Academic Program

The Dual Enrolled Master's Degree in English program provides an avenue for placebound secondary teachers, traditional and non-traditional Missouri S&T students, to pursue advanced work whether for career advancement or for personal and lifelong learning and enrichment. The program is also designed to help a select group of incoming freshmen to complete their Bachelor's and Master's degrees in five years. (For more information, contact the Honor Academy (573-341-4131) and ask about the Master Student Fellowship program.)

Emphasis areas for the literature track include British and American literature, theories of writing, criticism, language and/or culture, and literature in translation. For the composition track, students must take 18 hours in literature, including English 400, and 18 hours in writing courses.

All graduate level courses offered at Missouri S&T have been approved by the UMSL Department of English and are taught by members of the graduate faculty.

Emphasis Areas

Emphasis areas for the literature track include:

• British Literature before 1660
• British literature, 1660-1900
• Twentieth-century literature (British, American, post-colonial, or in translation)
• American literature
• Theories of writing, criticism, language, and/or culture
• Literature in translation, study of a particular literary genre, or a course in another relevant discipline.

For the composition track, students must take 18 hours in literature, including English 400, and 18 hours in writing courses, including English 485.

The Program

All graduate level courses offered at Missouri S&T have been approved by the UMSL Department of English and will be reviewed by the UMSL Department of English. These courses are taught by members of the graduate faculty.

The 300-level literature and linguistics courses, taught by the Department of English at Missouri S&T and listed in the 2007-2008 Missouri S&T Graduate Catalog, are approved as courses which can be taken for graduate credit.

Degree Requirements

• Total hours: 36 hours, 26 of which must be in 400-level courses.
• Nine hours may be taken for graduate credit in 300-level courses approved by the departments and Graduate School.
• A maximum of 12 hours of graduate course work from Missouri S&T may be transferred to UMSL.
• A core course, English 400, Introduction to Graduate Study in English, will be taught by UMSL faculty. The course must be taken by all students in the literature and composition tracks.

Research Opportunities

Students will be working with published faculty for their graduate research on current projects within their area of interest.

Career Opportunities

If you are considering a professional career such as medicine, law, business, teaching, government service, or technical writing, you will find that English is an excellent choice to prepare you for that career. If you want to be a novelist, poet, or creative non-fictionist, then a degree in English provides you with the opportunities to test your skills.

While teaching at the community college or university level is the usual career path for those with advanced degrees in English, our graduates find that the research and communication skills combined with the discipline acquired makes them sought after by a wide range of employers.

Admissions Requirements

Joint admissions policies (Missouri S&T and UMSL):

• Candidates for the M.A. in English must meet the admissions requirements of both the Graduate Schools and of the Departments of English at Missouri S&T and UMSL.
• Candidates must have a bachelor's degree, with at least 24 hours in English above the freshman level, 12 in literature courses.
• Normally only students with a grade point average of at least 3.0 in undergraduate English courses and an overall average of 2.75 will be considered.
• Applicants must submit scores for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). In general, students scoring below the 65th percentile on the verbal examination will not be accepted into the program. Students may retake the examination to improve their scores.
• In addition, the Departments require letters of recommendation from two English professors with whom the student has worked.
• The letters, the undergraduate record, and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores will be the basis for the admission decision.
• Students must submit fiction or poetry in application for the creative writing track.
• International students must provide documentation of financial support and have TOEFL or IELTS scores sent from ETS directly to the Director of Admissions. The department requires a minimum TOEFL score of 550 (paper), 213 (computer), or 79 (IBT) and IELTS score of 6.5.

Deadlines

Applications are strongly encouraged by 1 May for Fall semester and for the Summer session, and 1 December for the Winter semester. Late applicants will be considered but cannot be assured of admission.

Departmental Contact

Prof. Gene Doty
573-341-4764
gdoty@mst.edu

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