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Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2026-27)

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How many applicants do jobs receive by AOS?

(Temporarily moving to the front for further discussion)

In our job-market discussion thread, an early career philosopher asks:

I am wondering if we can have a discussion where search committees share the AOS they seek and the number of applications they received in this job cycle. I think that a post like that will be especially valuable for early careers. We know that for most open searches, a typical number is around 600, but what about areas like M&E, history, ethics, non-western, gender, race, etc,.?

This is a great query. I think it could be really eye-opening to hear from search committees about how many applicants they received by AOS. 

If you're on a search committee, please do feel free to share in the comments section how many applicants you received this year, and what the advertised AOS was/were. Please feel free to share anonymously, but if possible, please also feel free to mention what kind of position you advertised (e.g. postdoc, non-TT/VAP position, TT, etc.). I'm really curious to see people's responses!

Posted in ,

13 responses to “How many applicants do jobs receive by AOS?”

  1. Milena Ivanova

    For an early career college fellowship at the University of Cambridge we received 98 applications from highly suitable and qualified candidates.

    Reply
  2. curious

    Milena,
    What was the AOS of the fellowship? And were all both highly suitable and qualified, or some one and not the other, or some neither?

    Reply
  3. curious2

    Milena, was this a philosophy-specific fellowship? I have heard from other colleges at Cambridge that for general discipline non-specific fellowships the average number of applicants is far greater than this (around 600-1,000).

    Reply
  4. Bill Vanderburgh

    For this year’s assistant professor AOS Ancient Greek or Roman Philosophy, we had 63 applications, 56 of which were complete and met minimum requirements (i.e., PhD in Philosophy, actually has Ancient as an AOS). That was a lower number than we expected. That could be explained by the fact that we were transparent and put our 4-4 teaching load in the ad, and/or by the fact that we expressed a strong preference for AOCs in “less commonly taught” philosophies.

    Reply
  5. Marcus Arvan

    For this year’s TT Assistant Professor AOS feminist philosophy and/or modern philosophy, we received 99 applications. This is similar to recent TT and non-TT searches we’ve run in feminist philosophy and philosophy of race.

    Reply
  6. Alex Grzankowski

    87 applicants for the following TT equivalent post from summer 21
    The Lecturer will contribute to the intellectual life of the Department, School, and College through high-quality research in 19th Century European Philosophy, and by designing and teaching modules in their area of specialism. Additionally, the Lecturer will be expected to deliver a Kant module, and at least one of the following: Aesthetics; 20th Century European Philosophy; Political Philosophy. Upon successful completion of Birkbeck’s Academic Probation, the Lecturer will be expected to develop and carry out increasingly ambitious and internationally recognised research projects in their area of specialism.

    Reply
  7. Michaela

    We got 367 applications for our job at BU this year:
    https://philjobs.org/job/show/18185
    I think there were somewhere between 20-30ish files we basically didn’t consider (lack of AOS, lack of PhD in philosophy or a relevant field, etc.).

    Reply
  8. St. Norbert College

    There were 104 applicants for St. Norbert College’s TT Phil Mind job.

    Reply
  9. Jeff Kasser

    116 applicants for a TT AOS Phil Science job at Colorado State with a preference for Phil of Biology. Many applicants, understandably, do Phil of Physics, Phil of Cognitive Science, or general Phil of Science.

    Reply
  10. Colin Marshall

    182 applicants for a TT job in history of philosophy (AOC Ancient) at UW, Seattle.

    Reply
  11. Charles Lassiter

    I’ve been collecting just this data for about a month. Here’s what I’ve got
    https://charleslassiter.weebly.com/blog/how-many-people-are-applying-for-jobs

    Reply
  12. Daniel Muñoz

    UNC Chapel Hill is in the middle of a search in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (TT open rank); we received 125 applications.

    Reply
  13. Joseph Long

    Brockport is in the middle of a TT search: AOS in ethics (esp. normative ethics), AOC in political philosophy or applied ethics, and the ability to teach both Political Philosophy and courses in applied ethics. We received 149 applications.

    Reply

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