ma english phd

Ohio State nav bar

Ohio state navigation bar.

BuckeyeLink
Search Ohio State

MA/PhD Program

Ohio State's PhD Program in English trains students in advanced research, writing and teaching skills in a number of areas in English studies. With over 60 faculty members and 90 graduate students, our program hosts one of the largest, most vibrant intellectual communities in English studies in the country. While engaged in their advanced study, our graduate students make significant contributions to the department’s intellectual community: they teach courses, participate in department-sponsored scholarly activities and present their research in publications and at internationally-recognized conferences. Our program has trained noted scholars specializing in a range of areas in English, including rhetoric and composition, narrative theory, folklore, U.S. ethnic and postcolonial literature and all historical periods of English literature — from the Anglo-Saxon era to present day. We have also trained a number of students who have gone into a variety of non-academic careers, including in nonprofit administration, software development and corporate training and strategy.

The Ohio State University's MA/PhD program in English welcomes applications from students who have earned a bachelors or masters degree and who wish to specialize in any of the many fields in English studies that the Department of English covers.

Click here for application information .

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

All students pursuing their PhD in English must complete the following major components of our MA/PhD program. The accordions below provide information about how students may fulfill each of these components. For an overview of the program, please see the representative timelines below that show roughly when in a graduate student’s career they can expect to pass each milestone.

Each student must take a minimum total of 36 credit hours to earn an MA in English on the way to the PhD. Students who enter the program with a BA typically earn the MA at the end of their second year. Specific course requirements include the following:

English 6700.01: Introduction to Graduate Study in English (three credits)
A course in critical theory (three credits)
Two courses to fulfill the breadth requirement (six credits)
English 6781: Introduction to the Teaching of First-Year English (three credits)
English 8903: Teaching College English (three credits, repeatable)
English 6998: Research in English: Portfolio Preparation (variable credit hours)

A note about letter grade and S/U class numbers

When you register for courses on Buckeye Link , you will find that each course has been decimalized and has a ".01" and ".02" number. The ".01" number is to be used to register for the graded section of the course, and the ".02" number is to be used for the S/U section of the course. The decimalized versions are available so that students can choose whether to take the course for a grade or S/U designation. For example, there are two listings for English 6746: Introduction to Graduate Study in British Literature of the Romantic Period. English 6746.01 is the graded section and English 6746.02 is the S/U section, but the course meets on the same day(s) and at the same time(s).

Critical theory requirement

Students must take at least one course in critical theory (three credits); this course must be taken for a letter grade. The critical theory requirement can be fulfilled through English 6760, 6761, 6776.01, 6776.02, 6790, 6791, 7861, 7876, 7890, 7891, or 8888. Additional courses in English or other departments can be petitioned to count.

Breadth requirement

Each student must complete two courses to add breadth to the student’s program (six credits total). These courses must be taken for a letter grade and conform to the following guidelines:

Students concentrating on literature or theory after 1800: Two courses in pre-1800 literature, rhetoric, folklore, etc.
Students concentrating on literature or theory before 1800: Two courses in post-1800 literature, rhetoric, folklore, film, etc.
Students concentrating in non-literary fields: Two courses to add breadth as determined in consultation with the faculty advisor and the director of Graduate Studies

Graduate workshop requirement

In addition to their regular coursework, MA/PhD students must complete two graduate workshops by the end of their fourth year in the program (preferably before candidacy).

The graduate workshops provide opportunities to enrich the department's formal graduate curriculum by regularly bringing in scholars from other institutions to discuss their recently-published and current work with students and faculty. Typically, the department is able to offer three to five workshops per academic year, which rotate among fields. Each workshop is organized by a faculty coordinator, and students enroll by signing up with the Graduate Studies office.

The visiting speaker participates in two events: a public lecture or other kind of formal presentation, open to all members of the department and university community; and a closed session with graduate students who have enrolled in the workshop. For the smaller workshop, the visiting speaker assigns a text or group of texts for discussion (their own work or some other work relevant to the speaker's current interests). Students read the assigned texts on their own and submit short position papers to the faculty coordinator. The completion of these short essays, in combination with student participation, determine whether a student receives a grade of "S" (satisfactory) or "U" (unsatisfactory) for the workshop.

S/U grading guidelines

Individual faculty set the specific guidelines for S/U versions of graduate courses. The typical expectation for a grade of "S" (satisfactory), however, is that students complete readings, contribute meaningfully to class discussion and satisfactorily complete readings-related assignments that enrich discussion (e.g., writing brief reading responses, posting comments to Carmen discussions and/or leading in-class discussions on readings). Students taking a graduate course for S/U credit will typically not be expected to write longer papers or to complete and present on independent research projects.

Independent study

Graduate Independent Study courses require the approval of the director of Graduate Studies. Students interested in pursuing an independent study should consult with the appropriate faculty member at least a semester in advance. The faculty member should then prepare a one-page request that briefly outlines 1) the rationale for the independent study (e.g., why the student is unable to pursue similar work in regularly-scheduled courses) and 2) the syllabus for the independent study (e.g., list of readings, schedule of meetings, specific assignments or projects to be completed).

Students who enter with an MA from another program or another institution will typically transfer 30 hours, which means they will typically need to earn a minimum of an additional 56 credit hours for the PhD. Specific course requirements include the following:

English 6700: Introduction to Graduate Study in English (three credits)
Critical theory requirement (three credits)
Breadth requirement #1 (three credits)
Breadth requirement #2 (three credits)
English 8996: Research in English: Candidacy Exam (variable credit hours)
English 8999: Research in English: Dissertation (variable credit hours)

Students must take at least one course in Critical Theory (three credits); this course be taken for a letter grade. Students may fulfill this requirement through coursework completed at their MA institution. The critical theory requirement can be fulfilled through English 6760, 6761, 6776.01, 6776.02, 6790, 6791, 7861, 7876, 7890, 7891, or 8888. Additional courses in English or other departments can be petitioned to count.

Each student must complete two courses to add breadth to the student’s program (six credits total). These courses must be taken for a letter grade and conform to the following guidelines:

Students concentrating on literature or theory after 1800: Two courses in pre-1800 literature, rhetoric, folklore, etc.

Students may fulfill this requirement through coursework completed at their MA institution.

Graduate Independent Study courses require the approval of the director of Graduate Studies. Students interested in pursuing an independent study should consult with the appropriate faculty member at least a semester in advance. The faculty member should then prepare a one-page request that briefly outlines 1) the rationale for the independent study (e.g., why the student is unable to pursue similar work in regularly scheduled courses) and 2) the syllabus for the independent study (e.g., list of readings, schedule of meetings, specific assignments or projects to be completed).

English 8903 is a teaching internship with a faculty member, which students must complete before they can be assigned to teach any of the 2000-level literature, language or folklore courses. English 7881.02: Teaching Basic Writing, 7881.03: Teaching of College Composition in English as a Second Language and 7881.04: Teaching Business and Professional Communication may be substituted for English 8903 by students whose teaching interests include basic writing, English as a Second Language (ESL) and/or business and professional writing. However, English 8903 will be a prerequisite for teaching the relevant 2000-level courses (just as the English 7881 series is now a prerequisite for teaching the specialized writing courses).

English 8903 carries one to three credit hours. The course may be repeated. In order to coordinate their teaching interests with scheduled courses, students planning on taking English 8903 should also consult the undergraduate course offerings and faculty teaching them.

Faculty and students will have considerable flexibility in constructing the day-to-day details of the apprenticeship, but a typical pattern would look something like this:

Student and professor agree to do English 8903 in an upcoming semester.
When the book order requests are distributed, the professor and student meet to discuss which books they will use and why.
At some point before the course starts, the professor and student meet to discuss the course syllabus. They consider such matters as the objectives of the course and how best to design the schedule of readings, the students' writing assignments and the classroom atmosphere so that those objectives can be met.
Before each class, the professor and student meet to talk about the session's goals and the pedagogical means they will use to meet them. In addition, they consider how the goals of the upcoming session fit in with the overall goals of the course. (For all class sessions but the first, this meeting might occur an hour or so before walking into the session.)
Before each writing assignment (including exams), professor and student discuss what they want to achieve and how they might design the assignment to reach those goals.
The professor must take responsibility for all grades assigned in the course, but the student may assist in grading by reading, commenting and assigning possible grades to a subset of the papers or exams. Since the student is an apprentice and not a TA, however, the point of this work is not to lighten the faculty member's load but rather to provide the occasion for discussion of criteria for different grades, how to address students in commentary and so on. In all cases, the professor must read the papers marked by the apprentice and assign the final grades.
The student takes primary responsibility for some teaching, in the range of four to six hours of instruction over the course of the semester.
After the course is over, the professor and student read the student evaluations and discuss them as well as their own assessments of what worked and what didn't.
The course is graded S/U. The faculty member should also be prepared to write a letter of recommendation for the student's dossier.
The student writes a report on the apprentice experience, reflecting on how their thinking about pedagogy has been influenced by English 8903.

In general, the idea of the internship is to give the student the opportunity to work closely with a faculty member on everything from the design of a course to its day-to-day operations, from its goals and purposes to its grading and evaluation.

Students may work with a professor in any undergraduate course. No more than two students may sign up for English 8903 with the same professor and the same course in any one semester. Students must take English 8903 before they are assigned their own sections of 2000-level courses, but they need to take English 8903 only once as a general preparation for that teaching. In other words, students do not have to take a new English 8903 for every new 2000-level course they teach.

Of course, students will generally gravitate toward courses in their areas and in the areas where they would most like to teach. Below are the usual links between English 8903 experiences and the assignment of undergraduate courses, but graduate students should have considerable leeway in choosing their apprenticeships and those assigning graduate students to 2000-level courses should have some flexibility in making those assignments. For example, English 4520.01 will count for 2200 and 2201; English 4560 for 2260; English 4561 for 2261; English 4550 and English 4551 for 2290.

When students are assigned their own 2000-level class, they will consult with a faculty mentor (ideally the person whose class they observed, but possibly the course director or their advisor) on the preparation of the syllabus and other issues relating to the class. The faculty member will observe the class at least once and write a report for the course director.

Language Proficiency Requirements

Language Proficiency Coordinator: Galey Modan ( [email protected] )

The graduate program in the Department of English requires that students demonstrate current proficiency in a natural language other than English. (Natural languages are all languages, including American Sign Language [ASL], that have evolved naturally among humans through use and repetition; natural languages do not include constructed languages such as Klingon or computer programming languages.) There are multiple reasons that language proficiency is required. These include the following:  

Extensive and technical familiarity with a language other than English constitutes a powerful way for graduate students to gain an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of English language structure.
Proficiency in a language other than English allows students access to primary and secondary texts composed in that language. Graduate students in all areas of English studies with even a modest level of proficiency benefit from this access.
To fulfill our department’s commitment to diversity, it is vital for students to gain proficiency in languages other than English. To gain a basic understanding of multilingual and non-English-speaking communities requires a familiarity with the languages of those communities.
As English itself is an increasingly culturally- and geographically-differentiated language, deep familiarity with the languages that English comes into contact with is vital to an understanding of English’s global manifestations.

Doctoral research in some specialties (such as Medieval, Renaissance or U.S. ethnic literatures) may require proficiency in additional languages beyond the one that satisfies the departmental requirement. Students therefore must discuss the language requirement with faculty in their chosen area of specialization as soon as possible.

There is no set list of languages approved for PhD candidates in English. The expectation is that students will choose a language pertinent to their research interests.

Native speakers of languages other than English may use their native languages to fulfill the departmental requirement, unless their area of study requires knowledge of other particular language(s).

For doctoral students, the language requirement(s) should be met by the end of the first year of enrollment beyond the MA and must be met before any part of the candidacy examination may be scheduled.

 Students can fulfill the language proficiency requirement in any of the six ways listed below.

Method #1: Multimedia computer-adaptive placement test

Students wishing to fulfill the requirement with Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Italian or Swahili may take a multimedia computer-adaptive placement test administered by the Center for Languages, Literatures and Cultures (CLLC). These exams test both comprehension and production. To fulfill the language requirement through a placement test, students must do one of the following:

If the student and their advisor decide that both comprehension and production are necessary for their further research, the student must achieve a score sufficient for placement into a 2000-level language class on both sections. 
If the student and their advisor decide that comprehension alone is suitable, the student must achieve a score sufficient for placement into a 2000-level language class on the comprehension portion of the exam. Please note: Students will need to be in contact with the language proficiency coordinator prior to taking the exam if just a “comprehension” score is necessary, as the exams do not automatically produce a score solely for comprehension. The coordinator will need to confirm with the Center for Languages, Literature and Cultures that the exam is set up correctly for the student. This option involves more paperwork to set up, so the comprehension and production option above is preferred.

Method #2: Department-administered placement test

If the requirement is to be met with a language other than those listed under method #1, students may take a placement test administered by an Ohio State department that teaches the language in question. As with the CLLC option, students must place into a 2000-level class. This is the method of choice for ASL and other signed languages. If the language in question is not taught at Ohio State, the student will meet with the language proficiency coordinator to set up a testing process. (Note: if the language is one tested through the CLLC, that option must be chosen.)

Method #3: Year of university-level language classes

Students may take a year's worth of university-level language classes at Ohio State and get at least a grade of 'B' in both semesters. Students must consult the appropriate language department for course offerings. Since sequences often begin only in the autumn semester, students should be sure to check well ahead of time when the courses will be offered.

Method #4: Graduate reading course

Students may complete a graduate reading course offered by an Ohio State language program with a grade of 'A' (see below for more information on departments offering reading courses).

Method #5: Translation test

In consultation with the student’s advisor and the language proficiency coordinator, students may take a translation test (typically a translation with the aid of a dictionary) administered by an Ohio State language program, qualified faculty member of the English department or qualified faculty member at another university, as approved by the language proficiency coordinator. Students intending to take a translation exam administered by another department should note that each language department has its own set of deadlines that must be met in order to enroll for the exam. Students should contact the relevant language department during the semester before they intend to take the exam in order to ensure that they do not miss the exam registration date.  

Method #6: Oral proficiency test

Students may take an oral proficiency test. Students can show proficiency based on the following the criteria:

Comprehension: The examinee understands the content of an oral text such as a radio or broadcast news story. The content may be on current events or on a topic relevant to a student’s research. The examinee must show ability to 1) summarize a given text in a cohesive and coherent manner without prompting, 2) produce a statement summarizing their own view, and 3) answer follow-up questions in a cohesive and coherent manner.  
Production: The examinee shows ability to describe the text in a comprehensible way, producing extended, connected discourse in all major time frames (past, present and future). The reference point for ‘comprehension’ is a speaker who does not speak other languages that the examinee is proficient in. Vocabulary may be primarily generic in nature. However, if the examinee must use the language under examination for their scholarly work, they must also show command of relevant vocabulary when dealing with topics of interest. This will be decided in consultation with the student's advisor. Circumlocution and rephrasing are to be expected. Speech must be clear and not lead to confusion. Pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and discourse structure should not be so faulty as to prevent comprehension by a speaker not proficient in the other languages in which the examinee is proficient. Discourse may reflect the information structure of the examinee’s own language/s, rather than that of the target language.

In cases where an examiner cannot be located, students can take the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), as administered by Ohio State Testing Center and described here . The department may pay the fees associated with the OPI upon approval.

Below you will find information about German, French, Spanish and Italian reading proficiency classes and testing procedures. In the past, these have been the most common choices made by students, and these departments have the most structured systems for assessing proficiency. If another language is more appropriate for your research, see above for assessment procedures.

Graduate reading courses must be completed with a grade of 'A' in order to satisfy the requirement.

German: The course that satisfies graduate reading proficiency is German 6101. Contact Natascha Miller ( [email protected] ) with questions about coursework prerequisites. If you choose to take the reading exam to demonstrate proficiency, you must schedule it in cooperation with your advisor and the English department’s language proficiency coordinator. Your advisor should select a passage for you to translate and submit it, along with a completed exam scheduling form, as directed on the exam website . Information about testing dates is usually updated the third or fourth week of the semester; visit the exam website to view testing dates and download the exam scheduling form.
French: Courses that satisfy graduate reading proficiency include French 6571 and French 6572. Contact Joan Obert ( [email protected] ) with questions about coursework prerequisites. If you choose to take the reading exam to demonstrate proficiency, you must schedule it in cooperation with your advisor and the English department’s language proficiency coordinator. The Department of French and Italian provides a detailed overview of the test, as well as information on exam preparation, evaluation, dates and registration on their website .
Spanish: The Department of Spanish and Portuguese does not offer courses to demonstrate reading proficiency in Spanish. If you would like to take a translation test, you must schedule the reading exam in cooperation with your advisor and the English department’s language proficiency coordinator. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese provides a detailed overview of the test, as well as information on exam preparation, dates and registration on their website .
Italian : The Department of French and Italian does not offer courses to demonstrate reading proficiency in Italian. If you choose to take the reading exam to demonstrate proficiency, you must schedule the reading exam in cooperation with your advisor. The Department of French and Italian provides an overview of the test on their website . Contact Joan Obert ( [email protected] ) to schedule the exam and to request more detailed information on testing dates and procedures.

Preparing for the Advising Meeting

The advising meeting is a critical step in the process toward the PhD and, for students who enter the program with a BA, it is the formal mechanism for awarding the MA. Typically, the advising meeting will take place at the end of the spring semester of the second year for all students who enter with a BA and at the end of the autumn semester of the second year for all students who enter with an MA.

The advising meeting will include a faculty committee composed of the student's selected advisor, who serves as chair; a second faculty member chosen from a list of three submitted by the student; and a third member selected by the director of Graduate Studies or their designee. The advising meeting will last for at least one hour but for no longer than two hours. During the meeting, the student and faculty committee will consider the student's plans for completing the PhD as reflected in the Preliminary Program of Study. Students will also answer and ask questions about items included in the portfolio project.

After the advising meeting, the chair of the faculty committee will write a brief report of the meeting for the student's file. In addition to a short summary of the conversation, for students who enter with a BA, this report will include the committee's recommendation to award the MA degree based on satisfactory completion of all MA requirements. For all students, the report should also include recommendations about the composition of the student's committee for the candidacy exam and dissertation.

By week seven of semester of the advising meeting, the student will prepare a portfolio that includes:

A Preliminary Program of Study.
A short statement about the student’s pursuit of interests outside the regular curriculum and the major field (e.g., attendance at workshops, lectures, readings and other such activities).
A research project, which can be a traditional academic essay, a new media composition and so forth, as determined in consultation with the student's faculty advisor.

Typically, the research project will have begun in a course and been subsequently revised with a broader academic audience in mind and with a clear articulation of how its argument and methodologies fit within ongoing conversations in the relevant field or fields. The student should be working toward potential publication of the project, and/or toward its integration into her or his dissertation.

Students who enter the program with an MA may use a project begun in a course in their MA program.

The Preliminary Program of Study consists of three components:

A description and short rationale for the student’s intended major field and minor field or fields for the candidacy exam. (See description of Final Program of Study for explanation of field areas.)
A summer reading list of about 15 works related to one or both of these areas.
A brief discussion of teaching and other GA work, completed and planned.

The Preliminary Program of Study should be designed in consultation with the student's faculty advisor and must be signed by the advisor in preparation for the advising meeting.

Final Program of Study

A copy of the Final Program of Study (POS) and letter of endorsement from the advisor need to be be submitted electronically to the graduate program coordinator for the Graduate Program Committee's review process. Due dates for the coming year are listed below. AUTUMN 2023 September 11 October 9 November 6 SPRING 2024

January 22 February 12 March 18 April 8

The Final Program of Study has two main purposes: to establish parameters for the candidacy examination and to present a detailed map of the student's path toward earning the PhD. The Final Program of Study must be completed, approved by the student's candidacy examination committee and then approved by the Graduate Studies Program and Policy Committee before the student may schedule their exam. It is important to keep in mind that the POS has multiple audiences: the student's exam chair and exam committee, but also the Graduate Studies Program and Policy Committee, which is made up of faculty who represent the various areas of specialization in the department as a whole. The POS needs to be written so that it is accessible to non-specialists in the student's specific area.

Components of the POS are listed below.

The Chair must hold “P” status (this usually means a tenured Associate or Full Professor). This committee will not necessarily be identical to the Dissertation Committee, which typically comprises only three members.

A brief (500-700 word) description and rationale for the Major Field of study and reading list. This description is for non-experts and should be easily understood by English faculty outside your area. Your goal is not simply to identify a field but to demonstrate your ability to articulate your understanding of the field, its boundaries, and its internal dynamics to non-experts. In preparing your POS, you may find it useful to consult a number of sources to learn more about the main issues, scholarly trends, and important texts that define your major and minor fields. These sources can include the following:

Anthologies of primary and secondary works in your field.
Scholarly companions and handbooks, such as the Cambridge Companions to various areas of literature, the Oxford Handbook series, or the Oxford Bibliographies series.
Syllabi from graduate or undergraduate courses you have taken or from courses in your field at other institutions that may be accessible online.
Special issues of major journals in your field that are focused on important or emerging trends.
Conference calls for papers, which often identify major topics in your field.

Your most important guides for putting together your POS, of course, will be members of your committee; you should work with each committee member as you determine the texts on your lists and your explanation of your fields in your rationales.

The description of the Major Field should aim to accomplish most of the following goals:

Your Major Field should be broadly rather than narrowly conceived. Typically, the Major Field will be an academic job category.
You should describe what you see as the important scholarly and/or critical questions in the field. What have been the issues, debates, questions, topics around which scholarship (books, essays, conferences) have been organized? How are these questions different or similar than earlier scholarly concerns?
It can be very useful to provide a brief history or overview of the field of study. In doing so, you can mention the defining works that have shaped scholarship in the field. If you have not included such work on your own reading list, you should explain why you have not done so. You should also describe shifts in methods, theoretical approaches, and canon that are crucial to the history of the field--again by making explicit reference to important scholarly work.
You should define the parameters of your field--whether these parameters are chronological, generic or conceptual. For more established major fields (eg. Victorian Literature or Classical Rhetoric), you may have less to explain but you should still articulate the rationale that guides your understanding of the field and your own choices of reading. For fields that are less established and/or do not follow more conventional assignations, it will be more important for you to articulate your rationale for defining the field and its parameters, methods and canon. Recognizing that your reading lists cannot be comprehensive, explain the primary basis on which you made the selections you did.
You may briefly mention how your reading list prepares you to teach courses in the major field of study and potentially other adjacent fields.
Separately and secondarily to your field descriptions (items B, C and D), you should write a few sentences suggesting where you think your own focus within the broader field will lie and point to particular choices in your reading lists that are relevant to this possible scholarly focus.

The reading list should consist of between 75 and 85 works (primary and secondary) and should provide both coverage of the broad field as well as work that is crucial to your own specific interests within the larger field.

The Graduate Studies Committee recommends that you include the entirety of the works you choose. Whenever possible, avoid fragments or edited selections, particularly from primary texts.

The reading list cannot include works of criticism authored by any member of your examination committee.

A brief (500-700 word) description and rationale for the Minor Field or Fields of study and reading list. The Minor Field can be a supplement to the Major Field (eg. another academic job category); or it can partially overlap with the Major Field; or it can be a body of theory that is broader than the Major Field. If you choose, you can select two Minor Fields.

The description of the Minor Field(s) should accomplish the following goals:

You should provide a description of what you see as the important scholarly and/or critical questions in the Minor Field(s). What have been the issues, debates, questions, topics around which scholarship (books, essays, conferences) have been organized? How are these questions different or similar than earlier scholarly concerns?
You should define the parameters of your Minor Field(s), whether these parameters are chronological, generic or conceptual. You should still articulate the rationale that guided your own choices of reading. Recognizing that your reading list cannot be comprehensive, explain the basis on which you made the selections you did.
Explain the relationship between your Major and Minor Fields. Have you selected your Minor Field because it complements your Major Field, and if so how? Have you chosen your Minor Field because it will provide training in a specialty relevant to your dissertation work, and if so how? Have you chosen it because it gives you pedagogical breadth?

The reading list should consist of between 40 and 45 works (primary and secondary). For two Minor Fields, the lists should consist of between 22 and 25 works for each.

The reading list cannot include works of criticism authored by any member of your examination committee.

A draft of the Dissertation Prospectus must be submitted one week before the student begins the written portion of the Candidacy Exam.
A concise list of completed coursework for the MA/PhD organized by date of completion, including grades received. Please provide a one-sentence description of Independent Study projects.
A concise statement of teaching experience , including previous courses taught, plans for taking English 8903, and plans for future teaching in the department.
A concise timeline for your progress towards graduation. The timeline should be organized by year and semester, and it should indicate the projected dates for the completion of all PhD requirements, including coursework, language requirement, English 8903(s), Graduate Workshops, Candidacy Exam, Dissertation Prospectus, dissertation research and writing, submission of potential publications and/or fellowship applications, and the academic or nonacademic job-application process.

The Final Program of Study must be submitted to the Graduate Studies Committee with a letter of endorsement from the student’s Chair for the Candidacy Exam Committee. The letter of endorsement should confirm that the student has worked with the entire committee to establish their Major and Minor Fields and the associated reading lists, as well as to confirm that the entire Committee has approved the POS. The letter should supplement the student’s own justification for the selections for their Major and Minor Fields as well as the choices they have made for their reading lists.

Candidacy Exam Information

Candidacy exam.

The candidacy examination must be taken no later than two semesters after the completion of required coursework. Students must register for English 8996 with the chair of the exam committee while preparing for the candidacy exam.

The candidacy exam consists of a take-home written portion and a two-hour oral portion. The Application for Candidacy must be filed with the Graduate School at least two weeks before the oral examination. The application can be filled out on the Graduate School's forms webpage . The written portion is a three-day take-home exam, with an upper limit of no more than 5,000 words total. Failure to adhere to the word limit constitutes failure of the entire candidacy examination. No notes of any kind are permitted (i.e., no footnotes or endnotes), but in their answers to the exam questions, students should cite relevant primary and secondary works from their reading lists and use parenthetical citations.

Written exam: The written portion of the candidacy exam should address two questions, one of which is dedicated to the student's major field and one of which is dedicated to the student's minor field or fields. The questions are written by the student's exam chair in consultation with the other members of their committee. The questions are given to the student only at the time the written exam is administered. The written exam must be taken over a seventy-two hour period; it can be sent via email or picked up by 4 p.m. on the first day and turned in to the committee and the English Graduate Studies office via email by 4 p.m. on the last day of that period. Students may opt to start the exam on a Monday, Tuesday or Friday so that it is due in the English Graduate Studies office, respectively, the following Thursday, Friday or Monday. The student's answers should be prefaced by a copy of the questions set by the committee.
Oral exam: The oral portion of the exam must follow no sooner than one week but within two weeks (i.e., 7-14 days) after the written portion is completed and turned in. The written exam should be regarded as the beginning of a discussion that will be continued during the oral exam. Prior to the oral, the student should meet with the candidacy exam chair to clarify expectations for the oral exam; at this meeting, it is expected that the chair will ask a few sample questions to assist the student with their preparations. The oral exam lasts two hours, and it covers both the candidate's major field and minor field or fields. The chair of the committee should ensure that at least 60 minutes are devoted to the major field. The final 30 minutes of the exam can include a discussion of the draft dissertation prospectus.

Candidacy Exam Format

Candidacy exams can be held on-campus , remotely or in a hybrid form . Students and faculty can choose the format that works best for the examinee and their committee. There is no need to file a petition for remote or hybrid exams.

The Candidacy Examination Committee consists of four faculty members, chaired by a member of the graduate faculty who holds "P" status (typically, a tenured associate or full professor). The student selects the members of her or his committee in consultation with the chair. The committee must include faculty representation for both the major field and the minor field or fields. Typically, this will mean two faculty members representing the major field and two faculty members representing the minor field, or two faculty members representing the major field and one faculty member representing the first minor field and one faculty member representing the second minor field. Only in unusual circumstances should a faculty member represent both the major and a minor field for the purposes of the candidacy exam. The committee meets with the student prior to the exam to discuss the reading lists for the major and minor fields.

Students are responsible for distributing the following materials to all members of the Committee at least one week before the written exam:

The draft Dissertation Prospectus.

Students are responsible for distributing the following materials to all members of the Committee at least one week before the oral exam :

The Final Program of Study
The written exam; the student's answers should be prefaced by a copy of the questions set by the committee.
The student's Major Field and Minor Field or Fields reading lists (if updated from the POS)
The official description of the Candidacy Exam; please refer faculty to the information on this page (optional).

Failure of the candidacy examination occurs if the committee considers either of the following to be the case:

The written and/or oral portions of the exam indicated that the candidate is not ready to proceed to a dissertation, owing to insufficient knowledge of the field,
The candidate is insufficiently focused on a dissertation project, which makes it unlikely that they will be able to submit an approved prospectus within two months. In case of failure, the committee can specify the nature of a repeat examination, but it, too, must contain a written and an oral portion. A second failure means dismissal from the PhD program (see Graduate School Handbook).

A successful pass must be a unanimous decision of the committee. The chair of the committee is required to submit a written report on the candidacy examination to the director of Graduate Studies. Failure, in whole or in part, may occur if any one member of the committee is not satisfied with the results. In the case of failure, each individual faculty member of the committee may specify areas or material on which a re-examination must take place and so instruct the student. The chair of the committee will then submit a written account of what will be required of the student to repeat the exam. The Graduate School will assign an outside representative for all second examinations.

If a candidate fails to complete the dissertation and final oral examination within five years after the candidacy examination, admission to candidacy is canceled. To be re-admitted to candidacy, the student must take a supplemental candidacy examination. The examination committee is comprised of the advisor and at least three other authorized graduate faculty members, and the examination must include a written and an oral portion that last approximately two hours. A graduate faculty representative is appointed if a prior unsatisfactory examination result is on record. All other rules pertaining to candidacy examination must be followed. The supplemental examination will typically be tied to the student's dissertation and may consist of the presentation and oral defense of a chapter or a substantial part of a chapter. In short, the purpose of requiring the supplemental examination is not to punish the student but to help move them along to completion of the PhD and to ensure that they have kept up with the current scholarship in the field. On passing the supplemental examination, the student is readmitted to candidacy and must complete the dissertation and final oral examination within two years.

Dissertation

Dissertation prospectus process.

There are three steps in the dissertation prospectus process:

The student presents a draft of the dissertation prospectus to their candidacy exam committee at least one week prior to the written portion of the exam.
The student then presents a revised dissertation prospectus to their dissertation committee in a prospectus conference, typically no more than six weeks after the completion of the candidacy exam.
The final step is for the following to be sent to the director of Graduate Studies and graduate program coordinator, typically no more than two weeks after the prospectus conference: student : please send a copy of the final version of the dissertation prospectus, and dissertation chair : please send a confirmation that the prospectus has been approved by the dissertation committee.

Dissertation prospectus content

The Dissertation Prospectus should:

State the problem that the candidate proposes to solve;
Explain the significance of the project and its relation to current scholarship in the field;
Describe the candidate's current knowledge of the subject;
Indicate the direction the candidate's investigation will take;
Reflect the candidate's familiarity with relevant bibliographical materials and critical methods.

Students and faculty should keep in mind that the prospectus is a preliminary project, not a mini-dissertation. It is meant to help students move on to the dissertation writing stage of their programs. Typically, the prospectus should be no longer than eight to twelve double-spaced pages, plus a working bibliography.

Dissertation committee

The dissertation committee consists of three faculty members, chaired by a faculty member who holds "P" status (typically, a tenured associate or full professor). This committee is constituted separately from the candidacy exam committee and can include faculty members who did not serve on the examination committee.

Prospectus conference

The prospectus conference is a meeting of the student and all members of their dissertation committee to discuss the revised prospectus and the student's plans for researching and writing the dissertation. The prospectus conference also provides an opportunity for the student and the committee to set guidelines for their working relationship.

Because graduate students pursue a wide range of research and writing projects in the Department of English, there are no department-wide guidelines for the dissertation. Students should work with their advisors and committees to determine the relevant parameters for projects in their specific fields and areas of interest.

Finalizing the dissertation manuscript

All doctoral candidates must submit the final draft of the dissertation electronically; students are no longer required to submit a final paper copy to the Graduate School. However, hard copies of the dissertation are still required for distribution to the student's committee and to the outside representative. For more details about the electronic submission process, including how to delay internet dissemination of the dissertation (strongly recommended) and how to format the dissertation, visit the Graduate School website.

Final approval

Final approval of the dissertation cannot occur until the final oral examination has been passed. Each dissertation committee member must sign the Final Approval Form. This form must be submitted no later than one week before commencement.

Students should be aware that the deadlines imposed by the Graduate School do not always allow enough time for their committees to evaluate their work. Most committees will need to have a complete draft of the dissertation at least two or more months before all formal requirements are met, so that sufficient time for revision will be assured. A student who does not present a draft of the dissertation until the semester of anticipated graduation may encounter obstacles and delays. No faculty member is obliged to sign the Draft Approval Form until they are satisfied that the work is ready for scrutiny at the final oral examination.

General Information

This two-hour examination is held after the dissertation committee has approved the dissertation by signing the Draft Approval Form, available from the Graduate School. The Draft Approval Form must be submitted to the Graduate School no later than two weeks before the date of the final oral examination. At the time the student submits the Draft Approval Form, they must also present a hard copy of the approved dissertation draft to both the Graduate School (for the purposes of format check) and the dissertation committee members.

The oral examination deals intensively with the candidate's field of specialization and need not be confined exclusively to the dissertation defense. A successful examination is one that is awarded a "pass" by the entire examining committee, including the outside representative, who is appointed by the Graduate School. This representative must receive a hard copy of the approved dissertation draft at least one week in advance of the examination. A doctoral hood is available and can be borrowed from the English graduate program office for pictures and/or the graduation ceremony. Please visit the the graduate studies office (425 Denney) or contact the program ([email protected]) to make arrangements.

Final Oral Exam Format

Final oral exams can be held on-campus , remotely or in a hybrid form . Students and faculty can choose the format that works best for the examinee and their committee. There is no need to file a petition for remote or hybrid exams.

Time limits for candidacy

APPLICATION INFORMATION

The Department of English makes every attempt possible to provide funding to students who are admitted to the MA/PhD program. The number of years of funding is based on whether the student is admitted with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Funding is renewed on a yearly basis as long as the student maintains satisfactory academic progress.

Graduate Teaching Associateships : Departmental funding is most often in the form of a Graduate Teaching Associateship, for which the student receives a stipend of at least $21,000 for the nine-month academic year. The Department of English also subsidizes 85% of the student health insurance premiums and provides a tuition waiver for all GTAs. Students are responsible for the COTA bus, student activity, Student Union and Recreation Center fees. Students on GTA appointments teach one course per term during the regular academic year.
Graduate School Fellowships : In addition to the funding provided by the Department of English, the Graduate School awards University and Enrichment Fellowships on a competitive basis to students who are new to graduate education at Ohio State. The Department of English's admissions committee submits nominations to the Graduate School’s competition, and a selection committee reviewing nominations from across all graduate programs in the university awards the fellowships. Students may not apply directly for fellowship support. Each graduate program has a limited number of students who may be nominated for fellowship consideration. All Graduate School fellowships provide a monthly stipend, academic tuition and fees and a subsidy of 85% of the student health insurance premiums. These fellowships are nonrenewable and may not be deferred.

Application materials

The application form for Autumn 2023 will open on September 1, 2022. Submit all of the following items electronically through the Graduate Admissions Office :

Application form and fee.
Three letters of recommendation (preferably from faculty members): Please have your recommenders submit letters electronically using the link that will be provided when you select this option in the online application. Please note that your recommenders will receive an email from the university 1-3 days after you submit your application and they should follow the instructions in that email for uploading their letters. Letters that arrive within a week of the application deadline will be accepted.
Transcripts or record of marks for each university-level school attended (transfer credit from another institution appearing on the same transcript is not sufficient): please visit the transcript information available on the Office of Graduate and Professional Admissions website for more information. Send transcripts to the Office of Graduate and Professional Admissions; do not send transcripts to the Department of English. Include English translation of each of any foreign documents. Please do not send transcripts of course work taken at Ohio State as the Office of Graduate and Professional Admissions will obtain them directly from the Office of the University Registrar (at no cost to you).
Personal statement (one to two single-spaced pages) that describes your background in English studies and your purpose in pursuing graduate work; this statement should address both your scholarly interests and your interest and/or experience in teaching.
Writing sample: A short essay or portion of a longer work is appropriate. This essay should demonstrate your abilities as a critical reader of a literary or related text, as well as your ability to use current scholarly sources; it is the most important part of the application. Applicants should submit a clean copy of the sample (i.e., not a copy that includes an instructor's comments).
Curriculum vitae /resume of no more than two pages with a clearly stated sentence at the beginning of the CV that declares your scholarly area of interest(s), for example: American literature and queer theory, 18th-century poetry or postcolonial theory and women writers.

Please note : As of autumn 2018, the Department of English at Ohio State no longer requires GRE scores for applications to its PhD or MFA programs. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

All admissions to the integrated MA/PhD and PhD programs are made for autumn semester only; the application deadline for students who wish to start the program in Autumn 2024 is December 4, 2023. The Graduate and Professional Admissions office has a slightly earlier deadline for international applications: November 27, 2023. The application for 2024 will open on September 1, 2023.

Students must apply online and submit all materials (Graduate Admissions and Department requirements) electronically through the Office of Graduate Admissions . Please note that your recommenders will receive an email from the university 1-3 days after you submit your application and they should follow the instructions in that email for uploading their letters. Letters that arrive within a week of the application deadline will be accepted.

The Graduate Admissions Committee for the Department of English will accept applications to the integrated MA/PhD program from students with a bachelor's degree in English or a minimum of 40 quarter hours (27 semester hours) of English coursework from an accredited college or university. They will also accept applications from students with an MA degree in English from an accredited college or university. Course work in a second language is preferred (20 quarter hours or 15 semester hours) but not required. Students with an MA degree in another field will ordinarily be considered in the same group of students who apply to the program with a bachelor's degree in English.

International applicants who have completed an English MA in a language other than English will also ordinarily be considered in the same group of students who apply to the program with a bachelor's degree in English. For more information, please visit International Applicants: Additional Information .

The Graduate School requires that those admitted have an undergraduate grade point average of at least 3.0 on a scale of 4 (where 4.0=A) and at least a 3.0 on all previous graduate work. Our departmental criteria are higher. Normally, applicants should have a GPA of at least 3.4 overall and 3.6 in English courses (undergraduate or graduate).

PhD program applicants should also understand that the Graduate Admissions Committee decides to admit or reject by looking carefully at each student's record as a whole — at the profile that emerges from the transcripts, the letters of recommendation, the writing sample and the personal statement — rather than by applying a pre-established formula of admissible grades.

By Amanpal Garcha, associate professor and director of Graduate Studies

English admissions process

After receiving applicants’ admission materials, we almost immediately categorize each applicant according their primary areas of research interest. We then send all the applications to the appropriate teaching area groups to allow faculty in those area groups to determine which applicants are best qualified and best suited to study here.

Here’s how that process works. I look at each application; if an applicant declares that they are interested in feminist criticism as well as Renaissance literature, that applicant’s materials goes to our gender studies faculty and our Renaissance faculty. Similarly, if an applicant expresses their intention to study rhetoric, that applicant’s materials go to our rhetoric faculty; and if an applicant wishes to study postcolonial literature, that application goes to our US ethnic and postcolonial group.

By some time in February, the area groups make their final decisions as to their top applicants, and in March, we notify applicants of their admission status and any offers of financial aid.

There are two points I’d like to emphasize that follow from our process:

It’s very much to an applicant’s benefit if they can articulate a clear intention to focus in a particular era of literature or on a particular area of English studies. As the above suggests, we are not really set up to evaluate students who are interested in English generally – our process works to find students who wish to focus their energies on a particular set of literary texts or on a particular approach to literary or cultural study.
Each area group will be able to admit only a few students – possibly as few as one or two.

Writing the personal statement

The name 'personal statement' is unfortunately a misleading one for the kind of document that applicants should prepare, but as it is term that English departments commonly use, we’ve chosen to keep it. Really, the document is less a 'personal statement' and more a statement of an applicant’s academic and intellectual background and of their academic goals for graduate study. Given what I outlined above about our particular admissions process, it is a document that is often most effective when it lays out an applicant’s intention to study a particular area – and the reasons why the applicant wishes to study that area.

Still, this statement might not be solely focused on the applicant’s research intentions. Our faculty will want to know some of the courses applicants took as undergraduate or graduate students and how those courses helped the applicant develop a good background for study in English. They may also wish to know what non-academic experiences helped develop applicants’ intentions to do research. Finally, they will be interested in any major research work applicants have already completed, whether that work took the form of a thesis, a presentation or a substantial essay for a course.

Often, personal statements end with applicants’ articulation of what they would like to study in graduate school, some of the research methods they might use and the reasons why Ohio State is an appropriate place for them to do their work.

Selecting a writing sample

As our guidelines state, we require a 10-20 page paper as a writing sample. There are several reasons why we require a writing sample. The most important reason has to do with the degree requirements for our graduate program: because almost all of our graduate classes ask students to complete long research papers and because the ultimate requirement for the PhD — the dissertation — is a long-term writing project, we need to be sure that our students already possess the ability to write an academic paper that is clear, rigorous, well researched and original. There are other reasons, too: almost all of our students will be teaching academic writing, so we wish to ensure they have a good writing skills, for instance.

Again, because applications are assessed by the area groups, it’s to an applicant’s advantage that they submit a writing sample that is fairly closely associated with the area of study on which they wish to focus. The topic of the writing sample does not have to be an exact match: an applicant in rhetoric, for instance, might gain admittance if they submit an essay about a film — but almost certainly, the essay would have to use rhetorical analysis in interpreting the film. A Renaissance applicant who submits an essay on medieval literature might be successful — but a Renaissance applicant who submits an essay on twentieth-century American literature might have a harder time.

Because each area group can only select a few applicants for admission, they are usually very rigorous in their assessments of writing samples. Generally, a successful writing sample shows that the applicant can use recent (or fairly recent) critical essays in the field to support and refine their argument and shows that the applicant can persuasively advance an original thesis.

For questions that can't be answered by the information above, the English Graduate Studies Office can be reached by email ([email protected]) or phone (614-292-7919).

University of Virginia, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Search form

Department of english.

Creative Writing >
Writing and Rhetoric >
Graduate Faculty
General Faculty
Affiliated Faculty
Graduate Students
Emeritus Faculty
Publications
The English Major
Distinguished Majors
Modern and Global Studies
Area Program in Literary Prose Writing (APLP)
Area Program in Poetry Writing (APPW)
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
The English Minor
Minor in Public Writing and Rhetoric
BA/MA Program
Careers in English
Study Abroad
Want to Teach English?
Admissions Procedures
Financial Aid
Want to teach English?
Concentration in Teaching Literature and Writing
PhD Requirements
Orals Lists
Placement Information and Help for Job Seekers

The Graduate Program

At a time of rapid transition in the field of literary and cultural studies, we are intent upon sustaining our offerings in traditional historical periods, elaborating those in diverse world literatures, and engaging fully with the spectrum of current theoretical concerns. The University of Virginia is also widely recognized as a leader in digital humanities, an area for which much of the initiative comes from faculty and graduate students in the English department. We take pride in offering graduate study superintended by an internationally renowned faculty.

The Master of Arts Program provides advanced training in literary studies, preparing students for either admission to Ph.D. programs or careers in a variety of fields that require intellectual ingenuity, skills in writing or research, or training in literary criticism and theory. Those who wish to pursue doctoral degrees regularly gain admission to other fine programs. Those seeking careers immediately following the MA have found jobs in secondary teaching, technology, the public sector, business, publishing, and higher education. The MA degree may be completed in three full semesters, though students opting to write an MA thesis often take a fourth semester.

Students may also opt to complete an MA on a part-time basis, so long as they complete the degree within five years. Some students take a full load in their first semester and then finish the degree as a part-time student, but other schedules are possible. Some sample MA timelines may be found here .

Note: The funding of an MA degree can be challenging, as few sources of scholarship support are currently available, either at UVA or nationally. This is a matter of much current concern and discussion in graduate education circles. (See the description, below, of our MA Teaching concentration, a partly funded degree.) Funding issues may impinge on a student’s decision to study full or part time, in that many students take loans that require them to maintain full-time status. All students with loans should contact their lenders directly to understand any implications part-time status might have for them. Moreover, part-time UVA students are currently not eligible to receive student wages, so may not hold student jobs at the university (though this policy is under review and may change). UVA Student Financial Services can help students understand if part-time status is the right financial choice for them.

In addition to our regular MA, we offer an MA in English with a Concentration in Teaching Literature and Writing . This two-year program provides specialized training in teaching, and, in the second year, teaching opportunities and financial support (tuition, fees, one-person health insurance coverage, and a salary per course). In cooperation with the Law School, we offer an interdisciplinary MA in Law and Literature . Our BA/MA program enables selected UVa undergraduates to take graduate courses in their fourth year and go on to complete the MA degree the following year. Interested MA students may choose to earn a graduate certificate in American Studies , Africana Studies , Gender Studies , Environmental Humanities , or Digital Humanities . The MA in English is a terminal degree; UVa MA students who apply to the PhD program compete with other transfer applicants.

The PhD program , with its coursework, exams, guided dissertation research, and training in teaching, places graduates in college and university research and teaching positions, in secondary education, and in academic administration, as well as in positions in publishing, consulting, the public sector, private foundations, and journalism—everywhere that research skills, rigorous analysis, and good writing are valued. In addition to their specialized research, interested PhD students may choose to earn a graduate certificate in Premodern Cultures and Communities , American Studies , Gender and Sexuality Studies , Africana Studies , Environmental Humanities , or Digital Humanities . Financial support, including health insurance and tuition remission, is awarded to all PhD students from the first through the sixth year of study. As part of their package, PhD students teach one course per semester in years two through four and in year six of the program.  The fifth year of study is a fully funded year dedicated entirely to writing the dissertation without teaching obligations. Beyond the sixth year, students in good standing may receive tuition remission, fees, and a salary in consideration for teaching. Government loans and work-study funding are also available. Students typically complete the doctoral degree in six to seven years.

The English Department makes every effort to place its students and has a good record of doing so. Recent recipients of the PhD have found teaching positions at such institutions as Williams College, Illinois, Ohio Wesleyan, Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Virginia Commonwealth University, Bowdoin, Clemson, Iowa, McGill, Nevada, MIT, Dartmouth, Bowling Green, New Mexico State, Penn, North Carolina, Rutgers, Fordham, Tufts, Arizona, Wake Forest, and Berkeley. Find more information about placement and careers in and outside of academia here .

The University library system is a resource of many dimensions. The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library holds a number of remarkable collections of American and British literature. Most noteworthy is the Barrett Library, one of the finest research collections in the world for American literature, including rare books and manuscripts of Cabell, Cather, Crane, Cummings, Eliot, Frost, Harte, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Holmes, Howells, James, Twain, Wharton, and Whitman. Manuscripts in the collection include The Red Badge of Courage , the 1860 Leaves of Grass , and The Sun Also Rises . Other collections of note include the William Faulkner Collection, the unique Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Novels, the Wagelin Collection of American Poetry, the Taylor Collection of American Fiction, and the Tunstall Collection of Poetry. Alderman Library, the largest circulating library on Grounds, is an excellent research facility with a standard working collection suitable for advanced studies across the humanities. The library's online holdings and well-staffed Scholars' Lab provide access to a large collection of literary works and advanced computer techniques for working with the texts. In addition, Clemons Library holds an abundant collection of video material and a well-equipped media center. The Department itself is the home of three prize-winning journals: New Literary History , an internationally respected journal of theory and interpretation; Studies in Bibliography , the premier international journal of analytical bibliography and textual study; and Meridian , a student-edited journal of writing.

Students with physical or learning disabilities which may require reasonable accommodation at the University should contact Brad Holland, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities . Information about the larger University and Charlottesville communities may be found here .

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only. The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found at http://records.ureg.virginia.edu/index.php .

Share this page

The graduate program in English provides you with a broad knowledge in the discipline, including critical and cultural theory and literary history. This solid foundation enables you to choose your own path based on the wide variety of areas of concentration. Our flexible program allows you to take courses outside the department to further explore your chosen field(s). Our program emphasizes excellence in writing, innovative scholarship, and eloquent presentations—important skills you will need in your future profession. The program and its faculty are committed both to diversity in its student body and in the diversity of thought and scholarship.

Examples of student theses and dissertations include “The Write to Stay Home: Southern Black Literature from the Great Depression to Early Twenty-first Century,” “Profaning Theater: The Drama of Religion on the Modernists Stage,” and “Sentimental Borders: Genre and Geography in the Literature of Civil War and Reconstruction.”

Graduates have secured faculty positions at institutions such as Brown University, Columbia University, and University of California, Los Angeles. Others have begun their careers with leading organizations such as Google and McKinsey & Company.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of English and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of English .

Writing Sample

The writing samples (one primary and one secondary) are highly significant parts of the application. Applicants should submit 2 double-spaced, 15-page papers of no more than 5,000 words each, in 12-point type with 1-inch margins. The writing samples must be examples of critical writing (rather than creative writing) on subjects directly related to English. Applicants should not send longer papers with instructions to read an excerpt or excerpts but should edit the samples themselves so that they submit only 15 pages for each paper. Applicants who know the field in which they expect to specialize should, when possible, submit a primary writing sample related to that field.

Statement of Purpose

The statement of purpose is not a personal statement and should not be heavily weighted down with autobiographical anecdotes. It should be no longer than 1,000 words. It should give the admissions committee a clear sense of applicants’ individual interests and strengths. Applicants need not indicate a precise field of specialization if they do not know, but it is helpful to know something about a candidate’s professional aspirations and sense of their own skills, as well as how the Harvard Department of English might help in attaining their goals. Those who already have a research topic in mind should outline it in detail, giving a sense of how they plan their progress through the program. Those who do not should at least attempt to define the questions and interests they foresee driving their work over the next few years.

Standardized Tests

GRE: Not Accepted

While there are no specific prerequisites for admission, a strong language background helps to strengthen the application, and students who lack it should be aware that they will need to address these gaps during their first two years of graduate study.

While a candidate's overall GPA is important, it is more important to have an average of no lower than A- in literature (and related) courses. In addition, while we encourage applications from candidates in programs other than English, they must have both the requisite critical skills and a foundation in English literature for graduate work in English. Most of our successful candidates have some knowledge of all the major fields of English literary study and advanced knowledge of the field in which they intend to study.

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for English

See list of English faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

Department of English Language and Literature, The University of Chicago

The Department of English at the University of Chicago has played an important role in the transformation of literary studies over the past half-century. Our faculty and students have participated centrally in the rethinking and reshaping of the discipline. Our intellectual work continues that effort, creating a rigorous and exciting intellectual environment for our students.

The PhD program prepares students for independent work as teachers, scholars, and critics by developing their abilities to pose and investigate problems in the advanced study of literatures in English. The program consists of four major components: coursework, teaching, fields exams, and the dissertation. Together, these elements introduce students to a wide variety of textual modes, critical methodologies, and historical/cultural questions; provide extensive practice in research, discussion, argument, and writing; and develop pedagogical skills.

The Joint PhD Program in Theater & Performance Studies (TAPS) allows students to complement their doctoral studies in English with academic and artistic work in Theater & Performance Studies.

TAPS graduate program website

Year One Coursework

All students in the first year of the program take six courses for letter grades, as well the PhD Colloquium, which is designed to introduce theoretical and practical questions posed by the student of literature.

Year Two Coursework

In the second year of the program, students who entered the program with an MA in English take at least two courses for letter grades. Students who entered the program without a previous MA take six courses. All students enroll in the Research Paper Proseminar (ENGL 52000) in the Spring of year 2, which counts as one of their required courses for the year.

Foreign Language Requirement:

By the end of their second year in the program, students must meet the Department's foreign language requirement.

Year Three Coursework

All third year students complete the department's pedagogy course, Teaching Undergraduate English. Students also begin to fulfill their fellowship teaching obligations during this year, typically by serving as a course assistant in the department. By the end of year three, students complete their oral fields examinations and form their dissertation committee.

In year four, students work to complete their dissertation proposal. Students should meet regularly with members of their dissertation committee, as well as enroll in the Dissertation Proposal Proseminar(typically taught over the Fall and Winter quarters), which is designed to help students compose a strong proposal. Students also gain additional teaching experience during this year, usually as course assistants in the department and potentially as interns or tutors with the writing program. In order to be admitted to candidacy, students must have completed all coursework, including substantial paper requirements, the PhD Colloquium, the Research Paper Proseminar, and Teaching Undergraduate English; have completed their foreign language requirement; have passed their oral fields exam; and have submitted an approved dissertation proposal to the Department.

In their fifth year, students continue to work on the dissertation, and to meet regularly with their committee members. (Students must hold annual advisory meetings with their full committee to discuss timelines and progress towards the dissertation defense.) Fifth year students should enroll in the Advanced Writing for Publication Proseminar(offered in Winter or Spring), which is designed to help students prepare an article for publication. In year 5, students also have the opportunity to teach a standalone undergraduate course, work for the writing program, and sometimes mentor English undergraduates writing BA theses.

Teaching Opportunities

Year Six and beyond

Students continue to hold annual advisory meetings with their committee as they progress toward completion of the dissertation. (Students must complete one approved chapter per year in order to make satisfactory progress. However, it is expected that most students will complete and receive committee approval for two or more chapters per year.) Beginning in year 6, students should take part in the Job Seekers Proseminar, which is designed to help prepare students to seek full-time professional employment, and to support them as they do so.

More information can be found in our Graduate Student Handbook .

University of Pennsylvania
School of Arts and Sciences
Penn Calendar

Search form

PhD and MA Graduate Admissions

Our application deadline is December 15th at 11:59 pm. Due to our application portal's technical specifications, the system may allow submission of applications after that deadline. No applications submitted after the December 15th deadline will be reviewed.

Application Procedures

Applicants to all graduate degree programs should apply online through ApplyWeb . We do not accept paper applications.

For both the terminal M.A. and Ph.D. programs, the application portal opens on October 2nd and closes on December 15th of each year. There is a short grace period after December 15th in which we will still accept letters of recommendation and official test scores. The Graduate Coordinator will follow up with you after December 15th if you are missing any of these elements and will provide a need-by date. Please note that the grace period is meant to allow recommenders to be a little late without negatively affecting your application, and should not be considered an alternate due date. Applicants should provide the December 15th due date to their recommenders. Applicants are ultimately responsible for ensuring that we receive their letters of recommendation.

Applications for submatriculation are accepted until February 10th of each year. Students interested in submatriculating should be in touch with the Undergraduate Chair, the Graduate Chair, and their College contact (assigned and listed in Path@Penn ) before or during the application process. Each of these contacts provide important information about the submatriculation process.

We only accept full-time students for the M.A. and Ph.D. program , and do not offer part-time options for either program. All applicants are applying to begin in the fall semester of the following year. We do not accept applications for spring admission.

The application fee is $90 , payable via credit or debit card at the time of submission.

NOTE: Application fee waivers are managed entirely by the Graduate Division of the School of Arts and Sciences, and individual departments do not have the power to grant them. To apply for a fee waiver, applicants should send a brief letter to Patricia Rea, Associate Director for Admissions, at [email protected] , stating the reason for the request. This letter should be sent no later than December 1st . Please be advised that the applicant must demonstrate a clear and compelling case of financial hardship.

Technical isues with ApplyWeb should be addressed to Technical Support ( [email protected] ).

Elements of the Application

In addition to your application form, which you will complete via ApplyWeb, we ask that you attach the following supporting documents to your application.

A personal statement.* In the personal statement, all M.A. and Ph.D. applications within the Graduate Division of Arts & Sciences should address the following: Please describe how your background and academic experiences have influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree and led you to apply to Penn. Your essay should detail your specific research interests and intellectual goals within your chosen field. Please provide information about your educational trajectory, intellectual curiosity and academic ambitions. If you have overcome adversity and/or experienced limited access to resources or opportunities in your field of study, please feel free to share how that has affected the course of your education. We are interested in your lived experiences and how your particular perspective might contribute to the inclusive and dynamic learning community that Penn values and strives to create. In the English Graduate Group, we ask that you discuss in this same personal statement your particular interest in our program, including why it is a good fit for your goals in graduate school. Your personal statement should not exceed 1200 words.

A critical writing sample.* This should be approximately 20 double-spaced pages long and should reflect your writing abilities and most up-to-date critical thinking. The writing sample must match one of your field interests or concentrations. We strongly prefer a single, 20-page paper over two shorter papers that add up to 20 pages.

Three letters of recommendation. These should be written by professors who know your work and can attest to your academic ability. Personal and other non-academic recommendation letters are strongly discouraged. Applicants should use the ApplyWeb system to submit letters. Applicants will submit the names, titles, and contact information of their recommenders, who will receive an emailed invitation to submit a letter on the applicant's behalf. If you or your recommenders have issues with this system, please email Meghan Hall ( [email protected] ) for troubleshooting. Please do not submit more than four recommendation letters.

Electronic versions of your academic transcripts. These do not have to be official transcripts, but can either be a pdf downloaded from your student portal or a scanned copy of a paper transcript. If accepted, you will need to provide a final, official paper copy of your transcript before you matriculate.

Proof of English Proficiency. Applicants with citizenship or permanent resident status in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, or New Zealand are not required to provide this, and their applications will automatically waive the requirement. Citizens of other countries may satisfy this requirement by either 1 ) submitting proof of having graduated from an institution where English was the primary language of instruction to Meghan Hall, Graduate Coordinator (in most cases, your transcripts will suffice), or 2 ) submitting TOEFL or IELTS scores . Our TOEFL code is 2986. IELTS scores must be sent via mail to University of Pennsylvania, Department of English, 3340 Walnut Street, Rm 127, Philadelphia, PA 19104, Attn: Meghan Hall, Graduate Coordinator. The University of Pennsylvania only accepts hard copies of IELTS scores. Questions about individual cases should be directed to Meghan Hall ( [email protected] ).

* For both your personal statement and critical writing sample , please include 1 primary field of interest and up to 2 additional fields of interest at the top of the first page, or in the page's header. Your primary field of interest should match your selection of concentration on the ApplyWeb application form. Please choose from the following list:

Medieval Literature
Early Modern/Renaissance Literature
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature (includes Restoration, Eighteenth Century, Early Romanticism, British Empire Studies)
Nineteenth-Century British Literature (includes Later Romanticism, Victorianism, British Empire Studies)
Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century British Literature (includes British Modernism, Postwar, Contemporary, British Empire Studies)
American Literature through the Nineteenth Century
Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century American Literature (includes American Modernism, Postwar, Contemporary)
American Studies/Ethnic Studies (Asian American, Latino/a, Native American, Critical Race Studies, Transnational Americas)
African American and Afro-diaspora Literature
Contemporary Poetry & Poetics
Postcolonial Studies (Global South: South Asia, Africa, Caribbean, Latin America, East Asia)
Film, Television, and New Media
Gender & Sexuality Studies
Material Texts and Digital Humanities

Example: a student interested in the 18th-century British Novel, colonial discourse, and feminism would include at the top of their personal statement, “Primary: 18th-Century British Literature, Additional: British Empire Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies”

Example: a student interested in studying Latino/a literature, Latin American Literature, and Film would include at the top of their personal statement, "Primary: American/Ethnic Studies; Additional: Postcolonial-Latin America and Film, Television, and New Media."

For International Applicants & Admittees

NOTE TO APPLICANTS FROM THE UK: we encourage UK applicants to apply for a Thouron Fellowship. The Thouron is a 1-2 year fellowship that pays for a Masters degree. Fellows who are admitted to our Ph.D. program may then continue with fellowship support from Penn. Note that the Thouron deadline is in November. Information and application materials are available on the Thouron.org website .

International Students admitted into the program should apply for their Social Security number as soon as possible so that they don't experience a delay in receiving their stipend.

Questions about the admission process? See our Frequently Asked Questions or contact Meghan Hall, Graduate Coordinator ( [email protected] ).

College of Social Sciences & Humanities

The Master of Arts in English launches students into the study of literature, writing, and rhetoric at the graduate level. The program offers two years of intensive study in the major fields of British and American literature, covering the debates and approaches that animate the discipline of English. Our MA graduates are fully prepared to proceed to study at the doctoral level, and their training in critical thinking, language skills, and cultural history has also proven to be fruitful preparation for a range of careers outside of academia.

The Master of Arts program gives students broad exposure to the current state of literary studies—its history, its methodologies, its ever-changing canon, and its production of new knowledge. The program offers study in all areas of English and American literature, and in rhetorical criticism, the teaching of writing, and the role of rhetorical practices in shaping disciplinary, institutional, and cultural knowledges and identities. The graduate program in English encompasses a spectrum of traditional literary fields from the medieval period to postmodernism, as well as rhetoric and composition, linguistics, and digital humanities. Research and teaching in interdisciplinary areas, including American studies, African-American studies, gender studies, and cultural studies, are also well represented within the program. At Northeastern University, graduate students in English may take full advantage of the opportunities that the greater Boston area affords as the site of rich cultural and educational resources.

Learn more about the Master of Arts in English from the College of Social Sciences and Humanities .

More Details

Unique features.

Master’s students may be nominated for scholarships
Opportunities for involvement in cutting-edge research in centers including the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks; the Writing Center; the Digital Scholarship Group; and the Humanities Center as well as with individual faculty
The department has strong graduate faculty in the fields of American literature; transatlantic and Caribbean studies; digital humanities; writing and rhetoric

Graduates of our MA program are able to:

Employ primary and secondary materials to analyze critical debates within subfields of English studies
Demonstrate expertise in the history, theories, and methods of three chosen subfields of English studies pertinent to the student’s plan of research and teaching
Formulate and defend original and critically significant arguments, communicating them effectively in genres relevant to English studies (e.g., research papers, conference presentations, digital projects)
Design and conduct sustained, sophisticated, independent research using primary and secondary sources in order to make a critical contribution to subfields within English studies

Career Outlook

Many successful MA English graduates have been accepted to well-regarded PhD programs throughout the country, including Cornell, Loyola University Chicago, Notre Dame, Princeton, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of California-Davis, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Minnesota, and the University of Washington. Others have found the program valuable for enhancing their credentials and opening opportunities for advancement in a variety of fields, including teaching, publishing, writing, law, and business.

Looking for something different?

A graduate degree or certificate from Northeastern—a top-ranked university—can accelerate your career through rigorous academic coursework and hands-on professional experience in the area of your interest. Apply now—and take your career to the next level.

Program Costs

Finance Your Education We offer a variety of resources, including scholarships and assistantships.

How to Apply Learn more about the application process and requirements.

Requirements

Application
Application fee
Personal statement
Three letters of recommendation
Unofficial transcripts from all institutions attended
English proficiency for international applicants
Writing sample

Are You an International Student? Find out what additional documents are required to apply.

Admissions Details Learn more about the College of Social Sciences and Humanities admissions process, policies, and required materials.

Admissions Dates

Industry-aligned courses for in-demand careers..

For 100+ years, we’ve designed our programs with one thing in mind—your success. Explore the current program requirements and course descriptions, all designed to meet today’s industry needs and must-have skills.

View curriculum

Northeastern's signature experience-powered learning model has been at the heart of the university for more than a century. It combines world-class academics with professional practice, allowing you to acquire relevant, real-world skills you can immediately put into action in your current workplace. This makes a Northeastern education a dynamic, transformative experience, giving you countless opportunities to grow as a professional and person.

Our Faculty

Northeastern University faculty represents a broad cross-section of professional practices and fields, including finance, education, biomedical science, management, and the U.S. military. They serve as mentors and advisors and collaborate alongside you to solve the most pressing global challenges facing established and emerging markets.

View English Department Faculty...

Neal Lerner

Erika Boeckeler

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

By enrolling in Northeastern, you’ll gain access to students at 13 campus locations, 300,000+ alumni, and 3,000 employer partners worldwide. Our global university system provides students unique opportunities to think locally and act globally while serving as a platform for scaling ideas, talent, and solutions.

Below is a look at where our Humanities & Social Sciences alumni work, the positions they hold, and the skills they bring to their organization.

Where They Work

Commonwealth of Massachusetts
City of Boston
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Fidelity Investments
State Street

What They Do

Business Development
Community and Social Services
Media and Communication

What They're Skilled At

Public Speaking
Social Media

Learn more about Northeastern Alumni on Linkedin .

Should I Go To Grad School: 4 Questions to Consider

Grad School or Work? How to Balance Both

7 Networking Tips for Graduate Students

Make a Gift
Directories

Search form

You are here.

Programs & Courses

Graduate Programs

The UW Department of English graduate programs are committed to the intellectual and professional development of our students as educators, researchers, and writers. We offer a combined MA/PhD in language and literature in addition to MFA and MATESOL degrees. Our faculty include many nationally and internationally recognized creative writers and scholars working in literary studies, cultural studies, language, rhetoric, and literacy. In addition to a broad range of interests and specializations particular to English as a discipline, we have significant strengths in interdisciplinary areas of scholarship, including textual and digital studies, feminism and gender studies, critical race studies, queer studies, genre and popular culture studies, sociolinguistics and critical applied linguistics, writing studies, translingual and transnational literacy studies, and environmental humanities. Looking beyond our department and our campus, Seattle and the Puget Sound region offer our students a wealth of cultural and professional resources and opportunities.

Eva Cherniavsky , Director

What programs do we offer?

Three degree options:

MA/PhD in English Language and Literature
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA)
Master of Arts for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (MATESOL)

How do you apply to an English graduate program?

Explore our How to Apply page
MA/PhD Application Checklist and MA/PhD FAQ
MFA Application Checklist and MFA FAQ
MATESOL Application Checklist and MATESOL FAQ

How do you contact an advisor?

MA/PhD questions: [email protected]
MFA questions: [email protected]
MATESOL questions: [email protected]
Meet our Graduate Staff
Instagram
Newsletter

Best English Programs

Ranked in 2021, part of Best Social Sciences and Humanities Schools

Earning a master's degree or

Earning a master's degree or doctorate in English can improve your writing skills, sharpen your analytical abilities and broaden your literary knowledge. These are the top schools for a graduate degree in English. Each school's score reflects its average rating on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding), based on a survey of academics at peer institutions. Read the methodology »

Clear Filters

M.A./Ph.D in English

M.A. / Ph.D.

Vision Statement

The MA/PhD in English degree (Literature Program) advances a curriculum that develops the analytical tools, diverse perspectives, and historical depth necessary for understanding the present. We explore the reciprocal relations between the marginal and the dominant, the past and the present, and the literary and non-literary. We marshal the most exciting, consequential, and diverse ideas that address the urgent challenges our students will engage.

About the Program

Our Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy programs in English will prepare you for teaching and conducting scholarly research at the university, college, and community college levels.

The M.A. is designed both as a basis for the Ph.D. and as a program for students who for personal or professional reasons wish to pursue advanced literary studies. The Ph.D. provides professional training for academic appointments at colleges and universities; we also offer preparation and guidance for those who plan to enter non-academic professions.

Our program is staffed by a strong faculty doing innovative research engaging a full range of current critical methodologies and questions, across nearly all the traditional fields of literature. Additionally, each semester, graduate seminars typically explore cutting-edge issues that intersect both faculty’s current research and emerging critical trends.

See the English Literature M.A./Ph.D. Handbook for full details about the program.

MA/PhD in English Graduate Student Handbook

Interdisciplinary Environment

You may concentrate in a number of cross-disciplinary areas :

American Literature and Culture
Border Studies
Gender Studies
Medieval and Early Modern Studies
American Indian Studies
Visual and Digital Cultures
Cultural Studies and Critical Theory
Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature and Theory
Rhetorical Theory
Comparative Modernisms

Several of our students choose to develop interdisciplinary research profiles, sometimes by minoring in a discipline other than English, among them a newly developed program in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory . You may also pursue a Ph.D. minor with other UA departments with approval from your committee chair and the Literature Program Director.

Graduate Student Funding

We have the opportunity to award Graduate Teaching Assistantships. The teaching assignment is 3 courses a year; the first year you will teach one course in the Fall and two in the Spring. During your first year, you will be enrolled in a weekly teaching preceptorship designed to instruct and support you as a university teacher. These are renewed for up to five years (assuming satisfactory progress). GTAs receive health insurance and full tuition as well as a small stipend (approximately $20,000 for the academic year). University fees are not covered; for the 2023-2024 academic year, fees are $833.68 per semester if taking 7 units or more.

For general information about the program, please contact Stephanie Mao.

Specific inquires can be directed to John Melillo , Director, Graduate Literature

Study at Cambridge

About the university, research at cambridge.

Events and open days
Fees and finance
Student blogs and videos
Why Cambridge
Qualifications directory
How to apply
Fees and funding
Frequently asked questions
International students
Continuing education
Executive and professional education
Courses in education
How the University and Colleges work
Visiting the University
Term dates and calendars
Video and audio
Find an expert
Publications
International Cambridge
Public engagement
Giving to Cambridge
For current students
For business
Colleges & departments
Libraries & facilities
Museums & collections
Email & phone search

Faculty of English

Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Visiting Scholars
Academic Staff
Research Staff
Postgraduate Students
Emeritus, Visiting and Honorary Fellows
Administrative Staff
Faculty Research
Research Map
English Handwriting Online
Scriptorium
The Tennysons Archive
Transkills for English
Troilus & Criseyde: Translation & Commentary
Directors of Studies
Teaching Officers & Research Fellows
Faculty Computing
BBC Short Story
Postgraduate Admissions

Information for Prospective Postgraduate Students

The Postgraduate Office 9 West Road Cambridge CB3 9DP United Kingdom

MPhil in English Studies
MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic
MPhil in Digital Humanities

PhD overview
Supervision
Part-time PhD

MAKING AN APPLICATION

Admission Requirements
Assessment of Applications
Guidance for References
Research Proposal Guidance

Home Students
Overseas Students

POSTGRADUATE LIFE

Intellectual Life
College Life
Faculty Support
Faculty Facilities

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSIVITY

EDI Steering Committee
Online Training
Useful Links

PhD Program

The English Department will begin reviewing completed MA applications on January 1, 2024 and will continue to accept them until the March 15, 2024 deadline

BU PhD Program Profile metrics

Requirements for the PhD

In the PhD Program, students move toward specialization in a particular area of study. The requirements include:

Sixteen graduate-level courses, including a required eight courses taken in the first year.
A successful review by the Graduate Committee upon completion of the first year.
Demonstration of a reading knowledge of one foreign language at an advanced level or two foreign languages at an intermediate level – including one language completed as part of the first year.
Completion of a Qualifying Oral Examination
Submission and approval of a Dissertation Prospectus
Completion and defense of a Ph.D. dissertation

Please note that successful completion of requirements in the first year earns each Ph.D. student an M.A. degree as a matter of course.

Satisfactory Academic Progress for PhD Students

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English guarantee five full years (12 months each) of financial support for PhD students who maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress . This support will be in the form of Teaching Fellowships or Graduate Fellowships. All requirements for the doctorate, including dissertation, must be completed within seven years (exceptions require a petition to GRS). A leave of absence of up to two semesters is permitted for appropriate cause.

Given these time constraints, students should work closely with their advisers and dissertation readers to devise an efficient schedule for meeting all benchmarks. Faculty and students share responsibility for adhering closely to this schedule.

The following achievements are required to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress:

Students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher, have no more than 2 failing grades (lower than B- or an incomplete grade older than 12 months), and pass qualifying exams and other milestones on the following recommended schedule:

Year 1: Eight graduate courses – for the M.A. degree / first foreign language requirement.

Year 2: Continue course work and study toward the completion of the language requirement.

Year 3: Complete course work and language requirements. In the fall of the third year, students take the pro-seminar (EN794 A1), in which they develop their Qualifying Oral Examination rationale and reading list, and form an oral exam committee.

Year 4: Fall: Students should take the Qualifying Exam early in the Fall semester.

Spring: Prospectus submitted and dissertation writing begins.

Years 5+ : Dissertation.

Additional departmental details regarding all stages of the degree can be found in the graduate handbook

For GRS college policies and general information please see the Graduate Bulletin

Robert Chodat, Director of Graduate Studies

College of Arts & Sciences

The M.A. Program

A hallmark of the M.A. English program is close student-faculty contact where the maximum enrollment per seminar is 18 students. Classes are held in the afternoons and early evening hours. We offer a rigorous program with a multi-faceted final thesis project, and, once admitted, students have up to three years to complete the degree.

Starting in Fall 2021, the M.A. program requires eight courses (24 credits) plus completion of a thesis and allows students to earn the degree within a four-semester/two year schedule. Many students in the program have full-time status and successfully complete their work in four semesters.

The normative credit load for a full-time student is three courses (9 credits) in the fall and spring of the first year, and one course (3 credits) plus Thesis Research in the fall and spring of the second year. Typically, if a student begins the program in the fall, their course schedule would look like this:

Fall 1st Semester: 3 graduate courses
Spring 2nd Semester: 3 graduate courses
Fall 3rd Semester: 1 graduate course (must be the M.A. Thesis Seminar) plus Thesis Research
Spring 4th Semester: 1 graduate course plus Thesis Research

However, students who may be working full-time and/or are interested in accelerating or decelerating the normative credit load are welcome to contact the Director of Graduate Studies and submit a request for consideration.

The Thesis Project

We define the thesis project broadly, to include critical works, as well as multimodal and public outreach projects. It requires that students register for a thesis seminar course—typically taken in the fall of the second year—along with a 0-credit thesis research course in the fall and spring—in order for students to maintain full-time status to complete work on the thesis project. During the spring semester, students are expected to budget their time accordingly as they complete their thesis while taking their final elective. This includes meeting independently with faculty advisors on an ad-hoc basis and managing deadlines and requirements in a professional manner.

Visit the Thesis Project page for more information on the breakdown of writing the thesis and to view examples of past projects.

We invite you to take a look at our faculty directory , meet our current graduate students, and learn about some of the professional development opportunities typically available to students in a given academic year.

Read answers to Frequently Asked Questions .

The Yale English Department offers a broad-ranging program of graduate education, with courses that engage all periods of British literature, American literature since its inception, and many of the contemporary interdisciplines (feminism, media studies, post-colonialism, Black studies, LGBTQIA+ studies, and the environmental humanities).

The Department aims to train future scholars, writers, and teachers of many kinds: our primary focus is on the development of college and university professors, but our alumni also go on to careers as curators, librarians, secondary school teachers, university administrators, journalists, editors, and professional writers. Our faculty believe in the values of pluralism (in what is studied and how it is studied), and they are committed to preparing students to succeed in competitive and demanding professions. To that end, we make the teaching of undergraduates an important part of graduate training, as well as offering a wide array of professional development opportunities at The Yale Review , university libraries and museums, the Digital Humanities Lab, and elsewhere on campus.

Pluralism within the Department is enhanced by relations with other graduate programs. The English Department offers combined PhD programs with African-American Studies, Film and Media Studies, History of Art, Early Modern Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and has strong affiliations with graduate programs in American Studies, Comparative Literature, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and other humanistic disciplines. Faculty members are often joint appointees in English and another of these programs, and many courses are cross-listed. The Department encourages its students to design programs of study that combine specialization with wise generalization.

Undergraduate courses
Postgraduate courses
Foundation courses
Apprenticeships
Part-time and short courses
Apply undergraduate
Apply postgraduate

Search for a course

Search by course name, subject, and more

Undergraduate
Postgraduate
(suspended) - Available in Clearing Not available in Clearing location-sign UCAS

Fees and funding

Tuition fees
Scholarships

Funding your studies

Student finance
Cost of living support

Why study at Kent

Student life.

Careers and employability
Student support and wellbeing
Our locations
Placements and internships
Year abroad
Student stories
Schools and colleges
International

International students

Your country
Applicant FAQs
International scholarships
University of Kent International College
Campus Tours
Applicant Events
Postgraduate events
Maps and directions
Research strengths
Research centres
Research impact

Research institutes

Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology
Institute of Cyber Security for Society
Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries
Institute of Health, Social Care and Wellbeing

Research students

Graduate and Researcher College
Research degrees
Find a supervisor
How to apply

Your future

Student profiles

Staff supervise research in most areas of English and associated studies, and have expertise in the following areas: theory, modernism and postmodernism, 18th and 19th-century studies, women’s writing, literature and visual arts, Shakespeare and the Renaissance, early modern literature and culture, medieval studies, American literature, postcolonial literature and modern poetry.

Key information

Duration MA 1 year full-time PhD 3 to 4 years full-time
Start date MA: September PhD: September, January, May
Location Canterbury

The School of English has a strong international reputation and global perspective, apparent both in the background of its staff and in the diversity of our teaching and research interests.

Our expertise ranges from the medieval to the postmodern, including British, American and Irish literature, postcolonial writing, 18th-century studies, Shakespeare, early modern literature and culture, Victorian studies, modern poetry, critical theory and cultural history. The international standing of the School ensures that we have a lively, confident research culture, sustained by a vibrant, ambitious intellectual community. We also count a number of distinguished creative writers among our staff, and we actively explore crossovers between critical and creative writing in all our areas of teaching and research.

The Research Excellence Framework 2021 has produced very strong results for the School of English at Kent. With 100% of its research environment and 100% of its research impact judged to be ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. The Times Higher Education has ranked English at Kent in the UK top 20 in its subject league table, out of 92 universities. As scholars and creative practitioners, academic staff in the School of English are national and international leaders in their fields. The expert panel judged 93% of its research overall and just under 90% of its research outputs, as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

Everything you need to know.

Entry requirements, study support.

A first or second class honours degree in a relevant subject (or equivalent).

A first or upper-second class honours degree in a relevant subject (or equivalent) and, normally, a taught MA qualification.

All applicants are considered on an individual basis and additional qualifications, professional qualifications and relevant experience may also be taken into account when considering applications.

Please see our International Student website for entry requirements by country and other relevant information. Due to visa restrictions, students who require a student visa to study cannot study part-time unless undertaking a distance or blended-learning programme with no on-campus provision.

English language entry requirements

This course requires a Good level of English language, equivalent to B2 on CEFR.

Details on how to meet this requirement can be found on our English Language requirements webpage .

Examples:

IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component

PTE Academic 63 with a minimum of 59 in each sub-test

A degree from a UK university

A degree from a Majority English Speaking Country

Need help with English?

Please note that if you are required to meet an English language condition, we offer a number of pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Purposes through Kent International Pathways .

Postgraduate research is a fantastic opportunity and significant investment in your future, enabling you to expand your knowledge, skills and career options – all while making a meaningful impact and contribution to an area you are passionate about.

At Kent, we also recognise the significant financial investment that comes with postgraduate study, and we offer a range of scholarships for our postgraduate researchers, to help keep your mind on your studies, and off your finances.

Scholarships can be broad, or specific to your situation, background or even country – so please do use our scholarships finder to discover the options available to you.

We also have research partnership funding with research councils and government schemes in specific areas of interest that can help you take your research to the next level with additional financial support.

Find out more on our fees and funding page and discover what option is right for you.

As a research student, you meet regularly with your supervisor, and have the opportunity to take part in informal reading groups and research seminars to which students, staff and visiting speakers contribute papers. You also benefit from a series of research skills seminars that run in the spring term, which gives you a chance to share the research expertise of staff and postdoctoral members of the department.

As a basis for advanced research, you must take the School and Faculty research methods programmes.

Postgraduate resources

The Templeman Library is well stocked with excellent research resources, as are Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library. There are a number of special collections: the John Crow Collection of Elizabethan and other early printed texts; the Reading/Raynor Collection of theatre history (over 7,000 texts or manuscripts); ECCO (Eighteenth-Century Collections Online); the Melville manuscripts relating to popular culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries; the Pettingell Collection (over 7,500 items) of 19th-century drama; the Eliot Collection; children’s literature; and popular literature. A gift from Mrs Valerie Eliot has increased the Library’s already extensive holdings in modern poetry. The British Library in London is also within easy reach.

Besides the Templeman Library, School resources include photocopying, fax and telephone access, support for attending and organising conferences, and a dedicated postgraduate study space.

Conferences and seminars

Our research centres organise many international conferences, symposia and workshops.

School of English postgraduate students are encouraged to organise and participate in a conference which takes place in the summer term. This provides students with the invaluable experience of presenting their work to their peers.

The School runs several series of seminars, lectures and readings throughout the academic year. Our weekly research seminars are organised collaboratively by staff and graduates in the School. Speakers range from our own postgraduate students, to members of staff, to distinguished lecturers who are at the forefront of contemporary research nationally and internationally.

The Centre for Creative Writing hosts a very popular and successful weekly reading series; guests have included poets Katherine Pierpoint, Tony Lopez, Christopher Reid and George Szirtes, and novelists Abdulrazak Gurnah, Ali Smith, Marina Warner and Will Self.

Dynamic publishing culture

Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books. They also edit several periodicals including: Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities ; The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: 600-1500 ; The Dickensian; Literature Compass ; Oxford Literary Review ; Theatre Notebook and Wasafiri .

Researcher Development Programme

Kent's Graduate School co-ordinates the Researcher Development Programme for research students, which includes workshops focused on research, specialist and transferable skills. The programme is mapped to the national Researcher Development Framework and covers a diverse range of topics, including subject-specific research skills, research management, personal effectiveness, communication skills, networking and teamworking, and career management skills.

Research in the School of English comes roughly under the following areas. However, there is often a degree of overlap between groups, and individual staff have interests that range more widely.

Eighteenth Century

The particular interests of the Centre for Studies in the Long Eighteenth Century converge around gender, class, nation, travel and empire, and the relationship between print and material culture. Staff in the Centre pursue cutting-edge approaches to the field and share a commitment to interdisciplinary methodologies.

The Centre regularly hosts visiting speakers as part of the School of English research seminar programme, and hosts day symposia, workshops and international conferences.

Nineteenth Century

The 19th-century research group's interests include literature and gender, journalism, representations of time and history, sublimity and Victorian poetry.

American Literature

Research in North American literature is conducted partly through the Centre for American Studies , which also facilitates co-operation with modern US historians. Staff research interests include 20th-century American literature, especially poetry, Native American writing, modernism, and cultural history.

Creative Writing

The Centre for Creative Writing is the focus for most practice-based research in the School. Staff organise a thriving events series and run a research seminar for postgraduate students and staff to share ideas about fiction-writing. Established writers regularly come to read and discuss their work.

Medieval and Early Modern

The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies has a distinctive brand of interdisciplinarity, strong links with local archives and archaeological trusts, and provides a vibrant forum for investigating the relationships between literary and non-literary modes of writing in its weekly research seminar.

Modern Poetry

The Centre for Modern Poetry is a leading centre for research and publication in its field, and participates in both critical and creative research. Staff regularly host visiting speakers and writers, participate in national and international research networks, and organise graduate research seminars and public poetry readings.

Postcolonial

The Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Research has acquired an international reputation for excellence in research. It has an outstanding track record in publication, organises frequent international conferences, and regularly hosts leading postcolonial writers and critics. It also hosts a visiting writer from India every year in association with the Charles Wallace Trust.

Staff research interests

Kent’s world-class academics provide research students with excellent supervision. The academic staff in this school and their research interests are shown below. You are strongly encouraged to contact the school to discuss your proposed research and potential supervision prior to making an application. Please note, it is possible for students to be supervised by a member of academic staff from any of Kent’s schools, providing their expertise matches your research interests. Use our ‘ find a supervisor ’ search to search by staff member or keyword.

Full details of staff research interests can be found on the School's website .

Many career paths can benefit from the writing and analytical skills that you develop as a postgraduate student in the School of English. Our students have gone on to work in academia, journalism, broadcasting and media, publishing, writing and teaching; as well as more general areas such as banking, marketing analysis and project management.

The 2024/25 annual tuition fees for this course are:

English - MA at Canterbury
English - PhD at Canterbury

For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide .

For students continuing on this programme fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.* If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact [email protected] .

Your fee status

The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.

General information

For students continuing on this programme, fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.*

Additional costs

General additional costs.

Find out more about general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.

Search our scholarships finder for possible funding opportunities. You may find it helpful to look at both:

University and external funds
Scholarships specific to the academic school delivering this programme.

We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.

Ready to apply?

Learn more about the application process or begin your application by clicking on a link below.

You will be able to choose your preferred year of entry once you have started your application. You can also save and return to your application at any time.

Need help deciding?

Our friendly team is on hand to help you with any queries you have.

Find the right supervisor for your and your research project.

Experience our stunning campuses.

Everything you need to know about applying to Kent from abroad.

Apply for entry to English

Full-time at Canterbury
Part-time at Canterbury

Join our community

Supporting your success

We are here to support your postgraduate journey.

Kent ranked top 50 in The Complete University Guide 2024 .

Support for funding so you can focus on your studies.

Research excellence.

Kent has risen 11 places in THE’s REF 2021 ranking, confirming us as a leading research university.

It’s easy to study on or off campus at Kent – discover what is right for you.

Department of English

PhD Requirements
Graduate Courses
Graduate FAQ
Job Placement
PhD Testimonials

The Department of English offers a program leading to the PhD degree in literatures in English. The department is small in numbers and its graduate students are carefully selected on the basis of their professional distinction as teachers, critics, and scholars. Because of its small size, the department affords students exceptionally focused attention.

The department accepts only full-time students for the PhD. Continuance beyond each of the first three years depends on satisfactory performance in the graduate seminars and passing two foreign language examinations. Students who successfully continue are awarded an MA degree in the course of the PhD program, but the department does not offer a separate master’s program. Students proceed to the dissertation after successfully passing a qualifying examination in the third year.

The PhD in English literature at Johns Hopkins consists of two years of course work and three years devoted to the research and writing of a dissertation. Students who remain in good standing will be guaranteed the same level of financial support for the full five years.

Facilities for Research

The cities of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., jointly contain a large collection of manuscripts and printed books. Major libraries and museums in Baltimore possess more than a thousand early manuscripts and 3 million books. The 12 million books and numerous manuscripts in the Library of Congress are supplemented in Washington by many specialized collections, notably those of the Folger Shakespeare Library, with which the university is affiliated. Opportunities for research in those libraries are open to students in the English department.

The Tudor and Stuart Club, along with a number of other outstanding lecture series within the university, enables students to learn about advances in research, criticism, and theory, and to confer with leading scholars.

The Journal Club is a departmental series in which students present to the department papers drawn from their dissertation research.

English PhD

The Berkeley English Department offers a wide-ranging PhD program, engaging in all historical periods of British and American literature, Anglophone literature, and critical and cultural theory. The program aims to assure that students gain a broad knowledge of literature in English as well as the highly-developed skills in scholarship and criticism necessary to do solid and innovative work in their chosen specialized fields.

Please note that the department does not offer a masters degree program or a degree program in Creative Writing. Students can, however, petition for an MA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing upon completion of the PhD course requirements (one of which must be a graduate writing workshop) and submission of a body of creative work.

Students interested in combining a PhD in English with studies in another discipline may pursue Designated Emphases or Concurrent Degrees in a number of different fields

Contact Info

[email protected]

322 Wheeler Hall

Berkeley, CA 94720

At a Glance

Department(s)

Admit Term(s)

Application Deadline

December 15, 2023

Degree Type(s)

Doctoral / PhD

Degree Awarded

GRE Requirements

Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

College Of Liberal Arts And Sciences

Ma & phd, admissions links heading link copy link.

Apply Now! Go to the application portal
UIC Admissions (Domestic) Find information about transcripts, application fee waivers, and more
International Requirements Learn more about English proficiency requirements, international transcripts, and more

Admissions Requirements and Application Directions Heading link Copy link

The fields below detail the application process for Graduate programs in English and the Admissions Requirements for MA and PhD applicants.

Current UIC English MA students do not apply to the PhD program via Slate. Please contact the Graduate Program Director before December 15th to arrange for submission of materials if you are a current student in the MA program.

UIC English graduate programs do not require the GRE test.

Application Instructions

All applications are completed online . Current UIC English MA students do not apply to the PhD program via Slate. Test scores, transcripts, online application, and application fee are not required for these students. Please contact the Graduate Program Director before December 15th to arrange for submission of materials.

The application requires the following materials:

Official online application
Non-refundable application fee of US $70 (note: international students also pay a nonrefundable US $100 fee)
Transcripts (see the official UIC Admissions Domestic Requirements or International Requirements pages for more information on acceptable transcripts)
Statement of purpose: a statement of about 500 words presenting your reasons for pursuing graduate work in English, and relating that work to professional and other goals
English Studies candidates should upload only a standard writing sample of no more than 20 pages in an area reflective of your graduate research interests. A creative sample is not required.
Applications for the Program for Writers should upload one creative writing sample, approximately 20 pages of prose and/or 5 to 8 poems. Poetry may be single-spaced but prose must be double-spaced, and all samples should use a font no smaller than 12 pts. Please indicate whether the prose is creative nonfiction, short fiction or an excerpt from a novel. Program for Writers applicants for the PhD can also submit an optional 20-page critical writing sample.
CV / resume
Three letters of recommendation. These are uploaded electronically by the recommender. While completing your application, you will be prompted to add the contact information of your three references, including email and phone number.
Completed Admissions Review Cover Sheet (.pdf).

You may check on the status of your application by logging in to the application page after submitting.

International applicants

The deadline and requirements for international applicants are the same as they are for domestic applicants. Please visit UIC Admissions International Requirements page for details specific to international applications, including English proficiency requirements.

Note that international applicants are assessed an extra $100 fee upon submission to help cover the cost of verifying international credentials.

All accepted students are considered automatically for university awards, so no special instructions are necessary. The Application for Graduate Appointment is used in these applications for Graduate College fellowships and awards. Admitted PhD students are offered a minimum of six years of full funding as a TA; admitted MA students have the option to pursue a TA position in the department in the second year.

For students who do not receive a Teaching Assistantship in their first year, Graduate Assistantships are often available on campus and may carry a tuition waiver.

Non-degree English students must follow the same application procedures but may take until May 15 to do so. Once accepted, they may enroll in any English class.

Non-degree (unassigned) students only need to submit unofficial transcripts and complete the online application and there is no deadline, but they must petition to join each class.

Visit our FAQ page.

MA Admissions Requirements

Baccalaureate field.

Applicants must have a Bachelor’s degree in English or the equivalent that includes a balanced program in English and American literature beyond the level of sophomore surveys. Applicants who intend to concentrate in Creative Writing may have an undergraduate major or a graduate degree in any field, if they show substantial evidence of ability to complete the work in literature required for the degree in English.

NOTE: The English Department does accept applications from prospective students who have degrees in other fields, but we place all applications in equal competition, and students with undergraduate experience in English are often better aligned with our program goals than those who have degrees in other fields.

Grade Point Average

At least 3.00/4.00 for the final 60 semester hours (90 quarter hours) of undergraduate study and for all graduate work.

Tests Required

TOEFL (international students only) 600 (paper-based); 250 (computer-based); 95, with minimum subscores of Reading 24, Listening 24, Speaking 24, and Writing 22 (iBT Internet-based TOEFL).
IELTS (international students only) 7.0, with subscores of 6.5 for all four subscores.

PhD Admissions Requirements

Applicants must have a Bachelor’s degree in English, or the equivalent that includes a balanced program in English and American literature beyond the level of sophomore surveys. Applicants who intend to concentrate in Creative Writing may have an undergraduate major or a graduate degree in any field, if they show substantial evidence of ability to complete the work in literature required for the degree in English.

Master’s Degree

A degree at the Master’s level is not required to apply. However, applicants with a degree at the Master’s level (MA, MS, MFA) tend to have more scholarly experience and academic goals that are more aligned with our program. Since 2000, we have only accepted two candidates to the PhD program who did not have a degree at the Master’s level.

Current UIC English MA students should contact the Graduate Program Director before December 15th to arrange for submission of materials. (They should not submit an online application.)

IMAGES

MA English
Online Master's of Arts in English
MA by Research or PhD Studentships In English Literature at University
Ignou MA English Admission 2024 Distance Education Masters
MA English Course
MA English Part.1 Books Introduction

VIDEO

Advanced education acronyms! #learnenglish with #fluentjoy #shorts. #inglesonline #anglaisfacile
Secret principle to STOP feeling anxious as a PhD student or researcher
MA English previous 2 nd semester question paper (literature in english (1914 -2000)
BA./BSC/BED/BCOM/MA/PHD/MSC /LLB.FULL Form.#english
MA Philosophy (दर्शनशास्त्र) क्या है करने के क्या फायदे हैं पूरी जानकारी हिंदी में #philosophy
MA English Semester 1 PYQ 2022 SKMU Dumka

COMMENTS

MA/PhD Program
The Graduate Admissions Committee for the Department of English will accept applications to the integrated MA/PhD program from students with a bachelor's degree in English or a minimum of 40 quarter hours (27 semester hours) of English coursework from an accredited college or university.
Graduate Program Overview
The graduate program in English is a five-year program (with multiple opportunities for funding in year six) leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). Students may not enroll for a Master of Arts degree. During the first two years, students prepare for the General Examination through work in seminars, and directed or independent reading.
The Graduate Program
The graduate program in English at the University of Virginia has long been a distinguished one. We offer three graduate degrees, including the Master of Arts, the Doctor of Philosophy, and the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. While the following section of the website deals primarily with the MA and PhD degree programs, you can find ...
Graduate Program
Welcome to the virtual home of the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. On these pages, current as well as prospective students will find detailed information about graduate study in English at Penn. The Department offers full-time M.A. and Ph.D. programs.
English
The graduate program in English provides you with a broad knowledge in the discipline, including critical and cultural theory and literary history. This solid foundation enables you to choose your own path based on the wide variety of areas of concentration. ... Cambridge, MA 02138-3654. Contact. Tel: 617-495-5315. Fax: 617-495-2928. Email ...
Overview
The PhD program prepares students for independent work as teachers, scholars, and critics by developing their abilities to pose and investigate problems in the advanced study of literatures in English. ... In the second year of the program, students who entered the program with an MA in English take at least two courses for letter grades ...
PhD and MA Graduate Admissions
Contact. Department of English University of Pennsylvania Fisher-Bennett Hall, room 127 3340 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6273 Phone: (215) 898-7341
Master of Arts English
Many successful MA English graduates have been accepted to well-regarded PhD programs throughout the country, including Cornell, Loyola University Chicago, Notre Dame, Princeton, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of California-Davis, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Minnesota, and the University of Washington.
Graduate Programs
Welcome. The UW Department of English graduate programs are committed to the intellectual and professional development of our students as educators, researchers, and writers. We offer a combined MA/PhD in language and literature in addition to MFA and MATESOL degrees. Our faculty include many nationally and internationally recognized creative ...
M.A. Programs
Graduate Admissions Information The Department of English And Comparative Literature 602 Philosophy Hall, MC4927 1150 Amsterdam Ave · New York, NY 10027 Phone
Best Graduate English Programs
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, MI. #8 in English (tie) Save. 4.6. Earning a master's degree or doctorate in English can improve your writing skills, sharpen your analytical ...
M.A./Ph.D in English
Vision Statement. The MA/PhD in English degree (Literature Program) advances a curriculum that develops the analytical tools, diverse perspectives, and historical depth necessary for understanding the present. We explore the reciprocal relations between the marginal and the dominant, the past and the present, and the literary and non-literary.
Graduate
Information for Prospective Postgraduate Students. We are pleased that you are considering the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge for your postgraduate studies. We provide opportunities for outstanding postgraduate study in all areas of English Literature. As a postgraduate student here, you can expect to be in regular contact ...
PhD Program
Boston University English 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215 Phone: 617-353-2506 · Fax: 617-353-3653 · email: [email protected]
Graduate
Welcome to Graduate English Study at Baylor! The Baylor University Department of English grants the M.A. and Ph.D. in English and American literature, offering training in all major historical periods, focusing on literary aesthetics and criticism. Literature and religion is a historical and ongoing strength of the graduate program. Our esteemed faculty strive to prepare all students for their ...
The M.A. Program
We offer a rigorous program with a multi-faceted final thesis project, and, once admitted, students have up to three years to complete the degree. Starting in Fall 2021, the M.A. program requires eight courses (24 credits) plus completion of a thesis and allows students to earn the degree within a four-semester/two year schedule.
Graduate Education
The Yale English Department offers a broad-ranging program of graduate education, with courses that engage all periods of British literature, American literature since its inception, and many of the contemporary interdisciplines (feminism, media studies, post-colonialism, Black studies, LGBTQIA+ studies, and the environmental humanities). The ...
English
English - MA at Canterbury. English - PhD at Canterbury. For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide. For students continuing on this programme fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.*. If you are uncertain about your fee status ...
Graduate
The Department of English offers a program leading to the PhD degree in literatures in English. The department is small in numbers and its graduate students are carefully selected on the basis of their professional distinction as teachers, critics, and scholars. Because of its small size, the department affords students exceptionally focused attention. The department...
English PhD
The Berkeley English Department offers a wide-ranging PhD program, engaging in all historical periods of British and American literature, Anglophone literature, and critical and cultural theory. ... Students can, however, petition for an MA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing upon completion of the PhD course requirements (one of ...
Graduate
Students are admitted to the MA program without funding. The deadline for students seeking funding is December 15. We accept applications until February 15. Please visit the English MA admissions page or the English PhD admissions page to learn more about graduate program requirements, dates and deadlines and instructions on how to apply.
English, MA
Program description. Degree awarded: MA English. The MA degree program in English addresses the many facets of English: its literature; its linguistic, social and cultural histories; and its capacities for persuasion, exposition and elucidation. The program is grounded in scholarly tradition but designed for the demands of today's world.
MA & PhD
PhD Admissions Requirements. All applications are completed online. Current UIC English MA students do not apply to the PhD program via Slate. Test scores, transcripts, online application, and application fee are not required for these students. Please contact the Graduate Program Director before December 15th to arrange for submission of ...

Ohio State nav bar

MA/PhD Program

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

A note about letter grade and S/U class numbers

Critical theory requirement

Breadth requirement

Graduate workshop requirement

S/U grading guidelines

Independent study

Language Proficiency Requirements

Method #1: Multimedia computer-adaptive placement test

Method #2: Department-administered placement test

Method #3: Year of university-level language classes

Method #4: Graduate reading course

Method #5: Translation test

Method #6: Oral proficiency test

Preparing for the Advising Meeting

Final Program of Study

Candidacy Exam Information

Candidacy Exam Format

Dissertation

Dissertation prospectus content

Dissertation committee

Prospectus conference

Finalizing the dissertation manuscript

Final approval

General Information

Final Oral Exam Format

Time limits for candidacy

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Application materials

English admissions process

Writing the personal statement

Selecting a writing sample

Search form

The Graduate Program

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only. The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found at http://records.ureg.virginia.edu/index.php .

Share this page

Areas of Study

Admissions Requirements

Writing Sample

Statement of Purpose

Standardized Tests

Theses & Dissertations

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Year One Coursework

Year Two Coursework

Foreign Language Requirement:

Year Three Coursework

Year Six and beyond

Search form

PhD and MA Graduate Admissions

Application Procedures

Elements of the Application

College of Social Sciences & Humanities

More Details

Graduates of our MA program are able to:

Career Outlook

Looking for something different?

Program Costs

Requirements

Admissions Dates

Our Faculty

Neal Lerner

Erika Boeckeler

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

Where They Work

What They Do

What They're Skilled At

Related Articles

Should I Go To Grad School: 4 Questions to Consider

Grad School or Work? How to Balance Both

7 Networking Tips for Graduate Students

Search form

Graduate Programs

What programs do we offer?

How do you apply to an English graduate program?

How do you contact an advisor?

Best English Programs

M.A./Ph.D in English