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Degree Requirements

Summary of Basic Requirements

• Proficiency equivalent to three years of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, or two years of modern Tibetan

• Two modern history courses on the country or area of focus

• Six appropriate regional courses (at least two of which are colloquia or seminars)

• Minimum of 30 credits in total (approximately 10 courses)

• A master’s thesis
  
  

Requirements for the China, Japan, Korea, or Tibet Program

Proficiency equivalent to the third-year level of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, or the second-year level of modern Tibetan: The language requirement may be met through course work or by passing a language placement examination at Columbia. The examination is offered each semester on the Friday before classes begin.

Two courses in the modern history of the appropriate country or area (same as that of language proficiency): Comparable work may be substituted with written permission of the Institute director.

Six regional courses selected from at least two different fields: At least one of the six courses must focus on an Asian Pacific country or sub-region other than the student’s country or area of specialization. These courses must include at least two colloquia and/or seminars and are drawn from a wide range of offerings in Anthropology, Business, Economics, History, International Affairs, Literature, Law, Political Science, and Sociology. Courses dealing with the region as a whole or dealing with the region’s relations with other countries or regions may also be taken to fulfill this requirement. Students taking an East Asian language at the fourth-year level or above may count two semesters of language toward this requirement.

M.A. Thesis

The master’s thesis must be at least thirty pages in length and deal with a modern or contemporary topic in the social sciences that focuses on East Asia. It must substantially incorporate the student’s country or region of focus, although other countries can be dealt with in the paper.

Each student works with a professor who serves as thesis advisor. As most students choose to take a paper written for a seminar course and expand it into a thesis, the professor from the seminar course typically serves as the thesis advisor. Students may however, work with any faculty member of the Institute with the approval of the Program Chair.

In addition to the regular curriculum, the experience of students in the M.A. program is enhanced by participation in the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s rich extracurricular programming for students across several schools at Columbia. These include symposia, a lecture series which brings in more than sixty outside speakers each year, career events, and language tables at which students have the opportunity to reinforce their language skills.