The PGR recommends a number of terminal MA programs with strong faculties (as an important sidenote: financial aid varies quite a bit among these programs, and does not correlate at all with the relative strength of the faculties--in general, I would advise students *not* to take out loans to earn an MA in philosophy). Often students wonder about MA programs at the PhD-granting programs. I want to emphasize the advice in the PGR:
Many Ph.D. programs also admit M.A. students. Students should be more wary of the M.A. programs at schools in roughly the top 25 that grant the PhD: often M.A. students take a back seat to the Ph.D. students (in terms of faculty attention), and students with weak philosophy backgrounds may find the pace and level of seminars geared to Ph.D. students daunting. Students considering M.A. programs in top-ranked Ph.D.-granting institutions should investigate the situation of M.A. students at the school carefully before enrolling. However, some PhD programs that are less highly ranked, but still have strong faculties, may in fact turn out to be very good choices for the MA.
A student who can get a funded MA at a top 25ish PhD program should probably pursue that over an unfunded or only partially funded MA at one of the terminal MA programs. While some of the terminal MA programs would no doubt rank in the U.S. top 50 if they had a PhD program, and while all of the recommended ones have serious, research-active faculty, their main advantage is usually that when it comes to graduate education, the faculty's entire focus is on the MA students. But PhD programs vary quite a bit, based on anecdotal reports, in terms of how they integrate their MA students into the program, and what kind of faculty supervision and mentoring they receive. In general, a high-powered PhD program with terrific PhD students is going to be one where the PhD students command most of the faculty's time--hence my general note of caution about those programs which also offer an MA. But I've also heard good reports from MA students at ranked PhD programs, which is why that option should not be wholly neglected by prospective students.
I'm opening comments so that students or faculty might post links to PhD programs that fund their MA students.