Graduate Handbook:
How to complete the MA degree.

You are encouraged to ask advice from a professor you are taking courses from and discuss whether you are ready to satisfy the MA degree requirements.

The information on how to satisfy the MA requirements comes from the Graduate school website.

If you plan to graduate this semester, you will need:

  1. To declare the candidacy by the date in the deadlines for degree completion. You can do this on the Online Declaration of Candidacy Form.
  2. You need to contact the Master's Exam Coordinator to go over your transcript to find whether you have the credit hours and the gpa needed to graduate. You need 30 credit hours with a gpa of B or above. The gpa is calculated according to the following table:
    3. F = 0.0  D = 1.0  C- = 1.7 C = 2.0  C+ = 2.3 B- = 2.7 B = 3.0  B+ = 3.3 A- = 3.7 A = 4.0 
  3. You can graduate by taking a Master's Examination or by writing a Master's Thesis. If you do a Master's Examination, we need to discuss the composition of the Examination Committee.
    1. (Master's Examination option) The Examination Committee consists of 3 or more faculty members. The Master's Exam should cover 30 credit hours. You may need to have a course (half credit) with less than its usual credit hours in order to get the exact 30 credits hours. You may use courses which you are taking now. In that case the Master's Examination cannot be too early in the semester. Every course, in the 30 credits load, must be assigned to one of the members of the Examination Committee. Once the Examination Committee has been selected, YOU need to arrange a time for the Master's Exam which is convenient to all the members in the Examination Committee. Usually the Master's Exam is a 2 hours oral exam.
    2. (Thesis option) These are the guidelines for preparing a thesis or dissertation from the graduate school.


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