Graduate School of Arts and Sciences:
Departments and Degree Programs

705 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Dean
Virginia Sapiro, AB, PhD

Associate Dean
J. Scott Whitaker, BA, PhD

Records Officer
Martha W. Khan

Admissions Officer
Patricia A. Schiavoni, BA, MUA

Financial Aid Officer
Janette Countryman, BA

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1874 as the School of All Sciences to provide advanced programs of study and research leading to the MA and PhD degrees. The first degrees were granted in 1877: the MA to Isaac Newton Lewis and the PhD to James Barclay Hall and Helen Magill (Mrs. Andrew Dickson White).

Today, approximately 1,800 candidates are registered in MA, MS, and PhD programs in nearly 40 major fields. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences includes all members of the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences, faculty from the School of  Theology (in the Division of Religious and Theological Studies), faculty from the School of Music in the College of Fine Arts, faculty from the College of Engineering (in the Bioinformatics Program), and faculty from other Schools and Colleges appointed in specific programs.

Graduate School students may cross-register for graduate courses at Boston College, Brandeis University, and Tufts University. For procedural details, see “Cross-Registration” in the “Policies and Procedures” section of this bulletin. After matriculation at Boston University, all courses taken at other institutions must be taken for a letter grade rather than Pass/Fail.

Students may also register for courses in the University’s other Schools and Colleges, in the University Professors Program, in the Boston University Marine Program, and at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Accreditations and Memberships

Boston University is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc.; is recognized by the University of the State of New York; and is a member of the following agencies: the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; the American Council of Learned Societies; Universities Research Association; EDUCOM Interuniversity Communications Council; and the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United Methodist Church.


The Department of Chemistry of the College of Arts and Sciences is accredited by the American Chemical Society; programs in clinical and counseling psychology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are accredited by the American Psychological Association.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is a charter member of the Council of Graduate Schools of the United States.

Classrooms, Laboratories, and Offices

The main classroom building of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which it shares with the College of Arts and Sciences, is on the central plaza of the Charles River Campus. Specialized libraries, museums, and laboratories are located in departmental, center, and institute areas in this building and elsewhere on the campus.

Dean’s Message

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences takes as its mission the advancement of knowledge through research and scholarship, and the preparation of future researchers, scholars, and college and university teachers. Our graduate degree programs span the humanities: the natural, social, and mathematical sciences, music, and theology. In addition to a wide range of traditional disciplines, we are proud of our leading programs in many interdisciplinary fields such as American and New England Studies and Cognitive and Neural Systems. Over forty academic departments, centers, and institutes offer one or more of the School’s broad range of MA and PhD programs.

Graduate education at this institution reflects our strength as the heart of a major research university, the devotion of our faculty to teaching and mentoring, and the many advantages of our location in Boston. Recent construction of extensive new research facilities in the sciences has further enhanced our science faculty’s active research program. Graduate students benefit both from the richness of opportunity stemming from our large size and diversity of programs and approaches and from our emphasis on the individual graduate student, beginning with the proper match among interests, programs, and faculty advisors and continuing with a sustained concern for the student’s development as a researcher, scholar, practitioner, and teacher.

With a richly international student body and a faculty fully engaged at the frontiers of knowledge, Boston University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is well positioned to contribute to the intellectual developments of the future. We hope you will find this bulletin informative, and we would be pleased to receive your questions either in the Graduate School Office or at the individual program locations.

Virginia Sapiro, Dean

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences:
Departments and Degree Programs

This section of the site lists graduate degree programs offered by the faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

BA/MA Programs

The BA/MA Program, offered jointly by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences, enables qualified students entering their junior year to pursue undergraduate and graduate studies concurrently. Students must apply before March 1st of their junior year. Seniors may not apply. Students receive both the BA and the MA degrees simultaneously and only after completing both programs. Since two diplomas are issued, students must file an application to graduate with each College. Deadlines for the MA applications are found Application Deadlines in the Admissions Procedures section of this site.

Further information is available in the Undergraduate Programs Bulletin. Details of individual programs can be requested from the BA/MA advisor in each department. Applications are available at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 705 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 112, Boston, MA 02215.

In most cases the BA/MA program restricts major fields of study to those fields in which the MA is offered in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Be aware that the BA/MA program is limited to certain areas of study and is not available in all programs. A second major field of study for the BA portion of the program is allowed only upon approval of the Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

The BA/MA program is restricted to students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences. Students enrolled in other undergraduate Colleges at Boston University must apply for an intra-University transfer into the College of Arts and Sciences before making an application to this program. The BA/MA program is not available to Boston University Collaborative Degree Program (BUCOP) students.

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Published by Trustees of Boston University
One Sherborn Street
Boston, MA 02215

31 October 2007
Boston University
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