• Registration: 2 Residence Units
  
• Advising: 2 meetings per semester between student and assigned advisor
  
• Coursework: 8 graded courses (24 credits), with grades of B or higher, and which must include:

— M.A. Seminar (G5001x), Fall term
— M.A. Thesis Tutorial (G5005y), Spring term
— Three 6000-level seminars

• M.A. Colloquium on Theory and Method (G5005x), Fall term [no credit]
• Seminar Requirement
  — 3 6000-level seminars for M.A. students
  — 1 or 2 6000-level seminars for Free-Standing M.A. students
  
• Distribution of Classes
  — one class from the categories of either medieval or early modern literature
  — one class from the categories of either 18th- & 19th-century or 20th-century literature
  
• Submission of M.A. Essay
• Certification of Proficiency in a Second Language
  
• Positive Evaluation

Free-Standing M.A.
Free-Standing M.A. students can do the program on either a full-time or a part-time basis.

Full-Time Registration
Like sequential M.A. students, full-time free-standing M.A.s are expected to complete the degree within one year registering for one "residence unit" per semester.

PART-TIME REGISTRATION OPTION FOR THE M.A.

Although most free-standing M.A. students attend full-time, they may also obtain the M.A. through part-time study. Part-time students must complete the degree in no more than 4 years, and they must take at least two seminars by the end of the first residence unit.

Part-time M.A. candidates usually register for either a ¼ residence unit (up to two courses) or a ½ residence unit (up to three courses) per term. GSAS requires 2 full residence units - the equivalent of one year of full tuition - for the M.A. degree. Part-time students can also enroll during the summer, when various 4000-level courses are offered. Taking half- or quarter-residence units spreads out cost and time to degree, but ends up costing somewhat more than doing full-time work. (Three-quarter units are not an available option.)

Although part-time students must maintain continuous registration until they receive the degree, students with outside responsibilities may, after their first term, maintain enrollment by paying only the Matriculation and Facilities fee at registration.

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ADVISING

All incoming students are assigned a faculty advisor in the summer before they first
enroll at Columbia. The advisor will continue as advisor through the end of the M.A. program, for free-standing M.A. students, and through the first M.Phil. year, for sequential students.

Advisors should meet in person with their advisees twice per semester, and should be
prepared to respond via e-mail to questions that may come up during summer and winter breaks as students consider their options for the upcoming semester. It is the advisee's responsibility to get in touch with the advisor as questions arise, and to arrange for face-to-face meetings twice per semester, once during registration, once around the middle of the semester or near the end of classes. The first meeting will focus on course selection, while the second meeting gives the advisee a chance to say how things are going generally, to discuss any specific issues or problems that are arising with a course or with the workload overall, and to begin to think ahead to the next term.

While advisees are expected to take the initiative in scheduling meetings, advisors in turn are expected to make it a priority to find time to meet when asked, during office hours when mutually convenient, or otherwise at another time. At least twenty minutes should be blocked out for the two basic meetings each semester. Advisors should not hesitate to be in touch with the DGS, the Associate Director, or the Department Administrator or Graduate Coordinator on any uncertain questions, or when an issue arises that should be brought to the attention of those who are overseeing the graduate program.

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Colloquium on Theory and Method (ENGL G5005x)
This bi-weekly series of roundtables by different faculty members affords students a chance not only to discuss valuable forms of literary theory, critical methods, and disciplinary issues, but also to meet a wide range of faculty members and leaders in their respective fields. Students should register for this class, but it carries no points nor do students receive a separate letter grade for it. Attendance, however, is mandatory. As with the M.A. Seminar, this class is only available in the Fall Term.

M.A. Essay Tutorial (ENGL G5005y)
This class is for course credit, rather than being an actual class that students attend. It is designed to give the students the time they need to develop a sustained and nuanced argument in the M.A. Essay. The M.A. essay tutorial course will receive the grade assigned by the essay's sponsor. (The sponsor may assign a split grade on the essay itself, as a way of adding nuance for the student and the Committee on Guidance and Evaluation (CGE), but should decide on a single grade for the transcript: A, A-, B+, etc.). This class is available in the Spring Term, and in the Summer or Fall Term for part-time students upon request to the Director of Graduate Studies.

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TYPES OF CLASSES

There are two types of graduate classes offered by Columbia's English Department: 4000-level lectures and 6000-level seminars.

4000-level lectures
These courses serve as introductions to the literature of a particular time period (Medieval, Victorian, etc.) or literary movements (Modernism, Psychoanalysis, etc.). 4000-level lectures are offered to both graduate students and upper-year undergraduates. Students are expected to take exams and/or do the shorter pieces of writing assigned by the professor.

6000-level seminars
These courses are open only to graduate students, and involve intensive explorations of special topics, specific authors, or distinct time periods. Students are generally expected to do some writing during the semester and produce a long research paper (typically 20-25 pages) at the end of the course.

Sequential M.A.s must take a total of three 6000-level seminars, while free-standing M.A. students are encouraged to take at least two 6000-level seminars (in addition to the Master's Seminar, G5001x), though the requirement may be filled by a single seminar. This option is intended to give more flexibility for free-standing M.A. students who may wish to do a higher proportion of 4000-level lecture courses, whether because of the subject matter, the instructors, scheduling conflicts, or simply the wish to spend more time reading rather than writing research papers. Free-Standing M.A. students who intend to apply to Ph.D. programs, however, are strongly advised to do the full number of 3 6000-level seminars.

Other Lecture/Seminar Options
If a student cannot get into enough seminars, or simply wishes to do added work in a 4000-level course, a 4000-level course can count for seminar credit, with the instructor's permission. The student and instructor should agree on the writing of a seminar-style research paper (or its equivalent). The instructor should e-mail the Graduate Coordinator to signal agreement to this plan.

Conversely, if a student wants to take more seminars than the minimum needed but not write more research papers, with the instructor's permission the student can take a 6000-level seminar for lecture-course credit, doing the reading, participating in discussion, and doing whatever written work the instructor considers appropriate. The instructor should e-mail the Graduate Coordinator to signal agreement to this plan.

Courses in Other Departments
Students may take relevant courses in other departments, but these courses must be approved by the Associate Director if they are to count toward the degree. Students must submit a brief rationale, the course name, instructor, course description, and syllabus (when it is available). If the course is in addition to those required by the department, no special permission is needed.

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DISTRIBUTION OF CLASSES

During the M.A., students must take at least one course in each of the following categories:

a)  medieval or early modern
b)  18th & 19th century or 20th century

Each year the department draws up a list of courses that fulfill each period requirement. When a course spans two periods, it can count toward whichever period serves as the base for the student's primary written work.

The Associate Director oversees the process of the essay's writing and its evaluation by its sponsor, whom the student consults throughout the process, and by a second reader, who is involved only in reading the finished product. (A third reader is added if there is a substantial divergence between the grades given by the sponsor and second reader.) Students should be sure to attend the fall meeting held by the Associate Director concerning the essay, and should consult the Associate Director as well as their advisor for initial conversations on possible topics and suggestions on good sponsors for them.

Full-time students write the essay during the spring semester, with a tutorial course credit for doing so (even if the essay is also being used as the research paper for a seminar).

Part-time students usually write the essay in their second year, often in the fall semester, so as to have it as a writing sample if they are then applying to Ph.D. programs.

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CERTIFICATION OF PROFICIENCY IN A SECOND LANGUAGE

By the end of the M.A., each student must demonstrate a solid reading ability in a language other than English. We accept in our program any languages that students can show will be relevant for their scholarly work: examples are Continental languages in which much theoretical and scholarly discussion is carried on (French, German, Spanish), classical languages that English-language writers often cite (Greek, Hebrew, Latin), the other literary languages of the British Isles (Irish, Welsh), and languages of major colonial and post-colonial populations closely engaged with England (Arabic, Hindi, Zulu). Any language may be offered, so long as it bears a clear relevance to the candidate's prospective work.

Students arrange the completion of the language requirement with the Graduate Coordinator, who can refer them to the DGS in any cases of uncertainty as to whether a language is appropriate. Our standard for reading ability is the ability to accurately translate a page of literary or critical prose in two hours, using a dictionary.

This standard is measured using one of two methods: language exams or language classes.

Language Exams
Several of the language departments offer periodic "proficiency exams" throughout the year, including within the first 2-3 weeks of the Fall Term. Consult with the Graduate Coordinator for the times. If the language you wish to be examined in is not one offered on a regular basis, you should consult the individual department directly.

Language Classes
The language requirement can be fulfilled with a grade of B+ or better in an intermediate-level undergraduate language class, or a grade of B+ or better in a graduate class whose language of instruction is the language in question; in both cases the language class must be taken during the student's enrollment in the Columbia graduate program. Students on fellowship have tuition coverage for academic year and summer language courses, although these courses do not count toward graduate course requirements. The DGS should be consulted for any questions on unusual circumstances.

Note: "Rapid Reading and Translation" courses (e.g. Spanish 1113, Italian 1204, French 1206) do not count as intermediate level language courses. Taking a "Rapid Reading" course can be good preparation for taking a Placement Exam, but does not substitute for taking a Placement Exam.

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WRITTEN WORK, GRADES, AND EVALUATIONS

Written Work
With the exception of the M.A. essay, which may be developed from a paper originally written for course credit, no written work in the M.A. or the M.Phil. program may be submitted more than once for credit. Students are responsible for avoiding plagiarism and following the Graduate School's general guidelines on academic honesty: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/rules/chapter-9/pages/honesty/index.html.

Grades
Students and faculty should consider that both the A and the A- are truly positive grades. Grades of A- do not indicate a lack of satisfactory progress, but simply register good work that can be taken a step further in future.

Grades of B+ signal work that raises concerns, and in the case of an M.A. student a pattern of B+ grades would indicate someone who shouldn't go on in the program unless he or she is doing significantly better work in other courses. The rare grade of B signals an active recommendation that the student not go on, or in the case of upper-year students would indicate some difficulties that should be discussed with the DGS. B is the minimum grade for counting a course toward degree requirements.

End-of-the-Year Evaluation
Each spring the faculty members of the Committee on Graduate Education (CGE) meet to evaluate the work of graduating M.A. students and to certify them for graduation. This meeting takes place around May 10, about a week in advance of Commencement; all work must be completed in time for faculty to get in grades by then. For sequential students, the CGE also checks to see that each student has done work of high quality and made satisfactory progress, so as to be admitted into the M.Phil. program. It is our expectation that all sequential students will indeed have done so. The minimum standard as expressed by grades is an A- average both in coursework overall and on the M.A. Essay specifically; satisfactory progress is defined as having completed all coursework and fulfilled the language requirement by the time of the CGE's review.

Extensions can be granted when necessary for health reasons, or in rare instances for other reasons, usually to a specified date such as June 30; anyone who anticipates any difficulty in completing their work on time should speak to the Associate Director and DGS well in advance of the end-of-year review. It is quite unusual for someone not to have made satisfactory progress, but the CGE considers it important for the student as well as the program to identify such cases and face the situation squarely.

Students in the sequential program who are finishing the M.A. year with several incompletes or with an unsatisfactory M.A. essay are not likely to thrive in our M.Phil. program and will be better served by taking time to regroup before continuing on elsewhere. These cases, though, really are infrequent; in most years, all sequential students who apply to continue are admitted into the M.Phil. program.

There is no bar to taking an incomplete in a fall semester course, but any such incomplete should be made up by the time classes resume at the end of January. No incompletes should be taken for the spring semester, if the student is applying to go on into the Ph.D. program. Except in the case of a serious health problem with a doctor's note, incompletes at year-end are viewed as potentially disqualifying a sequential student from admission to the M.Phil.

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DEFERMENT OF ADMISSION

Columbia M.A. students admitted to the M.Phil. program who wish to defer have the option of reapplying for admission the following year. Under special circumstances, a further year's extension may be granted. After two years, admission to the M.Phil. program requires a formal review. No deferral is permitted for students applying to the M.Phil. program from other schools.

End-of-Year Applications
Free-Standing M.A. students can wait until they complete our M.A. and then apply the following fall for a year later. This option has the disadvantage of a year's delay in continuing on to graduate programs for a Ph.D.; it has the advantage that applicants will then have a completed M.A. Essay to use as a writing sample, and the benefit of the full year's maturation of their work and their sense of their interests and the discipline.

Free-Standing M.A. students may apply to Columbia's Ph.D. program, either in mid-year or upon completion of the M.A. They will be treated on the same basis as any applicants currently doing M.A.s elsewhere; doing the M.A. at Columbia neither gives an inside edge nor counts against an applicant. Over the past several years, we have admitted on average about one M.A. student to our M.Phil./Ph.D. program per year, though some years none. The intense competition for places in our sequential program makes it much harder to get in than into our already competitive free-standing M.A. program; in recent years, the department has admitted fewer than 4% of its sequential applicants, as compared to 25% of the free-standing M.A. applicants. The odds at Columbia have meant that most admissions from the free-standing M.A. to the M.Phil. have come following the completion of an outstanding M.A. thesis; free-standing M.A. students also have the option to apply mid-year to less severely competitive programs at other schools.

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