Current Students
Suggestions
Procedure
Suggestions for Students
in the M.A. Program
1. Always keep the lines of communication open. Make sure we have your telephone numbers and the e-mail addresses you actually use (if not the one supplied by the university). Check your e-mail messages regularly! This will be our principal means of communication. Frequently the graduate program director receives special announcements from the Graduate School of important deadlines, small grants or fellowships, award competitions, or conferences at which students present their research. I will pass these on to you via e-mail. Don't forget to check your departmental mailboxes for other announcements as well as for your snail mail.
Keep us informed of your plans and of changes you wish to make in your course load or schedule. If you inform the graduate advisor (currently Dr. Winders) ahead of time you can avoid unpleasant run-ins with other offices on campus who have an interest in your course registration, financial status, employment, etc.
2. As soon as possible during your course of study, seek to identify your area of greatest emphasis and identify the professor(s) with whom you will most likely want to work. This is especially important in planning your topic for a master's thesis. Technically, the graduate program advisor coordinates things for all students, but we want to encourage you to select the professor whose area of expertise most appeals to your interest, and to do that at the earliest opportunity. For new students, this year the History 5000 course has been redesigned to provide introduction to a variety of fields of historical study and to bring you into contact with the faculty working in a number of these areas. Hopefully this will provide an impetus for selecting the faculty you will work with most closely.
3. Questions ? Please ask ! I hope to meet with each of you on a regular basis.
Procedures
1. Program of Study Form--to be drawn up during the student's second semester of study, with the assistance of the graduate advisor. Especially since new courses occasionally come along or planned courses may need to be postponed, amendments to the program may be necessary. Again, these are submitted after consultation with the graduate advisor.
2. Admission to candidacy application (requires a 3.0 minimum GPA). To be completed and filed at the same time as the Program of Study form.
3. Oral Comprehensive Examination. By the end of the final semester of course work, each M.A. student should arrange with three graduate faculty from the History Department (a faculty member from outside the department is acceptable but still there must be three members of the History faculty) to serve on the oral examination committee. Normally these would be faculty with whom you have taken your most important course work. It is up to the student to find a time and date mutually convenient for the faculty members plus the graduate advisor, who convenes the examination. The examination must take place by one month before the end of the semester. Once the date and time have been established, the student must inform the graduate advisor who in turn reserves a room for the occasion and announces the examination to the department faculty and graduate students.
The time allotted for the examination is 90 minutes and consists of questions based on the student's reading and research work supervised by the members of the committee. Questions will test factual, interpretive, and bibliographic knowledge. Typically the professor the student has worked with most closely will monitor the proceedings, with the assistance of the graduate advisor. Each of the three committee members will take about fifteen minutes apiece for questions, followed by a second round following up on material discussed in the initial round. Then the student is dismissed and the committee members deliberate, in order to arrive at one of three judgments:
"Pass" - The student has demonstrated command of the material considered in the courses taken and has been able to discuss it in an articulate manner.
"Pass with Distinction" - The student has displayed exceptional command of the material, with particular skill in synthesizing knowledge from a variety of courses taken, and has done so in a highly impressive manner.
"Failure" - The student has demonstrated poor, incomplete command of the material and has performed in a hesitant, inarticulate manner. If a student fails, (s)he must wait at least one month before a second attempt.
The committee will inform the student of its decision and the graduate advisor will inform the department chair in writing.
4. Written Examination. The written examination is arranged through consultation with the Public History Program coordinator or the MA/Secondary Education advisor. Then the student informs the graduate program advisor of the names of faculty who will draft the examination and the date and time it is to be given. After successful completion of the examination, the student then may schedule the oral examination, following the procedures outlined in #3 above.
5. Thesis. Required for the M.A. (History) degree, but also strongly recommended, even if optional, for the MA (History/Education) and MA (Public History).
Students are strongly encouraged during their first year of course work, through consultation with the graduate advisor, to identify at least a general subject area for the thesis and the professor with whom they are likely to work.That professor and student consult regularly as the student completes course work and prepares for examinations. Two additional graduate faculty members (at least one from History) must be selected. Depending on the topic and the course work taken, the membership of the thesis committee may differ from the makeup of the comprehensive examination committee.
Once the thesis topic has been identified, it is registered with the graduate school. Normally students register for History 5999 (Thesis) during the final semester before graduation. At other times, especially for students who have completed all other course work, it is advisable to register for at least one semester hour of credit under History 5989 ("Graduate Research").
The Newly Revised Graduate School Thesis Manual (2002) is on display just inside the door of the History Office.
Bear in mind that the Graduate School and outside agencies occasionally announce small competitive research or travel grants for thesis students. The graduate advisor will pass this information along. In the past, many of our students have presented their research at conferences, such as the state conference of Phi Alpha Theta, the History honorary society. This is very good experience, and students are strongly encouraged to pursue such opportunities. |