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Resources for graduate students: M.A. Comps: An Unofficial GuideRevised April 12, 2005; corrected July 2, 2009 What are comps? The formal designation for “comps” in the University of Massachusetts Five College Graduate Degree Program in History Handbook (current version dated June, 2002) is the “General Examination.” Students studying for an M.A. and those studying for a Ph.D. both take General Examinations, but their format and content are radically different. This guide refers to the master’s comps specifically. The doctoral comps are in many ways similar, but different in scale and in some other more subtle ways. The Handbook, as interpreted by the Graduate Program Director (GPD), is the authority on this subject. The current version of the Handbook covers the subject on pages 4 -7. Students are no doubt aware that the History Department often operates very informally. While this makes the department very flexible, it sometimes leaves students feeling a bit lost and bewildered. This guide is an informal and unofficial guide to comps, which tries to fill in some of the gaps between what is officially stated and what actually happens. Note that the current GPD believes the nature of comps may be gradually changing over the next several years. If this guide leaves you with questions, then you should speak with a) your fellow students who have taken comps, to understand the experience in practice, b) your professors on your committee for their expectations, and c) the GPD for the current interpretation of the rules. By reputation, comps are an arduous process that drives grad students to distraction . . . until they’ve been taken. Our hope is that they will seem less forbidding after reading this document. Who takes comps? All master’s students in the History program must take comps in order to graduate. There are no exceptions. Comps cannot be taken before the student has passed the language exam (or equivalent). Why comps? The Handbook is generally silent about the rationale for degree requirements. Some form of exam for advanced degree students does seem to be traditional, though as good historians we view ascriptions of tradition skeptically. And many other schools have similar requirements: one of the contributors to this document had to pass a 6½ hour written exam for his master’s degree at another university. From the structure of comps, we can confidently advance three reasons for the exams. First, they demonstrate that the student has read extensively in three subjects, has developed a sound historical understanding of those subjects, and can use that knowledge to discuss those subjects intelligently. Second, by requiring one outside field and examination before three faculty members simultaneously, the exams encourage the development of broad, thoughtful historical reasoning. Third, comps fields are part of your C.V., demonstrating historical fields you have mastered, and thus serve to help you in finding employment. What do comps involve? Comps have two parts. First, there is a written examination that takes three hours. Then there is an oral examination that lasts one hour. Neither phase is “open book,” though you should have your written answers in front of you during the oral phase. Comps embrace three fields. Fields are formally defined by area, era, and type. One field must be from outside the student’s major geographical field. Each field is developed in conjunction with a faculty member. Hence, there are three faculty members on one’s comps committee, and the written comps work out to about an hour of writing for each field. For students electing to write a thesis, the process is a bit more complicated, and may be changing. In past, students writing a thesis defended that thesis as one of their three fields. In future, the thesis will probably only stand in part for the work in one’s major field. Consult the GPD for the current procedure. Your comps are an intellectual conversation with your committee, with them formulating questions and you formulating sound arguments, based on the historiography, addressing those questions, demonstrating your command of the material, and utilizing your powers of historical reasoning. Models for this are everywhere: your papers and faculty feedback, interactions in class (at their best), departmental colloquia, the Five College History talks, and, when we have them, job talks. How do I select a committee? You need three faculty members from the Five College History Departments for your committee. Ideally, they should be people you’ve worked with, either in courses or independent studies, and that share common intellectual interests with you. You do not necessarily need to have had a prior working relationship with a professor to solicit their participation on your committee, However, some professors will not work with a student unless they meet certain requirements, such as taking a course with that professor. Some professors, particularly those from outside of U. Mass., will not have sat on a committee recently, or at all, and may be unfamiliar with what the process involves. And since professors are not required to serve on committees, some may choose not to work with you at all. You can only find out for sure by approaching the professor in question. You might also search out other grad students who have worked with the professor to find out whether the professor will work on comps, and what that’s like in each case. Normally, your adviser serves as the chair of the committee, and as such has certain obligations besides those of a regular member (see below). The department strongly encourages you to work with your adviser throughout your studies. If you plan on having another individual serve as chair, then you should change your adviser to that professor. You can change your adviser, with the consent of the new adviser and the GPD. (The GPD for 2004-07 is Larry Owens.) What constitutes a field? As noted above, officially a field is defined by area, era, and type; for example, Colonial U.S. Economic History. Ultimately, what constitutes a field must be negotiated between you and each of your committee members, and approved by the GPD. If your discussion begins with course work, you and the committee member may need to adjust the scope of the field, often to broaden it from a narrowly defined course. Your fields should not substantively overlap with each other. To help you in developing your fields, here are two columns of some examples of fields that other students have used in recent years: U.S. Antebellum Cultural History Public History Early African-American History American Civil War Race in the United States to 1945 U.S. 1950's/1960's History of 20th Century American Science Public History History of Science in the U.S. since 1945 Comparative U.S. and S. Africa Revolutionary France (1780-1880) N.B. It’s possible to take a field in Public History without being in the Public History certificate program. See Marla Miller for a handout on the subject. Keep in mind that one field must be outside your main geographical area. Your choice of fields should reflect at least three factors. First, your fields demonstrate to scholars and employers what historical expertise you possess. Second, they should reflect your own personal interests, if only because it is easier to study something one is interested in than not. Third, your fields will depend on the faculty with whom you work. How do I work with a faculty member to develop a field? There is no invariant process for doing this. Faculty differ; lucky for us, because students differ, too. So rule #1: TALK WITH YOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS EARLY AND OFTEN. We cannot emphasize this enough. The members will be the ones asking you questions, evaluating your answers, and judging your performance. You increase the chances mightily of doing well by working closely with your faculty. Less obviously, you also reduce the chance that a weak performance on comps will cause you to fail, because your professors will know you can do better. Make sure when you sign up a faculty member for your committee that that person understands what is formally involved, and that the two of you share expectations about what you will accomplish. Once you’ve secured agreement from a faculty member to work with you, the two of you will work out a reading list for the field. Typically, this runs about 25-30 sources for your main field(s), and about 20-25 in your secondary field(s). (Whether you have one or two primary fields depends on your program; it is more a matter of choice and emphasis as opposed to a hard and fast decision.) Your course reading lists are a good place to start building this list. Keep in mind this is an interactive process. Committee members want to know what you’ve already read, so they can understand the depth of your knowledge and your interests. Once they get your lists, they will add to or subtract from your list, usually add. You yourself are free to suggest adding other sources; your chances of getting your suggestions approved will probably depend on how well you can justify including the sources in question. And you can say “no” to readings, though you should back up your stance with sound reasons. This is a process of negotiation, in many ways even important as your reading and studying, since it sets the framework for them. You should arrange meetings with each committee member to discuss your progress, as you and they deem appropriate. When in doubt, take the initiative. You should use these meetings to demonstrate your intellectual development, understand your professor’s point of view, and obtain guidance. Some members specifically work with you to structure the list and your discussions into major themes (usually between 2 and 6), which are then reflected in the questions they ask you for comps. Even if they don’t, you should consider developing themes for your fields; it will help you organize your thinking and evaluation of the works on your lists. Other professors will direct your attention to the arguments in the historiography, and have you consider how these arguments relate to one another. Others emphasize crucial terms in the historiography. Rule #1 comes back into play here: TALK WITH YOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS EARLY AND OFTEN. If you don’t know what your committee members expect of you, you’re sunk. How do I take the exams? Do the readings! Think about the readings! As you tackle each source, consider how it bears on the themes of your field, how it connects to other fields, and what sort of exam questions would be appropriate. The details of the procedure for taking the exam follow. They differ in some particulars from what is currently in the Handbook. As this section has been reviewed by the GPD in March, 2004, you should assume this description is correct even where it differs from the Handbook. As the time to take your exams gets closer, each committee member will develop a question, or set of questions, for the exam. These are usually based on the reading list and discussions you have had with that committee member. Some members will ask you to develop questions and discuss them with you. Members who develop themes within fields will typically base their questions on those themes. They may or may not discuss them specifically with you. They may or may not offer you sample questions. They may or may not offer you a choice of questions while taking the exam. What kinds of questions are asked? This will certainly be heavily dependent on your work with the committee members and the structure of your field. There is no model set of questions. Probably your best source of information are students who have taken comps with your professors, and the professors themselves. Contrary to popular belief, comps questions are neither state secrets nor kept in lead-lined vaults. Some professors reuse the same questions, or use the same format for questions year after year. When you schedule the written phase of the exam, you should arrange with the committee chair any special working arrangements (e.g., quiet space, use of a computer). Note that normally one types one’s answers, which these days means using a computer with word processing software. Questions should be sent to Patty Ryan by e-mail (history@history.umass.edu), or delivered to her desk in Herter 612, at least one week prior to the date the written phase is administered. Shortly before the exam, the committee chair will collect the questions from the other committee members. The exam will start when Patty presents you with the questions. You will have six hours to write. It is expected that you’ll take about two hours to write on the question(s) for each field. Manage your time accordingly. You should probably plan to move onto a new question every two hours, in order to ensure that you write a substantial amount for each field. There is no required length, though the department expects at least four or five pages. As always, a long, detailed response is certainly better than a shorter general response. Students using a computer to take the exam should note that proficiency in typing significantly increases the amount one can write. Whether you are allowed to take their field reading lists into the exam with them for reference purposes depends on your committee and the GPD. Currently, the GPD has no set policy against this. What’s a good answer? While the answer varies from member to member, many committee members will be looking for answers that a) draw upon the historiography, b) utilize relevant theoretical frameworks, c) evaluate the reasoning and structure of sources, d) relate sources to themes, e) discuss the importance of issues by relating them to historical and present concerns, and f) demonstrate a personal and unique approach to historical inquiry. When you are finished, Patty will collect the answers, which are then distributed to the other committee members within the U. Mass. History Department. The student is responsible for conveying question and answer materials to members who are not members of the U. Mass. History Department. Within a week, the committee will get together with you for a one hour oral examination. The course of this examination is up to the committee members. Typically, they will ask follow-up questions based on your written exam responses. Indeed, if you want to offer additional thoughts about your written answers, let the committee know. The committee members may also ask you about other aspects of your fields. N.B.: if you were given a choice of questions, don’t be surprised if you are asked about one you didn’t choose! Students have reported that they have also been asked “off the wall” questions and open-ended questions that extend beyond what they have formally studied. Keep in mind the rationale for comps: faculty will ask questions to let you demonstrate your knowledge and abilities as a historian. Answer accordingly. Gerry McFarland offers the advice that you shouldn’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know. Professors want to find out what you do know, how you reason, and how you connect your fields and readings. In most cases, the professors will probably move on to another question. However, if it is appropriate, you might want to add to an answer that you don’t know, how you could address the question using your skills as a historian. If a student chooses to do a thesis, it is a legitimate subject for questions in both the written and oral phases of comps. Comps are graded honors, high pass, pass, or fail, by agreement among the members of the committee. In the opinion of one faculty member, gaining distinction requires making insightful and even witty observations! You should be told how well you did at the end of the oral exam. What’s the schedule? When do comps have to be taken? Comps cannot be taken before the student has passed the language exam (or equivalent). Comps must be scheduled through the graduate secretary, who must be notified of the composition of committee. Given the availability of the faculty, and the graduate secretary, scheduling comps during the summer or January intersession is usually very difficult. Orals are officially to be scheduled within one week of the written exam. In practice, this is not always possible. Scheduling orals can be difficult, since you need to find a time when all the committee members and yourself can get together for an hour or so. If it takes more than a week, it takes more than a week. Just don’t be the cause of delays yourself. You can and should minimize the risk by scheduling your written and oral exams up front. Don’t be afraid to ask your advisor and the GPD for help if you’re having trouble arranging a meeting. Comps must be taken before April 30 for May graduation. Once they are completed, the Degree Eligibility Form must be signed by student, committee chair, and GPD and submitted to the Graduate School’s Office of Degree Requirements, along with Career Service Fee of $30. Those are the formal requirements. But there is one scheduling question which the formal requirements do not address at all. When should the student begin the comps process? The simplest answer is: at your departmental orientation when you arrive! Really. The earlier you think about this, the better. Practically, your comps work depends on several things. You need to decide what your fields are and who you want to work with. That’s something many students don’t figure out until after a semester or two (or even three) of course work. You’ll have to work in the time to work with the professors. And you’ll have to have the time to do the intelligent reading of the sources on your lists. If you can identify your fields and committee members in the spring of your first year, you’ll have the summer to work through your readings, no trivial task. If you wait until the fall of your second year, the only break available to you is in January. Starting later than that, and trying to secure the cooperation of faculty, meet the schedule and get the work done makes it very difficult to finish in time for May graduation. The Department discourages you from trying to organize your committee during the semester you intend to graduate. Most students will take their comps during their last semester of coursework, also known as the spring semester of your second year. Students not on a two course per semester schedule should adjust their planning accordingly. On the next page is a checklist for the comps process. Checklist _____ Identify fields. Credits: Sources -- University of Massachusetts Five Colleges Graduate Program in History Handbook (June, 2002) Contributors -- Joyce Berkman Laura Lovett |