Admission Requirements

Students seeking admission into the Master of Arts in English must meet the admission requirements of Graduate Programs 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, C-2, D-1, F-0). 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 under graduate 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.

Prospective students will be required to submit a seven-to-ten-page critical paper as part of the application process

Newly admitted students must take a preliminary examination immediately after completing six to nine hours of graduate course work. This preliminary examination is a proctored, written explication of a relatively brief poem or prose passage that students will complete as an assignment in ENG 6133, Methods of Literary Study.

Graduate Courses and Credit

Graduate students enrolled in courses numbered 5000 through 5999 must do special work in addition to that required of undergraduates in the courses numbered 4000 through 4999. Courses numbered 6000 or above are open to fully qualified graduate students only.

Deficient Grades

Should a student receive more than 6 hours of “C” or lower in 5000- or 6000-level graduate degree credit courses, that student will not be allowed to continue in the program in subsequent semesters regardless of overall GPA.

Additional Degree Requirements

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 final course of the intermediate level of a foreign language (2023) with a grade of “C” or above, or by passing an examination approved by the World Languages faculty.

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

4+1 Masters Program

Students who are admitted into an English undergraduate program can apply for the accelerated master’s program in their junior or senior year, as long as they meet the requirements for the MA. See criteria for admission to the master’s program.

Students in the 4+1 program can take up to 12 hours of dual-listed courses (4000/5000) during their junior or senior years and have them count towards both their undergraduate and graduate degrees.