B. Ü. PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT

MASTER'S PROGRAM

B. Ü. Philosophy Master's Program
APPLICATIONS

Please note that the applicants must meet the requirements of Boğaziçi University as well as those of the Philosophy Department.

1. General Requirements of Boğaziçi University

Applications must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office.  The application month is usually July.  The written and oral examinations are given by the Philosophy Department in August.

For some M.A. programs in Bogaziçi University there is a "Conditional early admission" (Şartlı Ön Kabul) to the Fall Semester, which takes place around late March or early April.  Philosophy Department does not practice such an early admission.  Hence, our application deadline is only July, and our entrance exams are given only in August.

Applicants are strongly advised first to read the general application requirements of Boğaziçi University.  Use the following links to get info about application requirements, dates and forms:

   *  TÜRKÇE:   Lisansüstü Başvuru Sayfası , 2008 Yılına Özel Güncel Bilgi

   *  ENGLISH:  Applications Page

If you have any further questions about the application process, contact the Registrar’s Office:

    Tel: (+90 212) 359 44 08 or 359 70 88
    Fax: (+90 212) 287 09 43
    e-mail: registr@boun.edu.tr

2. Requirements of the Philosophy Department

In addition to the University requirements, our department has some extra conditions for application:

1. We admit only those students who have passed the English Proficiency Exam. (The MA and PhD entrance exams are given in English only.)

2. We expect the graduation GPAs to be no less than 2.25 out of 4 (or 65 out of 100).

3.     The applicants must provide the results of one of these exams:

* The LES scores (not older than 2 years) of the applicants must be 45 or above.
* The ALES scores of the applicants must be 55 or above.
* The GRE results: the "Quantitative" points must be 610 or above.  We do not require the results of "Verbal" or "Analytic".

(The graduates of the Philosophy Department of Boğaziçi University are not required to provide letters of recommendation.)

Please note that the MA program entrance exams of the Philosophy Department are given once a year only, and typically 3-4 weeks before the Fall term begins.  There are no MA entrance exams in the beginning of the Spring term.

B. Ü. Philosophy Master's Program
RULES, REGULATIONS, PROGRAM TIME-TABLE

The Remedial Program:

Graduate students whose undergraduate degrees are not in philosophy have to complete 2 semesters of undergraduate courses in order to prepare themselves for the Master's Program.  Typically the remedial program consists of 4 courses each semester taken out of the following pools: (The remedial course program will be set according to the background and interests of the student by the graduate advisor.)

1st semester:
Phil 131 Logic I
Phil 101 Introduction to Philosophy
Phil 273 Epistemology
Phil 341 Ethics
Phil 213 Ancient Philosophy
Phil 313 Modern Philosophy I

2nd semester:
Phil 132 Logic II
Phil 106 Philosophical Texts
Phil 222 Philosophy of Science
Phil 382 Ontology
Phil 314 Modern Philosophy II

Remedial students who have taken equivalent philosophy courses before may take other courses, including graduate courses (max.1 course per semester), or they can take less than 4 courses per semester with the approval of the graduate advisor.

The remedial courses have to be completed in at most 2 semesters. Regulations do not allow for any extension (apart from a leave of absence with the approval of the Institute of Social Sciences).

According to the regulations Remedial students whose cumulative GPA is less than 2.5 at the end of a semester, and those who get an F in any class are dismissed from the program.


The Master's Program Coursework:

M.A. students have to take 6 courses (typically 4 credits each) and complete 24 credits to finish their coursework. Normally students are expected to take 3 courses per semester and finish their coursework in 2 semesters. However they can get an extension of 1 semester with the approval of the graduate advisor. Among the 6 courses taken 4 of them must cover certain area requirements, as explained below. (Effective: Fall 2007)

Graduate courses that are opened each term are categorized in three groups:

Group 1: ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of law.
Group 2: logic, philosophy of science, epistemology, metaphysics and ontology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind.
Group 3: history of philosophy.

Courses in Groups 1 and 2 have predominantly contemporary (as opposed to predominantly ancient or medieval or modern) content. Courses in Group 3 have predominantly ancient or medieval or modern (as opposed to contemporary) content.

Note: A graduate course offered any semester cannot satisfy the requirement for more than one group.

The area requirements are as follows:
 

1 course from Group 1

2 courses from Group 2

1 course from Group 3

The remaining 2 courses that are required may be taken from any group or from elective courses not falling into any of these groups.

Important: Among these remaining courses, at most 1 can be at the 400 level and the rest must be at 500 or 600 level; at most 1 can be directed study; at most 1 can be from outside the department.  However, for these sorts of courses the student must get the approval of the graduate advisor.  Directed studies, 400 level courses and courses taken outside Philosophy Department do not fulfill any area requirements.

Typically each semester at least one course from each area is offered. The graduate advisor will let you know during registration which course falls under which area.

Click here to view the "Graduate Programs in Philosophy" page of Bogaziçi University.  This page contains a full list and descriptions of the courses that are currently in the catalogue.  The courses that are actually opened vary each term and are decided by the department.


Thesis Period:

M.A. students who have completed their coursework will start working on their Master's Thesis the following semester. In the first semester of the Thesis period they will enroll in Phil 579 (0 credit) and Phil 690 (0 credit).

At the end of the 4th week students are expected to submit a short preproposal (1 or 2 pages) describing the topic they wish to work on and the particular problem they wish to pursue in their thesis. The preproposal should be submitted to the graduate advisor and preferably to the potential thesis advisor as well.

(The candidates are advised to bear in mind that the topic, supervisor and committee—consisting of three people including the supervisor—of their proposal and thesis will have to be approved by the Department.  In other words, it is not sufficient to pick a topic and determine a faculty member as the supervisor.  The department must be convinced that the thesis topic is one that can be studied in this department and the supervisor & committee members are suitable for that job.)

At the end of the 10th week students are expected to have formed their Thesis Committee and decided upon the title of their thesis and submit their proposals to their committee. In the following two weeks they will be asked to defend their proposals before their committee. There will be at most 5 proposal defenses per week, and preferably only 1 per day. Thus students are asked to specify their proposal defense dates in advance.

Students who fulfill these requirements will get a P grade for PHIL 579; those who do not turn in their proposals in time, or do not successfully defend their proposals, will get an F grade. Such students are expected to successfully defend their proposals until the fourth week of the following semester . Students who get an F grade twice in PHIL 579 will be dismissed from the program. Students who do not do any thesis work during the first thesis semester will get an F grade in PHIL 690, and those who have submitted their proposals (even if they have failed in PHIL 579) will get a TP grade.

Graduate students who have finished their normal coursework will enroll in PHIL 690 each semester until they finish the program. Typically students are expected to submit their theses in 2 semesters. However they can get an extension for 2 more semesters on the condition that they have finished their coursework in 2 semesters. To get an extension students will have to get the approval of the graduate advisor and file a petition to the Institute of Social Sciences (before the 5th semester starts). The M.A. Program (not including the remedial period) has to be completed in maximum of 6 semesters.

After the proposal is defended successfully, students will start working on their theses the following semester. In this semester students will enroll in PHIL 589 (1 credit). They are expected to submit at least one chapter before the 12th week of classes. Depending on the progress report given by the thesis advisor students will get a letter grade in PHIL 589.

In their last semester students will have to submit their thesis and defend it orally before their committee. The deadline for the thesis defense cannot be after the 13th week. Again there cannot be more than 5 defenses in a single week, and preferably not more than one in a single day, thus students are asked to set a date in advance with their committee members and get the approval of the graduate advisor.

After the oral defense, the committee members will convene and decide whether the thesis is satisfactory. The committee may ask for certain revisions, in which case the student can be given an extension for three months. In such a case the student will have to file a petition to the Institute of Social Sciences. At the end of the 3 month period the student will have to defend the revised version of the thesis before the committee, and no further extension can be given.


For general information about the MA and Doctoral degree requirements, check the following Boğaziçi University web page:

http://www.boun.edu.tr/government/rules/lisansustu_index.htm