh.
Geometric possibility, ideological parsimony, and monistic substantivalism	University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Also accepted at University of Miami; University of Nottingham.
A language-game justification for narrative in historical explanation	Secondary education
2016
Acquaintance and the formation of negative phenomenal beliefs	Cornell University. Also accepted at Syracuse University; University of Arizona; University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Puryear fellowship), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Rochester (Slattery fellowship); University of Toronto.
How morality seems: a cognitive phenomenal case for moral realism	The Ohio State University (University Fellowship). Also accepted at Rice University (Provost Prize); University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Puryear fellowship).
Beliefs in an opaque brain	Docente contratado, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
The substance of ontological disputes	University of California, Santa Barbara. Also accepted at the University of Calgary.
2015
Normativity and experimental philosophy	Indiana University. Also accepted at Marquette; The Ohio State University; Temple University; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of South Florida.
Reframing the reproductivity crisis: using an error-statistical account to inform the interpretation of replication results in psychological research	Carnegie Mellon University. Also accepted at University of California, Irvine (Logic and Philosophy of Science); University of Maryland, College Park; University of Pennsylvania; Virginia Tech (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought).
2014
Kant’s negative answer to Molyneux’s problem	University of Western Ontario
Holistic theories of content and instability	University of Maryland, College Park
Moral motivation and the devil	University of Texas, Austin
Atheism and analogy: Aquinas against the atheists	Purdue University
Non-thesis option	Secondary education (St. Paul’s Girls’ School, London, England)
Testimony without belief	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
2013
On distinguishing the meaningless from the meaningful: an evolutionary game-theoretic approach to Ruth Millikan’s teleosemantics	University of California, Irvine (Logic and Philosophy of Science). Also accepted at the Graduate Center, City University of New York; University of California, San Diego; University of Notre Dame.
Non-thesis option	University of Oklahoma. Also accepted at Georgetown University; Purdue University; University of Notre Dame.
Non-thesis option	University of Oklahoma. Also accepted at Purdue University.
Non-thesis option	The Ohio State University
Morality in the meat machine	The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Also accepted at Arizona State; Florida State; University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Cincinnati; University of Minnesota; Washington University, St. Louis (Philosophy, Neuroscience, Psychology).
On what we confront in perceptual experience: old school ontologies for new school realists	Seattle University (Psychology M.A. program). Also accepted at Boston University.
Non-thesis option	Indiana University (History and Philosophy of Science) (unfunded)
Non-thesis option	University of Otago, New Zealand
Some suggestions for deontic logicians	Global Center for Advanced Studies, College Dublin
2012
Non-thesis option	University of Washington, Seattle
Non-thesis option	Cambridge University. Also accepted at Georgetown University.
2011
Non-thesis option	Research Coordinator, Social Clinical Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Virginia Tech
Non-thesis option	Rutgers University
A veritable Jekyll and Hyde: epistemic circularity and reliabilist theories of justification	Purdue University
Non-thesis option	University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Also accepted at The Ohio State University; University of California, Irvine.
Non-thesis option	University of Southern California
Non-thesis option	University of Toronto. Also accepted at Cornell University; University of Michigan; University of Pittsburgh (History and Philosophy of Science)
Non-thesis option	University of Virginia
Non-thesis option	Rice University
Non-thesis option	University of Arizona
2010
Non-thesis option	The Ohio State University
Non-thesis option	University of California, San Diego
Non-thesis option	St. Louis University
Non-thesis option	The Ohio State University
Non-thesis option	University of Southern California
Non-thesis option	University of Buffalo
Non-thesis option	University of Arizona
2009
Non-thesis option	Brown University
Non-thesis option	University of Virginia Law School
Non-thesis option	University of Oklahoma
Non-thesis option	Declined (unknown) acceptances.
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2008
Non-thesis option	Indiana University
Non-thesis option	University of Southern California
Non-thesis option	University of California, San Diego
Non-thesis option	Washington University, St. Louis
Non-thesis option	University of Virginia
Non-thesis option	Indiana University (History and Philosophy of Science)
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2007
A modifier-based philosophy of whole number	Princeton University
Non-thesis option	Michigan State
Between Hull and a hard core: varying patterns in the evolution of the Darwinian research tradition	University of Connecticut
Creating a community of equals: luck egalitarianism, democratic equality, and the significance of the choice/circumstance distinction	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Master of Science in Library Science)
2006
Scientific realism and the periodic table of chemical elements	Duke University
Non-thesis option	University of Wisconsin, Madison
Non-thesis option	University of Toronto (visiting graduate fellow)
2005
Non-thesis option	University of Toronto
Non-thesis option	University of Washington, Seattle
Non-thesis option	Instructor, Ulster County Community College
Non-thesis option	University of British Columbia
Experience and pictorial representation	Washington University, St. Louis
2004
Animating the EPR-Experiment: the case for objectivity in the search for Bell violations	Columbia University
Objectivity in feminist philosophy of science	Duke University (Classics)
Non-thesis option	Emory University
2003
Non-thesis option	Cornell University
Non-thesis option	University of California, Irvine
Respecting citizens, protecting capabilities: the role of the state in a liberal society	University of Maryland, College Park (Education Policy)
Non-thesis option	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Education Policy)
2002
Non-thesis option	University of Texas, Austin
Non-thesis option	University of California, San Diego
Non-thesis option	University of Notre Dame
Non-thesis option	The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Science, Technology, and Society)
2001
Contractarianism and moderate morality	University of Maryland, College Park
Rawls, liberalism, and leisure	University of Virginia
The ontology of persistence	Syracuse University
A solution to “the problem of Socrates” in Nietzsche’s thought: an explanation of Nietzsche’s ambivalence toward Socrates	DePaul University
Nietzsche’s notes, Nietzsche’s ‘philosophy’	Private sector
2000
Sextus Empiricus and the skeptic’s beliefs	Ohio University (English)
No degree	University of Washington, Seattle
1999
Royce and Perry on idealism and realism	University of Utah
1998
Situated cognition, dynamicism, and explanation in cognitive science	Washington University, St. Louis
Empirical meaning and incomplete personhood	University of Illinois, Chicago (Anthropology)
1997
Kant’s critical attitude towards the only possible argument	Emory University
Quality and competence: an analysis of the role of Mill’s qualitative hedonism on his conception of representative democracy	University of Virginia (Philosophy and Law, J.D./Ph.D.)
Non-thesis option	University of Kentucky
1996
Meaning, functions, and the promise of indicator semantics	Declined (unknown) acceptances.
Autonomy and neutrality in liberal political thought	University of Illinois, Chicago.
1995
Regarding Descartes’ Meditations as meditational	Purdue University
Descartes and tradition: the miracle of the Eucharist	Virginia Tech (Science, Technology, and Society)
Ludwik Fleck and his concept of a scientific fact	Northwestern University
The role of welfare in an egalitarian metric	University of Kentucky

THESIS TITLE	SUBSEQUENT STATUS
2019
The virtue of ethnicity	Instructor, Lehman College
On the intelligibility of grounding	Private sector
2018
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Civility: its distinctness and significance	Unknown
What does theism add to ethical naturalism?	Virginia Tech (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought)
2017
Kant on the progression of representation	Secondary teaching
Non-thesis option	Unknown
2016
Kantianism and its commitment to non-naturalism	Director for Identity and Inclusion, Bellarmine University
2015
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought)
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought)
Non-thesis option	Instructor, Waubonsee Community College
Thomas Aquinas on the nature of singular thought	Private sector
The utility of mathematical symbols	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2014
Non-thesis option	University of Virginia School of Law
Contextual knowledge ascriptions and non-contextual knowledge	Virginia Tech (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought)
Toward error-statistical principles of evidence in statistical inference	Private sector
Implications of a universal healthcare system in the United States: why individual health is now of national concern	Ethicist, Institutional Review Board, University of Minnesota
2013
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Center for Public Administration and Policy)
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2012
Non-thesis option	Secondary education (teaching Philosophy and English, Avon Old Farms School, Avon, Connecticut)
Examining the ‘Adam Smith problem’	Instructor, Lynchburg College
Non-thesis option	Exeter University (Philosophy of Biology, MA program)
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2011
Non-thesis option	University of Chicago (Master of Public Policy).
Non-thesis option	Instructor, University of Toledo
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Science, Technology, and Society)
2010
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Planning Governance and Globalization)
Non-thesis option	University of California, Irvine (Biology)
Non-thesis option	University of Nevada, Reno (Mathematics, MA program)
Non-thesis option	Unknown
Non-thesis option	Unknown
2009
A critique of Langton on Kantian substance	Unknown
Supervaluationism, penumbral connections, and the nature of higher-order vagueness	Instructor, Virginia Tech
Non-thesis option	Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Inescapable wrongdoing and the coherence of morality: an examination of moral dilemmas	Instructor, Virginia Tech
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought)
2008
What dolphins want: animal intentionality and tool-use	Virginia Tech (Science, Technology, and Society)
Non-thesis option	Cardozo Law School
Non-thesis option	Private sector
A Davidsonian response to the dead metaphor problem	Private sector
2007
Non-thesis option	The University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Non-thesis option	U.S. Military
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2006
On the moral legitimacy of states and the morality of killing in war	Private sector
Non-thesis option	U.S. Military
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Veterinary Medicine)
Non-thesis option	Instructor, New River Valley Community College
Non-thesis option	Public sector
2005
Understanding dead languages	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Public sector
Non-thesis option	Public sector
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought)
2004
Non-thesis option	Virginia Tech (Science, Technology, and Society)
Pragmatic epistemology, community, and the problem of solipsism	Maurer School of Law, Indiana University
Non-thesis option	University of Kansas School of Law
Non-thesis option	U.S. Military
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2003
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2002
The argument from species overlap	Private sector
The moral status of non-human animals	Private sector
Non-thesis option	Instructor, West Point
2001
Non-thesis option	Private sector
2000
1999
The tension between falsificationism and realism	Private sector
Socrates’ conception of knowledge and the priority of definition	George Mason University (Economics)
Explanations of the success of science	Private sector
Kant’s doctrine of schemata	Virginia Tech (Master of public administration)
1998
Soldiers, self-defense, and killing in war	Instructor, West Point
1997
Non-thesis option	Private sector
Hyperadaptation: another missing term in the science of form	Private sector