The Master of Arts degree program in English is designed to strengthen professional skills for all fields and prepare students for continuing graduate study. The English M.A. enhances the student’s intellectual and aesthetic life through the intense study of literature, writing studies, literary theory, film studies and linguistics. The Master of Arts degree program may be completed fully face-to-face, fully online, or a combination of both face-to-face and online.

Earning a Master of Arts degree in English at Millersville University can hone your writing skills, strengthen your analytic abilities and sharpen your investigation skills. Earning a Master of Arts degree can help you change careers or enhance your current career. The English M.A. cultivates curiosity, openness and creativity as mindset approaches to support you as you develop skills and content knowledge. These mindset values, along with the skills obtained throughout a master’s degree, strengthen your impact in the workplace.

Admission Requirements

Admission to the program is open to those applicants who possess a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college with an undergraduate major in English, or by special permission. Applicants must submit supporting documents as required for general admission to a graduate program (see Admission Requirements section). Applicants must submit a sample of scholarly work (an 8-15-page critical or research paper recently prepared).

An admissions decision is based upon an evaluation of all application documents by the graduate program coordinator. If probational admission is granted, the graduate program coordinator will stipulate the conditions to be met by the applicant before full admission is granted (e.g., satisfactory completion of prescribed undergraduate courses or completion of a certain number of graduate English courses with a satisfactory GPA).

Degree Candidacy

Admission to degree candidacy requires successful completion of 9-18 s.h. of departmentally approved graduate coursework with an overall B average and satisfaction of the foreign language requirement. This coursework should include at least 9 s.h. at Millersville University. Students need to complete both ENGL 614 The Professon of English Studies and ENGL 651 Literary Criticism to achieve degree candidacy. A student who accumulates a maximum of 21 s.h. of graduate coursework and whose grade average falls below a B will be dropped from the degree program.

Upon completion of 18 s.h. of graduate coursework, a student must apply and be admitted to degree candidacy, after which he/she should, in consultation with the graduate program coordinator, develop a program which lists the requirements needed to complete the degree program. Once a student has completed 18 credits of graduate coursework, they may not proceed with their program until they have been approved by the department for degree candidacy.