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At least among the top graduate schools an interest in metaphysics is not what will likely
get one into graduate school, or what they are looking for.
 
I'm in the process of updating my Making of an Economist and have found that the students
are more focused on math than they were. (They were also less concerned about it because
their math training is much better than before.)
John might take a look at my essay on Vision, Judgment and Disagreement among Economists,
which is reprinted in The Lost Art of Economics. Some of the other essays in that book
might be relevant also.
 
That said, once you make it through the first couple of years you are pretty much free to
do what you want at top graduate schools.  So, if he is willing to focus on technical
aspects for the first couple of years, he can go to any top graduate school. If I were
forced to choose a small number of schools four come to mind immediately. I'm sure there
are others.
 
UC Davis has Kevin Hoover who is well trained in philosophy and asks interesting questions
in a way that is relevant to the mainstream.
 
Wisconsin has Steve Durlauf and Buz Brock, both of  whom are highly mathematical but who
are leading the way in exploring complexity.
 
Duke has Roy Weintraub and Neil DeMarchi who are doing interesting work in the history of
thought. Duke is about the only top-ranked mainstream program that has a history of
thought program.
 
Finally, Harvard gives students much freedom, and one can branch out there easier than at
many other schools.
 
Dave 
 
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