Students declaring to go to graduate school in Philosophy score higher on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) than all but 4 out of 50 other major fields (recorded by the Educational Testing Service, which runs the GRE). The only fields with higher mean scores on the combined Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical sections are (in rank order) Physics & Astronomy, Mathematical Sciences, Materials Engineering, and Chemical Engineering.
Philosophy students score higher than
Every other major in the Humanities and Arts
Every major in the Social Science
Every major in the Life Sciences
Every major in Education
Every major in Business
Every major listed under "Other Fields"
Four out of six majors in Physical Sciences
Five out of seven in Engineering.
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How
do Philosophy majors do in individual areas?
Well,
Philosophy majors |
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|
Verbal
Scores |
Analytical
Scores |
Quantitative
Scores |
|
have the highest
mean scores of any other major in the fields listed. |
get the 3rd
highest mean scores. Only Physics & Astronomy and Math
Sciences were higher. |
score much
higher than any of the other Humanities. |
|
|
scored higher
than every major in life Sciences, Engineering, Business Social
Sciences, Education, and "Other Fields," plus every other major
in Humanities. |
score higher
than every major in Life Sciences, Education, and "Other
Fields," and all but Economics in Social Science and all but Banking
& Finance in Business. |
|
|
|
Only Physical Sciences and Engineering majors do better than Philosophy students. |
Thinking about Law School?
· Philosophy students scored higher than the other popular pre-Law majors: Political Science, Communications, and Public Administration.
· None of these majors did better than Philosophy students on any of the 3 sections of the GRE.
Now, which one looks like the best pre-Law training to you?
Want a major to prepare you for whatever challenges you might face later in life?
Averaging the rank order in each of the areas of
the GRE, Philosophy does better than any other major of the fifty
listed. Tell that to people when they ask what good a
philosophy major is!