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Question I graduated with a degree in math. I always had an interest in philosophy. I even took 5 classes beyond the requirement of my degree. After some years after graduation, I really want to be a philosopher. Since I obvious am not in good standing to apply to a PhD program, I need to get a masters degree. In order to apply to the master 's degree program, I simply don 't have the recommendation letters. What can I do to get the Rec letters for me to apply to a Master 's degree program?

Accepted:
February 24, 2011

Comments

First, you should get letters of recommendation from the professors who taught the philosophy courses that you took. If you didn't take classes with enough distinct professors to have the sufficient number of letters--which I take to be an implication of your question--then you should get letters from professors with whom you had a close relationship and who can attest to your general intellectual ability and suitability for graduate work. This won't be seen as a problem, since dedicated Masters programs--such as those at Tufts and Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Virginia Tech, and Northern Illinois, to take four programs with which I am familiar and whose students are generally placed at very good Ph.D. programs (although there are of course other good programs, and you should consult Brian Leiter's Philosophical Gourmet rankings of MA programs for further information--are in the business of preparing students who lack the necessary undergraduate coursework to apply directly to Ph.D. programs to apply to such programs. I might add that the fact that you were a math major will make you a very attractive candidate to Masters programs, since you obviously already have the analytic skills that are essential to philosophical work.