A philosopher at a leading liberal arts college writes:
I teach at a SLAC, and one of my senior advisees, who is writing an honors thesis with me, was asking me about applying to graduate school. She is planning to take one or two years off, and do some teaching at private high schools while she prepares her graduate applications. One of these teaching positions pays for its teachers to earn an M.Ed. while they work.
Her question was whether earning an M.Ed. would be seen as a liability or asset (or neither) in an application to a philosophy Ph.D. program. I'm curious what you and your readers who have served on graduate admissions committees think about this.
I'm opening this for comments from readers (signed strongly preferred, but all comments must include a valid e-mail address). My sense, perhaps dated (perhaps not), is that time away from philosophy is usually a liability, but a year or two isn't. I'm less sure about how an M.Ed. would be received; I know of many students who got J.D.s, continued with philosophy work while in law school, then practiced or clerked, and then continued on to a PhD program, so that's one kind of precedent. Thoughts from readers?
