Baylor University began offering the PhD in philosophy in 2003. At that time fellowship funding for the terminal MA degree, which Baylor had offered since 1950, ceased being offered (though on rare occasions students may still be admitted to the program). As of the fall of 2010, Baylor has placed 16 students in teaching positions in higher education, at such schools as Biola University, Georgetown College, Georgetown University, Houston Baptist University, Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, and West Georgia State University (Recent PhD Placements). Currently about 30 PhD students are actively working on the degree. The Average GRE of current students who entered the program in 2006 or later is 1427. We admit 3-6 new students each year. Baylor is becoming known for the unusually collegial relationships that prevail within its philosophy PhD community. Our graduate students are quite active in presenting papers in colloquia of the American Philosophical Association and other professional conferences, and in recent years have had papers accepted by such journals as Faith and Philosophy, History of Philosophy Quarterly, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy East and West, Synthese, and Religious Studies (Graduate Student Presentations and Publications). In 2010 Academic Analytics ranked Baylor’s graduate faculty number 18 out of 112 programs that offer the PhD in philosophy, on measures of scholarly productivity and professional citations.
Instituting the PhD in philosophy is part of a university-wide development plan known as Baylor Vision 2012, which calls for the university to become a first-rate research university while enhancing and widening its commitment to the Christian tradition. The degree of excellence in both faculty and PhD students that Baylor has achieved in just seven years seems to attest to the wisdom of Vision 2012’s architects in linking aspirations to academic excellence with aspirations to Christian faithfulness.