BestOnlineCollege.org is an advertising-supported website. Many of the school and program listings that appear on this site are from partners who compensate us, and this compensation may affect how, where, and in what order listings appear (such as featured placements). This compensation does not influence our editorial content, evaluations, or rankings, which are determined independently using publicly available data. We do not review or feature every school or program available in the marketplace. Our goal is to provide accurate, unbiased information so you can make informed decisions. Read our full Advertiser Disclosure.
Best Online Philosophy Degrees (2026)
Updated September 5, 2026BLS dataCollege ScorecardOn this page
Key takeaway: A philosophy degree trains you to build arguments, find the flaw in someone else’s, and write with precision about questions that do not resolve into data. The undergraduate degree is almost always a BA. There is no programmatic accreditor for philosophy, so recognized institutional accreditation is the check that matters. Be clear-eyed about where it leads: the occupation that carries the discipline’s name, philosophy and religion teachers at the postsecondary level, requires a PhD for most positions, is projected to grow 0.7 percent from 2024 to 2034, and offers about 2,000 openings per year nationally (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). Most graduates use the degree somewhere else, often as the undergraduate half of a law, writing, ministry, teaching, or analysis career. In IPEDS 2024, 673 institutions reported bachelor’s-or-higher completions in philosophy, and 534 of them reported offering distance-education programs (IPEDS 2024).
The academic core is argument: formal logic, the history of philosophy from the Greeks forward, and the standing problems in ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. Around that core, programs layer seminars in applied ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. Accredited online programs generally award the same degree titles as campus programs; browse the best accredited online colleges to compare schools that offer them. To find programs near you, see philosophy programs by state.
Schools Offering Philosophy Programs
These accredited schools offer online programs. Request information to compare programs, formats, and costs.
How We Rank Schools
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most
recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS).
To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the
U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked
against schools at the same credential level:
BOCSCORE
Graduation rate 30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry 25%
Average net price (lower is better) 20%
Retention rate 15%
Fully online availability 10%
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score.
Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
BOC
Ranked by BOC Score — U.S. Dept. of Education outcome data. Advertising never affects rankings.
Philosophy is not a vocational major, and pretending otherwise does students no favors. It is a rigorous liberal arts degree that shows up as the undergraduate half of several different careers. The occupations below are the ones philosophy coursework most commonly feeds into, and they are reached by different routes: some require a further professional degree, some require a teaching license, and one requires a doctorate. Median annual wages come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program.
Median annual wage for the highest-paying philosophy careers. Source: BLS OEWS. Chart: Best Online College.View the data behind this chart
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
$72,040
Clergy
$60,810
</> Embed or cite this chart
Copy this code to embed the chart (a link back to this page is included):
Projected job growth (2024-2034) for philosophy careers. Source: BLS Employment Projections. Chart: Best Online College.View the data behind this chart
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
-1.6%
</> Embed or cite this chart
Copy this code to embed the chart (a link back to this page is included):
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, PostsecondarySOC 25-1126
$80,260Median annual pay
Mean annual$92,040
Employment (US)20,460
Pay range (25-75%)$62,600 - $104,770
Writers and AuthorsSOC 27-3043
$76,910Median annual pay
Median hourly$36.98
Mean annual$86,090
Employment (US)47,940
Pay range (25-75%)$58,230 - $101,950
LawyersSOC 23-1011
$159,670Median annual pay
Median hourly$76.76
Mean annual$185,840
Employment (US)754,500
Pay range (25-75%)$102,990 - $221,370
ClergySOC 21-2011
$60,810Median annual pay
Median hourly$29.24
Mean annual$66,860
Employment (US)57,200
Pay range (25-75%)$48,260 - $76,640
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical EducationSOC 25-2031
$72,040Median annual pay
Mean annual$76,320
Employment (US)1,065,210
Pay range (25-75%)$59,980 - $92,570
EditorsSOC 27-3041
$77,920Median annual pay
Median hourly$37.46
Mean annual$90,060
Employment (US)91,690
Pay range (25-75%)$57,300 - $106,100
Management AnalystsSOC 13-1111
$101,860Median annual pay
Median hourly$48.97
Mean annual$113,790
Employment (US)898,280
Pay range (25-75%)$77,950 - $133,370
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Philosophy and religion teachers, postsecondary, had a median annual wage of $80,260 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). The 10th percentile was $49,140 and the 90th was $139,580. Employment was 27,300 in 2024, projected to change 0.7 percent by 2034, with about 2,000 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). That is a small occupation, most tenure-track positions require a completed PhD, and the number of doctorates awarded each year exceeds the number of permanent posts. Treat this as the hardest path on the list, not the default one.
Lawyers had a median annual wage of $159,670 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). The 10th percentile was $78,360 and the 90th was $351,600. Employment was 864,800 in 2024, projected to grow 4.1 percent, with 31,500 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). Philosophy is a common pre-law major because the LSAT tests exactly what the coursework drills: reading a dense argument, finding the assumption it rests on, and stating why it fails. The degree is not a shortcut past law school, and admission depends on grades and test scores rather than on the major.
Management analysts had a median annual wage of $101,860 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). The 10th percentile was $60,640 and the 90th was $171,640. Employment was 1,075,100 in 2024, projected to grow 8.8 percent, with 98,100 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). This is the largest and fastest-growing occupation associated with the degree, and it is also the one where the philosophy transcript alone does the least work. Employers hire on evidence of quantitative and business skill; philosophy majors who reach these roles almost always paired the major with statistics, economics, or work experience.
Writers and authors ($76,910 median) and editors ($77,920 median) draw on the writing half of the training (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). Clergy had a median annual wage of $60,810 with 23,000 openings per year. Secondary school teachers had a median of $72,040 with 66,200 openings per year (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). Secondary teaching requires a state license, which the philosophy major does not include. Individual outcomes vary by employer, geography, additional credentials, and experience.
Quick Answers
What is a philosophy degree?
A philosophy degree is a liberal arts major built on formal logic, the history of philosophy, and sustained work on unresolved problems in ethics, knowledge, mind, and reality. The output is argument: you read difficult primary texts, reconstruct what they claim, and defend or dismantle the claim in writing. It is a reasoning and writing degree, not a training program for a specific job title.
Is philosophy a useless major?
No, but it is an indirect one, and the difference matters. The degree does not name an occupation the way nursing or accounting does, so the burden of connecting it to paid work falls on you. Graduates who plan that connection – law school, a teaching license, a quantitative minor, a writing portfolio – do well. Graduates who expect the diploma to open a door by itself are the source of the major’s reputation.
Do I need a PhD to teach philosophy?
For nearly all college teaching positions, yes. Philosophy and religion teachers at the postsecondary level typically hold a doctorate, the occupation is projected to change 0.7 percent from 2024 to 2034, and it offers about 2,000 openings per year nationally (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). Tenure-track jobs are scarce, adjunct positions are not the same job, and a master’s alone rarely qualifies you beyond community college adjunct work.
Is philosophy a good pre-law major?
It is a well-established one. The LSAT rewards formal reasoning, argument reconstruction, and reading comprehension under pressure, all of which are the daily work of a philosophy course. That said, law schools admit on grades and test scores, not on major, and a philosophy BA is not a legal credential. Compare the legal studies program guide if you want undergraduate coursework closer to the practice of law.
Is there a programmatic accreditor for philosophy?
No. No recognized agency accredits philosophy degrees specifically. Verify that the institution holds accreditation from a recognized institutional accreditor through the U.S. Department of Education database.
What you’ll study
Philosophy curricula move through three layers, and the first one is more technical than prospective students expect.
The first layer is logic. Most programs require at least one course in formal or symbolic logic: propositional and predicate calculus, validity, soundness, quantifiers, proof methods, and the standard informal fallacies. This is the course that makes philosophy transferable. It is closer to a mathematics course than to a discussion seminar, and it is the reason philosophy graduates test well on reasoning-heavy admissions exams.
The second layer is history. Ancient and medieval philosophy covers Plato, Aristotle, and the scholastics. Modern philosophy covers the rationalists, the empiricists, and Kant. Nineteenth and twentieth century sequences cover Hegel, Nietzsche, the analytic tradition, phenomenology, and existentialism. These are reading courses in the hardest sense: primary texts, in translation, with no summary substituting for the argument.
The third layer is problems and applications. Ethics splits into metaethics, normative theory, and applied fields such as bioethics, business ethics, and environmental ethics. Epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics each get their own seminars. A bachelor’s is typically about 120 semester hours with the philosophy core concentrated in the last two years, usually ending in a capstone essay or senior thesis.
If the religious tradition side of the questions is your real interest, compare the theology program guide. If you want the breadth without the concentration, compare liberal arts. For how these courses are actually delivered at a distance, see how online philosophy degrees work.
Careers for philosophy graduates
The honest framing is that philosophy is an input to careers rather than a career itself, and the graduates who do best treat it that way.
Law is the most established pipeline. The reasoning, close reading, and written argument that a philosophy major does for four years is what the first year of law school demands. The degree does not shorten law school or substitute for it.
Postsecondary teaching is the path that stays inside the discipline, and it is the narrowest. It requires a PhD, several years of graduate study, and a competitive placement process for a small number of openings.
Writing, editing, and publishing absorb a steady share of graduates, because the major produces people who can hold a complicated idea steady in prose. Ministry and religious leadership draw on the philosophy of religion and ethics coursework, usually with a seminary degree layered on top. Secondary teaching is reachable through a licensure program, though most states license by subject area and philosophy is rarely one of them, so graduates typically certify in social studies or English.
Accreditation – confirm recognized institutional accreditation through the U.S. Department of Education database. There is no programmatic accreditor for this field, so institutional accreditation is the check that matters.
A real logic requirement – confirm the major requires formal or symbolic logic, not only an informal critical thinking survey. This is the most transferable course in the degree.
History coverage – confirm the required sequence covers ancient, modern, and at least one contemporary tradition. A department that offers only applied ethics is teaching a subfield, not the discipline.
Degree level – decide between a bachelor’s and a master’s, and be honest about whether the master’s serves a purpose you can name.
Faculty and seminar size – philosophy is taught through written argument that someone reads closely. Ask how many students are in an upper-division seminar and who grades the papers.
Cost – compare total program cost including fees, not the advertised per-credit rate, and review how to evaluate affordability.
Philosophy or a related field? Choose philosophy for logic, ethics, and the history of ideas as the center of the degree. Choose theology if the questions are ones you want to pursue inside a religious tradition. Choose legal studies if you want undergraduate coursework aimed at legal work. Choose liberal arts for a broader humanities degree with philosophy as one thread, or english if literature and writing are the real draw.
