History, Thesis Track, M.A.

Admission

Applicants must fulfill the following requirements for admission to the M.A. program in history:

• At least 30 credit hours of acceptable undergraduate history courses, including at least 12 hours of work at the junior and senior level and sufficient courses to provide a basic understanding of American and European history;
• A 3.0 grade point average in all undergraduate work and a 3.0 average in undergraduate history courses; and
• Acceptable scores on the General Tests of the Graduate Record Examination.

Applicants must submit a Graduate School application, GRE scores, a writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to the Graduate School.

Students who are deficient in history credits but meet grade-point requirements may be admitted on a conditional basis.

There is no deadline for admission to the M.A. program in history. Students may apply throughout the year.

Thesis Track Permission

Graduate students in History may pursue the thesis track only through the approval of an ad hoc committee consisting of the members of the History Graduate Committee and the instructor of the student’s 7000-level research seminar.  The committee will determine (based on the student’s performance in the research seminar) whether the student is eligible to pursue the thesis option.  This determination will take place at the end of the student’s second semester.  Students deemed ineligible to pursue the thesis option will be placed on the non-thesis track.

Curriculum Requirements

Students enrolled in the thesis track must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate coursework with a grade point average of not less than 3.0. No more than 12 credit hours of 6000-level coursework may be applied toward the degree. Students admitted with deficiencies in undergraduate history credits may be required to take up to 9 hours of upper-level undergraduate history courses in addition to the specified degree requirements.

Students may elect one of the following primary fields: European history; United States’ history; or comparative history, a thematic field defined by the advisor and relevant faculty.

Seminar Requirement

All graduate students in History must take at least one 7000-level History research seminar within the first two semesters of their enrollment in the MA program.