Advising

The department is committed to providing academic advising that supports each MA student's scholarly and professional development. The advising relationship should entail collaborative engagement between the advisor and the advisee. Faculty advisors guide students in critical areas such as selecting courses, navigating degree requirements, exploring academic and professional opportunities, and preparing for their post-MA careers. MA students are active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for the MA program. An essential part of the advisee-advisor relationship is that students learn to advocate for themselves; this includes discussing expectations for the advisor/advisee relationship with the advisor and revisiting these expectations periodically to ensure mutual understanding.

Coterminal Students: The university requires that the MA program advisor be assigned in the student’s first graduate quarter even though the undergraduate career may still be open. The university also requires that the Master’s Degree Program Proposal be completed by the student and approved by the department by the end of the student’s first graduate quarter.

Advisors and Advising Meetings

In consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) keeps track of the general degree progress of all MA students, offers advice on meeting department and university milestones, and approves special petitions.

Each student has a faculty member as their individual MA program advisor, chosen based on shared linguistic interests. If the student plans to carry out a research project, the program advisor should be the research project advisor.  Students should specify their preferred advisor at the time that they apply to the program. Usually, this faculty member serves in this role for the duration of the MA program and guides the student's overall path through the MA program. Students are responsible for discussing their program proposal with their program advisor at the time of application to the MA program, on beginning the MA program, and at least once each future quarter in the program. The precise meeting frequency should be mutually agreed upon and reassessed quarterly. Students are responsible for keeping their advisor informed about their academic progress, including any proposed changes in the program proposal.