M.A. Sample Plan – Interdisciplinary Track

Fall of first year

ASIA 725, Critical Approaches to Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (required core course)

1. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}
2. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}

Language course numbered below 400 ⁴

Spring of first year

3. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}
4. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}
5. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}

Language course numbered below 400 ⁴

Summer after first year

Students who after first year are not yet ready to go into the third-year level of the language they are studying will need to do an intensive summer language program.

Fall of second year

ASIA 991, Research & Writing in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

6. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}
7. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}

Spring of second year

ASIA 993, Master’s Research and Thesis

8. Course numbered above 400^{1 2 3}

¹ These eight courses are ones the student will select, depending on their interests, in consultation with a faculty advisor. For the first semester that advisor will be the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS); subsequently it will be a specific DAMES faculty member whom the student will choose during the first semester.

² At least three of these eight courses must be in the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (DAMES), but students may also take courses in a variety of other departments.

³ At least three of these eight courses must be numbered above 700, but grad students may also take any course numbered above 400. Courses numbered 400-699 are for both advanced undergraduates and graduate students; courses numbered 700 and above are for graduate students only.

⁴ Depending on a student’s initial language placement level, they may need to take some undergraduate language courses (numbered below 400), which will not count toward their degree. Once they reach the 400 level of a language, the courses in that language may be counted among the eight courses they select for their degree. This sample plan shows a student taking undergraduate language courses in first year only, which is a common scenario, but some students will need to take them in second year too; other students will not need them at all.