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| Requirements: | General | Undergraduate | M.A. (Non-Thesis) | M.A. (Thesis) | Ph.D | Courses |
Master of Arts (Thesis Option)Work leading to the degree of Master of Arts (M.A.) in Anthropology is designed to give prospective candidates a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of their professional field and training in their methods of research. In addition to the general anthropology M.A. degree, the department offers a nautical archaeology area of specialization through the Nautical Archaeology Program which involves specialized coursework in ship construction and recording, seafaring, and conservation methods.The Department offers two MA degrees—the MA Thesis Option and the MA Non-Thesis Option. The Non-Thesis Option is available only to students in the Archaeology, Biological, and Cultural Programs. Admission Requirements for the M.A. Program All students entering the M.A. program in Anthropology must satisfy three criteria. They must meet the minimum standards established by OGS. They must have completed a Bachelor’s degree. Finally, they must be approved by the Department. Acceptance by the Department will be based on grade point average as an undergraduate, on GRE scores, and on the compatibility of the student’s proposed research with the expertise and interests of the department faculty. Students admitted into the M.A. program in recent years have an average grade point average of 3.55 and an average combined GRE score of 1210. Students who wish to pursue nautical archaeology as an area of specialization should indicate their interest on their application. Student’s Advisory Committee Upon admission to the M.A. program the student will be assigned a provisional advisor. The advisor will be a faculty member whose research is related to the topics of interest identified by the student in his or her application materials, but may or may not continue as Advisory Committee Chair. Incoming students should consult with their advisor before registering for classes regarding any background preparation they may need in preparation for the core courses. By the end of the first year, the student should select an Advisory Committee Chair and, in consultation with the chair, select the remainder of the Advisory Committee. The student’s Advisory Committee will consist of not fewer than three members of the graduate faculty representative of the student’s fields of study and research. Two of the members should be faculty in the department and one must be from outside the department. The duties of the committee include the responsibility for the proposed degree program, thesis research proposal, the thesis and its oral defense. Degree Plan A student must prepare a degree plan for approval by his or her Advisory Committee. The degree plan lists the courses that the student will take to satisfy the course requirements of the M.A. degree. This plan must be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies before a student can register for the fourth semester. The degree plan may be modified later by the student with the approval of his or her Advisory Committee. All degree plans must include the following: Residence An M.A. student must spend one semester in full-time residence beyond the baccalaureate degree. Master of Arts Thesis Option Archaeology, Biological, and Cultural Programs Core Courses
Archaeology Program students must take ANTH 602 Archaeological Methods and Theory at TAMU. There are no exceptions to this policy. Anthropology Courses All students must take at least 9 credit hours within anthropology. (This is in addition to the core courses and ANTH 691 Research.) Quantitative Methods All students must take STAT 651 Statistics in Research or an equivalent course. Any course that is not STAT 651 or ANTH 642, for example a graduate-level statistics course taken at another university, must have prior departmental approval before being placed on a student’s degree plan. Outside Electives All students must take at least 6 credit hours outside the Department of Anthropology in subjects related to their research interests. These include such courses as history, geography, geology, ecology, second foreign languages, and other areas of technical or theoretical specialization approved by the student’s Advisory Committee. Courses required to satisfy the minimum foreign language requirement and STAT 651 cannot be used to meet this requirement. Nautical Archaeology Program Core Courses (16 credit hours)
Students take 12 hours in Nautical Archaeology seminars. All Programs Research Hours and Directed Studies No more than 12 hours may be used in any combination of the following categories: (This includes 684, 685, 690, 691, and 695 in all departments.) No more than 6 credit hours in the combination of 691 Research or 684 Internship may be used. No more than 8 credit hours of 685 Directed Studies may be used. No more than 3 hours of 690 Theory of Research may be used. No more than 3 hours of 695 Frontiers in Research may be used. Undergraduate Courses No more than 9 hours of advanced undergraduate courses (300- or 400-level) may be used. Other Course Exclusions No more than 2 hours of 681 Seminar may be used on a degree plan. No credit hours of FREN 601 or GERM 603 may be used. No more than 3 hours of ENGL 697 may be used. No correspondence study may be used. No credit hours for continuing education courses may be used. No credit hours of extension course work may be used. A course taken S/U may not be used on the degree plan. Exceptions: 681, 684, 690, 691, 692, 693, and 695. Transfer Credit No more than 12 hours may be transferred from an accredited institution. A grade of B or higher is required. A student must be in a degree-seeking status at TAMU or the institution where courses were taken when the courses were completed. Courses previously used for another degree are not acceptable for degree plan credit. Total Hours The degree plan must include at least 30 credit hours. Foreign Language Requirement M.A. students are expected to have competence in at least one foreign language. Normally that competence is obtained as an undergraduate student with four semesters of language study. Students entering the program without previous language training will be expected to obtain it during their graduate studies. The student’s Advisory Committee will determine the best way to meet these expectations. Time Limit Students must complete all requirements within 7 years. Continuous Enrollment Students who have completed all formal course work on their degree plan must be registered each fall and spring semester until they graduate. Usually, a student will register for 1 credit hour of ANTH 691 Research each semester while finishing the thesis. Students who fail to register for a semester will be blocked from registration until they have undergone a favorable recommendation from a departmental review committee, the endorsement of the department head, and the approval of the Office of Graduate Studies. Thesis Proposal The research proposal is a description of the research which the student intends to undertake and which will be reported in a detailed, comprehensive fashion in the completed thesis or dissertation. It offers the student an opportunity to convince the Chair and other members of the Advisory Committee of his/her ability to pursue the projected topic to a successful conclusion. Filing the proposal is one of the requirements for graduation with a Master of Arts Thesis Option. The proposal must be approved by the entire advisory committee. Committee members, the student, and the Department Head sign the Proposal Title Page. http://ogs.tamu.edu/forms/current/prop.pdf The proposal and signed Title Page are then submitted to OGS. The proposal must be approved by OGS at least 14 weeks prior to graduation. The proposal must be approved by OGS at least 15 working days prior to the final examination, the thesis defense. Thesis Defense OGS must approve the Request and Announcement of the Final Examination 10 business days before the exam takes place. All members of the student’s Advisory Committee must have a copy of the thesis before the defense can be scheduled. For students who qualify under the rules of the university, the oral thesis defense may be waived at the discretion of the committee. The format of the thesis must be acceptable to the Thesis Office. The thesis must be approved by all members of the student’s Advisory Committee and must represent the candidate’s ability to conduct independent research and communicate the results of that research. Award of M.A. Degree The semester a student intends to graduate an application for graduation must be submitted electronically to the Office of the Registrar by the deadline given. https://degreeapp.tamu.edu/index.asp There is also a graduation fee that must paid. A student must be registered in residence in the University for the semester in which the degree is to be conferred. The style and format of the thesis must be approved by the library thesis clerk and the student must deposit three copies of the thesis in the library before the degree can be awarded. The final copies of the thesis must be deposited within one year of the thesis defense. A student who applied for graduation and will not graduate at the intended date must file a Graduation Cancellation Form with OGS. http://ogs.tamu.edu/forms/current/graduationcancellationform.pdf The complete graduate student handbook can be found Here. |