Make It Millikin: Lukas Myers

Philosophy major accepted into prestigious Ph.D. program

Lukas Myers, senior philosophy major, was out one day getting ice cream to celebrate his acceptance into one of the top-ranking philosophy graduate programs. It was the last day for universities to reach out to the applicants about their offers, and Myers was thrilled for the ones he had received and the one he had accepted. That is until he received a call that night from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Myers' top choice, with the offer he had been waiting for.

The Taylorville, Ill., native transferred to Millikin University from Lincoln Land Community College. From the start, Myers took some of the most difficult courses that are offered through Millikin's Philosophy Department.

"I felt stimulated. Greatly challenged through my classes, and I grew a lot in understanding," Myers said.

In August 2018, Myers' undergraduate philosophical research on "Passivity" was accepted for publication in Aporia: an undergraduate Journal of Philosophy published by Brigham Young University. Recently on May 2, Myers presented his Honors Capstone Project titled "On the Kinds of Liberty," a paper that analyzes the dispute between Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylor in their influential papers "Two Concepts of Liberty" and "The Problem with Negative Liberty."

Myers gives much recognition to Millikin's "small yet sturdy" Philosophy Department. Michael Hartsock, associate professor of philosophy; Robert Money, professor of philosophy; and Eric Roark, associate professor of philosophy; are the three professors that make up the department.

"Each of the professors are solid and brilliant," said Myers. "They all are extremely knowledgeable and have impacted me in many different ways. Students get a lot individual discussion time with the professors which is extremely helpful."

Throughout his graduate school application process, each of the professors helped Myers with his writing sample, statement of purpose and also crafted letters of recommendation. Each part was essential to the application process due to the extremely tough competition that Myers was up against for the graduate positions.

"All of the graduate positions filled this year are less in number than the entering class of Harvard Law. That shows that there are very few positions offered in this field, making the competition very difficult," Myers explained.

In spite of the competition, Myers received a couple of offers from schools for a graduate position and admission into their graduate philosophy programs. Myers was thrilled with the offers he had received and did not expect a phone call coming from Madison.

"I thought all the schools had sent their offers out already, so I did not expect another phone call. The offer that University of Wisconsin-Madison gave me was what I was hoping for. I took back my initial acceptance to another school and accepted their offer," Myers said.

The Philosophy Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the top programs in the country. The graduate assistantship offer that Myers received includes a wave of tuition, a generous yearly stipend, and the opportunity to be a teaching assistant which could later result in a lecturer position.

"The program is extremely difficult and rigorous, much like Millikin was for me initially, but I'm excited and ready for the challenge," Myers said. "I got into one of the top philosophy Ph.D. programs through Millikin, that's all I know."