Program Requirements: M.A. Degree

Master’s Degree

Advising

All students in the M.A. program are supervised by the Program Head/Graduate Adviser, who advises students on course selection, the plan of their studies, and preparation for the M.A. exams. Students are required to meet with the adviser at least once a quarter. Student progress is discussed by the full Program in Indo-European Studies (PIES) faculty (Faculty Administrative Committee) at least once a year.

Areas of Study

The program offers the M.A. degree in Indo-European Studies, with specialization in one language area, which will normally be Greek, Latin-Italic, Indo-Iranian, or Anatolian.

Foreign Language Requirement

The student must demonstrate proficiency in one modern language of scholarship, either German or French, by 1) previous coursework equivalent to two years of university instruction with a minimum grade of B, 2) passing German 5 or French 5 at UCLA with a minimum grade of B, or 3) passing a one-hour written translation examination administered by the program.

Course Requirements

Nine graduate or upper division courses (36 units) are required, including the core sequence IES 205, 210, and 215; one additional 200-level IES seminar; the 2-unit Proseminar IES 200; and at least two units of a 500-level independent study. The remaining 16 units may be selected from offerings in IES and related departments (such as Classics, Asian Languages and Cultures, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Linguistics); the coursework plan must be approved by the Graduate Adviser, and will normally include at least three courses in the language area of specialization. All courses applied toward the degree must be taken for a letter grade, with the exception of 500-series courses.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

To complete the master’s capstone requirement, students must pass two comprehensive examinations, one of which is language-based. The language-based examinations consist of translation of textual passages selected from a corpus prepared by the student with approval of the examiners, linguistic commentary on selected words, and questions on historical grammar. The examinations are prepared by the relevant language specialist(s) and approved by a three-person committee, which also grades the exam. Students electing to receive a terminal M.A. must pass one two-hour comprehensive examination in their chosen language area and another comprehensive examination in Indo-European linguistics. Students planning to continue to the Ph.D. program at UCLA must pass one comprehensive examination in their chosen language area and another in either Vedic Sanskrit or Homeric Greek.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

Students should be able to complete the degree in three to six quarters, depending on course availability and the quality of their previous training.