Yea… that’s the perception, but — recent studies indicate otherwise…
Go read this… on the performance of philosophy majors on the GRE — and what businesses REALLY want (hint, it’s not actually business majors) — If you aren’t already a philosophy major, here’s a hint.. read the whole article :)….. really, read it.
It’s no surprise to me that the research shows Philosophy majors as having the highest scores in verbal (160/170) and Analytical Writing (4.4/6) and the highest quantitative score of the liberal arts (153/170) — Physics was highest with 161/170 — and philosophy was only beaten by physics, economics, computer science and chemistry…
I’m not about to claim that teaching philosophy means that I’m giving students these high scores, because it could be that philosophy attracts very smart students OR that only very smart students complete philosophy majors… In other words, I have no causal argument for the scores — only the strong correlation between being a philosophy major and high GRE scores… and the additional data point that philosophers are strong in areas business leaders say are important qualities in a new employee. so there…
Perhaps the Simpsons were wrong...
although, they could be right about grad students... especially the last one.. “grad students, no food for you until you grade 3000 papers…” yep.
philosophyfactory 