The University of Colorado Boulder Philosophy department doesn’t have a policy guaranteeing funding for MA students, but almost all our MA students do receive some semesters of TA funding (which includes full tuition and a stipend that is considerably higher, adjusting for inflation, than what I got as a Ph.D student). Some of our MA students are funded for their whole course, and some receive admission offers with funding guarantees for one or two years (two years is the expected time to completion of the MA, but some students take a bit longer).

We developed a terminal MA program about a half decade ago. There is some variability, but we typically admit around five MA students per year, all of which are funded with teaching assistantships that include a tuition waiver, health insurance, and an annual stipend that is quite competitive with peer programs. The department has strengths in ethics, philosophy of action, and philosophy of science (esp. psychology and biology), but our MA program is designed to expose students to a wide range of philosophical topics and prepare them for dissertation work. (We did, however, recently start an MA in philosophy of science with a slightly more tailored focus.) Speaking from experience, there is no hierarchical categorization of MA vs. PhD students, something the department takes very seriously. MA students take the same course load as PhD students. Recent graduates of the MA program have been accepted into philosophy PhD programs at the University of Connecticut, Miami, Notre Dame, UCSD, Indiana University, Georgetown, and FSU among others. For more information, see: https://philosophy.fsu.edu/graduate-study

California State University, Long Beach has a thriving Philosophy MA program, due in large part to the tireless work of our DGS over the last decade, Cory Wright. We have a history of solid placement. Our recent placement has been excellent. Don’t take my word for it:

https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/philosophy/graduate_placement/

Here in the Czech Republic, we’ve just started a two-year English-language M.A. program at the University of Hradec Králové, two hours east of Prague by train. Our faculty is small, but we’re working on some high-profile grant projects, and we’re building up a network of connections in central Europe and North America. In terms of teaching and research, we’re particularly strong in the scientifically informed philosophy of mind — including cognitive science and animal cognition — the philosophy of language, and philosophical logic (particularly in the proof-theoretic tradition).

While not guaranteed, we generally offer fellowships that effectively make the study free, and I’m working on getting them to offer a stipend as well. Not being on the Euro, the cost of living in the Czech Republic, and Hradec in particular, is very cheap by U.S. standards, while the ability to travel across Europe is an added benefit of the location. And Czechia is a lovely country, having carved out a charming way of life in the center of central Europe.

Georgia State University offers funding to all graduate students it admits, with a full waiver of tuition. (Students still owe fees, about $650 per semester.) All students are expected to teach their own classes in their second year. Most teach Critical Thinking, but a fair number teach either Introduction to Philosophy or Introduction to Ethics. We have an extensive program to prepare graduate students to become excellent teachers.

Students can pursue a variety of interests, but we have 3 areas of research strength: social and political philosophy, philosophy of mind, and history of philosophy, esp. ancient philosophy and Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy. We have excellent retention, progression and graduation, with a graduation rate of over 90% for every cohort since 2015. (See https://philosophy.gsu.edu/retention-graduation/ .) More information about our program is available at https://philosophy.gsu.edu/academics/graduate/ .

UW Milwaukee enrolls 8-10 students each year into its 2-year terminal Master’s program, approximately 25% of whom are international students. All of the students are funded. All enrolled students receive a tuition remission and a TA ship (most, at $9100/year) or an internal fellowship (a few each year, at $15000/year). (The university’s “segregated fees” are about $750/ semester, but in recent years we have been able to cover those for all first-years with a department fellowship). Our program is generalist in orientation. Our placement record is strong. In the last couple of years, students have entered PhD programs in Philosophy at UNC, Toronto, Riverside, Harvard, USC, Stanford, UC Irvine LPS, Cornell. For full placement information:
https://uwm.edu/philosophy/graduate/graduate-placement/

Virginia Tech has a terminal MA program that accepts 4-5 funded students per year. Our funding package is quite generous: we offer a full tuition waiver, along with a stipend. Next year, our stipend will be $20,506 (note: student fees are approx. $1500 per semester). Students are expected to serve as graduate teaching assistants for the duration of the program.

We’re really pleased with the amount of support we’re able to offer students interested in pursuing PhDs in philosophy. Students enroll in a ‘pro-seminar’ course in their first semester here. In that course, they work with faculty to develop effective research and writing habits. In the summer after their first year, they participate in an intensive writing seminar/accountability group. In that group, they give each other feedback on their writing samples (and get feedback from various faculty members), and help hold each other accountable to writing deadlines. They also give each other a lot of support in what can otherwise be a fairly isolating process! That seminar culminates in a two day research conference where they present their writing samples to the full department.

We’ve had a lot of success with these strategies in terms of placement. This year, our students gained acceptances from schools such as Princeton, Pitt HPS, USC, UNC, Chicago, UCSD, Arizona and Cornell (among others). You can view our placement record here (note: the 2022 data has not yet been added): https://liberalarts.vt.edu/departments-and-schools/department-of-philosophy/academic-programs/masters-in-philosophy/placement.html

In terms of research strengths–our department has historically had a focus on the philosophy of science. In recent years, we’ve developed strengths in core analytic (especially language and metaphysics), normative ethics, and political philosophy.

As the grad director for the MA program, I’m always happy to chat with prospective students.

I’d like to add a few points to Bill Bristow’s description of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee MA program.

One strength of our program is that we invest a lot of time in helping our students get their writing samples in order for their applications to PhD programs (as well as for presentation at conferences and/or future publication). During their second year, most of our students take part in our “Writing Workshop” seminar (for credit). This workshop is devoted to helping students revise and polish their writing samples, as well as helping them with their “personal statements” and other related matters. Because we’re a smaller program, the workshop can go through at least two drafts of every student’s sample (before submitting their third and final draft in December – around the time when they’re also applying to PhD programs). I’ve run the workshop multiple times in the past, and in addition to discussing the students’ work in the seminar, I write comments on all the drafts. 

We also have a devoted “Graduate Advisor” whose job is to help our students navigate our MA program and the application process.

Like most Philosophy Departments with graduate programs, we have an active visiting speakers series. Our visitors meet separately with our MA students (usually before the talk) to discuss their papers and work in general.

Finally, I think that our placement record is quite impressive. I encourage potential applicants to consult it: https://uwm.edu/philosophy/graduate/graduate-placement/

Miami Univ (Ohio) admits 2-3 students a year to our terminal MA; all students are funded with 100% tuition scholarship and an Assistantship of roughly $14K (very livable in south west Ohio). TAs run one small discussion section for an intro course per semester and enroll in a teaching practicum each fall to help develop pedagogical skills. We have strengths in continental philosophy, history of philosophy, feminist philosophy, and ethics. There is also a strong Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies program that offers a WGS graduate certificate. Of the students who apply to PhD programs, nearly all get in, and we are particularly successful at placing students in Continental philosophy programs (in recent years: Emory, Villanova, Fordham). We are usually able to help fund students with travel to conferences and there is opportunity to apply for a university summer fellowship of $1500 to engage in summer research. More info here: https://www.miamioh.edu/cas/academics/departments/philosophy/academics/ma-program/index.html

I’m the chair in the philosophy department at Northern Illinois University. Though two NIU students have replied above, I will add a few details to their generally accurate description of the M.A. program here at NIU. The department normally offers four to five graduate assistantships to each incoming class. Each assistantship comes with a tuition waiver, plus a stipend of about $14,300, and is renewable for a second year. Our graduate assistants are responsible for “indirect instruction,” including grading, tutoring, and holding office hours; they are not faced with the more time-intensive task of teaching their own courses. In addition to the assistantships, NIU’s Graduate School offers one-year, nonrenewable tuition waivers. (The department recommends admitted applicants for these waivers, but the Graduate School ultimately decides on the awards.) In recent years, our applicants have been quite successful in securing waivers. Tuition waivers cover the portion of tuition calculated as the “instructional charge,” but not the “institutional charge” (roughly, what most institutions call “fees”). As Dallas H points out, the cost of living in DeKalb, about 65 miles west of Chicago, is relatively low.
 
We’ve had a lot of success placing our graduates into Ph.D. programs. Over the past decade, 89% (80 of 90) of our M.A. graduates who applied to Ph.D. programs were
admitted to a Ph.D. program, with full funding. In recent years, we have placed
multiple students at each of the following Ph.D. programs: Rutgers, Toronto,
Notre Dame, North Carolina, Arizona, Cornell, and Indiana, among others. Our
website includes the department’s complete placement record from 2007-2021 (https://www.niu.edu/clas/phil/graduate/placement.shtml).
Data for 2022 will be added in May.
 
We promote students’ success by encouraging them to take PHIL 601, Graduate Writing Seminar, in the first semester of their second year, as many gear up to apply to doctoral programs. In this one-credit course, students work one-in-one with a faculty member to revise and polish a philosophical essay. Program requirements ensure that each graduate has a solid grounding in logic, M&E, ethics and political philosophy, and related philosophies of science, language, and mind.
 
We also host a yearly series of colloquia (in person again this year!), and the graduate
students put together an annual conference.
 
Interested students should feel free to contact us or check out our website (https://www.niu.edu/clas/phil/graduate/index.shtml).

At the University of Montana, we offer an MA program in Environmental Philosophy. Our courses span issues from animal studies, the Anthropocene, synthetic biology, environmental aesthetics, and the philosophy of ecology / climate science. The program is unique in that it emphasizes engagement with communities. Our students complete an internship and a Civic Engagement Project in lieu of a thesis. We also value interdisciplinarity and strongly encourage our students to take classes from the multiple environmentally focused programs across our campus (Enviro. Studies, Native American Studies, Forestry, Literature, Creative Writing, Nature Resource Management, Law etc). We have 5 TAships and some other scholarships to offer our students. Some students come unfunded. Some others come from our undergraduate program: we have a 5 year BA/MA in place. Because of our ‘distinctive program designation’ from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a graduate student in our environmental philosophy program who is a resident of a Western state can enroll at 150% of Montana’s in-state tuition rates. The Western states covered by this agreement include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Some of our students want to pursue a PhD and our very successful in that endeavor (UC Irvine LPS, Stanford, UC Riverside, Michigan State, Oregon U). Some go to law school, for which we have a 100% placement. Some join the workforce, mostly in the government and non-profit sectors. We have currently 14 students in the program.