MA Requirements

Admission Requirements

  • Graduate School Application and Statement of Purpose
  • Three Academic Letters of Recommendation
  • Writing Sample (2500-3000 words)
  • Transcript from each college attended

The application deadline is January 30th of each spring for beginning in the following fall semester. We offer fall start dates only.

Submit Online Application

Program Requirements

The department requires students to fulfill the following requirements for a Master’s Degree in English:

  • 8 Courses (24 credit hours) with an average grade of B or above: at least 5 courses at the 700-level (graduate student courses), with three additional courses at the 600-level (advanced undergraduate) courses or 6 courses at the 700-level and 2 courses at 600-level. A number of credit hours are allotted for doing thesis research; these courses receive a grade of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory only.
  • Foreign Language Requirement: this requirement may be fulfilled by passing a reading/ translation proficiency test during the student’s first academic year. Alternatively, a student may complete any one of the following: Spanish 197, 213, 217 or 218 , French 197, 212, 213, 215 or 216, Italian 215 or 216, German 153x, Greek 211 or 212, Latin 211, 212, 216, or 218 with a grade of B. If the student does not pass the reading/translation exam during the first year, then he or she must complete the appropriate course with a grade of B. Other languages may be accepted upon approval by the graduate committee. During the summer before matriculating to Wake Forest, each student will take an on-line Foreign Language Placement Test. The score will help determine which alternative the student should pursue. Students enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate Program in Medieval Studies can use Old English, Old Norse, Provencal, or any other appropriate medieval language to fulfill the requirement. While no individual language course taken as an undergraduate may be used to fulfill the language requirement, evidence of eighteen hours (six semesters) of undergraduate work in a single language will be accepted as fulfilling the requirement.
  • In the second year: by the time students have completed their course and language requirements, and upon recommendation of the English Department, they may apply for Degree Candidacy. At this point, the student will work with a thesis adviser; two additional faculty members will be added to the committee for the purpose of the thesis defense. Students are expected to complete their thesis with one additional semester’s work. Recent theses emerging from the program have been wide-ranging in their scope. Click to see some recent theses.