Philosophy:The subject for those crazy folks who like to question their own existence

Greetings,

I am an American student and I am interested in getting my MA (and potentially my MPhil/PhD) at a university in the UK. From the title of this thread perhaps you have deduced that I am indeed one of those crazy people who actually likes to sit in a corner in fetal position questioning my own existence. :tongue:

I am not sure what sort of career I want, but I do know that I like philosophy and I am interested in the UK/Europe/travel in general. So, I figure that this is a good place to start.

I have been researching Universities in the UK that have Masters and Doctorate programmes for about a month now, and I have found many wonderful sounding programmes. However, I would really like to hear from students who have studied philosophy in the UK (or anywhere really, I am open to any country pretty much) before I make a decision. (What is your programme like, what sorts of modules do you take, do you enjoy the professors, how are classes organized... Just a typical day in your life... or whatever else you can think to tell me that is important about your programme.)

These are the factors that are important to me in a university/philosophy programme:

-The single most important factor to me in a university is the quality of the teaching. I do not enjoy modules in which the professors are not engaging. I like innovative ways of exploring philosophy and professors who are not so absorbed in their own research that they forget students. I like Professors who genuinely care about the quality of student learning. It would be fascinating to learn from someone who is the top of their field, but it doesn't mean anything if the professor cannot teach.

- I want to study Ethics/Applied ethics, and I am also interested in the arts. I studied theatre in high school as well, and International Relations/Studies & Philosophy as an undergrad. Thus, it would be nice (though not necessary if the programme itself is good/interesting enough) for the school to have a nice focus on Ethics, Environmental philosophy, or the Philosophy of art/literature.

-I would love to be in a place conducive to nature hikes, camping, and the like. I love nature and it would be nice to be near natural beauty... especially mountains, because I live in a very flat part of the world. But on the other hand, it would be nice to be able to go to cities as well (which shouldn't be too much of a problem anywhere in the UK, I would think), especially if the cities had historic landmarks and artistic atmospheres.

-While I am definitely open to any university, the universities that I have been looking into the most are: The University of York, UCL, Cambridge, Nottingham and Edinburgh

So given that all that information, I most humbly ask for the opinions of anyone who has studied philosophy at the graduate level in the UK (or knows anything about these programmes).

Thank you. :wink: