History (MA)

Admission to the graduate program is competitive. Those who meet the stated requirements are not guaranteed admission, nor are those who fail to meet all the stated requirements necessarily precluded from admission if they offer other appropriate strengths. Except in unusual circumstances, admission is offered only for the Fall semester and all decisions for all programs are made by the faculty of the Graduate Studies Committee.

Applicants should have an overall undergraduate index of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale; an undergraduate history average of at least 3.0; and letters of recommendation from three people familiar with the applicant's academic potential. In addition, applicants should submit a writing sample of 15 to 25 pages demonstrating their ability to do historical research and writing. Applicants may, if they choose, submit a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score with their application.

The Master’s degree is awarded upon successful completion of a two-year sequence of courses designed to familiarize students with the substance, interpretation, and practice of history. The M.A. serves both as a terminal degree for those students who seek greater exposure to historical study before entering a variety of careers from high-school teaching to museum work, and as a preparatory degree for those students who intend to pursue a Ph.D. Master’s Degree track students who hope to switch to the Ph.D. track should arrange their graduate coursework with Ph.D. requirements in mind.

The Master’s degree track student must fulfill the following requirements:

Complete 30 credits of graduate work, of which at least 21 credits must be in history. The history credits must include the following:

• Students in their first semester will take the HIST600 "Approaches to History" course.
• Four reading seminars: With the approval of the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee, a HIST666 component of an undergraduate lecture course may count as a reading seminar. Such approval will be given only when a HIST666 component includes regular “mini-seminar” meetings to discuss graduate- level readings.
• Either two research seminars or one research seminar plus an M.A. thesis.

1. The Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee will assign each incoming student a temporary faculty advisor in September. Temporary advisors will be drawn primarily from the members of the Graduate Studies Committee for that year.
   
2. First year students may, at any time, replace their temporary faculty advisor with a permanent faculty advisor. Both the Chair of the GSC and the Academic Support Coordinator of the graduate program should be notified immediately of any such changes.
   
3. Students are required to choose a permanent faculty advisor during their first year. After securing the agreement of a faculty member to serve as their permanent advisor, the student must notify the temporary advisor, the Chair of the GSC, and the Academic Support Coordinator to the graduate program of his or her choice no later than April of that year.
   
4. Faculty advisers, both temporary and permanent, are required to meet with each of their advisees at least twice a year.  It is the advisers' responsibility to assist in planning individual class schedules, to ensure that course selections will fulfill degree requirements, and to ensure that doctoral students are making adequate preparation for primary and secondary field qualifying examinations and the dissertation.
   
5. Permanent faculty advisers are required to review the files of their advisees who have completed their third semester of course work and to present a written report to the GSC on the progress and performance of each of those students. Reports should be submitted to the Academic Support Coordinator of the graduate program by the beginning of the winter term in January.
   
6. The Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee will review the portfolio and academic record of each Ph.D. student after he or she has completed three full semesters (or 21 credits) of graduate study. On the basis of this review, the Chair will inform the student whether he or she is making satisfactory progress.  If either a permanent faculty adviser or the Chair of the GSC should find cause for concern about the performance of any students who have completed three semesters of coursework, the GSC will meet to review the files of those students. The permanent faculty advisers of the students in question will be requested to attend that meeting.
   
7. In early spring, the Graduate Chair will also send a notice to all second year Ph.D. students to remind them that they are required to sit for qualifying exams the following fall. The Graduate Chair will remind students that they must fulfill the language requirement prior to taking the qualifying exams.

Students entering our M.A. program may receive stipends and/or full tuition remission  while serving as teaching assistants and/or graduate assistants.  For academic year 2024-25, funded M.A. students are receiving stipends of $24,500.  

In the summer between their first and second years, the History Department also regularly places M.A. graduate students in paid Stewart Summer Internships at sites such as the Delaware Historical Society and the Hagley Museum & Library.  

The Department has an extremely successful placement record. Many graduates go on to competitive Ph.D. programs, as well as careers in public history, education, and a wide range of other fields.

Placements of graduates in the last five years include:

• Historian, Wells Fargo History, San Francisco, CA

• Records Coordinator, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (Philadelphia, PA)

• Oral History Project Manager, Hagley Museum & Library (Wilmington, DE)

• Curator, Arden Craft Shop Museum (Arden, DE)

• Yale University, African-American and American Studies Ph.D.