MA in Philosophy

University of Arizona

This program is intended both for students interested in enhancing their qualifications for admission to other graduate programs (such as Ph.D. programs in philosophy or J.D. programs at law schools) as well as for students interested in an additional year of philosophical study but without any plans for future academic work.

A limited number of students who will have completed the Bachelor's degree prior to beginning their graduate studies may be annually admitted to the M.A. program. Neither admission to nor completion of the M.A. program ensures subsequent admission to the doctoral program.

The MA in Philosophy is independent of the University of Arizona Philosophy Ph.D. program. Students completing AMP in Philosophy will be given no special consideration relative to other applicants if they choose to apply to the doctoral program.

Degree Requirements

Minimum credits: 30

Core coursework: The requirements for completion of the M.A. in Philosophy is at least a 3.0 Grade Point Average in ten three unit graduate courses at or above the 500 curricular level for a total of 30 units. Typically, three of these courses will be graduate seminars numbered between Phil 596a through Phil 596z, and the remaining seven courses will be graduate surveys numbered between Phil 500 through Phil 595. Of these ten courses, the student must take at least one from each of the following fields:

- Metaphysics or Epistemology
- Ethics, Political Philosophy, or Value theory
- History of Philosophy
- Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind or Cognitive Science.

Language requirements: None for AMP in Philosophy.

For M.A. applicants, English proficiency is one of the conditions for admission for all applicants whose native language is not English. Applicants must submit a minimum TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score of 550 paper based (PB), 79 internet based (iBT), or IELTS (International English Language Testing System) composite score of 7 (no subject area below a 6). Individual departments may require a higher score and may have minimum score requirements by test module that must be met to qualify for admission. Applicants may request, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to send an official TOEFL score report directly to The University of Arizona. Contact TOEFL Services to request the mailing of your score report. The University of Arizona institution code is 4832.

Other requirements: Neither the M.A. nor the AMP in Philosophy require a thesis. A student may, however, petition to write a thesis instead of taking one of the graduate seminars. For a petition to be successful, the student must secure a faculty member to supervise the thesis and two other faculty members to serve on the thesis committee and conduct an oral defense. In such cases, the thesis will be a paper of approximately 6,000-10,000 words.