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HISTORY DEPARTMENT M.A.
COMPLETION POLICY
Comprehensive Examinations
Students
selecting the comprehensive examination option will take one exam for each
of their three fields of study. Each
exam will be supervised by a faculty member in the appropriate field, who
together form the student’s comprehensive exam committee. Students are responsible for forming
their committees – they do so by requesting the faculty members to
serve on their committee.
Faculty
members are not obligated to serve on comprehensive examination committees,
so students are strongly encouraged to approach faculty members with whom
they have taken more than one course (preferably at least one graduate
seminar), and to do so in a timely fashion to ensure that they have a
complete committee at least two quarters in advance of when they plan to
take their exams.
Students
may not take their comprehensive examinations until they have completed all
their coursework. Students must also
complete a “graduation check” with the department’s
graduate advisor prior to taking the examinations. Refer to the Schedule of Classes or the
History Department for the graduation check schedule; please be aware there
are two graduation check periods during winter quarter, one in January for
spring quarter, one in February or March for summer quarter. Please plan in advance; late graduation
checks are not allowed.
Students must enroll in HIST 596 (0 units) for the
quarter in which they take the exam.
The
exams occur on the eighth week of each quarter (no exceptions), from noon
to 4pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of that week. Students take one field exam each day,
and have four hours to complete each exam.
Each
member of the examination committee will read all of the student’s
examinations and a grade will be assigned for each field. A “B” or better is a passing
grade.
If a
student fails any one of the three exams, he or she will be retested only
in the field failed. If a student
fails two of the three exams, he or she will be retested in all three
fields. A student may be retested a
maximum of two times, for a total of three sittings. Students will not be permitted a fourth
seating for exams. Failure to pass
one or more exams after three sittings will result in failure to receive the
M.A. degree.
Thesis Option
1. A
student who plans to take a thesis must meet the department’s GPA
requirement of 3.5 or better in all History courses taken as part of the
M.A. program. The student should
also attend the University’s thesis writing workshop which is held
once every quarter in the Library.
2. Students who undertake a thesis do so under the
supervision of a three-person Thesis Committee, consisting of one Principal
Advisor and two Readers. Faculty are
not obligated to serve on thesis committees, so as a first step the
eligible student must secure the agreement of an appropriate member of the
History Department’s full-time faculty to serve as the thesis
Advisor.
3. In conjunction with the Principal Advisor, the
student identifies faculty members who might agree to serve on the
committee. It is the student’s
obligation to then secure the agreement of two of these faculty members to
serve as Readers. Under the
supervision of the Advisor and Readers, the student prepares a Thesis Proposal
approximately 500 words in length, describing the topic, question,
historiographic context, and primary sources for the thesis. Once the proposal has been approved by
the Advisor, the two Readers, and the department Chair, the student may
register for thesis units. It is
also upon approval of the Proposal that the Advisor and Readers formally
constitute the student’s thesis Committee.
4. The
research and writing of the thesis takes place subsequent to the approval
of the Proposal and the registering for thesis units. Students may register for 4 or 8 thesis
units (4 units per quarter for one or two quarters). Until completion of the thesis, students
will receive a grade of RP (Report in Progress) for these units. Students are strongly encouraged to
complete the thesis within four quarters of Proposal approval. University guidelines require completion
of the M.A. degree (from first quarter of coursework to graduation) within
seven years from completion of the first course on the Study Plan.
5. The
thesis is to be completed under the supervision of the Advisor, but
students are strongly encouraged to consult with the two Readers throughout
this process.
6. When
the Advisor determines that the student’s thesis is complete, the
Advisor will assist the student in scheduling an Oral Defense for the
thesis.
Oral
Defense Format
The
oral defense will be 75 minutes in length, during which the student will be
examined by all three members of the Committee. The student will be asked questions about
the sources and research methodology of the thesis, the nature and
significance of the project and its findings, and any other relevant
questions related to the thesis which the Advisor and Readers may ask.
The
thesis is graded Pass/Fail. Students who pass the Oral Defense are
considered also to have passed the thesis.
Students who fail the Oral Defense will be required to undertake
revisions of the thesis and schedule a second defense no earlier than six
weeks following the initial defense.
Students who fail the second defense are considered to have failed
the thesis and will receive a grade of “F” for their thesis
units. Students must then complete
comprehensive examinations in order to receive their master’s degree.
7.
Students who have passed the Oral Defense then follow the procedures for
final submission of the thesis set by the College of Natural
and Social Sciences. Guidelines for
submission are available on the Library’s website at
http://www.calstatela.edu/library/guides/thesbk.htm
Students
must also prepare three Thesis Approval Pages, which must be signed by all
three members of the Thesis Committee, as well as the History Department
Chair. The University Thesis
Coordinator oversees final submission of the thesis. Students must be enrolled during the term
in which they submit their thesis to the Library.
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