Completed applications must be received by January 15th. The formal requirements for the PhD are designed to prepare students for full participation in the profession as researchers and teachers in philosophy. Beyond these requirements, students are given the opportunity and are strongly encouraged to take advantage of additional means of developing their professional preparation. The department regularly sponsors lectures by members of the faculty, as well as philosophers from other institutions. There are discussion groups each semester on topics of common interest, and there are reading groups in the main philosophical languages.
Students also have the opportunity to present their own work at department colloquia.
Our students often attend and give presentations at meetings of professional philosophical societies in the New York City metropolitan area and across the country. Partial support for travel is available through the Graduate Student Association. In the later stages of the program, some students begin publishing their work in the philosophical journals. The department offers encouragement and advice in these endeavors. Each year, a seminar is offered on teaching philosophy in which pedagogical issues are discussed at both a theoretical and practical level, and students prepare sample syllabi of philosophy courses.