University of Missouri-Columbia

Final stop: the University of Missouri, a.k.a. Mizzou. Before starting on my way back to the Netherlands, Naveed and I visited the Department of Philosophy here for two days. Our host was a friendly Kantian named Tom, who is himself a first year grad student here. We were having lively discussions of various philosophical topics within an hour of arriving, which I think all of us enjoyed.

At the department itself we talked to various professors and grad students. The most relevant professor for me would probably be Paul Weirich, with whom Naveed and I had lunch on Monday. He is mainly concerned with making decision-theoretic models more relevant by removing idealizations, while retaining their normative aspirations. He also informed us about the waitlist procedure. As it happens, Naveed is now first on the waitlist and I am second, meaning that if one person already offered funding says no, Naveed will get an offer, and me after that.

Another interesting figure for me would be Peter Vallentyne, who has an active interest in the Pasadena game, the topic of my bachelor’s dissertation and the paper that I co-authored with Jan which is forthcoming in Mind. We sat in on his seminar on political philosophy, in particular the issue of secession, which was outside my usual range of interests, but nonetheless very nice. The grad students were very engaged, leading to an interesting and lively debate.

If I were to get off the waitlist here, I would be offered a TA-ship. This entails teaching three or four sections each semester for tuition and a stipend of roughly $12,000. This stipend is considered to be somewhat low, but livable since Columbia is a relatively small, and hence cheap, college town. Tom also mentioned that a salary raise may be forthcoming for the TA’s.

As in other places, teaching duties are expected to take up about twenty hours per week. A difference with some other places would be the relatively few opportunities to get semesters off from teaching.

Grad students are expected to take courses the first two or three years, with distributionary requirements similar to those at other places. Mizzou does seem more likely than other places to allow you to transfer in credit from previous graduate level education, allowing either more time for research or a shorter time to degree. The average time to degree has been declining, from about six years to something closer to five.

Obtaining the master’s degree is an important step towards starting the dissertation. At Columbia, this involves defending two qualifying papers before a committee of faculty members (likely your future dissertation committee). For me, defending my master’s thesis from LSE instead could be an option. However, obtaining the master’s way ahead of schedule may lead to your funding guarantees being reduced as well.

The people at the department seem very friendly and helpful. All the grad students we met had time for at least a brief chat. We spent some time in the lounge that doubles as the office space for the first years. After the first year students get office space on the same hallway as the professors, sharing a windowless room with two or three other grad students.

Paul Weirich and Peter Vallentyne each have about three advisees and make sure they have enough time to spend with them. They don’t usually co-publish with their students, but publishing by grad students is generally encouraged.

There is funding available to support students presenting a paper at a conference. There are no exchange programs with other universities, although the prospect of setting something like this up met with some enthusiasm.

The faculty seem to get along well, and there are no “bad apples” as far as the grad students could tell. There are a few people doing continental philosophy who may be a bit isolated, but there is no animosity against them.

As in Madison, in Columbia some people have a fellowship awarded at the university-wide level that allows them to spend less time TA-ing. Unlike any other place I’ve been, Columbia also has a small (~$3,000 I think) support fellowship awarded by the department to its best third-year student. Professor Horisk ensured us that this does not lead to a very competitive atmosphere among the students.

At this moment I am on my way back to the Netherlands. During my three week tour, and especially when discussing my situation with Naveed on the way back to Indianapolis, I have written down a bunch of additional questions for the people I’ve met. I’ve got a bunch of emails to write, and then the great deliberation… Wish me luck!