Within the 70 or so undergraduate fields of study NIU offers, students may be interested in a rather unconventional choice – philosophy.

David Buller, chair of the department of philosophy, says it’s worth looking into.

“It’s largely a pursuit of intellectual puzzles and trying to understand ourselves and our place in the world,” Buller said.

There are 58 undergraduate philosophy majors and 39 minors. There are also 35 graduate students majoring in philosophy.

Students may think philosophy does not fit into their course work because of their current major.

“I took [PHIL 101] fall semester of freshman year and enjoyed it,” said Rebecca Edwards, a sophomore philosophy and political science double-major. “My TA said that I should consider becoming a philosophy major, so I thought about it and finally decided that I wanted to.”

Junior philosophy major Jason Sullivan had a similar experience.

“I chose my major after taking an intro class with a teacher that made an impact on my education,” he said.

Philosophy also should be considered as a major choice for students because philosophy majors typically score higher than business administration and management majors on the Law School Admissions Test and the Graduate Management Admissions Test.

Both Edwards and Sullivan said philosophy is a great choice no matter what a student’s future plans are.

“I plan to go on to law school, possibly at Stanford or Berkeley and become a family law lawyer,” Edwards said.

“Philosophy is necessary for a society that aims to respect everyone’s rights and opinions,” Sullivan said. “Without philosophy, we wouldn’t be able to peacefully work together and coexist.”

NIU’s philosophy department recently was ranked second in the nation for its quality of faculty for the master of arts degree, as measured by surveys of philosophy faculty nationwide.

“Our department is a good value,” Buller said. “Undergraduates are taking classes from nationally ranked faculty for the price of in-state tuition. Philosophy majors are getting a very high quality education for their buck.”

Typical course topics for philosophy majors include symbolic logic, the history of philosophy, ethics, contemporary moral issues and metaphysics.

“I see in my generation a lack of people willing to look at arguments critically,” senior philosophy major Mike Sturm said. “If people would take time to look at the statements that others make and the messages around them critically and analyze arguments, we’d be in a better place as a society.”