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Criteria for
Selection
Applicants are usually judged by
the following criteria (which are not listed in order of importance):
1. Letters of Recommendation:
Three letters of recommendation should accompany each application. Students
should
request letters from professors who know them well, preferably from class
work in their last two years of college. Each letter must be
accompanied by a copy of the Letter of Recommendation
Form. Make a copy of
this form for each recommender.
2. Personal Statement:
This letter gives the Program's Admissions Committee some idea about the
applicant's writing style, range and depth of ideas, quality of mind, and
motivation to embark on an advanced degree program in Medieval Studies. Try
to convey the same information in this letter than you would in a personal
interview, those things about you that cannot be expressed quantitatively.
Details about your preparation, your strengths and weaknesses as a student,
any academic honors, and the reasons you selected the field will all be
helpful. This letter should be two pages long; it should not be
longer. Be certain to put your name and social security number on the
statement.
3. Writing Sample: A
writing sample is required with a Ph.D. application. A writing sample
is recommended at the M.A. level. Usually, the writing sample
consists of a term paper written for a course in an area relevant to the
applicant's intended area of specialization. The writing sample should be
an edited and polished piece of prose that demonstrates your writing
ability. (Please do not send the original, graded term paper.) The paper
should have a title; your name should be on every page.
4. GPA: Though there is
no official cut-off GPA for applicants to the program, a GPA of 3.5 is the
rough minimum standard under normal conditions. The committee will, of
course, evaluate transcripts and will take unusual circumstances or patterns
into account.
5. Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
Scores: Because there is no Subject Exam in Medieval Studies, only the
GRE Generalist Exam is required. If, however, a candidate has taken a
Subject Exam in a relevant field of study, that exam score should be
included in the application packet. Students who are accepted into the
Medieval Studies Program usually score in the 600's or above, minimally in
the 500 range. The committee will look at the verbal and analytic
scores/writing test assessment in particular--i.e., the quantitative score
is less important for our purposes.
For more information on taking
the GRE, you may contact the Educational Testing Service directly:
Graduate Record
Examinations
Educational Testing Service
PO Box 6000
Princeton, NJ 08541-6000
Telephone: 609-771-7670 or 1-800-GRE-CALL
In addition, the University
requires the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) of all students
whose native language is not English.
Miscellaneous
All B.A. degree holders are
first admitted into the M.A. program and may apply later to the Ph.D.
program on the basis of their academic performance here. There is no
guarantee that someone admitted to the M.A. program will later be admitted
into the Ph.D. program.
M.A. candidates may attend the
University on a part-time basis. All Ph.D. students must complete one year
of full-time residence, and are expected to do so when they enter the
Ph.D. program.
The bulk of program financial
support goes to Ph.D. candidates and to selected M.A. candidates. Financial
support comes in the form of fellowships (G.A.'s), predoctoral fellowships,
summer fellowships, and the Fred A. Cazel, Jr. fellowship. See
Funding Information.
***
Please note that incoming students who will be teaching Freshman English are
required to audit English 300, a graduate seminar on pedagogy. This seminar
will not fulfill any of the course requirements for graduation in Medieval
Studies. ***
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