English Master's Degree Requirements

Program | Faculty | Master's | Doctoral | Courses

For students who specify their candidacy in a doctoral degree program, the following is required for a master's degree:

1. Ten graduate courses successfully completed with a cumulative average of 3.5 or above. Of these ten courses, two may be taken in a department other than English.

2. Proficiency in a foreign language;

3. Performance in an advising session.

For students who specify their candidacy in a terminal master's degree program, the following is required:

1. Ten graduate courses successfully completed with a cumulative average of B or above. Of these ten courses, two may be taken in a department other than English.

2. Proficiency in a foreign language.

For students who choose to write a master's thesis, the following is required:

1. Eight graduate courses, as defined by the regulation (in 1.) above;

2. Proficiency in a foreign language;

3. Submission of an acceptable master's thesis.

Master of Fine Arts in English

This degree, based upon a two- to four-year program of 60 hours, is designed for qualified graduate students who are determined to become writers of fiction, poetry or drama, and who wish to prepare themselves for the variety of positions related to the profession of writer, including the college teaching of English.

The normal standards for admission to graduate study in English apply, except that applicants for the M.F.A. must also submit supplementary original writing in fiction, poetry or drama or non-fiction; 20 pages of fiction or non-fiction; from 10 to 15 pages of poetry; or one full act of a play. Manuscripts should be mailed separately to the Director of the M.F.A. Program in English, Bartlett Hall, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-0515.

Candidates must satisfy a language requirement. Candidates must also pass an oral examination, including a defense of the thesis, which should constitute a book-length manuscript of fiction, poetry, drama or non-fiction of publishable quality.

The 60 hours of work are apportioned as follows: 24 hours of courses in imaginative writing (four workshops); six hours of thesis credit; six hours in another appropriately related field of study; 24 hours in American and English literature and language, including at least two courses in the modern and contemporary genre of the student's specialty (fiction, poetry), and one each in either modern or contemporary courses in the other genre.