English, M.A.

Program Admission

In addition to university requirements for admission to the Graduate School, all applicants for admission to the Master of Arts degree program in English must meet one of the following criteria:

1. A minimum undergraduate grade-point average of 3.0 in upper-level English courses; or
2. A minimum combined score of 900 on the GRE (Verbal and Quantitative) with special emphasis on the Verbal score.

For regular admission to the Master of Arts in English degree program, international students must submit a minimum score of 500 on the TOEFL or a minimum score of 85 on the Michigan Test.

Applicants who fail to meet the above standards may be admitted on conditional status as recommended by the Graduate Admissions Committee of the Department of English and the Head of English in concert with the Dean of the Graduate School.

Program Requirements

Undergraduate requirements: 30 semester hours of English; credit in six semester hours on the sophomore level or a reading knowledge of a foreign language.

Requirements for a major (Thesis): 33 semester hours of English including ENGL 5007  or ENGL 5008 , ENGL 5027  or ENGL 5028 , and ENGL 5099 . Requirements for a major (Non-thesis): 33 semester hours of English including English 5007  or ENGL 5008 , and ENGL 5027  or ENGL 5028 .

Additional requirements: ENGL 5014  for students specializing in literary studies; nine hours in creative writing workshops (at least three of which should be either ENGL 5030  or ENGL 5031 ) and ENGL 5032  for students specializing in creative writing; ENGL 5019  for graduate teaching assistants. Our collaboration agreement with the English graduate program at Louisiana Tech University requires that students take any two of the courses offered to both universities through the agreement.

With their major professor’s guidance and approval, students may take up to one-half of study of topics under the direction of a senior faculty member. Prerequisites: 21 graduate hours of English and approval of the student’s adviser and of the department head.

Graduate Courses

Note: To receive graduate credit for a 4000-level course designated ‘For Undergraduate and Graduates,’ a student must be in graduate admission status at the time credit is earned in the course. Credit earned in undergraduate admission status cannot be changed to graduate credit.