PHILOSOPHY MAJORS STAND OUT IN STUDY OF GRADUATE

PHILOSOPHY MAJORS AND GRADUATE ADMISSIONS TESTS*

A study by the National Institute of Education, Standardized Test Scores of College Graduates, 1964-1982 showed that during the 18-year period of the study

Students majoring in philosophy received scores substantially higher (5% better or more) than the average on each of the tests studied.
Philosophy major's scores on several tests exceeded those of students majoring in other humanities areas, in the social sciences, and in several of the natural sciences.

The study (1986), whose results are summarized in the table below, compared the scores of 550,000 U.S. citizens who took the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), and the verbal and quantitative portions of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in 1981-82 with the corresponding data for earlier years. The report's author, Clifford Adelman, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that one of the most significant results found was that students who major in "applied" fields such as business administration, education, social work, and journalism "consistently underperform" arts and science majors.

The performance of philosophy majors on all four tests was remarkable:

On the LSAT

Philosophy majors made higher scores than did students in any other humanities area.
Philosophy majors made higher scores than all social and natural science majors except economics and mathematics.
Philosophy majors made higher scores than all "applied" majors.
Philosophy majors scored 10% better than political science majors--a popular choice of students planning to study law--on the LSAT.
Philosophy majors scored 5.3% better on the LSAT than accounting majors--another popular pre-law choice.

On the GMAT

Philosophy majors outperformed business majors by a margin of about 15%.
Philosophy majors outperformed every other undergraduate major except mathematics.

On the GRE

Philosophy majors' scores on the verbal portion of the GRE were higher than in any other major, even English.
Philosophy majors scored substantially higher than did all other humanities majors.
Philosophy majors were alone among humanities majors in scoring above the overall average.
Philosophy majors were alone among humanities majors in scoring above the overall average on the quantitative portion of the GRE.

Copies of the complete report from which these data are taken may be obtained through ERIC Document Reproduction Service, P.O. Box 190, Arlington, Virginia 22210 (telephone (800) 227-3742).

Student Performance on Graduate Admissions Tests

PERCENTAGE BY WHICH THE MEAN SCORE OF TEST-TAKERS FROM

SPECIFIC UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS DIFFERS FROM THE MEAN SCORE

OF ALL TEST-TAKERS WHO INDICATED THEIR MAJOR IN 1981-1982

Undergraduate Major	LSAT	GMAT	GRE-Verbal	GRE-Quantitative
Humanities Arts and Music English Foreign language History Philosophy Other humanities	-0.5% +5.6% +5.7% +2.9% +8.7% +4.7%	-1.2% +4.1% +3.3% +4.6% +11.0% +1.8%	+1.7% +14.5% +7.9% +10.8% +17.6% + 7.3%	-8.4% -5.7% -4.2% -5.5% +4.6% -5.0%
Social Sciences Anthropology Economics Government Political Science Psychology Sociology Other social science	+4.0% +9.6% +3.3% -1.6% +0.9% -7.0% -0.9%	…. +7.3% +4.6% +0.6% +0.8% -5.0% +0.3%	+16.4% +0.8% …. +3.5% +3.1% -5.0% -0.4%	-1.7% +1.4% …. -5.0% -4.0% -15.0% -7.2%
Sciences Biology & Bio. Sci.'s. Chemistry Mathematics Physics Other science	+4.0% +7.6% +12.8% …. +2.8%	+3.3% +7.5% +13.3% …. +0.8%	+5.4% +2.1% +2.7% +6.6% +3.5%	+8.0% +18.3% +26.3% +29.5% +14.5%
Business Accounting Business Admin. Finance Mgmt./Indust. Mgmt Marketing Other business	+3.4% -4.5% +3.4% -5.4% …. -0.9%	-1.5% …. -0.8% -7.7% -8.1% -5.0%	…. -9.1% +3.5% …. …. ….	…. -2.3% +14.5% …. …. ….
Other Computer science Education Engineering Journalism Social work Speech/Com.	…. -8.7% +8.0% +0.7% -10.1% -2.7%	+5.4% -4.2% +10.0% …. …. ….	-1.5% -10.4% -7.3% +5.7% -9.1% -6.0%	+22.9% -15.8% +25.1% -8.6% -20.8% -14.3%

…. indicates that figures are not available.

Note: The national averages for the comparisons are mean scores of all test-takers in 1981-1982 who indicated a major. The tests are the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Because the tests have different categories of undergraduate majors, some categories are combined.

*Source: Clifford Adelman National Institute of Education. Available from ERIC Document Reproduction Service, P.O. Box 190, Arlington, Virginia 22210 (telephone (800) 227-3742). Also published in the Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol.59No.4, March 1986.