Program Sequence

First Year (M.A. Candidates)
In the first year of M.A. work, students take six courses. Because Ph.D. candidates are required to take a comprehensive oral examination in their third year, students are advised by the Department to choose their courses with an eye toward breadth as well as depth of coverage. In the spring of the M.A. year, students take a written examination to demonstrate their ability to integrate critical, theoretical, and contextual analysis of assigned texts. At the end of the first year, the Department evaluates M.A. candidates on the basis of their course work and examination and admits into the Ph.D. program those who demonstrate the capacity to pursue the Ph.D. successfully. It is possible (but unusual) at this stage for a student to be denied Ph.D. candidacy because of inadequate work in classes or on the M.A. examination. Assuming that he or she has completed course and language requirements, such a student would receive a terminal M.A.

First Year (Students entering with the M.A.)
Beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year, students entering the program with an M.A. will also be evaluated at the end of their first year. Students in good standing, who have fulfilled their course requirements and otherwise met the Department's standards for study at the graduate level, will be invited to continue in the program. In rare cases, where students have not fulfilled their requirements or demonstrated their ability to succeed in the graduate program at Tufts, they may not be approved for further study.

Continuing Years
The second and third years of the program offer students the opportunity to increase their comprehensive mastery while beginning to concentrate on a particular area or subject. Because most students will be working as teaching assistants at this time, they are expected to take four courses each year. Students will continue to receive annual feedback from faculty members during the course of their study at Tufts.

Oral Examinations
At the end of the third year or in the beginning of the fall semester of the fourth year, each student takes a two-hour oral comprehensive examination. No standardized list of texts is issued for this examination. One advantage of the Tufts graduate program is that students' particular interests can be accommodated. The following guideline of periods and fields of concentration is used by each student to generate a foundation list of works for which he or she is responsible. Each student selects six of the periods or fields for particular development. One of the six fields may be a "special topic," which students design in collaboration with a member of the faculty.

• Old English Literature
• Medieval Literature
• Sixteenth-Century English Literature
• Seventeenth-Century British Literature
• Eighteenth-Century British Literature
• American Literature Before 1820
• Nineteenth-Century British Literature
• Nineteenth-Century American Literature
• Twentieth-Century British Literature or Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature
• Twentieth-Century American Literature
• Literary-Critical Theory
• Contemporary World Literatures in English

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