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Five-Year MA

Planning for a Five-Year MA

The Five-Year MA requires advanced planning. You must choose your courses carefully so that:

  1. You will have completed a total of 11 English courses (although only one 499 is necessary if accepted) and 32 total units by the end of your Senior year.
  2.  You have extra room in the Spring of your Senior year for two graduate courses (505 and one other) which do not count toward your BA.
  3. You will have completed 20 units (through the end of your 5th semester) BEFORE applying in March of your Junior year.
  4. You will have completed all three foundational literature courses and at least two 300-400-level courses BEFORE applying in March of your Junior year.

Transfer students may not be able to meet all the requirements above; if not, please consider the traditional MA instead.

If you are interested in the Five-Year MA, you should have a consultation with your undergraduate advisor (ideally during the academic advisement period) and discuss a plan for how to prepare**.

Applying for the Five-Year MA

Applications are due in the Spring of your Junior year (March 1st).  Applications are due to the English Department—not the Office of Graduate Studies—through the application on the MA website (see link below).

You must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 overall and a 3.4 for English classes at TCNJ.

Application requirements include:

  • A completed application
  • 2 letters of recommendation from TCNJ faculty members (one must be from the English department) who can evaluate the candidate’s research and writing skills
  • Unofficial transcripts from TCNJ
  • A writing sample (a piece of analytical writing from a 300-or 400-level course at TCNJ–submitted without any grade or comments on it).

Students applying for this program do not need to take GREs, and you do not have to pay an application fee.

Applicants will be notified by April 1st with admission decisions.

For more information, contact Jean Graham, Associate Chair of English (graham@tcnj.edu), or Jo Carney, Coordinator of Graduate English (carney@tcnj.edu).

 

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