If you plan on majoring in philosophy, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #83 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Virginia to determine which ones were the best for philosophy students pursuing a degree. Combined, these schools handed out 219 degrees in philosophy to qualified students.
The philosophy program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Philosophy rankings. We derive our Best Overall Philosophy School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Philosophy Schools in Virginia list to help you make the college decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the philosophy degree levels they offer.
University of Virginia - Main Campus is a wonderful option for students interested in a degree in philosophy. Located in the midsize suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #35 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means University of Virginia is a great university overall.
There were about 36 philosophy students who graduated with this degree at University of Virginia in the most recent data year.
William & Mary is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a degree in philosophy. Located in the small suburb of Williamsburg, William & Mary is a public school with a medium-sized student population. This school ranks 5th out of 57 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 35 philosophy students who graduated with this degree at William & Mary in the most recent year we have data available.
Any student pursuing a degree in philosophy needs to check out Virginia Commonwealth University. Located in the midsize city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 8th out of 57 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 33 philosophy students who graduated with this degree at VCU in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the philosophy program make around $26,192 in the first couple years of working.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
The philosophy program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Philosophy rankings. We derive our Best Overall Philosophy School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
