The Graduate Program in English
Degree Programs and Policies
Boston University Department of English
236 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 353-2506
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The Graduate Program in English
|
Boston University Department of English
236 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 353-2506
|
Residence Requirement
The candidate must be in residence for one continuous academic year.
Foreign Language Requirement
All candidates must demonstrate proficiency in one classical or modern foreign language at the intermediate level. Those wishing to demonstrate proficiency in French, German, Spanish, Italian or Latin may do so by achieving an appropriate designated score on the SAT II Language Test during their first semester of enrollment. The test is offered early in the first semester. The requirement may also be satisfied by earning at least a B in a specifically designated foreign language course at the advanced intermediate level. The candidate is not to elect such a course as a fifth course in any semester, nor does this course count toward the eight semester courses required for the degree. Arrangements for testing in other languages must be made with the Department.
Selection of Courses
Eight semester courses are required for the degree, of which not more than four may be taken in one semester. Of those eight semester courses, at least six are elected from courses numbered 700 or higher. Candidates for the degree in English and American Literature are required to take at least one course that focuses primarily on critical theory, critical method, or the history of criticism (courses that fulfill this requirement are so identified in the course description). To fulfill the linguistics/philology requirement, candidates must complete at least one semester-course from the following: EN 511, Introduction to Linguistics; EN 513, Modern English Grammar; EN 514, Medieval Languages; EN 515, 516, The History of the English Language; EN 561, Chaucer; EN 815, Old English; EN 816, Beowulf; or EN 721, 722, 822, Studies in Medieval Literature. (The linguistics/philology requirement may be waived for the candidate who has taken an equivalent course as an undergraduate.) All courses are chosen in consultation with the candidate’s adviser. Candidates must demonstrate by their proposed program of courses, together with their completed undergraduate degree program of courses, a reasonably comprehensive coverage of English literature from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century and of American literature. Candidates are not permitted to take Directed Study courses as part of their M.A. program.
Course Credit in Related Fields
As part of the total program of eight semester-courses required for the degree, candidates may, with the adviser’s written approval, elect a single one-semester course at the graduate level outside the English Department in a related area.
Transfer of Credit
No transfer of credit for graduate work completed prior to admission to the M.A. degree program is normally granted toward fulfillment of the eight courses required for the degree. However, a student who, because of a language deficiency, does not take a full program of four graduate credit courses per semester, may be allowed, upon petition to the Department, to transfer not more than two courses taken elsewhere for graduate credit toward the M.A. degree program, provided these courses were not used to fulfill the requirements for an academic degree.
An ideal calendar of the Ph.D. program might look like this:
Residence Requirement
The doctoral student must be in residence for a minimum of one continuous academic year.
Foreign Language Requirement
The doctoral student shall fulfill the Ph.D. foreign language requirement in two languages that have relevance to literary studies in English. The Director of Graduate Studies determines which languages are appropriate to fulfill the requirement.
One language shall be at the level of advanced proficiency. This requirement can be fulfilled in the following ways:—by taking a translation test administered by the Department—by achieving an appropriate designated score on the SAT II language test currently offered in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Latin—or by successfully completing (with a grade of B or better) one literature course at the graduate level (courses numbered 500 or higher) in an approved language. It should be noted that a student who successfully completes a graduate-level literature course in a foreign language can count the course toward the eight-course requirement for the Ph.D.; only one such course will be accepted toward fulfilling the eight-course requirement.
One language shall be at the level of intermediate proficiency. This requirement can be fulfilled in the following ways:—by achieving an appropriate designated score on the SAT II language test—or by completing with a grade of B or better (after gaining admission to the graduate program) the fourth semester of college-level language study in an approved language, or GRS LG 621, GRS LF 621, or another 621 course in an approved language.
A student wishing to fulfill the requirement with a language for which there is no available examination (for example, Hebrew or Greek) may ask first to have the language approved and then to take a written translation examination. Requests should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser, then forwarded in writing to the Director of Graduate Studies.
The Department strongly recommends that students achieve proficiency in a modern foreign language and in a classical language. During the first semester of their doctoral program, all students are expected to discuss the language options with their faculty advisers and to submit to the Director of Graduate Studies a plan for achieving language proficiency.
The plan should include a brief justification for the languages chosen. In the case of students for whom English is not the native language, the student’s mastery of the native language will be accepted as fulfilling the requirement for advanced proficiency in one foreign language.
The language requirement must be fulfilled before the qualifying oral examination is scheduled, that is, before the student proceeds to the dissertation.
Selection of Courses
Eight semester-courses are required for the degree, of which not more than four may be taken in one semester. Of those eight semester-courses, at least six must be elected from courses numbered 700 or higher. Doctoral students must take at least one course that focuses primarily on critical theory, critical method, or the history of criticism (courses that fulfill this requirement are so identified in the course description). This requirement is considered satisfied if such a course was included in the student’s M.A. degree program. Doctoral students who have had neither an undergraduate nor a graduate course reading Chaucer in the original must take a graduate-level course in Chaucer as part of their program. Course work for the doctoral program (taking into consideration courses taken for the M.A.) must include at least one course in each of the following periods or areas (since specific courses do not always fit neatly into these categories, consultation with the faculty adviser is essential):
All doctoral students are expected to take EN 698 and EN 699 (supervised teaching of English language and literature) if they hold a Teaching Fellowship.
Directed Study
Ph.D. candidates may elect one Directed Study course as part of the degree program; a rationale and a reading list signed by both the student and the faculty member who agrees to direct the project should be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval.
Course Credit in Related Fields
As part of their total program of eight semester-courses required for the degree, doctoral students may, with their adviser’s approval, elect two semester-courses at the graduate level in related areas. A literature course elected to fulfill the Foreign Language Requirement (see above) may be counted as a related course.
Transfer of Credit
No transfer of credit for graduate work completed prior to admission to the Ph.D. degree program in English and American Literature is granted toward the eight semester-courses required for the Ph.D.
Comprehensive Examination
To be admitted to doctoral candidacy, the student must pass a Comprehensive Oral Examination in a major area of literary study defined by the student in consultation with the adviser. The area chosen for examination is normally related to the student’s anticipated dissertation topic.
Guidelines for Comprehensive Examinations:
—Timing. The examination may not be taken if any other program requirement remains to be fulfilled--e.g., incomplete grade, foreign language requirement. The examination should be taken in the semester following completion of Ph.D. course work.
—Committee. To form an examination committee, the following steps are suggested: The faculty adviser should be consulted about the nature of the examination and possible faculty examiners. The student should then identify two faculty members who will agree to serve as primary examiners; there is no requirement that these faculty be prospective dissertation advisers. A preliminary reading list should be drawn up in consultation with the primary examiners. The student should then file the Qualifying Oral Examination form (available from the Department office) with the Director of Graduate Studies. This form, bearing the signatures of the primary examiners, asks the student to suggest other faculty appropriate to serve on the committee. The remaining two members of the examination committee will be selected by the Director of Graduate Studies. The two secondary examiners may at this time make further suggestions to the proposed reading list. When all have agreed on the final reading list, it will be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval. Please note that the two secondary advisers need not be specialists in the particular area under examination; for some areas it will not be possible to gather four specialists because of the pattern of leaves and sabbaticals. Diversity of fields among the examining faculty is both normal and desirable.
—Reading List. The examination should be an intense exploration of a concentrated area of study. The examination should therefore demonstrate thorough mastery of the texts and criticism of the problem or question under examination. The definition of “coverage” will be the responsibility of the two primary examiners. Several issues can be thought of as elements in the formation of the reading list: What should one know if the area of interest is defined as problem or question X? What should one know before writing a dissertation on X? More pragmatically, what should one know before embarking on a professional career as a scholar and teacher of X? Students need not have clearly defined dissertation topics in mind at the point of the examination. The student is not required to write a dissertation in the area of the examination, although the examination often bears directly on the dissertation.
Dissertation and Final Oral Examination
Students are encouraged to identify a dissertation subject while studying for the qualifying oral examination. The dissertation itself must be written under the supervision of two readers. Shortly after the successful completion of the qualifying examination, a prospectus for the dissertation should be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies for evaluation by the Graduate Committee and the Chair (forms will be available from the Department office). The prospectus should be developed in consultation with the first and second readers, and may not exceed twenty double-spaced pages (excluding bibliography). Prospectuses that exceed this limit will be returned without review for condensing. Before giving its approval to the prospectus and forwarding it to the Chair, the Graduate Committee will often ask for revisions of the version initially submitted to it. Please note that the readers or the Graduate Committee may determine during the prospectus stage that the student is not ready to write a dissertation and should proceed no further. Failure to gain departmental approval for the prospectus by the end of the third year of the Ph.D. program can result in loss of departmental financial support. As part of completing and submitting the dissertation, the candidate provides an abstract approved by the readers for review and approval by the DGS and the Chair. After the abstract is approved, the candidate participates in the final oral examination, which is based principally on the dissertation and related problems in the area of the candidate’s specialization. The final oral examination provides candidates an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to discuss clearly, objectively, and critically the methods and conclusions of the dissertation, as well as their knowledge of related materials. It can also be an occasion that explores directions the candidate could pursue in refining or extending the dissertation’s argument.
Departmental Support
The Committee on Graduate Studies believes that the Ph.D. degree—including courses, the qualifying oral examination, and the dissertation—should be completed in four to five years of study beyond the M.A., if the candidate is serving as a Teaching Fellow. The normal period of Departmental support is four years of financial aid, but aid is frequently available (though not guaranteed) to fifth-year students as well.
A graduate student who earns less than B- in two semester-courses of a degree program is automatically placed on probation; the student may be removed from probation by earning a minimum of a straight B average in the following semester. The student who remains on probation more than one semester may be asked to withdraw from the degree program. Financial aid depends on continuing superior performance in courses and in the student’s teaching responsibilities.
Incompletes
An Incomplete is NOT an acceptable alternative to a letter grade. Before even thinking about requesting an Incomplete, students should consider the following:
To be awarded the M.A. degree, the candidate must maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in both semesters. Admission to the doctoral program is decided by the Committee on Graduate Studies, upon the recommendation of those members of the Department who have taught the candidate during the M.A. degree program. Candidates who wish to apply for entrance to the Ph.D. program must confer with their advisers by the end of January. The application will be reviewed along with external applications by the Committee on Graduate Studies. A decision on admission will normally be reached by March 1.
The academic standing of each graduate student is reviewed regularly. The Department reserves the right to discontinue at any time the registration of students whose work or progress is judged unsatisfactory.
A doctoral student may take up to two one-semester LOA’s at any time during his/her doctoral program; they may be taken either separately or consecutively. A LOA is taken by filling out a single-page form available in the Graduate School; although the form asks that a reason for the LOA be specified, this request is purely for informational purposes. LOA’s are never turned down by the Graduate School. If a doctoral student needs to take more than a total of two semesters off, then the only recourse is officially to Withdraw from the program; after a period of two years (or more), the student may apply for re-admission to the program. The re-application process consists only of filing the cover sheet of the GRS application. Any of these actions should, of course, be thoroughly discussed with your advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
There are potential drawbacks in taking a LOA: (1) you may lose medical coverage; always check with GRS. (2) You may have to start repaying student loans; check the details of your loans. (3) You will have reduced library privileges--borrowing time of 3 weeks; however, students have been able to retain their study carrels. (4) You will not be able officially to fulfill any degree requirement, such as orals, language, and so forth. That is, if the Department sends in the GRS form saying you have passed a language exam, the Graduate School will not register it, since you would not be an enrolled student; as a way around this, we simply hold such forms until you are re-registered, and then send them in. (5) You cannot take a LOA when you are very close to finishing and defending your dissertation, because the Graduate School requires that a student be officially registered in the two consecutive semesters prior to receiving the degree. So, for a May degree, you have to be registered fall and spring of that year. (6) Your TF (if you are still eligible) may not be guaranteed upon your return; check with the Director of Graduate Studies.
The main reason for taking a LOA: You do not have to pay the Continuing Student Fee for that semester. (When you have a TF, of course, your CSF is covered.)
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