Choosing a Course

Philosophy can be a peculiarly personal subject and personality plays an unusually strong part in the learning dynamic. There's lots of swapping of ideas and thoughts, and it's important, therefore, that you like (and trust) your tutors and teachers. You can't do much about your fellow students, but try to find out who will be teaching you. Try to find, too, about their specialisations - if there's an area you're particularly interested in - ethics, logic, or the philosophy of language for example - then look for institutions where they are the options.

There are no specific A-level requirements, which is partly due to the fact that you probably won't have come across anything like it at school (unless you went to school in France, where philosophy is compulsory). So you may want to hedge your bets and do the course as part of a joint honours degree. Philosophy is often done jointly with English language and linguistics (for those who want to specialise in epistemology); with Greek (for those into the history of ancient philosophy); with German (for those interested in the more recent history - Kant, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein); with mathematics (for those with a logical bent); with economics (for those into business ethics); and with law (philosophy of law).

Are there any philosophical societies? The introduction of a fresh mind can be extremely invigorating in a course like this, so find out if there are any student groups that regularly invite speakers from outside the university to bring a new perspective to what might, by then, be some pretty stale areas.

You might also want to consider whether the way the course is assessed is the best way for you to work - there's a variety of combinations of exams, course-work and dissertation, so have an idea as to which suits you best. There's also the possibility of spending a year abroad as part of your degree, an opportunity that's never to be sniffed at.