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.

Graduation Year and Thesis Title Subsequent Status
2017
  

The Epistemic and Ontic Conceptions of Scientific Explanation

 

 Attending University of California, Irvine, Logic and Philosophy of Science Program. Accepted at University of California, San Diego, University of Western Ontario, University o​​f Washington, Seattle, and Boston U​niversity
(In)Justice in Nonideal Social Worlds
 Attendin​​g Univers​​ity​ ​of​ ​Virginia, accepted​ ​University o​​f​ ​Washington,​ ​Seattle an​​d ​​Syracuse​ ​Un​​iversity, waitlisted​ ​at​ ​University of​ ​Pennsylvania
The Theoretical Usefulness of Pluralistic Constitution Theory
 Accepted at University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Edinburgh.  Previously lecturer at Marist College.
Geometric Possibility, Ideological Parsimony, and Monistic Substantivalism
 Accepted at University of Nottingham, waitlisted at the University of California at Berkeley, University of Virginia, University of Massachusetts, and University of Miami 
A Language-Game Justification for Narrative in Historical Explanation
 Applied to programs in Europe only; now teaching at a secondary school in Europe. 
2016
  
Acquaintance and the Formation of Negative Phenomenal Beliefs
 Attending Cornell University; accepted at University of Arizona, University of Rochester with Slattery fellowship, University of Massachussetts,  Amherst with Puryear fellowship, Syracuse University, University of Toronto, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
How Morality Seems: A Cognitive Phenomenal Case for Moral Realism
 Attending The Ohio State University with University Fellowship, also accepted at Rice University with Provost Prize, University of Massachussetts, Amherst with Puryear fellowship.
Beliefs in an Opaque Brain
 Docente contratado, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
The Substance of Ontological Disputes
 Accepted at the University of Calgary.
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 Teaching at St. Paul's Girls' School, London, England.
Testimony Without Belief Indiana University at Urbana-Champaign
2013
  
On Distinguishing the Meaningless from the Meaningful Attending University of California (Irvine) Logic and Philosophy of Science Department, also accepted University of California at San Diego, City University of New York Graduate Center, University of Notre Dame.
Non-thesis option Attending University of Oklahoma, also accepted University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University, and Purdue University.
Non-thesis option Attending University of Oklahoma, also accepted Purdue University.
Non-thesis option Attending The Ohio State University, also waitlisted at MIT, University of Virginia, and Indiana University.
Morality in the Meat Machine Attending City University of New York (CUNY). Also accepted Washington University Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology, Florida State, UC Santa Barbara, Arizona State, University of Cincinnati, and University of Minnesota.
On What We Confront in Perceptual Experience Accepted at Boston University Philosophy Ph.D. program, attending Seattle University Psychology M.A. program.
Thesis option Indiana University History and Philosophy of Science (without funding).
Thesis option University of Otago, New Zealand.
2012
  
Non-thesis option University of Washington, Seattle.
Non-thesis option Attending Cambridge University, fully funded graduate studentship without teaching duties. Also accepted Georgetown University.
2011
  
Non-thesis option Research Coordinator, Social Clinical Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Virginia Tech. Attending Neuroscience Ph.D. program beginning Fall 2013.
Non-thesis option Rutgers University.
A Veritable Jekyll and Hyde: Epistemic Circularity and Reliabilist Theories of Justification Purdue University.
Non-thesis option Attending the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, also accepted University of California at Irvine and The Ohio State University.
Non-thesis option University of South Carolina.
Non-thesis option Attending University of Toronto, also accepted University of Michigan, Cornell University, and 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 Ph.D. acceptances in favor of law
Non-thesis option Private sector
2008
  
Non-thesis option Indiana University.
Non-thesis option University of Southern California.
Non-thesis option UC San Diego.
Non-thesis option Washington University, St. Louis.
Non-thesis option University of Virginia.
Non-thesis option Indiana University, HPS Ph.D.
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 UNC Chapel Hill, Master of Library Science
2006
  
Scientific Realism and the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements Duke University.
Non-thesis option University of Wisconsin.
Visiting Graduate Fellow University of Toronto.
2005
  
Non-thesis option University of Toronto.
Non-thesis option University of Washington.
Non-thesis option Teaching at Ulster County Community College
Non-thesis option University of British Columbia.
Experience and Pictoral 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 Ph.D.
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, Education Policy Ph.D.
Non-thesis option University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Educational Policy Ph.D.
2002
  
Non-thesis option University of Texas.
Non-thesis option University of California, San Diego.
Non-thesis option University of Notre Dame.
Non-thesis option CUNY Graduate Center.
Non-thesis option STS Ph.D, Post-Doc at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
2001
  
Contractarianism and Moderate Morality University of Maryland.
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 Ph.D.
No Degree University of Washington.
1999
  
Royce and Perry on Idealism and Realism University of Utah.
1998
  
Situated Cognition, Dynamicism, and Explanation in Cognitive Science Washington University, Ph.D.
Empirical Meaning and Incomplete Personhood University of Illinois, Chicago, Anthropology Ph.D.
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 Law and Philosophy, J.D./Ph.D.
Non-thesis option University of Kentucky.
1996
  
Meaning, Functions, and the Promise of Indicator Semantics Declined acceptances in favor of the private sector.
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, STS Ph.D.
Ludwik Fleck and his Concept of a Scientific Fact Northwestern University.
The Role of Welfare in an Egalitarian Metric University of Kentucky.
Graduation Year and Thesis Title Subsequent Status
2017  
Kant on the Progression of Representation
 Teaching in the United States
Non-thesis
 No results known
2016  
Kantianism and its Commitment to Non-Naturalism
  Intercultural Engagement Center, Virginia Tech
2015
  
Non-thesis ASPECT Ph.D., Virginia Tech.
Non-thesis ASPECT Ph.D., Virginia Tech.
Non-thesis option Instructor, Philosophy, 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 Law School.
Contextual Knowledge Ascriptions and Non-Contextual Knowledge ASPECT Ph.D., Virginia Tech.
Toward Error-Statistical Principles of Evidence in Statistical Inference Changed fields to statistics education.
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 Teaching Philosophy and English at Avon Old Farms School, Avon, Connecticut.
Examining the 'Adam Smith Problem' Instructor, Lynchburg College.
Non-thesis option M.A. program in Philosophy of Biology at Exeter University.
Non-thesis option Private sector.
Non-thesis option Private sector.
Non-thesis option Private sector.
2011
  
Non-thesis option University of Chicago, Public Policy, MPP.
Non-thesis option Instructorship at University of Toledo
Non-thesis option Virginia Tech, STS Ph.D.
2010
  
Non-thesis option Virginia Tech, Planning Governance and Globalization Ph.D.
Non-thesis option University of California at Irvine, Biology Ph.D.
Non-thesis option University of Nevada, Reno, Mathematics MA.
Non-thesis option --
Non-thesis option --
2009
  
A Critique of Langton on Kantian Substance Ph.D. plans deferred
Supervaluationism, Penumbral Connections, and the Nature of Higher-Order Vagueness Instructorship at VT
Non-thesis option George Mason University, Law School
Inescapable Wrongdoing and the Coherence of Morality: An Examination of Moral Dilemmas Instructorship at VT
Non-thesis option Private sector
Non-thesis option Virginia Tech, ASPECT Ph.D.
2008
  
What Dolphins Want: Animal Intentionality and Tool-Use Virginia Tech, STS Ph.D.
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 UNC Chapel Hill, 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 Teaching at New River 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, ASPECT Ph.D.
2004
  
Non-thesis option Virginia Tech, STS Ph.D.
Pragmatic Epistemology, Community, and the Problem of Solipsism University of Indiana Law
Non-thesis option University of Kansas, Law School
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 Ethics Faculty, 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 Cato Institute/George Mason University, Economics Ph.D.
Explanations of the Success of Science Private sector
Kant's Doctrine of Schemata Virginia Tech, MPA
1998
  
Soldiers, Self-Defense, and Killing in War Ethics Faculty, West Point
1997
  
Non-thesis option Private sector
Hyperadaptation: Another Missing Term in the Science of Form Private sector