A bachelor’s in philosophy is nearly always a BA, and it is the level at which almost everyone who studies philosophy stops. That is not a failure of the degree. It is how the degree is designed to work: four years of logic, argument, and primary-text reading that you then attach to something else, whether that is law school, a teaching license, seminary, a writing career, or an analytical role you qualify for on other evidence.
This page explains what the major actually requires, which courses do the transferable work, how to compare programs that use the same title for different curricula, and what a philosophy BA does and does not qualify you for.
Quick answers
Can I get a bachelor’s degree in philosophy online?
Yes. In IPEDS 2024, 673 institutions reported bachelor’s-or-higher completions in philosophy, and 534 of those reported offering distance-education programs (IPEDS 2024). The degree is well suited to online delivery because its core activities are reading, discussion, and written argument.
Is it a BA or a BS?
Almost always a BA. A small number of schools offer a BS in philosophy, usually with an added mathematics, logic, or cognitive science requirement, and some offer combined titles such as philosophy, politics, and economics. Compare the required course list rather than the letters.
How many credits is a bachelor’s degree?
Approximately 120 semester hours, typically four years full-time. The philosophy major itself is usually 30 to 40 of those hours, concentrated in the junior and senior years after general education and an introductory sequence.
What is the hardest course in the major?
For most students, symbolic logic. It is a formal course with proofs, notation, and right answers, and it surprises people who chose philosophy expecting discussion. It is also the course that does the most work on a transcript, because it demonstrates a skill an employer or admissions committee can recognize.
Does a philosophy bachelor’s qualify me to teach?
Not by itself, at either level. College teaching requires a doctorate for nearly all positions. High school teaching requires a state license, and philosophy is rarely a licensed subject area, so graduates who want to teach usually certify in social studies or English through a separate program.
Should I double major or add a minor?
Frequently, yes. Philosophy pairs efficiently with almost anything, because the major is small enough to leave room. Common pairings are economics, mathematics or statistics, computer science, political science, and english. If you want a directly employable second half, the pairing does more for you than a second humanities major.
At a Glance
- Common degree titles: BA in Philosophy; occasionally BS in Philosophy or a combined title such as Philosophy, Politics and Economics
- Typical duration: 4 years full-time
- Credits: Approximately 120 semester hours, with roughly 30 to 40 in the major
- Core skills: Formal logic, argument reconstruction, close reading of primary texts, sustained written argument
- Accreditation: No programmatic accreditor for philosophy; verify institutional accreditation
For a full map of this program area, start here: Philosophy Program Guide
Schools to compare
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.
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$88,174
TuitionContact school for pricing
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
97%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$124,080
Avg net price
$13,807/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 100
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
11%
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$92,446
Avg net price
$13,481/yr
TuitionIn‑state$16,347
Out‑of‑state$50,547
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 127
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
98%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$110,066
Avg net price
$6,128/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 47
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
7%
Graduation rate
95%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$82,735
Avg net price
$14,398/yr
TuitionIn‑state$67,832
Out‑of‑state$67,832
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 40
Source:Accreditor: New England Commission on Higher Education · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
96%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$88,665
Avg net price
$17,716/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 38
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
96%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$143,372
Avg net price
$20,111/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 99%
- Programs offered: 53
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 96%
- Programs offered: 30
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
The main undergraduate pathways
The standard philosophy BA
The common structure is an introductory course, a required logic course, a two- or three-part history sequence, a distribution requirement across value theory and theoretical philosophy, upper-division seminars, and a capstone essay or senior thesis. This is the version of the degree that prepares you for graduate study in the field, and it is the version that gives you the widest reading.
Philosophy with an applied ethics emphasis
Some programs, particularly online ones, weight the major toward bioethics, business ethics, environmental ethics, and professional ethics. This is useful if you work in healthcare, compliance, or public administration and want the coursework to connect to your job. The tradeoff is thinner coverage of the history sequence and of theoretical philosophy, which matters if you later apply to a philosophy graduate program.
Philosophy as half of a double major
The most common practical choice. The major is compact enough that pairing it with economics, statistics, computer science, or a pre-professional track is realistic inside 120 credits. If your concern is what happens after graduation, this pathway addresses it more directly than any single-major variation does. Consider the liberal arts program guide if you would rather have breadth without committing to a second major.
Typical coursework in a bachelor’s program
| Course Topic |
What You Learn |
| Introduction to Philosophy |
The standing problems and the vocabulary used to argue about them |
| Symbolic Logic |
Propositional and predicate logic, validity, soundness, formal proof, quantification |
| Ancient Philosophy |
Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools in primary text |
| Modern Philosophy |
Descartes through Hume and Kant: rationalism, empiricism, and the critical turn |
| Ethics |
Metaethics, consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, and applied cases |
| Epistemology and Metaphysics |
Knowledge, justification, skepticism, causation, identity, free will |
| Philosophy of Mind |
Consciousness, intentionality, physicalism, and personal identity |
| Political Philosophy |
Authority, justice, rights, liberty, and the social contract tradition |
| Senior thesis or capstone |
An extended original argument written under a faculty reader |
Skills you may build
- Reconstructing an argument accurately before you respond to it, which is rarer than it sounds
- Formal reasoning: recognizing valid inference and constructing proofs
- Reading dense, unfamiliar prose without paraphrasing away the difficulty
- Writing that survives an unfriendly reader looking for the weak premise
- Separating what a claim asserts from whether you like its conclusion
- Holding a position under pressure without either collapsing or refusing to update
Prerequisites and course sequencing
Philosophy has fewer hard prerequisites than most majors, but sequencing still matters. Before you enroll, confirm:
- Whether symbolic logic is required for the major or only recommended, and in which terms it runs online
- Whether the history sequence is offered in order and often enough to finish on your timeline
- How many upper-division seminars run online each year, since a small department may rotate them slowly
- Whether the capstone or senior thesis requires a faculty director you must secure in advance
- Whether any language requirement applies, which is uncommon at the bachelor’s level but standard for doctoral work
If you are moving faster than a standard four-year plan, compare accelerated philosophy programs. Compression is harder on this major than on many, because the reading load per credit is high and primary texts do not skim well.
Transfer credits and degree planning
Transfer credit can shorten a bachelor’s substantially, especially for general education. Rules vary by institution, so confirm:
- The maximum number of transfer credits accepted
- The minimum grade required for a course to transfer
- Whether an introductory philosophy or ethics course taken elsewhere satisfies a major requirement or only a general elective
- Whether logic taken in a mathematics or computer science department counts toward the philosophy logic requirement
- Residency requirements, meaning a minimum number of credits completed at the institution
See Affordable Online Philosophy Degrees for more on managing total program cost.
Accreditation and program quality checks
There is no programmatic accreditor for philosophy degrees. No agency inspects philosophy curricula or ranks departments in a way that carries regulatory weight. Verify that the institution holds accreditation from a recognized institutional accreditor through the U.S. Department of Education database.
Professional societies in philosophy publish guidance, run conferences, and maintain job listings, but they do not accredit programs and their membership is not a quality signal for a department. Institutional accreditation is the check that matters.
Using the four years well
Because the degree does not name a job, what you do alongside it determines a great deal. Habits that pay off:
- Take symbolic logic early, and take a second formal course if the department offers one
- Keep your best two seminar papers in clean, revised form; they are the writing sample for law school, graduate school, or any employer who asks
- Add a quantitative or technical minor if analysis or consulting work interests you, since management analyst roles hire on demonstrable skill rather than on reasoning ability in the abstract
- If law is the plan, treat grades and the LSAT as the admission decision and the major as preparation, not as an admissions credit
- If college teaching is the plan, talk to faculty in your third year about what doctoral admission actually requires, including writing samples and often a reading language
Bachelor’s vs a master’s in philosophy
A bachelor’s is the complete undergraduate credential and, for most people, the terminal philosophy degree. A master’s in philosophy is a smaller and more specialized decision: it is most often a bridge toward doctoral admission, a subject-area deepening for someone already teaching, or a terminal degree in an applied field such as bioethics. It does not qualify you for tenure-track college teaching, which requires the PhD. Philosophy and religion teachers at the postsecondary level are projected to change 0.7 percent from 2024 to 2034, with about 2,000 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034).
Compare degree options:
Data verified: September 5, 2026.
Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
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