best unis for philosophy

Im an English student, my predicted is AAA and A* EPQ. I aim to apply by Wednesday for V500 or V501 course (if available) but i need to narrow my choices, currently it is Exeter, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, UCL, KCL, Edinburgh, St Andrews, possibly Dundee. Just looking for advice, opinions, on any of them, if you think one is better than another (+ why) thanks!

Reply 1

lotusberry10

3

I know nothing about philosophy and how each university does it but hopefully this will be helpful advice.

When I considered the ones I applied to I looked at location, course modules, student satisfaction and accommodation before finally looking at ranking. When you firm your first choice you should really be in love with the university as well as the course. My firm and insurance both have great courses and modules I am interested in doing but the location of my firm really makes me want to go there more.

You’ve got 10 great choices so I’d recommend what I saw someone else do and do a ranking excel sheet of all 10 and maybe have a parent do it with you, the more opinions you get the better informed decisions you’ll make.

Reply 2

jazzagw

OP

5

Original post by lotusberry10

I know nothing about philosophy and how each university does it but hopefully this will be helpful advice.

When I considered the ones I applied to I looked at location, course modules, student satisfaction and accommodation before finally looking at ranking. When you firm your first choice you should really be in love with the university as well as the course. My firm and insurance both have great courses and modules I am interested in doing but the location of my firm really makes me want to go there more.

You’ve got 10 great choices so I’d recommend what I saw someone else do and do a ranking excel sheet of all 10 and maybe have a parent do it with you, the more opinions you get the better informed decisions you’ll make.

thank you, that really helps :smile:

i never considered even looking at student satisfaction but ill definitely have to look at that for decisions

Reply 3

Wired_1800

20

Original post by jazzagw

Im an English student, my predicted is AAA and A* EPQ. I aim to apply by Wednesday for V500 or V501 course (if available) but i need to narrow my choices, currently it is Exeter, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, UCL, KCL, Edinburgh, St Andrews, possibly Dundee. Just looking for advice, opinions, on any of them, if you think one is better than another (+ why) thanks!

I’d go for universities with strong reputation. I’d personally go for St Andrews, Manchester, Edinburgh, UCL and Leeds.

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Possibly depends a bit on what kind of philosophy you're mainly interested in. I would note Oxford is probably one of the if not the strongest in the country for philosophy, although only offers it as a joint honours course, and most of those courses are AAA entry criteria. You may want to look at their offerings as a result (note also that although it's not in the title of the course, classics students at Oxford can study as much philosophy as any other joint school in philosophy, and are allowed to take modern as well as ancient philosophy - this is because the philosophy faculty used to be part of the classics department). LSE may also be worth considering if you're interested in analytic philosophy as their course is also AAA and they're also generally a decent department (especially in rational choice theory/philosophy of social sciences and, curiously, the philosophy of physics).

Of those in general I think St Andrews and UCL are the strongest in philosophy broadly, then KCL (although I think KCL's strengths are more in political philosophy and continental philosophy specifically?). Bristol is probably notable just for philosophy of mathematics/logic and set theory or the philosophy of physics. The others I'm sure are generally fine although I don't think any of them have any specifically notable strengths in philosophy research - I don't think any are considered in the philosophical gourmet report (for better or worse - also bearing in mind it's mainly focused on postgraduate/research strengths, although often this corresponds to variety in the undergraduate course) for example, which is compiled by actual philosophers working in academia.

That said it depends very much on your interests - if you're interested in e.g. Buddhist, Jain, Zoroastrian, Indian (other than Jain/Buddhist), Chinese philosophy, etc, then SOAS might be a very relevant uni to consider since it's focus is especially on those regions and consequently their philosophies (in general and in the philosophy department). Also they offer (most of) the corresponding languages as well (e.g. Sanskrit, modern/classical Chinese, Arabic, Avestan and Middle Persian in alternating years, etc). In a related way if you're interested in ancient (Greek and Roman) philosophy, you should definitely consider classics courses or joint honours courses with classics to pick up the requisite language(s), and look at unis strong in classics as well as philosophy (although usually the two go hand in hand, notably Oxford).

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 5

lotusberry10

3

Original post by jazzagw

thank you, that really helps :smile:

i never considered even looking at student satisfaction but ill definitely have to look at that for decisions

A lot of people really skip past basic things and focus on uni ranking! Then when they get to the uni they don’t enjoy it as much. It’s a massive decision that changes your life for 3-4 years so definitely look at how happy you think you’ll be whilst there, minus first term home sickness and settling in.

best unis for philosophy

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