Possible to do philosphy post grad with english bachelours
3
I'm currently applying to do English at Cambridge (interview on the 10th) and English/philosophy joint Honours everywhere else. My interests intersect right in the middle of philosophy, literature and politics and I would say I am interested in all 3 equally. My hope for the future is to stay in academia and become a professor of some sort and i just wanted to confirm that assuming i did straight English at undergrad level I would be able to go on and do philosophy at masters/phd. Not sure if I'm getting to ahead of myself but the decision between English and philosophy at Cambridge is stressing me out more and more as each day i become less sure of my decision to pick English over philosophy. Any info would be super helpful not just in relation to post grad options but also if anyone knows anything about switching to Phil after starting at Cambridge is possible.
Reply 1
14
Original post
by C0ggI'm currently applying to do English at Cambridge (interview on the 10th) and English/philosophy joint Honours everywhere else. My interests intersect right in the middle of philosophy, literature and politics and I would say I am interested in all 3 equally. My hope for the future is to stay in academia and become a professor of some sort and i just wanted to confirm that assuming i did straight English at undergrad level I would be able to go on and do philosophy at masters/phd. Not sure if I'm getting to ahead of myself but the decision between English and philosophy at Cambridge is stressing me out more and more as each day i become less sure of my decision to pick English over philosophy. Any info would be super helpful not just in relation to post grad options but also if anyone knows anything about switching to Phil after starting at Cambridge is possible.
Depending on the university, you may be able to pursue philosophy at masters level with an undergraduate degree in English. I would suggest looking up the entry requirements for a few postgraduate courses in philosophy at various universities to see whether you would be able to go down this route. A higher degree classification might be required of you in this case, but again, this is something you’ll find in the entry requirements.
Reply 2
Hi, I'm in year 12 and I find myself in a similar boat to you in terms of interests. I too am torn between English and Philosophy and I'm hoping to apply o cambridge next year. I was wondering how you wrote your personal statement? Did you cover both english and philosophy as your interests (as you applied to both elsewhere) and do you think this hindered your application at all where you are only applying for one at Cambridge?
I'd be surprised, I think most strong philosophy programs require your first degree to be primarily in philosophy - I think occasional exceptions are made for e.g. classics or similar language based grads who are doing philosophy requiring the language(s) they studied and therefore the non-philosophy background is a specific benefit (and they may have encountered philosophy in their first degree anyway).
If your goal is to pursue a PhD and then academic career in philosophy it would probably be sensible to pursue a degree in philosophy, rather than English literature. However I gather the Stirling-St Andrews program has an apparently good conversion course though for non-philosophy grads? I believe there are a couple of other PGDip or masters programmes that enable one to "convert" to philosophy from a non-philosophy undergrad.
I suspect the reverse would also be true - you probably wouldn't be able to pursue a PhD then academic career in English literature (except possibly in literary/critical theory which is a very narrow area) with a background in philosophy rather than literature. There may again be opportunities to "convert" by way of a masters, although depending on the particular area you want to go into this may be a more challenging route.
Don't assume having a background in one humanities field necessarily qualifies you in another! While many humanities fields share similar forms of assessment and may be similarly text based, the actual content of the texts and more importantly, the methodologies and analytical tools they use in approaching them are going to be very different in many cases.
That said as I understand it's in principle possible to change courses once at Cambridge by way of doing Part I in one tripos then Part II in another (the tripos system is sort of designed for that), although in practice this would be subject to suitable academic progress and approval from the directors of study in both subjects.
If your goal is to pursue a PhD and then academic career in philosophy it would probably be sensible to pursue a degree in philosophy, rather than English literature. However I gather the Stirling-St Andrews program has an apparently good conversion course though for non-philosophy grads? I believe there are a couple of other PGDip or masters programmes that enable one to "convert" to philosophy from a non-philosophy undergrad.
I suspect the reverse would also be true - you probably wouldn't be able to pursue a PhD then academic career in English literature (except possibly in literary/critical theory which is a very narrow area) with a background in philosophy rather than literature. There may again be opportunities to "convert" by way of a masters, although depending on the particular area you want to go into this may be a more challenging route.
Don't assume having a background in one humanities field necessarily qualifies you in another! While many humanities fields share similar forms of assessment and may be similarly text based, the actual content of the texts and more importantly, the methodologies and analytical tools they use in approaching them are going to be very different in many cases.
That said as I understand it's in principle possible to change courses once at Cambridge by way of doing Part I in one tripos then Part II in another (the tripos system is sort of designed for that), although in practice this would be subject to suitable academic progress and approval from the directors of study in both subjects.
Reply 4
C0gg
OP
3
Original post
by visions89Hi, I'm in year 12 and I find myself in a similar boat to you in terms of interests. I too am torn between English and Philosophy and I'm hoping to apply o cambridge next year. I was wondering how you wrote your personal statement? Did you cover both english and philosophy as your interests (as you applied to both elsewhere) and do you think this hindered your application at all where you are only applying for one at Cambridge?
My personal statement was pretty much exclusively English, with reference implicitly to philosophy in literature. I sort of assumed my grades would be enough and my PS was basically catered solely for Cambridge. Its important to not entirely neglect it however, if you want a joint honors in philosophy and English its good to at least show an interest in philosophy simultaneously with English (I did this with plath and camus). In terms of hindering my application it definitely didn't as i received all 4 offers for the joint courses.
Reply 5
20
I know at least 10 of philosophy PhDs working at intersections with English literature at good institutions - it is possible to get a phil PhD then move across to English lit, but your thesis would need to straddle both disciplines.
(edited 11 months ago)
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