Admission Requirements

I. Prerequisites:

In order to be admitted to the MA program, you should have a bachelor's degree and a college record that holds promise for graduate study. Although you need not have majored in English, thorough preparation is essential to success in the program. Ideally, applicants should have completed 30 semester hours of undergraduate English, including courses in both early and modern British literature, American literature and literary theory. Students lacking certain prerequisites may be admitted conditionally to the MA program and may be required to take specific undergraduate courses in the initial phase of their graduate work. Those necessary courses are specified in the notice of provisional admission.

II. Admissions to our dual MA/PhD Program:

A student with a strong undergraduate record may be admitted to the PhD program directly after completing the BA. The graduate programs in English normally admit for the fall semester only.

III. Application Materials and Procedures: 

We are waiving the GRE requirement for the Fall 2023 application cycle.

Applications must be supported with a statement of purpose; transcripts of undergraduate work and previous graduate courses; GRE scores (the general test only); and three letters of recommendation. Applicants must also supply a writing sample. A grade average of "B" or better in undergraduate coursework is required.

• GRE scores are never the sole determining factor in an application file. Your writing sample and statement of purpose are also important sources of information about your qualifications for undertaking graduate study. Please see the following for information about our GRE fee waiver program. For information on the GRE exam, please visit http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/know/.
• Applications are due by January 15 in order to be considered for funding; otherwise, the deadline is June 1. For more information, please see our advice to applicants.

IV. Degree Financing:

No University funding is currently available for MA students. Our MA program is unfunded, which is one reason that the MA in English is a one-year-and-half, 30-hour degree program. We occasionally have a few small tuition scholarships to give out based on merit. Once you are here there are opportunities to apply for research assistantships or teaching internships that pay a small stipend, and for jobs on and off campus.

• Visit the “Funding your Education” link on the Graduate School website for more information
• See this link from the Graduate School: Financial Literacy.

Further financial support is available to qualified students in the form of student loans. Such aid, unlike the support offered by the English department, is need-based. Please visit Graduate_Guide_Web_0410.pdf for more information.