Admission Requirements:
Students seeking admission into the Master of Arts in English must meet the admission requirements of the Graduate School and the specific program requirements.

Applicants must hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited four-year institution with the appropriate undergraduate background in the field of the proposed academic emphasis and a grade point average of 3.00 on the last 60 hours of undergraduate work, or a 2.75 average on all undergraduate work (A-4, B-3, 0-2, 0-1, F-a). The appropriate undergraduate background must include a minimum of 18 semester hours of coursework, exclusive of any basic education courses, in the proposed field of the graduate major. All courses attempted, including any repeated courses, are considered in the computation of the grade point average.

Students who do not meet the requirements as stated above may be granted admission at the master’s degree level provided they have a grade point average of 2.50 overall or a 2.75 average on the last 60 hours.

1. Applicants for admission to the master’s degree program who have not completed the appropriate undergraduate background will be assessed undergraduate course deficiencies.
2. Applicants from an unaccredited college, who have satisfactory grades and a satisfactory undergraduate program, may be admitted with an entrance condition of 12 semester hours.

All newly admitted students must take a preliminary examination during their first semester of graduate study. (In unusual circumstances, and with the written permission of the graduate adviser, this preliminary examination may be deferred until the student’s second semester of graduate study.) The preliminary examination in English is a proctored, impromptu written explication of a relatively brief poem, the text of which will be presented to the student at the time of the examination. Students will have two hours to write this explication.

Students failing the preliminary examination the first time must retake it in the next consecutive full semester. The examination may be taken no more than twice. Failure to pass the preliminary examination the second time terminates the student’s enrollment in the program.

Courses required of all general candidates:

ENG 6133, Methods of World Literature Study; OR
ENG 6153, Methods of British Literature Study; OR
ENG 6173, Methods of American Literature Study
Twenty-seven hours of English electives (three hours may be chosen from a related
discipline) to be selected in consultation with the faculty adviser.

A knowledge of one foreign language is a requirement for the Master of Arts degree in English. The language requirement may be met by completing the intermediate level of a foreign language with a grade of “0” or above, by achieving a score of 500 or more on the Educational Testing Services examination, by passing an examination administered by the language faculty, or by completing the reading courses FR 3023 or GER 3023 with a grade of “B” or better.

The foreign language requirement must be met before the comprehensive examination can be taken.

Minimum hours required for this program: 30