There are many different sorts of graduate programs in philosophy. Choosing the right ones to apply to can be difficult.

First of all there are a number of sources which "rank" philosophy programs. Whatever one might think about this endeavour and its motivations, this is a useful place to start.

Brian Leiter has a infamous ranking of philosophy porgrams (infamous because he believes that the best work done in the continental tradition is being done in "Analytic" departments. A claim the vast majority of people who work in the continental tradition find bizarre at best).

Philosophical Gourmet

Note: Although rankings are perhaps useful in some regards, they seem particularly silly in the area of philosophy. There is little reason to believe that acceptance and completion of a program at the top ranked philosophy department makes you a "better philosopher," a "better scholar," or guarantees employment. Although it seems to be significantly easier to obtain employment from a prestigious program, and the opportunities afforded by a prestigious program (including often $$$$), prestige and rank should not be the primary consideration in choosing a program.

John Hartman compiled a listing of programs in continental philosophy a few years back (I'm not sure how recent some of the information is). Although he ranks the departments into broad groupings, his rankings seem to be based primarily on the richness of the program (for example a program like Penn State's simply has far more it can offer than a much smaller department). Hartman's pages are also very interesting for the discussion of Leiter's approach.

Continental Philosophy Departments

NYU's Real Guide

Since there are many listings of graduate programs in philosophy available on the web, I will limit myself to a handful of programs that might suit our graduates.