|
Studies demonstrate that the critical skills philosophy offers
are exactly the qualities that employers in all fields
(business, law, education, etc.) seek in their future leaders. The U.S. Department of Education
undertook a study of
standardized testing of undergraduates on the three principle
examinations for entry into graduate school (GRE), law school (LSAT),
and business school (GMAT). Conducted from 1964 to 1982, it showed a direct correlation between
student performance and major. Of the more
than thirty majors surveyed:
- The only two groups that performed substantially
better than the national average on each of the tests were
philosophy majors and biology majors.
- The highest performers on the verbal portion of the GRE were
philosophy majors.
- The only majors among the humanities and social
sciences to perform significantly higher than the national
average on the quantitative portion of the GRE were philosophy
majors and economics majors.
- The highest performers on both the LSAT and GMAT were
philosophy majors, mathematics majors, and engineering majors.
The study concluded: "students who major in a field
characterized by formal thought, structural relationships, abstract
models, symbolic languages, and deductive reasoning consistently
outperform others on these examinations" (Clifford Adelman,
Senior Associate of the National Institute of Education, The
Standardized Test Scores of College Graduates, 1964-1982, p.
33). Want
the exact numbers for the LSAT? These are kinds
of skills you will develop in the philosophy program at
Hampden-Sydney.
|
