Students with majors in Philosophy and Religion have among the highest post-college employment rates of any major, including in the sciences. They earn among the highest lifetime salaries. They go on to a variety of careers, including the following:

  • Graduate work leading to university teaching and research
  • Law (one of the most popular opportunities)
  • Management and business
  • Medicine
  • Ethics advisory boards: business, medicine, law, environmental policy
  • Politics
  • K-12 education
  • Journalism
  • Public relations and communications
  • Software development and computer programming
  • Publishing and editing
  • Information science (librarians & archivists)
  • Policy analysis and research
  • Activism, non-profit Work, and fundraising
  • Counseling, social work, or ministry

For more information on the application of philosophy and religion degrees to post-graduate opportunities check out our Why Study Philosophy? and Why Study Religion? pages.

What Skills Do Philosophy and Religion Students Develop?

  • Critical thinking, including argumentation, problem solving, and analysis
  • Reading and interpreting complex and significant texts
  • Exploring significant philosophical and religious ideas and questions
  • Writing and communication skills
  • Open-mindedness about diverse and global perspectives
  • Ethics training and civic-mindedness
  • Ability to conduct independent and in-depth research

Will I Be Well Prepared for Graduate School?

Philosophy and Religion majors consistently rank among the highest scorers on graduate school entrance exams:

Rank  LSAT GMAT GRE Verbal GRE Quant

 1

Math

Math

Philosophy

Physics

 2

Economics

Philosophy

English

Math

 3

Philosophy

Chemistry

Anthropology

Engineering

 4

Engineering 

Economics

Foreign Lang.

Chemistry

 5

Chemistry

English

Physics

Other Science

 6

Other Humanities

Computer Science

Other Humanities

Economics

 7

Foreign Lang.

Foreign Lang.

Journalism

Biology

 8

English

History

Political Science

Philosophy

Will I Become Famous?

A few famous philosophy and religion graduates, besides academics:

Film and Television

  • Wes Anderson (filmmaker – Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, etc.)
  • Steve Allen (writer and comedian)
  • Woody Allen (filmmaker, writer and comedian)
  • George Carlin (comedian and actor)
  • Ethan Coen (filmmaker – The Big Lebowski, Fargo, etc.)
  • Stephen Colbert (author & host, The Colbert Report)
  • Wes Craven (filmmaker – Nightmare on Elm Street)
  • Luc Dardenne (filmmaker – The Promise, The Child, Darkness, etc.)
  • David Duchovny (actor—The X files, Californication)
  • Harrison Ford (actor)
  • Ricky Gervais (comedian and actor)
  • Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons)
  • Jay Leno (host, The Tonight Show)
  • Peter Lynch (filmmaker)
  • Amy Madigan (actress)
  • Terrence Malick (filmmaker – The New World, The Thin Red Line, etc.)
  • Steve Martin (comedian & actor)
  • Dennis Miller (comedian)
  • Bill Murray (comedian, studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris)
  • Joan Rivers (comedian)
  • Susan Sarandon (actress)
  • Wallace Shawn (actor, playwright)
  • Gene Siskel (movie reviewer, Siskel & Ebert At The Movies)
  • Steve Thomas (host, This Old House)
  • Dave Thomas (one of the “Mackenzie Brothers” on SCTV)
  • Alex Trebeck (host, Jeopardy)

Journalism

  • John Chancellor (journalist, news anchor)
  • Ivan Frolov (editor of PRAVDA)
  • Mark Hulbert (financial columnist for FORBES magazine)
  • Stone Phillips (broadcast journalist)
  • Eric Severide (a contemporary of Walter Cronkite)
  • George F. Will (journalist and commentator)
  • Juan Williams (former host of National Public Radio’s “Talk of the nation”, writer for the Washington Post)

Law

  • Justice Stephen Breyer (US supreme court)
  • Carol Heckman (first female US magistrate in the Western district)
  • Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin (Canadian Chief Justice)
  • Justice David Souter (US Supreme Court)
  • Judge Joseph A Wapner (host of The People’s Court)

Politics

  • William Bennett (former Drug czar & NEH leader)
  • Jerry Brown (former governor of California and presidential candidate)
  • Pat Buchanan (Reform party nominee in 2000 for President of the United States)
  • William Jefferson Clinton (former President of the United States)
  • Angela Davis (social activist)
  • Rahm Emanuel (Clinton White House Political Advisor)
  • Rudi Giuliani (former mayor of NYC)
  • Gary Hart (US Senator, former presidential candidate)
  • Vaclav Havel (former President of Czechoslovakia)
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. (civil rights leader)
  • Robert McNamara (former Secretary of Defense, head of the World Bank)
  • Richard Riordan (former Mayor of LA)
  • Aung San Suu Kyi (Human rights activist and Novel Peace Prize winner)
  • John Silber (former President of Boston University)
  • Pierre Trudeau (former Canadian Prime Minister)
  • Elie Wiesel (Human rights activist and Nazi hunter)
  • Dr. Stephen Younger (director of the Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Agency, established after 9/11)

Business & Economics

  • J. Paul Getty (industrialist and founder of Getty Oil, endowed the famous Getty art museum)
  • Carl Icahn (CEO of TWA,  corporate raider)
  • Carly Fiorina (CEO, Hewlett-Packard)
  • Gerald Levine (CEO, Time Warner)
  • Michael McKaskey (owner, Chicago bears)
  • William H. Miller III (mutual fund manager, oversees the Legg Mason Value Trust)
  • Lachlan Murdoch (media magnate, son of Rupert Murdoch)
  • George Soros (money manager, billionaire founder of the Soros Foundation)
  • P. Michael Spence (economist and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics)
  • Moses Znaimer (owner of CITY-TV and MUCH-MUSIC, Toronto)

The Arts

  • Pearl Buck (writer, Pulitzer prize and Nobel prize winner)
  • Philip K. Dick (science fiction writer)
  • Paul Draper (winemaker, Ridge Vineyards)
  • T.S. Eliot (author)
  • Ken Follet (author)
  • Phillip Glass (composer)
  • Randall Grahm (winemaker, Bonny Doon Vineyards)
  • Jay McInerney (author)
  • Moby (musician)
  • Neil Peart (drummer for rock group, Rush)
  • Steve Reich (musician, composer)
  • Jeff Smith (chef also known as “The Frugal Gourmet”)
  • Susan Sontag (essayist)
  • Alexander Solzhenitsin (political dissident, writer)
  • David Foster Wallace (author and MacArthur prize recipient)

Sports

  • John Elway (quarterback, Denver Broncos)
  • Phil Jackson (NBA coach, LA Lakers)
  • Bruce Lee (martial arts & actor)
  • Mick Schmidt (former Philadelphia Philly)
  • Aaron Taylor (offensive tackle, Green Bay Packers)

Some information here is taken from similar websites at Clemson and Rowan Universities.