This program is designed for students to take two years to complete all the requirements for the M.A. degree. Students are required to take at least 46 graduate credit hours (12 courses), including one research seminar each spring semester. The research seminar is designed to help students produce a philosophical essay of a quality good enough to be submitted for publication. In addition, students are required to take a two credit hour Teaching Practicum in the spring semester of their second year.

The awarding of a master's degree signifies that the student has at least a basic competence in the history of philosophy, as well as some special competence in either Analytic or Continental philosophy.