Important Elements:
We place great weight on your personal statement. This statement is your opportunity to get the committee interested in you, in your potential as a professional and as a human being.

We require a writing sample which demonstrates your ability to do critical work in literature. It should be between five and no more than twenty pages long.

Excellent recommendations by your professors are essential. They should be extensive and detailed, not simply flat statements that you are a "good student." Nearly all of our applicants are "good students." Many of the successful letters of recommendation in our application files are about a single-spaced page long. You may want to provide your recommenders with copies of your college or university transcripts, of the papers you wrote for their course(s), and a brief resume of your accomplishments, both academic and professional.

We look carefully at your course preparation and GPA. Nearly all of the students we accept have an undergraduate GPA of 3.3 or better. Students entering with a Masters degree are expected to have attained a high GPA (3.75 or better) for their graduate work.

Where to send all supporting application materials:
UMass Graduate Admissions
530 Goodell Building
140 Hicks Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9333

The Graduate School requires that MA/Ph.D and Ph.D applicants take the GRE general test. Students applying for the terminal Master's degree, need not take the GRE's. The English Department requires in addition that all students--except for those applying in the American Studies concentration--also take the subject test. Our department does not require a minimum score on the GRE. Most of the students we accept into our program have earned GRE scores above 600 (verbal) and 500 (English subject test). However we do not consider these numbers a "minimum" because many other wise excellent students fare poorly on standardized tests. Conversely, extremely high GRE scores do not guarantee admission.

Teaching Assistantships are the principal source of support for English graduate students. TAs are awarded by the Writing Program to teach composition, and by the English Department primarily to teach course sections in large general education classes and a handful of smaller literature classes. Students entering the program, and students in the program who have not yet taught a Writing Program course, are required to apply directly to the Writing Program for an assistantship. Assistantships, which are limited, get awarded according to the following criteria: 1) the student is entering the program with a guarantee of support, 2) the student shows progress toward the degree, 3) the student has taught successfully in the past. Most students teach in the Writing Program for at least two years of their guaranteed support and are guaranteed at least one literature course before graduating. Students must re-apply for assistantships each year. Students in the MA-only program are not eligible for assistantships in the department.

Please Note: A full TA carries a teaching load of one course each semester, pays $14,516, and comes with a tuition and fee waiver.

2. Foreign Language requirement (see below).

3. Students may transfer credit for 2 graduate-level English courses taken at other schools or at UMASS before their formal admission to the Graduate English Program.

4. While in the MA program at UMASS, students may also take two courses in departments outside of English.

3. Students may transfer credit for 2 graduate-level English courses taken at other schools or at UMASS before their formal admission to the Graduate English Program.

4. While in the pre-doctoral MA program at UMASS, students may also take two courses in departments outside of English.

5. In order to proceed into the Doctoral Program, students will be expected to:

A. Achieve a GPA of 3.5 or higher during the course work for the MA degree. B. Participate in an Advisory Session with four faculty members.

6. The advisory session will review the candidate's preparation and projected course of study, timetable, and goals. This session will be conducted by a committee consisting of either the Director or one of the Associate Directors of Graduate Studies, and three other faculty to be chosen by the Graduate Program Director. The student will prepare a five-page statement that will constitute a narrative synthesis of what the student has accomplished thus far, and the kinds of issues and questions that arise at this point in her/his intellectual development. This statement, together of one or two papers, will be submitted to the committee two weeks in advance of the session.

The committee will review these materials, including the student's transcripts and faculty comments on course work, which together will constitute a dossier roughly comparable to admissions applications for students proposing to enter the program with the MA. The committee's role is advisory: to help students refine their understanding of prior study and possible future research, and to provide suggestions about courses to take, books to read, people with whom to work.

3. Doctoral Examination (6 credits)
A two-hour oral examination, to be taken in the fourth semester of the Ph.D. program and to be administered by a committee of four faculty: one the student's chosen advisor for a First or Major Research Area, one the student's chosen advisor for a Second Area, and two appointed by the Director of Graduate Studies. In advance of the examination, the student will present work in writing for each area. The scope and substance of this work will vary somewhat, depending on the degree to which the student has already defined a major area for the dissertation, one that will therefore be more prominent than the second area, which might be (for example) a secondary field of research and/or teaching. As a rough guide, the student should submit a combined maximum of 30 written pages defining the two areas, and a pair of bibliographies for the areas consisting of a minimum of 60 works.

The First Area should be seen as defining an area of research that the student hopes will lead to a dissertation. The work submitted for the exam will be a carefully written essay with an attached reading list. The essay will not be a formal dissertation proposal but will describe as searchingly as possible a field of interest, define the important issues, take stands, and consider possible methodologies. The student will be expected to defend and elaborate on the essay's argument and to speak knowledgeably about the reading list, especially as its items bear on the argument.

The work submitted for the Second Area will be an essay--also with a reading list--defining this second area of interest and describing current issues in the field. It may also include, where appropriate, a syllabus for an advanced undergraduate course in this area, prefaced by a course description of no more than one page. In this case, the syllabus should be a secondary document during the examining process: it should seem to arise naturally from the interest described in the essay, and might be conceived as an answer to a hiring committee's question, "And how would you hope to make use of this research in teaching for us?" Accordingly, the syllabus should be "teachable"--a course that might be a legitimate undergraduate draw wither at UMASS Amherst or at some other institution the student has in mind.

4. Appointment of a Dissertation Committee by the Graduate Dean
A committee of three faculty members is chosen by the student in consultation with faculty advisors and the Director of Graduate Studies. At least two members, one of whom must chair the committee, must be from the English department. The third member must be a UMASS Graduate Faculty member from another department.

5. Dissertation Prospectus
A document which gives a preliminary description of the work to be undertaken in the dissertation. It must be approved and signed by all committee members and the Graduate Director at least 7 months before the dissertation defense.

6. Dissertation Defense
During the defense students field questions about their work and its methodology. The Defense must be scheduled with the Graduate Program Administrator at least 3 weeks prior to the examination so it can be published in The Campus Chronicle.