The Catholic University of America
Bachelor in Philosophy

Washington, USA

DEGREE TYPE

Bachelor's degree

DURATION

4 years

LANGUAGES

English

PACE

Full time

APPLICATION DEADLINE

EARLIEST START DATE

STUDY FORMAT

On-Campus

* Early action deadline: November 15, 2021

Key Summary

About: The Bachelor in Philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. explores enduring questions—ethics, political order, knowledge, action, and aesthetics—within the Catholic intellectual tradition. It stresses analytic reasoning, clarity of expression, logic, and historical and contemporary inquiry, blending reason and faith. Students learn to define core problems, weigh perspectives, and pursue truth through research and discussion.

Career Outcomes: Philosophy majors gain transferable skills for roles in law, education, public service, journalism, and non-profit work. Employers value analytical ability, critical thinking, communication, problem-solving, ethical reasoning, and adaptability; possible careers include law, teaching, public policy, journalism, and non-profit work.

The study of philosophy benefits students personally and professionally. The questions asked by philosophers are questions that come up in every age and in every human life. They are in that sense inevitable questions, though people often hurry past them: What is the best way to live? What does a just political order look like? How is knowledge to be distinguished from true opinion? What is the relation between knowing and doing? Is beauty merely in the eye of the beholder, or does it somehow inhere in things we call beautiful? Did the order manifest in nature come about purely by chance, or does it point beyond itself to some source of order?

Such questions are worth pursuing in their own right, but philosophical habits of mind are also practically useful. Philosophy majors fare very well in the job market because employers in a wide variety of fields highly value the talents that philosophy naturally fosters: analytical ability, clarity of thought and expression, an interest in getting to the essentials, an eye for the big picture, the willingness to consider things from different points of view, a preference for truth over convenience, an ability to take constructive criticism in stride, an openness to new approaches to longstanding problems, to name only a few.