Department of Philosophy and Religion

• 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

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

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

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)